Ancient Roman Calendar
Today, all the peoples of the world enjoy the solar calendar, almost inherited from the ancient Romans. But if in its present form this calendar almost perfectly corresponds to the annual movement of the Earth around the Sun, then its original version can only be said "there was nowhere worse".And all probably because, as the Roman poet Ovid( 43 BC-17 CE) noted, the ancient Romans knew weapons better than the stars. ..
Agricultural Calendar. Like their neighbors, the Greeks, the ancient Romans defined the beginning of their work on the rise and set of individual stars and their groups, that is, they linked their calendar with the annual change in the type of the starry sky. Almost the main "landmark" was the rising and setting( morning and evening) of the star cluster of the Pleiades, which in Rome was called the Virgil. The beginning of many field works was also associated here with the Favonia - a warm western wind, which begins to blow in February( February 3-4 according to the current calendar).According to Pliny, in Rome, "spring begins with him."Here are some examples of an ancient Romans "tying" fieldwork to a change in the type of the starry sky:
"Between the favonium and the vernal equinox, trees are cut, the vines are dug. .. Between the vernal equinox and the rise of Virgil( the morning sunrise of the Pleiades is observed in mid-May), weeds are weeded..., cut the willow, fence the meadows. .., should be planted with olives. "
"Between the( morning) rise of Virgil and the summer solstice dig up or plow the young vineyards, go in the vines, mow the forage. Between the summer solstice and the rise of the Dog( from June 22 to July 19), most are engaged in harvest. Between the regeneration of the Dog and the autumnal equinox, it is necessary to mow the straw( the Romans first cut off the spikelets highly and cut the straw a month later). "
"It is considered that you should not start sowing up to the( autumnal) equinox, because if the bad weather begins, the seeds will rot. .. From favonia to the sunrise of Arcturus( February 3 to 16) dig new ditches, pruning in vineyards."
It should, however, be borne in mind that this calendar was filled with the most incredible prejudices. So, the meadow should be fertilized in early spring only, as in the new moon, when the young month is not yet visible( "then the grass will grow in the same way as the young month"), and there will be no weeds on the field. Eggs for chicken were recommended to be put only in the first quarter of the phase of the moon. According to Pliny, "any cutting, breaking, cutting will do less harm if they are done when the moon is on the damage."Therefore, the one who decided to get a haircut when the "Moon arrives" risked baldness. And if at the specified time cut the leaves on the tree, then it will soon lose all the leaves. The tree that was felled at this time was threatened with rot. ..
Months and the account of the days in them. The existing inconsistency and some uncertainty about the data of the ancient Roman calendar is largely due to the fact that the ancient writers themselves disagree on this issue. In part this will be illustrated below. First, let us dwell on the general structure of the ancient Roman calendar, which took shape in the middle of the first century. BC.e.
At the indicated time the year of the Roman calendar with a total duration of 355 days consisted of 12 months with such a distribution of days in them:
Martius 31 Quintilis 31 November 29
Aprilis 29 Sextilis 29 Decedber 29
Mayus 31 Septem 29 Januarius 29
Junius 29 Oktober 31Februaarius 28
The additional month of Mercedonia will be discussed later.
Apparently, with the exception of one, all the months of the ancient Roman calendar had an odd number of days. This is explained by the superstitious representations of the ancient Romans, as if the odd numbers are happy, while the even ones bring misfortunes. The year began on the first day of March. This month was named Martius in honor of Mars, who was originally revered as the god of farming and pastoralism, and later as the god of war, designed to protect peaceful labor. The second month was called Aprilis from the Latin aperire - "open", because this month, open the buds in the trees, or from the word apricus - "warmed by the sun."It was dedicated to the goddess of beauty Venus. The third month, Maius was dedicated to the goddess of the land of Maya, the fourth Junius - to the goddess of heaven Junone, the patroness of women, the wife of Jupiter. The names of six further months were related to their position on the calendar: Quintilis - the fifth, Sextilis - the sixth, September - the seventh, Oktober - the eighth, November - the ninth, Descember - the tenth.
The name Januarius - the penultimate month of the ancient Roman calendar - is believed to be from the word janua - "entrance", "door": The month was dedicated to the god Janus, who, according to one version, was considered the god of the firmament that opened the gates to the sun at the beginning of the dayand closed them at the end. In Rome, he dedicated 12 altars - according to the number of months in the year. He was the god of the entrance, all sorts of beginnings. The Romans portrayed him with two faces: one, facing forward, the god seems to see the future, the second, facing back, contemplates the past. And, finally, the 12th month was dedicated to the god of the underworld Februs. Its very name occurs, apparently, from februare- "clear", but, probably, from the word feralia. So the Romans called the memorial week that took place in February. At the end of the year, at the end of the year they performed a purification rite( lustratio populi) "for the reconciliation of the gods with the people."Perhaps because of this they could not make the insertion of additional days at the very end of the year, but produced it, as we will see later, between February 23 and 24. ..
The Romans used a very peculiar way of counting the days in a month. The first day of the month they called kalends - calendae - from the word salare - to proclaim, as the beginning of each month and year in general priests( pontiffs) proclaimed publicly in public gatherings( comitia salata).The seventh day in four long months or the fifth in the remaining eight was called nonas( nounae) from nonus-the ninth day( inclusive account!) Until the full moon. Approximately the nones coincided with the first quarter of the phase of the moon. In the month of November, the pontiffs announced to the people what festivals would be celebrated in it, and in February nones, moreover, there will be or will not be the insertion of additional days. The 15th( full moon) in the long and the 13th in the short months was called the idus idus( of course, in these last months the ida should have been referred to the 14th, and the nones to the 6th, but the Romans did not like iteven numbers. ..).The day before calends, nones and idas was called the eve( pridie), for example the pridie Kalendas Februarias - the eve of the February calends, that is, on January 29th.
At the same time, the ancient Romans did not consider the days ahead, as we do, but in the opposite direction: so many days left before non, id, or calends.(Themselves, ides and calendas were also included in this account!) Thus, on January 2, it is "IV day from non", since in January the nones came on the 5th day, on January 7 - "VII day from the id".January had 29 days, therefore the 13th number was called the idum, and the 14th was already "XVII Kalendas Februarias" -17th day before the February calends.
Next to the numbers of the months were the eight first letters of the Latin alphabet: A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, which cyclically repeated in the same order for the whole year. These periods were called "nine days" - nundinam( nundi-nae-noveni dies), since the last day of the previous eight-day week was included in the invoice. At the beginning of the year, one of these "nine" days - nundinus - was declared a trading or market day, in which the inhabitants of the surrounding villages could come to the city to the bazaar. The Romans for a long time seemed to be striving to ensure that the nundinus did not coincide with the nones, in order to avoid unnecessary congestion in the city. There was also a prejudice that if the nundinus coincides with the calends of January, then the year will be unhappy.
In addition to the letters of nundin, every day in the ancient Roman calendar was designated by one of the following letters: F, N, C, NP and EN.On the days indicated by the letters F( dies fasti; fasti), judicial institutions were opened and court hearings could be held( "the praetor, without violating religious requirements, was allowed to pronounce the words do, dico, addiso" agree "(appoint a court), "Point"( law), "award").Over time, the letter F began to denote the days of holidays, games, etc. The days marked with the letter N( dies nefasti) were taboo, for religious reasons it was impossible to convene meetings, arrange court hearings and pass judgment. In days C( dies comitialis - "days of meetings"), people's congresses and sittings of the senate took place. The days of the NP( nefastus parte) were "partially forbidden", the days of EN( intercisus) were considered nefasti in the morning and evening and fasti in the interim hours. At the time of Emperor Augustus, there were F-45, N-55, NP-70, C-184, EN-8 in the Roman calendar. Three days a year were called dies fissi( "split" - from fissiculo - to consider incisions sacrificedanimals), two of them( 24 March and 24 May- "were designated as QRCF: quando rex comitiavit fas -" when the sacrificial king presides "in the people's congress, the third( June 15) - QSDF: quando stercus delatum fas -" when dirt is carried outand rubbish "from the temple of Vesta, the ancient Roman deity of the home and fire." In the temple of Vesta, eternal fire was maintained, from here they took him to new placesThe days of the fissi were considered nefasti until the end of the rite.
The list of fasti for each month was long proclaimed only in its 1st number - this is evidence of how in ancient times patricians and priests held in their hands all the most important means of regulating the publicAnd only in 305 BCE the outstanding political figure Gnaeus Flavius published a list of dies fasti for a whole year on a white board on the Roman forum, making the distribution of days in the year well-known. Since that time the establishment in public places of the calendar tables carved on stone boards has become a common occurrence.
Alas, as noted in the "Encyclopedic Dictionary" FA Brockhaus and IA Efron( St. Petersburg, 1895, vol. XIV, p. 15) "the Roman calendar is controversial and is the subject of numerous assumptions."This can also be attributed to the question when the Romans began counting the day. According to the testimony of the outstanding philosopher and political figure Mark Tullius Cicero( 106-43 BC) and Ovid, the day for the Romans supposedly began in the morning, whereas according to Censorin - from midnight. This last is due to the fact that the Romans many holidays ended with certain ritual actions, for which it seemed necessary to "silence the night."That's why they joined the first half of the night to the day already past. ..
The duration of the year in 355 days was 10.24-2 days shorter than the tropical one. But in the economic life of the Romans an important role was played by agricultural work - sowing, harvesting, etc. And to keep the beginning of the year near the same season, they made the insertion of additional days. At the same time, the Romans did not insert a single month separately from any superstitious motives, and in each second year between the seventh and sixth days before the March Kalends( between February 23 and 24) "intervened" alternately on 22 or 23 days. As a result, the number of days in the Roman calendar alternated in this order:
355 days,
377( 355 + 22) days,
355 days
378( 355+ 23) days.
If the insertion was made, then on February 14 it was called "XI Kal.intercalares ", February 23( " eve ") marked the terminology - a holiday in honor of Terminus - the god of borders and border pillars, considered sacred. The next day a new month began, which included the remainder of February. The first day was Kal.intercal. ", then - the day" IV to non "(pop intercal.), the 6th of this" month "is the day" VIII to idus "(idus intercal.), the 14th is the day of" XV( orXVI) Kal. Martias ».
The dies intercalares have been called the month of Mercedonia, although the ancient writers called it simply intercalary month( intercalaris).The very word "merzedony" occurs as if from "merces edis" - "payment for labor": it was as if it was the month in which the tenants' calculations were made with the property owners.
As can be seen, as a result of such insertions the average duration of the year of the Roman calendar was 366.25 days - one day more than the true one. Therefore, from time to time, these days from the calendar had to be thrown away.
Testimonials of contemporaries. Let's see now what Roman historians, writers and public figures themselves said about the history of their calendar. First of all M. Fulvius Nobilior( former consul in 189 BC), writer and scientist Mark Terentius Varro( 116-27 BC), writers of Cenzorin( 3rd century AD)and Macrobius( 5th century AD) claimed that the ancient Roman calendar year consisted of 10 months and contained only 304 days. At the same time, Nobilior believed that the 11th and 12th months( January and February) added to the calendar year about 690 BC.e.semi-legendary dictator of Rome Numa Pompilius( died about 673 BC).Varro also believed that the Romans used the 10-month year "before Romulus", and therefore 37 years of the reign of this king( 753-716 BC) he already indicated as complete( according to Z65 1/4, but in no waynot for 304 days).According to Varron, the ancient Romans seemed to be able to coordinate their working life with the change of constellations in the sky. So, they, they say, believed that "the first day of spring falls in the sign of Aquarius, summer - in the sign of Taurus, autumn - Leo, winter - Scorpio".
According to Licinius( the people's tribune of 73 BC), Romulus created both a calendar of 12 months and rules for inserting additional days. But according to Plutarch, the calendar year of the ancient Romans consisted of ten months, but the number of days in them ranged from 16 to 39, so that even then the year consisted of 360 days. Further, as if Numa Pompilius introduced the custom to insert an additional month in 22 days.
From Macrobia, we have evidence that the Romans did not share the time span remaining after a 10-month year at 304 days for months, but simply waited for the arrival of spring to start counting again by months. Numa Pompilius allegedly divided this period of time into January and February, and put February in front of January. Numoma also introduced a 12-month lunar year in 354 days, but soon another one, the 355th day, was added. It was Numa who allegedly set an odd number of days in months. As Macrobius further claimed, the Romans considered the years on the Moon, and when they decided to measure them with the solar year, they began to insert every four years 45 days - two intercalary months at 22 and 23 days, they were inserted at the end of the 2nd and 4thyears. At the same time, as if( and this is the only evidence of this kind) for the coordination of the calendar with the Sun, the Romans were excluded from the account 24 days every 24 years. Macrobius believed that this inset the Romans borrowed from the Greeks and that it was done around 450 BC.e. Until then, they say, the Romans were counting the lunar years, and the full moon was coming up with the day id.
According to Plutarch, the months of the ancient Roman calendar, which have a numerical name, end in December with the beginning of the year in March, and is proof that the year was once 10 months old. But, as Plutarch observes in another place, this very fact could be the reason for the appearance of such an opinion. ..
And here it is appropriate to quote the words of DA Lebedev: "According to the highly ingenious and highly probable assumption of G. F. Unger,the Romans called their own names 6 months, from January to June, because they fall on that half of the year, when the day increases, why it was considered happy, and only in ancient times there were all the holidays( from which the months usually received their names);the remaining six months, corresponding to the half of the year in which the night is increasing, and to which, therefore, as unfavorable, no festivals could be celebrated, did not have in mind this special name, but simply were only considered from the first month of March. A complete analogy with this is the fact that, during the lunar
year, the Romans recorded only three lunar phases: the new moon( Kalendae), the 1st quarter( the bachelor) and the full moon( idus).These phases correspond to that half of the month when the bright part of the moon increases, mark the beginning, middle and end of this increase. The last quarter of the moon, falling to the middle of that half of the month when the light of the moon is decreasing, did not interest the Romans at all and therefore did not even have a name for them. "
From Romulus to Caesar. In the previously described ancient Greek parapegms, two calendars were actually combined: one of them counted the days in phases of the Moon, the second indicated a change in the type of the starry sky, which was necessary for the ancient Greeks to establish the timing of these or other fieldwork. But the same problem faced the ancient Romans. Therefore, it is possible that the above-mentioned writers noted changes in different types of calendars - lunar and solar, and in this case it is impossible to reduce their messages "to a common denominator" at all.
There is no doubt that the ancient Romans, adapting their lives to the cycle of the solar year, could well consider the days and months only during the "Romulus year" in 304 days. The different length of their months( from 16 to 39 days) unambiguously indicates the consistency of the beginning of these time intervals with the terms of one or another field work or with the morning and evening sunrises and calls of bright stars and constellations. It is not by chance, as E. Bickerman notes, it was customary in ancient Rome to talk about the morning sunrises of one or another star, as we talk every day about the weather! The very art of "reading" signs written in the sky was considered the gift of Prometheus. ..
The lunar calendar in 355 days was, apparently, brought from the outside, it was probably of Greek origin. The fact that the words "Calendas" and "Ida" are most likely Greek, recognized also by Roman authors who wrote about the calendar.
Of course, the Romans could slightly change the structure of the calendar, in particular, change the account of the days in the month( remember that the Greeks believed in reverse order only the days of the last decade).
By adopting the lunar calendar, the Romans apparently first used its simplest version, that is, the two-year lunar cycle - tri-teride. This means that the insertion of the 13th month they produced every second year and this in time became their tradition. Given the superstitious adherence of the Romans to odd numbers, one can assume that a simple year consisted of 355 days, embolic - from 383 days, that is, that they produced an additional month of 28 days and, who knows, maybe even then "hid it"In the last, incomplete decade of February. ..
But tri-teride - the cycle is still too inaccurate. And so: "If, in fact, they apparently learned from the Greeks that at the age of 8 they need to insert 90 days, they distributed these 90 days for 4 years, for 22-23 days, inserting this poor mensis intercalaris in a year, then obviously, they have long been accustomed to insert the thirteenth month a year later, when they decided to use their octaetheride to bring their time into agreement with the sun, and therefore preferred to cut back on the false month, rather than abandoning the custom to insert it in 2 years 1 time. Without this assumption, the origin of the miserable Roman octaetridine is inexplicable. "
Of course, the Romans( perhaps they were priests) could not help but search for ways to improve the calendar and, in particular, could not help but know that their neighbors - the Greeks use octaetridine for time counting. Probably, the Romans decided to do the same, but it seemed unacceptable to them how the Greeks make insertions of the embolismic months. ..
But, as already noted above, in the end, the average for four years the duration of the Roman calendar - 366 1/4 days - was for a daymore true. Therefore, after the expiration of the three octaheteridids, the Roman calendar lagged behind the Sun for 24 days, that is, more than for the entire insertable month. As we already know from the words of Macrobius, the Romans, at least in the last centuries of the republic, used a period of 24 years, containing 8766( = 465.25 * 24) days:
once in 24 years, Mercedonia( 23 days).A further error of one day( 24-23) could be eliminated after 528 years. Of course, such a calendar was poorly coordinated with the phases of the moon, and with the solar year. The most expressive characteristic of this calendar was given by D. Lebedev: "Canceled by Julius Caesar in 45 to p. X. The calendar of the Roman Republic was a real chronological monstrum. It was a calendar not lunar and not sunny, but pseudo-moon and pseudo-solar. Possessing all the shortcomings of the lunar year, he did not have any of his virtues, and exactly in the same respect he stood for a solar year. "
This is further strengthened by the following circumstance. Since 191 BC.According to the Law of the Mania of Atzilia Glabrion, the pontiffs, headed by the High Priest( Pontifex Maximus), were given the right to determine the duration of additional months( "to assign as many days as the interim month") and to set the beginning of months and years. At the same time, they very often abused their power, extending the years and thus the terms of staying in elected positions of their friends and shortening these terms for the enemies or those who refused to bribe. It is known, for example, that in 50 BC.Cicero( 106-43 BC) on February 13 did not know yet whether an additional month would be inserted in ten days. However, a little earlier he himself claimed that the Greeks' concern about adjusting their calendar to the movement of the Sun is just an eccentricity. As for the Roman calendar of that time, then, as E. Bickerman notes, it did not coincide either with the movement of the Sun or with the phases of the Moon, but "rather completely wandered at random. ..".
And since the payment of debts and taxes was made at the beginning of each year, it is not difficult to imagine how the priests held the entire economic and political life in ancient Rome with the help of the calendar in their hands.
Over time, the calendar was so confusing that the holiday of harvest had to be celebrated in winter. The confusion and chaos prevailing in the Roman calendar of that time was best described by the French philosopher Voltaire( 1694-1778) with the words: "Roman generals always defeated, but they never knew on what day it happened. ..".