The Temple of Divine Caesar immortalized the greatest ruler of the largest empire in history, by inscribing his words ‘Veni, Vedi, Vici’ on the altar erected where his body was cremated. After he came, he saw, he conquered Imperial Rome, he made another conquest. A conquest as significant then, as it is now. From January, through July and every fourth February of our present times, an ancient verdict keeps our busy lives on a track that remains consistent - all eventualities calculated and logically catered for.
This fascinating story begins in ancient Egypt, picks its threads through various civilizations, withstands many political deviations of the Romans and after a long period of sustenance, finally settles along a more stable course only in 1582.
Three constants remained - the natural cycles of days, (lunar) months and (solar) years.
And though our perspective remains largely influenced by the shape Julius Caesar gave history the way we know it today, a very mature civilization, much before his time, and deep in scientific understanding, had become obsessed with harnessing the synchronies of the sun, moon and stars, to account for life in a tangible context of time.
With their advanced knowledge in astronomy, the Egyptians constituted the ‘Sothic’ year of just over 365¼ days, with the earth taking 365.25636 days to complete one revolution around the sun.
Their solar calendar, spanned 12 months of 30 days each, leaving them with 5.25 days less to complete the year. Taking a very uncomplicated approach, they added 5 days every year, and one extra day every four years, to synchronise with the solar year.
The precision of this system is proven conclusively, by the illumination of the statue of Ramses II, placed, among other statues, 180ft away from the only opening to the Abu Simbel Temple of Ramses II. For more than 3200 years, this statue has been illuminated by the sun on 22 February, every single year.
If the minute difference of 0.00636 days per year (365.25636 - 365.25) had not been accounted for, this date would have changed from the original, many years ago. Over the 3200 year period, the discrepancy would have been of 20 days!
However, this placement did not align with an actual year and the Greeks finally added the concept of a Leap year, adding a day to the shortest month, every four years. In another era, the Romans reinforced this concept when they re-structured the calender during their rule in Egypt.
The consequences of this momentous re-formulation were substantial and the reason is a long-winded tale of multiple theories, incessant discoveries and gross misuse of power.
Romulus, the founder of Rome, devised a strictly lunar calendar with ten months, six of 30 days and four of 31 days, making a total of 304 days. This calendar started with March and ended with December. After a gap, the next year would start on a new moon to bring it back in sync with the lunar cycle.
Many such failures at synchronising the lunar calendar with the solar cycle continued. Numerous more attempts were made.
An extra two months were added- January in the beginning and February at the end. Now the lunisolar year had 354 days. To undo the inauspicious effects of the even number, more days were added and deducted variously across the months to make the year 355 days long.
Another modification changed the order of the months, so that February followed January. A deficit of 10 ¼ days resulted.
The solution seemed to be the introduction of the intercalary period- a buffer of around 23 days. The Intercalans or Mercedonious, as it was called, was inserted in February, every alternate year, while five days were dropped in Intercalary days. What presented itself at the end, was a rather compliant four year period, averaging 366 ¼ days per year. The one extra day was adjusted every 24 years, by dropping one of the Mercedonious months.
This thoroughly complicated system still fell short of synchronising with the phases of the moon, so decisions on additions and lengths of Intercalary months, became the onus of a panel of high priests called pontiffs.
Political agendas flourished and abuse of power thrived. Inconsistencies caused the months to waver across seasons. Ridiculously, by the time Julius Caesar ascended the throne, the civil equinox was three months away from the astronomical equinox!
To put an end to the farce that the Roman calendar had become, Julius Caesar, in consultation with Alexandrian astronomers, abandoned aligning the months with lunar cycles and reformulated the year as we recognize it. In honour of his contribution, the Roman senate named the sixth month, July, after him.
Starting in 45BC, the Julian calendar was configured as 365.25 days long and came to have, on a regular basis, 365 days across 12 months, with a leap year every 4 years, when February got longer. The year began in January, saw spring in March and contemplated fall in September.
With due attention to the detail of individual days, each month, was divided into three points of reference.
The Kalends was the first day of the month. It was the day debts were due and interests were incurred. Books maintained to track payments were called ‘calendarium’ – our modern day ‘calendar’.
The Ides was the 15th day in a 31 day month and the 13th day in the other months.
The Nones was the 9th day before the Ides, hence being either the 5th or the 7th of the month.
In tune with our penchant for countdowns, the Julian calendar calculated days inclusively backwards from one of the three points of reference.
Thus the 25th of December would be written as, ‘VII kalends January’, the 11th of April would be, ‘4 days before the ides of April' and our 5th of September would be the Julian ‘nones of September’.
Had he paid heed when the Soothsayer warned, 'beware the ides of March', Julius Caesar would have lived to learn the depths to which greed and power mongery could take even the most trusted coterie. The 15th of March spelled doom in Shakespeare's play and was quite the reflection of what went on in Rome during the time.
The Julian calendar recorded most of what we know of their history and beyond, until the Christian church started gaining ground. In 1582, yet another problem was discovered. The calculation of the leap year would amount to nearly 11 days more, in a thousand years, as the true calculation was not six hours over the 365 days in the Julian year, but five hours and 49 minutes.
Based on the motion of the earth around the sun, while the months have no connection with the motion of the moon, the Julian calendar was reformed. Pope Gregory XII brought forward the Julian year by ten days. The 5th of October became the 15th of October.
This rule was then prescribed for all Christendom. Barring Russia and the Greek church, most of the world had moved toward adopting the Gregorian calendar.
The length of the year is 365 days, 5hrs, 48 minutes and 46 seconds and the time between two full moons is 29.53 days. There's a leap year every 4th year, where February has 29 days instead of the usual 28. January, March, May, July, August, October and December have 31 days and the rest have 30.
This is essentially the modern calendar, where every page, however formatted, bears testimony to Egyptian exactitude, Julian grit and Christian endeavour.
And going against the Julian manner of looking back on things, we count forward.
This fascinating story begins in ancient Egypt, picks its threads through various civilizations, withstands many political deviations of the Romans and after a long period of sustenance, finally settles along a more stable course only in 1582.
Three constants remained - the natural cycles of days, (lunar) months and (solar) years.
And though our perspective remains largely influenced by the shape Julius Caesar gave history the way we know it today, a very mature civilization, much before his time, and deep in scientific understanding, had become obsessed with harnessing the synchronies of the sun, moon and stars, to account for life in a tangible context of time.
With their advanced knowledge in astronomy, the Egyptians constituted the ‘Sothic’ year of just over 365¼ days, with the earth taking 365.25636 days to complete one revolution around the sun.
Their solar calendar, spanned 12 months of 30 days each, leaving them with 5.25 days less to complete the year. Taking a very uncomplicated approach, they added 5 days every year, and one extra day every four years, to synchronise with the solar year.
The precision of this system is proven conclusively, by the illumination of the statue of Ramses II, placed, among other statues, 180ft away from the only opening to the Abu Simbel Temple of Ramses II. For more than 3200 years, this statue has been illuminated by the sun on 22 February, every single year.
If the minute difference of 0.00636 days per year (365.25636 - 365.25) had not been accounted for, this date would have changed from the original, many years ago. Over the 3200 year period, the discrepancy would have been of 20 days!
However, this placement did not align with an actual year and the Greeks finally added the concept of a Leap year, adding a day to the shortest month, every four years. In another era, the Romans reinforced this concept when they re-structured the calender during their rule in Egypt.
The consequences of this momentous re-formulation were substantial and the reason is a long-winded tale of multiple theories, incessant discoveries and gross misuse of power.
Romulus, the founder of Rome, devised a strictly lunar calendar with ten months, six of 30 days and four of 31 days, making a total of 304 days. This calendar started with March and ended with December. After a gap, the next year would start on a new moon to bring it back in sync with the lunar cycle.
Many such failures at synchronising the lunar calendar with the solar cycle continued. Numerous more attempts were made.
An extra two months were added- January in the beginning and February at the end. Now the lunisolar year had 354 days. To undo the inauspicious effects of the even number, more days were added and deducted variously across the months to make the year 355 days long.
Another modification changed the order of the months, so that February followed January. A deficit of 10 ¼ days resulted.
The solution seemed to be the introduction of the intercalary period- a buffer of around 23 days. The Intercalans or Mercedonious, as it was called, was inserted in February, every alternate year, while five days were dropped in Intercalary days. What presented itself at the end, was a rather compliant four year period, averaging 366 ¼ days per year. The one extra day was adjusted every 24 years, by dropping one of the Mercedonious months.
This thoroughly complicated system still fell short of synchronising with the phases of the moon, so decisions on additions and lengths of Intercalary months, became the onus of a panel of high priests called pontiffs.
Political agendas flourished and abuse of power thrived. Inconsistencies caused the months to waver across seasons. Ridiculously, by the time Julius Caesar ascended the throne, the civil equinox was three months away from the astronomical equinox!
To put an end to the farce that the Roman calendar had become, Julius Caesar, in consultation with Alexandrian astronomers, abandoned aligning the months with lunar cycles and reformulated the year as we recognize it. In honour of his contribution, the Roman senate named the sixth month, July, after him.
Starting in 45BC, the Julian calendar was configured as 365.25 days long and came to have, on a regular basis, 365 days across 12 months, with a leap year every 4 years, when February got longer. The year began in January, saw spring in March and contemplated fall in September.
With due attention to the detail of individual days, each month, was divided into three points of reference.
The Kalends was the first day of the month. It was the day debts were due and interests were incurred. Books maintained to track payments were called ‘calendarium’ – our modern day ‘calendar’.
The Ides was the 15th day in a 31 day month and the 13th day in the other months.
The Nones was the 9th day before the Ides, hence being either the 5th or the 7th of the month.
In tune with our penchant for countdowns, the Julian calendar calculated days inclusively backwards from one of the three points of reference.
Thus the 25th of December would be written as, ‘VII kalends January’, the 11th of April would be, ‘4 days before the ides of April' and our 5th of September would be the Julian ‘nones of September’.
Had he paid heed when the Soothsayer warned, 'beware the ides of March', Julius Caesar would have lived to learn the depths to which greed and power mongery could take even the most trusted coterie. The 15th of March spelled doom in Shakespeare's play and was quite the reflection of what went on in Rome during the time.
The Julian calendar recorded most of what we know of their history and beyond, until the Christian church started gaining ground. In 1582, yet another problem was discovered. The calculation of the leap year would amount to nearly 11 days more, in a thousand years, as the true calculation was not six hours over the 365 days in the Julian year, but five hours and 49 minutes.
Based on the motion of the earth around the sun, while the months have no connection with the motion of the moon, the Julian calendar was reformed. Pope Gregory XII brought forward the Julian year by ten days. The 5th of October became the 15th of October.
This rule was then prescribed for all Christendom. Barring Russia and the Greek church, most of the world had moved toward adopting the Gregorian calendar.
The length of the year is 365 days, 5hrs, 48 minutes and 46 seconds and the time between two full moons is 29.53 days. There's a leap year every 4th year, where February has 29 days instead of the usual 28. January, March, May, July, August, October and December have 31 days and the rest have 30.
This is essentially the modern calendar, where every page, however formatted, bears testimony to Egyptian exactitude, Julian grit and Christian endeavour.
And going against the Julian manner of looking back on things, we count forward.
Comments
Amazing - and it's great to learn so much more about the evolution of the modern calendar which we take for granted.. Nice one Tejaswi!
Achaiah-
Good to see you again :) I am glad you found this informative - As I dug deeper and deeper, I simply had to share it.
We'll tackle the modesty another time :)
Ujjwal-
I am sorry this was no fun for you.
But if you found the subject interesting, please read up on it elsewhere, as and when you have the time- I am sure you will be fascinated.
Mikec-
Hello again :)and thanks for the appreciation. The ancient Egyptians were indeed an amazing lot! We are always finding new things to marvel at them for!
pixiepaxi-
Hey again :)
The scientific tilt was incidental - all I wanted to know was where the word 'calendar' originated from and I was hooked!
So glad you found it interesting too - I am astounded at how much more there is to know!
Where did you collate all this information from?
I've always been very interested in ancient civilisations, especially in those aspects which have been retained in our present. Information is amply available- a lot is from what I've come across over the years. The internet is always at hand, though for specifics and verification, I still prefer printed matter - in this case, I have routed the libraries of well-stocked history fanatics) :)