How Italians Influenced the World

Rome gives the world a calendar, not once, but twice…

Italians have made many important contributions to society, but there is one that we take for granted; the calendar. Despite current use of about forty traditional or religious calendars (such as the Jewish, Islamic, Hindu and Chinese), it is the calendar of Julius Caesar, as slightly modified by Pope Gregory XIII, that functions as the worldwide civil norm (D’epiro 3).

The Roman calendar, in its earliest form had only ten months and 304 days. This left 61 days in winter unaccounted for. This strange method of time was created by Rome’s legendary founder and first king, Romulus. Back in this time the months of January and February did not exist yet, since Roman farmers didn’t have much fieldwork to do in the dead part of the year after the last of their crops had been harvested and stored. After a two month downtime a new year would start in March with the preparation of the ground for next season’s crops. It wasn’t until Numa Pompilius, Rome’s Second King, that the months of January and February were added to the end of the year. This added 51 days to the calendar.

At this time, the main purpose of the calendar was to ensure proper observance of 45 religious festivals and to indicate which days public business could be conducted. Four months had 31 days, February had 28 and the rest had 29. In an attempt to fix the discrepancy between the lunar 355 day year and the solar year an extra month called Mercedonius, which had 27 and 28 days alternatively, was intercalated every other year after February 23. This meant that a four year cycle contained 1,465 days with the year averaging 366.25 days. First the calendar was way to short…now a bit too long.

By the time of Julius Caesar, the calendar was several months out of whack with the seasons. While Caesar was in Egypt he discussed the Egyptian calendar with Alexandrian Savants. As you know at this time around 47 B.C. Caesar was planning an incredible military campaign in the east. Because of this he wanted a single official calendar that would keep in step with the sun. Since January was now accruing in autumn, the harvest, festivals and the proper times for planting and sailing were losing all correspondence with the seasons.

Caesar devised a new calendar for the new Rome he was to rule, from Spain to the Middle East. He created a calendar of 12 months and 365 days with a leap year occurring every fourth year. Based on the calendar devised by the Alexandrian astronomer Aristarchus in 239 B.C., this Julian calendar was adapted by Caesar for the Roman world in 46 B.C.

The most interesting part of the story is how Julius Caesar ordered two intercalations in 46 B.C. The First was to make 23 days in February, and the second, was the addition of 67 days in the fall to realign the calendar with the seasons. The 355 day year thus added an additional 90 days which made the total amount of days to 445. These extra days occurred for one more year, and the year was known as “the last year of confusion.” The era of the Julian calendar formally began on New Year’s Day, January 1, 45 B.C. A little more than a year after this magnificent reform, Caesar was assassinated, but not before July was named in his honor.

Source: d'Epiro, Peter. 40 Ways Italian Genius Shaped the World. New York: Anchor Books, 2001. 3-8. Print.