Roman calendar

[Sarah]

The calendar of the ancient Romans, from which our moderncalendars are derived. It is said to have consisted originally of tenmonths, Martius, Aprilis, Maius, Junius, Quintilis, Sextilis,September, October, November, and December, having a total of 304days. Numa added two months, Januarius at the beginning of the year,and Februarius at the end, making in all 355 days. He also ordered anintercalary month, Mercedinus, to be inserted every second year.Later the order of the months was changed so that January should comebefore February. Through abuse of power by the pontiffs to whose careit was committed, this calendar fell into confusion. It was replacedby the Julian calendar. In designating the days of the month, theRomans reckoned backward from three fixed points, the calends, thenones, and the ides. The calends were always the first day of themonth. The ides fell on the 15th in March, May, July (Quintilis), andOctober, and on the 13th in other months. The nones came on theeighth day (the ninth, counting the ides) before the ides. Thus, Jan.13 was called the ides of January, Jan. 12, the day before the ides,and Jan. 11, the third day before the ides (since the ides count asone), while Jan. 14 was the 19th day before the calends of February.