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publication of a Roman calendar. Even this is available to us only by way of fragmentary evidence from much later dates. |
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The De lingua latina of Varro, the De die natali of Censorinus, the Saturnalia of Macrobius, and the life of Numa by Plutarch are the works of greatest value. Apart from Varro's commentaries, however, the works were written by authors who had no direct experience with the calendar. All cite earlier authors from whom no works survive and all indicate uncertainty about the structure of the early calendar. In 189 B.C., the consul M. Fulvius Nobilior compiled the first known commentary on a Roman calendar. |
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9.1.1.2
The Legend of Romulus |
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The common Roman legend about the first calendar starts with Romulus, the alleged founder of Rome. In this story, Romulus is the beneficiary of classic ''founder legends" and is credited with creating a year of 10 months. This year is alleged to have the following structure: |
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| Name of Month | Number of Days | | Martius mensis | | | Aprilis mensis | | | Maius mensis | | | Iunius mensis | | | Quintilis mensis | | | Sextilis mensis | | | September mensis | | | October mensis | | | November mensis | | | December mensis | |
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This Romulan year consists of 304 days. Such a major discrepancy from the length of the solar year is not unusual for early calendars, which are strictly practical and agriculturally based. Such calendars may simply treat the winter months, when nothing happens in the agricultural sense, as an innominate lump, lacking named months or numbered days. Such a calendar is strictly concerned with the practical matters of agriculture and does not waste detail on periods lacking relevant events. Such calendars are not unknown and are restarted each spring, typically by reference to some astronomical event. The fact that Censorinus and Macrobius state that this year contained 304 days is probably not relevant, since this number can be derived by simple addition and since Roman literature is full of examples of "backfilling" information. |
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