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The period from the Nones to the Ides is, counting inclusively, nine days. The period from the Ides to the end of the month is two such nundinum periods for all months except Februarius and Intercalaris. |
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In the Roman system of dating, days were numbered backwards from one marker day to the preceding marker day. |
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The day of a marker was simply labeled accordingly as, for example, Kalendae Ianuariae or Nonae Februariae, or Idus Martiae. The day immediately before a marker was specially labeled a pridie, as pridie Nonas Iunias, for example. Days prior to the pridie were labeled by two alternative methods, both of which involved inclusive counting. The second day before the Nones of June, for example, could be labeled as "die tertio ante Nonas Iunias" or as "ante diem tertium Nonas Iunias". |
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Students of Latin may find the names of the days to be confusing. They are. In a construction like "ante diem tertium Idus Martias", the month name is an adjective, limiting the noun Idus. The preposition "ante" governs two accusatives. The following day, "pridie Idus Martias", gives an adverb followed by the accusative. The adverb derives from a noun in the ablative case, which is always the case used for named dates. Hence, the following day is ''Idibus Martiis". |
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9.1.2.2.3.2
Abbreviations |
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Abbreviations for these prolix names were, not surprisingly, used regularly. Our two examples preceding would be abbreviated as "III Non Iun" or "a.d. III Non Iun". The majority of the days in a given month were counted down from the Kalends of the following month. Roman calendars can be quite confusing for novices, since abbreviations and assumed conventions abound. |
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9.1.2.2.4
The Length of the Year |
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As you will see in the following section, the length of the year is described as 354 days, to which was added a day, according to legend, in Ianuarius to make an odd-numbered length of 355 days. The number of days in 12 lunations is (1229.5308 =) 354.3696 days, on average, so these numbers are characteristic signatures of a lunar calendar. |
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9.1.2.3
A Possible Year Structure |
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The structure of this calendar was essentially that attributed to Numa Pompilius, but with the addition that every second year, February was shortened to 23 (or 24) days, and a month of 27 days, called Intercalaris, was intercalated between the end of Februarius and the start of Martius. Because this extra month brought extra wages, it was popularly known as Mercedonius. The intercalation was left to the discretion of the pontifices, the officials responsible for calendric matters, and was occasionally omitted. |
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