According to some, Martius included 31 days, Aprilis 30 and the following months alternately 31 and 30, but September had 30 days, October 31 and November and December 30 each. The number of days in each month is not entirely clear. Around 450 BC Februarius and Januarius were exchanged and the first month of the year began with Januarius. These months are placed before Martius, so that the meaning of the names of the months no longer corresponded to the rank number. Still according to the accounts, the second king of Rome, Numa Pompilius (715-673 BC, but he may have been a mythical figure), the successor of Romulus, added two months to the calendar: Februarius in Januarius. But these names may be later ‘inventions’. The names of these months were: Martius (related to the god Mars), Aprilis (related to Aperta, the nickname of Apollo?), Maius (another name for Jupiter), June (related to the goddess Juno), then Quintilis (5 th month), Sextilis (6 th), September (7 th), October (8 th), November (9 th), December (10 th). The beginning of the year began at the time of the spring equinox, and after the 10th month, an intermediate winter period was introduced with an ‘appropriate’ duration in order to be not too out of step with the seasons. It is possible that the peoples who lived in Italy around 700 BC used 10-month calendars, but this was certainly not practical. This calendar would have had 10 months over a year, with a total of 304 days. The first Roman calendarsĪccording to legend, the first Roman calendar was introduced by the co-founder of Rome, the mythical figure Romulus, in 753 BC, year 1 of the Roman calendar (AUC: ab urbe condita: since the city was founded). However, it is clear that many of the details given by some texts or popular narratives on the Roman calendar, which may contain some truth, are not based on historical facts. Little is known about the calendars the Romans used before the reform of the Julian calendar, and it is possible that much of our knowledge on this subject is speculation. The term Roman calendar refers to all the calendars used by the Romans until the creation of the Julian calendar in 45 BC by Julius Caesar.
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