document_title: Roman calendar

question_text: how many months are in the roman calendar

text: Roman calendar

text: History[edit]

text: Prehistoric lunar calendar[edit]

text: The original Roman calendar is believed to have been an observational lunar calendar[1] whose months began from the first signs of a new crescent moon. Because a lunar cycle is about 29 1⁄2 days long, such months would have varied between 29 and 30 days. Twelve such months would have fallen 10 or 11 days short of the solar year; without adjustment, such a year would have quickly rotated out of alignment with the seasons in the manner of the present-day Islamic calendar. Given the seasonal aspects of the later calendar and its associated religious festivals, this was presumably avoided through some form of intercalation or through the suspension of the calendar during winter.

text: Rome's 8-day week, the nundinal cycle, was shared with the Etruscans, who used it as the schedule of royal audiences. It was presumably a feature of the early calendar and was credited in Roman legend variously to Romulus and Servius Tullius.

text: Legendary 10-month calendar[edit]

text: The Romans themselves described their first organized year as one with ten fixed months, each of 30 or 31 days.[2][3] Such a decimal division fit general Roman practice.[4] The four 31-day months were called "full" (pleni) and the others "hollow" (cavi).[a][6] Its 304 days made up exactly 38 nundinal cycles. The system is usually said to have left the remaining 50-odd days of the year as an unorganized "winter", although Licinius Macer's lost history apparently stated the earliest Roman calendar employed intercalation instead[7][8] and Macrobius claims the 10-month calendar was allowed to shift until the summer and winter months were completely misplaced, at which time additional days belonging to no month were simply inserted into the calendar until it seemed things were restored to their proper place.[9][10]

text: Later Roman writers credited this calendar to Romulus,[11][12] their legendary first king and culture hero, although this was common with other practices and traditions whose origin had been lost to them. Some scholars doubt the existence of this calendar at all, as it is only attested in late Republican and Imperial sources and apparently supported only by the misplaced names of the months from September to December.[13] Rüpke also finds the coincidence of the length of the supposed "Romulan" year with the length of the first ten months of the Julian calendar to be suspicious.[clarification needed][13]

text:
"Calendar of Romulus"

English
Latin
Meaning
Length
in days
[2][3]

March
Mensis Martius
Month of Mars
31

April
Mensis Aprilis
Month of Apru (Aphrodite)[14]
30

May
Mensis Maius
Month of Maia[15]
31

June
Mensis Iunius
Month of Juno
30

Quintilis
Mensis Quintilis
Mensis Quinctilis[16]
Fifth Month
31

Sextilis
Mensis Sextilis
Sixth Month
30

September
Mensis September
Seventh Month
30

October
Mensis October
Eighth Month
31

November
Mensis November
Ninth Month
30

December
Mensis December
Tenth Month
30

—

(51)

text: Other traditions existed alongside this one, however. Plutarch's Parallel Lives recounts that Romulus's calendar had been solar but adhered to the general principle that the year should last for 360 days. Months were employed secondarily and haphazardly, with some counted as 20 days and others as 35 or more.[17][18]

text: Republican calendar[edit]

text: The attested calendar of the Roman Republic was quite different. It followed Greek calendars in assuming a lunar cycle of 29 1⁄2 days and a solar year of 12 1⁄2 synodic months (368 3⁄4 days), which align every fourth year after the addition of two intercalary months.[6] The additional two months of the year were January and February; the intercalary month was sometimes known as Mercedonius.[6]

text: The Romans did not follow the usual Greek practice in alternating 29- and 30-day months and a 29- or 30-day intercalary month every other year. Instead, their 3rd, 5th, 7th, and 10th months[b] had 31 days each; all the other months had 29 days except February, which had 28 days for three years and then 29 every fourth year. The total of these months over a 4-year span differed from the Greeks by 5 days, meaning the Roman intercalary month always had 27 days. Similarly, within each month, the weeks did not vary in the Greek fashion between 7 and 8 days; instead, the full months had two additional days in their first week and the other three weeks of every month ran for 8 days ("nine" by Roman reckoning).[19] Still more unusually, the intercalary month was not placed at the end of the year but within the month of February after the Terminalia on the 23rd (a.d. VII Kal. Mart.); the remaining days of February followed its completion. This seems to have arisen from Roman superstitions concerning the numbering and order of the months.[citation needed] The arrangement of the Roman calendar similarly seems to have arisen from Pythagorean superstitions concerning the luckiness of odd numbers.[19]

text: These Pythagorean-based changes to the Roman calendar were generally credited by the Romans to Numa Pompilius, Romulus's successor and the second of Rome's seven kings,[citation needed] as were the two new months of the calendar.[20][21][c] Most sources thought he had established intercalation with the rest of his calendar.[citation needed] Although Livy's Numa instituted a lunar calendar, the author claimed the king had instituted a 19-year system of intercalation equivalent to the Metonic Cycle[22] centuries before its development by Babylonian and Greek astronomers.[d] Plutarch's account claims he ended the former chaos of the calendar by employing 12 months totaling 354 days—the length of the lunar and Greek years—and biennial intercalary months of 22 days.[17][18]

text: Plutarch believed Numa was responsible for placing January and February first in the calendar;[17][18] Ovid states January began as the first month and February the last, with its present order owing to the Decemvirs.[24][25] W. Warde Fowler believed the Roman priests continued to treat January and February as the last months of the calendar throughout the Republican period.[26]

text:
Pre-Julian Roman calendar

English
Latin
Meaning
Length
in days
[27][28][17][18]

January
Mensis Ianuarius
Month of Janus
29

February
Mensis Februarius
Month of the Februa
28

Mercedonius
Intercalary Month
Mercedonius
Mensis Intercalaris
Month of Wages
23

March
Mensis Martius
Month of Mars
31

April
Mensis Aprilis
Uncertain
29

May
Mensis Maius
Uncertain
31

June
Mensis Iunius
Month of Juno
29

Quintilis
Mensis Quintilis
Mensis Quinctilis[16]
Fifth Month
31

Sextilis
Mensis Sextilis
Sixth Month
29

September
Mensis September
Seventh Month
29

October
Mensis October
Eighth Month
31

November
Mensis November
Ninth Month
29

December
Mensis December
Tenth Month
29

text: The consuls' terms of office were not always a modern calendar year, but ordinary consuls were elected or appointed annually. The traditional list of Roman consuls used by the Romans to date their years began in 509 BC.[29]

text: Flavian reform[edit]

text: Gnaeus Flavius, a secretary to the pontifex maximus, introduced a series of reforms in 304 BC.[30] Their exact nature is uncertain, although he is thought to have begun the custom of publishing the calendar in advance of the month, depriving the priests of some of their power but allowing for a more consistent calendar for official business.[31]

text: Julian reform[edit]

text: Julius Caesar, following his victory in his civil war and in his role as pontifex maximus, ordered a reformation of the calendar in 46 BC. This was undertaken by a group of scholars apparently including the Alexandrian Sosigenes[32] and the Roman M. Flavius.[33][28] Its main lines involved the insertion of ten additional days throughout the calendar and regular intercalation of a single leap day every fourth year in order to bring the Roman calendar into close agreement with the solar year. The year 46 BC was the last of the old system and included 3 intercalary months, the first inserted in February and two more—Intercalaris Prior and Posterior—before the kalends of December.

text: Later reforms[edit]

text: After Caesar's assassination, Mark Antony had Caesar's birth month Quintilis renamed July (Iulius) in his honor. After Antony's defeat at Actium, Augustus assumed control of Rome and, finding the priests had (owing to their inclusive counting) been intercalating every third year instead of every fourth, suspended the addition of leap days to the calendar for a number of decades until its proper position had been restored. In 8 BC, the plebiscite Lex Pacuvia de Mense Augusto caused Sextilis to be renamed August (Augustus) in his honor.[34][35][28][e]

text: In large part, this calendar continued unchanged under the Roman Empire. (Egyptians used the related Alexandrian calendar, which Augustus had adapted from their wandering ancient calendar to maintain its alignment with Rome's.) A few emperors altered the names of the months after themselves or their family, but such changes were abandoned by their successors. Diocletian began the 15-year indiction cycles beginning from the AD 297 census;[29] these became the required format for official dating under Justinian. Constantine formally established the 7-day week by making Sunday an official holiday in 321. Consular dating became obsolete following the abandonment of appointing nonimperial consuls in AD 541.[29] The Roman method of numbering the days of the month never became widespread in the Hellenized eastern provinces and was eventually abandoned by the Byzantine Empire in its calendar.

text: Days[edit]

text: Roman dates were counted inclusively forward to the next one of three principal days within each month:[36]

text:
Kalends (Kalendae or Kal.), the 1st day of each month[36]
Nones (Nonae or Non.), the 7th day of full months[37] and 5th day of hollow ones,[36] 8 days—"nine" by Roman reckoning—before the Ides in every month
Ides (Idus, variously Eid. or Id.), the 15th day of full months[37] and the 13th day of hollow ones,[36] a day less than the middle of each month

text: These are thought to reflect a prehistoric lunar calendar, with the kalends proclaimed after the sighting of the first sliver of the new crescent moon a day or two after the new moon, the nones occurring on the day of the first-quarter moon, and the ides on the day of the full moon. The kalends of each month were sacred to Juno and the ides to Jupiter.[38][39] The day before each was known as its eve (pridie); the day after each (postridie) was considered particularly unlucky.

text: The days of the month were expressed in early Latin using the ablative of time, denoting points in time, in the contracted form "the 6th December Kalends" (VI Kalendas Decembres).[37] In classical Latin, this use continued for the three principal days of the month[40] but other days were idiomatically expressed in the accusative case, which usually expressed a duration of time, and took the form "6th day before the December Kalends" (ante diem VI Kalendas Decembres). This anomaly may have followed the treatment of days in Greek,[41] reflected the increasing use of such date phrases as an absolute phrase able to function as the object of another preposition,[37] or simply originated in a mistaken agreement of dies with the preposition ante once it moved to the beginning of the expression.[37] In late Latin, this idiom was sometimes abandoned in favor of again using the ablative of time.

text: The kalends were the day for payment of debts and the account books (kalendaria) kept for them gave English its word calendar. The public Roman calendars were the fasti, which designated the religious and legal character of each month's days. The Romans marked each day of such calendars with the letters:[42]

text:
F (fastus, "permissible") on days when it was legal to initiate action in the courts of civil law (dies fasti, "allowed days")
C (comitialis) on fasti days during which the Roman people could hold assemblies (dies comitalis)
N (nefastus) on days when political and judicial activities were prohibited (dies nefasti)
NP (uncertain)[f] on public holidays (feriae)
QRCF (uncertain)[g] on days when the "king" (rex sacrorum) could convene an assembly
EN (endotercissus, an archaic form of intercissus, "halved") on days when most political and religious activities were prohibited in the morning and evening due to sacrifices being prepared or offered but were acceptable for a period in the middle of the day

text: Each day was also marked by a letter from A to H to indicate its place within the nundinal cycle of market days.

text: Weeks[edit]

text: The nundinae were the market days which formed a kind of weekend in Rome, Italy, and some other parts of Roman territory. By Roman inclusive counting, they were reckoned as "ninth days" although they actually occurred every eighth day. Because the republican and Julian years were not evenly divisible into eight-day periods, Roman calendars included a column giving every day of the year a nundinal letter from A to H marking its place in the cycle of market days. Each year, the letter used for the markets would shift 2–5 letters along the cycle. As a day when the city swelled with rural plebeians, they were overseen by the aediles and took on an important role in Roman legislation, which was supposed to be announced for three nundinal weeks (between 17 and 24 days) in advance of its coming to a vote. The patricians and their clients sometimes exploited this fact as a kind of filibuster, since the tribunes of the plebs were required to wait another three-week period if their proposals could not receive a vote before dusk on the day they were introduced. Superstitions arose concerning the bad luck that followed a nundinae on the nones of a month or, later, on the first day of January. Intercalation was supposedly used to avoid such coincidences, even after the Julian reform of the calendar.

text: The 7-day week began to be observed in Italy in the early imperial period,[44] as practitioners and converts to eastern religions introduced Hellenistic and Babylonian astrology, the Jewish Saturday sabbath, and the Christian Lord's Day. The system was originally used for private worship and astrology but had replaced the nundinal week by the time Constantine made Sunday (dies Solis) an official day of rest in AD 321. The hebdomadal week was also reckoned as a cycle of letters from A to G; these were adapted for Christian use as the dominical letters.

text: Months[edit]

text: The names of Roman months originally functioned as adjectives (e.g., the January kalends occur in the January month) before being treated as substantive nouns in their own right (e.g., the kalends of January occur in January). Some of their etymologies are well-established: January and March honor the gods Janus[45] and Mars;[46] July and August honor the dictator Julius Caesar[47] and his successor, the emperor Augustus;[48] and the months Quintilis,[49] Sextilis,[50] September,[51] October,[52] November,[53] and December[54] are archaic adjectives formed from the ordinal numbers from 5 to 10, their position in the calendar when it began around the spring equinox in March.[51] Others are uncertain. February may derive from the Februa festival or its eponymous februa ("purifications, expiatory offerings"), whose name may be either Sabine or preserve an archaic word for sulphuric.[55] April may relate to the Etruscan goddess Apru or the verb aperire ("to open").[citation needed] May and June may honor Maia[56] and Juno[57] or derive from archaic terms for "senior" and "junior". A few emperors attempted to add themselves to the calendar after Augustus, but without enduring success.

text: In classical Latin, the days of each month were usually reckoned as:[40]

text:
Day
Original
31-day months[h]
New Julian
31-day months[i]
New Julian
30-day months[j]
Original
29-day months[k]
February

1
Kal.
On the Kalends
Kalendis

Kal.
Kal.
Kal. Feb.

2
a.d. VI Non.
The 4th Day before the Nones
ante diem quartum Nonas

a.d. IV Non.
a.d. IV Non.
a.d. IV Non. Feb.

3
a.d. V Non.
The 3rd Day before the Nones
ante diem tertium Nonas

a.d. III Non.
a.d. III Non.
a.d. III Non. Feb.

4
a.d. IV Non.
On the Day before the Nones
Pridie Nonas

Prid. Non.
Prid. Non.
Prid. Non. Feb.

5
a.d. III Non.
On the Nones
Nonis

Non.
Non.
Non. Feb.

6
Prid. Non.
The 8th Day before the Ides
ante diem octavum Idus

a.d. VIII Eid.
a.d. VIII Eid.
a.d. VIII Eid. Feb.

7
Non.
The 7th Day before the Ides
ante diem septimum Idus

a.d. VII Eid.
a.d. VII Eid.
a.d. VII Eid. Feb.

8
a.d. VIII Eid.
The 6th Day before the Ides
ante diem sextum Idus

a.d. VI Eid.
a.d. VI Eid.
a.d. VI Eid. Feb.

9
a.d. VII Eid.
The 5th Day before the Ides
ante diem quintum Idus

a.d. V Eid.
a.d. V Eid.
a.d. V Eid. Feb.

10
a.d. VI Eid.
The 4th Day before the Ides
ante diem quartum Idus

a.d. IV Eid.
a.d. IV Eid.
a.d. IV Eid. Feb.

11
a.d. V Eid.
The 3rd Day before the Ides
ante diem tertium Idus

a.d. III Eid.
a.d. III Eid.
a.d. III Eid. Feb.

12
a.d. IV Eid.
On the Day before the Ides
Pridie Idus

Prid. Eid.
Prid. Eid.
Prid. Eid. Feb.

13
a.d. III Eid.
On the Ides
Idibus

Eid.
Eid.
Eid. Feb.

14
Prid. Eid.
The 19th Day before the Kalends
ante diem undevicesimum Kalendas

a.d. XVIII Kal.
a.d. XVII Kal.
a.d. XVI Kal. Mart.

15
Eid.
The 18th Day before the Kalends
ante diem duodevicesimum Kalendas

a.d. XVII Kal.
a.d. XVI Kal.
a.d. XV Kal. Mart.

16
a.d. XVII Kal.
The 17th Day before the Kalends
ante diem septimum decimum Kalendas

a.d. XVI Kal.
a.d. XV Kal.
a.d. XIV Kal. Mart.

17
a.d. XVI Kal.
The 16th Day before the Kalends
ante diem sextum decimum Kalendas

a.d. XV Kal.
a.d. XIV Kal.
a.d. XIII Kal. Mart.

18
a.d. XV Kal.
The 15th Day before the Kalends
ante diem quintum decimum Kalendas

a.d. XIV Kal.
a.d. XIII Kal.
a.d. XII Kal. Mart.

19
a.d. XIV Kal.
The 14th Day before the Kalends
ante diem quartum decimum Kalendas

a.d. XIII Kal.
a.d. XII Kal.
a.d. XI Kal. Mart.

20
a.d. XIII Kal.
The 13th Day before the Kalends
ante diem tertium decimum Kalendas

a.d. XII Kal.
a.d. XI Kal.
a.d. X Kal. Mart.

21
a.d. XII Kal.
The 12th Day before the Kalends
ante diem duodecimum Kalendas

a.d. XI Kal.
a.d. X Kal.
a.d. IX Kal. Mart.

22
a.d. XI Kal.
The 11th Day before the Kalends
ante diem undecimum Kalendas

a.d. X Kal.
a.d. IX Kal.
a.d. VIII Kal. Mart.

23
a.d. X Kal.
The 10th Day before the Kalends
ante diem decimum Kalendas

a.d. IX Kal.
a.d. VIII Kal.
a.d. VII Kal. Mart.

24
a.d. IX Kal.
The 9th Day before the Kalends
ante diem nonum Kalendas

a.d. VIII Kal.
a.d. VII Kal.
a.d. VI Kal. Mart.[l]

25
a.d. VIII Kal.
The 8th Day before the Kalends
ante diem octavum Kalendas

a.d. VII Kal.
a.d. VI Kal.
a.d. V Kal. Mart.

26
a.d. VII Kal.
The 7th Day before the Kalends
ante diem septimum Kalendas

a.d. VI Kal.
a.d. V Kal.
a.d. IV Kal. Mart.

27
a.d. VI Kal.
The 6th Day before the Kalends
ante diem sextum Kalendas

a.d. V Kal.
a.d. IV Kal.
a.d. III Kal. Mart.

28
a.d. V Kal.
The 5th Day before the Kalends
ante diem quintum Kalendas

a.d. IV Kal.
a.d. III Kal.
Prid. Kal. Mart.

29
a.d. IV Kal.
The 4th Day before the Kalends
ante diem quartum Kalendas

a.d. III Kal.
Prid. Kal.

30
a.d. III Kal.
The 3rd Day before the Kalends
ante diem tertium Kalendas

Prid. Kal.

31
Prid. Kal.
On the Day Before the Kalends
Pridie Kalendas

text: Dates after the ides count forward to the kalends of the next month and are expressed as such. For example, March 19 was expressed as "the 14th day before the April Kalends" (a.d. XIV Kal. Apr.), without a mention of March itself. The day after a kalends, nones, or ides was also often expressed as the "day after" (postridie) owing to their special status as particularly unlucky "black days".

text: The anomalous status of the new 31-day months under the Julian calendar was an effect of Caesar's desire to avoid affecting the festivals tied to the nones and ides of various months, because the dates at the ends of the month all counted forward to the next kalends, however, they were all shifted by one or two days by the change. This created confusion with regard to certain anniversaries. For instance, Augustus's birthday on the 23rd day of September was a.d. VIII Kal. Oct. in the old calendar but a.d. IX Kal. Oct. under the new system. The ambiguity caused honorary festivals to be held on either or both dates.

text: Intercalation[edit]

text: The Republican calendar only had 355 days, which meant that it would quickly unsynchronize from the solar year, causing, for example, agricultural festivals to occur out of season. The Roman solution to this problem was to periodically lengthen the calendar by adding extra days within February. February was broken into two parts, each with an odd number of days. The first part ended with the Terminalia on the 23rd (a.d. VII Kal. Mart.), which was considered the end of the religious year; the five remaining days beginning with the Regifugium on the 24th (a.d. VI Kal. Mart.) formed the second part; and the intercalary month Mercedonius was inserted between them. In such years, the days between the ides and the Regifugium were counted down to either the Intercalary Kalends or to the Terminalia. The intercalary month counted down to nones and ides on its 5th and 13th day in the manner of the other short months. The remaining days of the month counted down towards the March Kalends, so that the end of Mercedonius and the second part of February were indistinguishable to the Romans, one ending on a.d. VII Kal. Mart. and the other picking up at a.d. VI Kal. Mart. and bearing the normal festivals of such dates.

text: Apparently because of the confusion of these changes or uncertainty as to whether an intercalary month would be ordered, dates after the February ides are attested as sometimes counting down towards the Quirinalia (Feb. 17), the Feralia (Feb. 21), or Terminalia (Feb. 23)[58] rather than the intercalary or March kalends.

text: The third-century writer Censorinus says:

text: When it was thought necessary to add (every two years) an intercalary month of 22 or 23 days, so that the civil year should correspond to the natural (solar) year, this intercalation was in preference made in February, between Terminalia [23rd] and Regifugium [24th].[59]

text: The fifth-century writer Macrobius says that the Romans intercalated 22 and 23 days in alternate years (Saturnalia, 1.13.12); the intercalation was placed after 23 February and the remaining five days of February followed (Saturnalia, 1.13.15). To avoid the nones falling on a nundine, where necessary an intercalary day was inserted "in the middle of the Terminalia, where they placed the intercalary month".[60]

text: This is historically correct. In 167 BC Intercalaris began on the day after 23 February [61] and in 170 BC it began on the second day after 23 February.[62] Varro, writing in the first century BC, says "the twelfth month was February, and when intercalations take place the five last days of this month are removed."[63] Since all the days after the Ides of Intercalaris were counted down to the beginning of March Intercalaris had either 27 days (making 377 for the year) or 28 (making 378 for the year).

text: There is another theory which says that in intercalary years February had 23 or 24 days and Intercalaris had 27. No date is offered for the Regifugium in 378-day years.[64] Macrobius describes a further refinement whereby, in one 8-year period within a 24-year cycle, there were only three intercalary years, each of 377 days. This refinement brings the calendar back in line with the seasons, and averages the length of the year to 365.25 days over 24 years.

text: The Pontifex Maximus determined when an intercalary month was to be inserted. On average, this happened in alternate years. The system of aligning the year through intercalary months broke down at least twice: the first time was during and after the Second Punic War. It led to the reform of the 191 BC Acilian Law on Intercalation, the details of which are unclear, but it appears to have successfully regulated intercalation for over a century. The second breakdown was in the middle of the first century BC and may have been related to the increasingly chaotic and adversarial nature of Roman politics at the time. The position of Pontifex Maximus was not a full-time job; it was held by a member of the Roman elite, who would almost invariably be involved in the machinations of Roman politics. Because the term of office of elected Roman magistrates was defined in terms of a Roman calendar year, a Pontifex Maximus would have reason to lengthen a year in which he or his allies were in power or shorten a year in which his political opponents held office.

text: Although there are many stories to interpret the intercalation, a period of 22 or 23 days is always ¾ synodic month. Obviously, the month beginning shifts forward (from the new moon, to the third quarter, to the full moon, to the first quarter, back the new moon) after intercalation.

text: Years[edit]

text: As mentioned above, Rome's legendary 10-month calendar notionally lasted for 304 days but was usually thought to make up the rest of the solar year during an unorganized winter period. The unattested but almost certain lunar year and the pre-Julian civil year were 354 or 355 days long, with the difference from the solar year more or less corrected by an irregular intercalary month. The Julian year was 365 days long, with a leap day doubled in length every fourth year, almost equivalent to the present Gregorian system.

text: The calendar era before and under the Roman kings is uncertain but dating by regnal years was common in antiquity. Under the Roman Republic, from 509 BC, years were most commonly described in terms of their reigning ordinary consuls.[29] (Temporary and honorary consuls were sometimes elected or appointed but were not used in dating.)[29] Consular lists were displayed on the public calendars. After the institution of the Roman Empire, regnal dates based on the emperors' terms in office became more common. Some historians of the later republic and early imperial eras dated from the legendary founding of the city of Rome (ab urbe condita or AVC).[29] Varro's date for this was 753 BC but other writers used different dates, varying by several decades.[citation needed] Such dating was, however, never widespread. After the consuls waned in importance, most Roman dating was regnal[66] or followed Diocletian's 15-year Indiction tax cycle.[29] These cycles were not distinguished, however, so that "year 2 of the indiction" may refer to any of 298, 313, 328, &c.[29] The Orthodox subjects of the Byzantine Empire used various Christian eras, including those based on Diocletian's persecutions, Christ's incarnation, and the supposed age of the world.

text: The Romans did not have records of their early calendars but, like modern historians, assumed the year originally began in March on the basis of the names of the months following June. The consul M. Fulvius Nobilior (r. 189 BC) wrote a commentary on the calendar at the Temple of Hercules Musarum that claimed January had been named for Janus because the god faced both ways,[67][where?] suggesting it had been instituted as a first month.[citation needed] It was, however, usually said to have been instituted along with February, whose nature and festivals suggest it had originally been considered the last month of the year. The consuls' term of office—and thus the order of the years under the republic—seems to have changed several times. Their inaugurations were finally moved to 1 January (Kal. Ian.) in 153 BC to allow Q. Fulvius Nobilior to attack Segeda in Spain during the Celtiberian Wars, before which they had occurred on 15 March (Eid. Mart.).[68] There is reason to believe the inauguration date had been 1 May during the 3rd century BC until 222 BC[citation needed] and Livy mentions earlier inaugurations on 15 May (Eid. Mai.), 1 July (Kal. Qui.), 1 August (Kal. Sex.), 1 October (Kal. Oct.), and 15 December (Eid. Dec.).[69][where?] Under the Julian calendar, the year began on 1 January but years of the Indiction cycle began on 1 September.

text: In addition Egypt's separate calendar, some provinces maintained their records using a local era.[29] Africa dated its records sequentially from 39 BC;[66] Spain from AD 38.[citation needed] This dating system continued as the Spanish era used in medieval Spain.[citation needed]

text: Conversion to Julian or Gregorian dates[edit]

text: The continuity of names from the Roman to the Gregorian calendar can lead to the mistaken belief that Roman dates correspond to Julian or Gregorian ones. In fact, the essentially complete list of Roman consuls allows general certainty of years back to the establishment of the republic but the uncertainty as to the end of lunar dating and the irregularity of Roman intercalation means that dates which can be independently verified are invariably weeks to months outside of their "proper" place. Two astronomical events dated by Livy show the calendar 4 months out of alignment with the Julian date in 190 BC and 2 months out of alignment in 168 BC. Thus, "the year of the consulship of Publius Cornelius Sciopio Africanus and Publius Licinius Crassus" (usually given as "205 BC") actually began on 15 March 205 BC and ended on 14 March 204 BC according to the Roman calendar but may have begun as early as November or December 206 BC owing to its misalignment. Even following the establishment of the Julian calendar, the leap years were not applied correctly by the Roman priests, meaning dates are a few days out of their "proper" place until a few decades into Augustus's reign.

text: Given the paucity of records regarding the state of the calendar and its intercalation, historians have reconstructed the correspondence of Roman dates to their Julian and Gregorian equivalents from disparate sources. There are detailed accounts of the decades leading up to the Julian reform, particularly the speeches and letters of Cicero, which permit an established chronology back to about 58 BC. The nundinal cycle and a few known synchronisms—e.g., a Roman date in terms of the Attic calendar and Olympiad—are used to generate contested chronologies back to the start of the First Punic War in 264 BC. Beyond that, dates are roughly known based on clues such as the dates of harvests and seasonal religious festivals.


document_title: Little House on the Prairie

question_text: where is walnut grove in little house on the prairie

question_tokens: where is walnut grove in little house on the prairie

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text: Little House on the Prairie

text: History[edit]

text: The Little House series is based on decades-old memories of Laura Ingalls Wilder's childhood in the northern Midwest region of the United States late in the 19th century. The books are narrated in the third person with Laura Ingalls as the central character and protagonist, and are generally classified as fiction rather than as autobiography in libraries and bookstores.[1] Wilder's daughter Rose Wilder Lane assisted her mother with the editing of the works. The depth of her involvement, and the extent of her influence on the theme and content of the books, has been the subject of some scholarly debate in recent years. Almost all Wilder scholars and her biographers consider that the writing of the books was a tense but ultimately effective continuing collaboration between mother and daughter, with Wilder writing the books and her daughter editing them.

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text: The original Little House books have remained continuously in print since their publication in the 1930s and early 1940s by Harper & Brothers (succeeded by Harper & Row and HarperCollins). They are considered classics of American children's literature and remain widely read. In a 2012 survey published by School Library Journal, a monthly with primarily U.S. audience, Little House in the Big Woods was ranked number 19 among all-time best children's novels, and two of its sequels were ranked among the top 100.[2]

text: The eight children's novels were originally illustrated primarily by Helen Sewell, with Mildred Boyle co-illustrator for the last five of them. Those five were all among the annual Newbery Medal runners-up (now called Newbery Honor Books). In 1953 Harper issued a complete set re-illustrated by Garth Williams, who also illustrated The First Four Years (1971). Modern editions generally retain the Williams illustrations.

text: The books have been adapted for stage or screen more than once, most successfully as the American television series Little House on the Prairie, which ran from 1974 to 1983.

text: Books[edit]

text:
Little House in the Big Woods (1932)
Farmer Boy (1933) – about her husband's childhood on a farm in New York
Little House on the Prairie (1935)
On the Banks of Plum Creek (1937)
By the Shores of Silver Lake (1939)
The Long Winter (1940)
Little Town on the Prairie (1941)
These Happy Golden Years (1943)

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text: The first eight novels were published by Harper with cover illustrations by Helen Sewell and interior illustrations by Sewell or by Sewell and Mildred Boyle. The last concluded with a note, "The end of the Little house books."[3] In 1953, the eight were reissued in a "newly illustrated, uniform edition" with cover and interior illustrations by Garth Williams, which later editions have commonly retained. The eight Little House books published during the author's lifetime are now public domain in countries where the term of copyright lasts 50 years after the death of the author, or less. The books first published posthumously are not covered by this rule.

text: The First Four Years (1971), unedited and published posthumously, perhaps intended as a book in the series or a novel for adults; Ingalls Wilder never developed the manuscript beyond a first draft, and her ultimate intent is not known

text: The ninth novel, unfinished and published posthumously, is commonly considered part of the Little House series and is included in the 9-volume paperback box set Little House, Big Adventure (Harper Trophy, May 1994).[1][a] The nine alone are summarized in the subsections below.

text:
On the Way Home (1962), published posthumously original diary from a trip from De Smet to Mansfield in 1894
West From Home (1974), unedited and published posthumously
The Road Back (2006), unedited and published posthumously as a part of A Little House Traveler: Writings from Laura Ingalls Wilder's Journeys Across America

text: The success of the Little House series has resulted in two series ("Little House Chapter Books" and "My First Little House Books") that present the original stories in condensed and simplified form for younger readers. Other titles include sticker and craft books, cookbooks, diaries, calendars, dishes, and so on.

text: Four series of books expand the Little House series to include five generations of Laura Ingalls Wilder's family. The "Martha Years" and "Charlotte Years" series, by Melissa Wiley, are fictionalized tales of Laura's great-grandmother in Scotland in the late 18th century and grandmother in early 19th century Massachusetts. The "Caroline Years" series narrates Laura's mother, Caroline Quiner's, childhood in Wisconsin. The Rose Years (originally known as the "Rocky Ridge Years") series follows Rose Wilder Lane from childhood in Missouri to early adulthood in San Francisco. It was written by her surrogate grandson Roger MacBride. Lane's novels, Let the Hurricane Roar (also known as Young Pioneers) and Free Land can be seen as re-tellings of the Little House books from an adult perspective, as many of the incidents in both books mirror the experiences of her parents and grandparents. In fact, "Young Pioneers"'s main characters are even named Charles and Caroline, the names of Laura's parents.

text: Noted children's author Cynthia Rylant has written a slender volume, Old Town in the Green Groves, that covers the two years in Laura's life between On The Banks of Plum Creek and By The Shores of Silver Lake which are unnarrated in the original series of books. Two volumes of Laura's letters and diaries have also been issued under the Little House imprint: On The Way Home and West From Home, both published by Harper Collins in 1962 and 1974 respectively.

text: The series The Days of Laura Ingalls Wilder by Thomas L. Tedrow, offers tales of Laura's early adulthood in Missouri; unlike the core Little House books, the Tedrow series is not drawn from episodes in Wilder's life.[citation needed] In 2011 Wendy McClure published The Wilder Life: My Adventures in The Lost World of Little House on the Prairie. McClure describes in detail her personal journey into what she calls "Laura World": visiting the locations mentioned in the original books, attempting to buy a butter churn on eBay so she can experience making butter the way Laura and Ma did, and her internet research into anyone or anything remotely connected with the Ingalls family. McClure brings her somewhat reluctant boyfriend Chris with her on her journeys.

text: Little House in the Big Woods[edit]

text: The story of the first book in the series, Little House in the Big Woods revolves around the life of the Ingalls family in their small home near Pepin, Wisconsin. The family includes mother Caroline Ingalls, father Charles Ingalls, elder daughter Mary Amelia Ingalls, and younger daughter (and protagonist), Laura Ingalls Wilder.[6] Also in the story, though not yet born historically, is Laura's baby sister Carrie. In the book, Laura herself turns five years old, when the real-life author had only been three during the events of the book. According to a letter from her daughter, Rose, to biographer William Anderson, the publisher had Laura change her age in the book because it seemed unrealistic for a three-year-old to have specific memories such as she wrote about.[7] For similar reasons and for the sake of consistency, in the later book, Little House on the Prairie, Laura portrayed herself as 6–7 years old.

text: Little House in the Big Woods describes the homesteading skills Laura observed and began to practice during her fifth year. The cousins come for Christmas that year, and Laura receives a doll, which she names Charlotte. Later that winter, the family goes to Grandma Ingalls’s and has a “sugaring off,” when they harvest sap and make maple syrup. They return home with buckets of syrup, enough to last the year. Laura remembered that sugaring off, and the dance that followed, for the rest of her life.

text: The book also describes other farm work duties and events, such as the birth of a calf, and the availability of milk, butter and cheese, gardening, field work, hunting, gathering, and more. Everyday housework is also described in detail. When Pa went into the woods to hunt, he usually came home with a deer then smoked the meat for the coming winter. One day he noticed a bee tree and returned from hunting early to get the wash tub and milk pail to collect the honey. When Pa returned in the winter evenings, Laura and Mary always begged him to play his fiddle, as he was too tired from farm work to play during the summertime.

text: Farmer Boy[edit]

text: This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (September 2015)

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text: Farmer Boy, published in 1933, is the second-published of the Little House books and it is commonly numbered two in the series, but its story is unrelated to that of the inaugural novel, Little House in the Big Woods. It features the boyhood of Laura's future husband Almanzo Wilder from before his ninth birthday until after his tenth. The Wilder family – in the novel as in fact – lived in New York state. In the book, Almanzo has two sisters, Eliza Jane and Alice, and one brother, Royal. In reality, he had a sister named Laura, but she was left out of the book. The book describes his schooling, holidays, farm work, and most of all, food.

text: Little House on the Prairie[edit]

text: Little House on the Prairie, published in 1935, is the third book in the Little House series but only the second that features the Ingalls family; it continues directly the story of the inaugural novel, Little House in the Big Woods. The book takes place from 1869 to 1870.[citation needed]

text: The book tells about the months the Ingalls family spent on the prairie of Kansas, around the town of Independence, Kansas. At the beginning of this story, Pa Ingalls decides to sell the house in the Big Woods of Wisconsin, and move the family, via covered wagon to the Indian Territory near Independence, Kansas, as there were widely circulating stories that the land (technically still under Osage ownership) would be opened to settlement by homesteaders imminently. So Laura, along with Pa and Ma, Mary, and baby Carrie, move to Kansas. Along the way, Pa trades his two horses for two Western mustangs, which Laura and Mary name Pet and Patty.

text: When the family reaches Indian Territory, they meet Mr. Edwards, who is extremely polite to Ma, but tells Laura and Mary that he is "a wildcat from Tennessee." Mr. Edwards is an excellent neighbor, and helps the Ingalls in every way he can, beginning with helping Pa erect their house. Pa builds a roof and a floor for their house and digs a well, and the family is finally settled.

text: At their new home, unlike their time in the Big Woods, the family meets difficulty and danger. The Ingalls family becomes terribly ill from a disease called at that time "fever 'n' ague" (fever with severe chills and shaking) which was later identified as malaria. Laura comments on the varied ways they believe to have acquired it, with "Ma" believing it came from eating bad watermelon. Mrs. Scott, another neighbor, takes care of the family while they are sick. Around this time, Mr. Edwards brings Laura and Mary their Christmas presents from Independence, and in the spring, the Ingalls plant the beginnings of a small farm.

text: Irony also becomes a part of this book. Ma's prejudice about American Indians, and Laura's childish observations of them, are contrasted with Pa's more egalitarian view of them, and these views collectively are shown side by side with the objective portrayal of the Osage tribe that lives on and owns that land.

text: At the end of this book, the family is told that the land must be vacated by settlers as it is not legally open to settlement yet, and in 1870 Pa elects to leave the land and move before the Army forcibly requires him to abandon the land.

text: Many of the incidents in the book are actual situations that happened to the Ingalls family at that time in their lives as told to Laura by her Pa, Ma and sister Mary over the years. Because Laura was, in fact, 2 to 3½ years old while her family lived in Indian Territory during 1869–1870, and did not remember the incidents herself, Laura did more historical research on this novel than on any other novel she wrote, in an attempt to have all details as correct as possible.

text: On the Banks of Plum Creek[edit]

text: On the Banks of Plum Creek, published in 1937 and fourth in the series, follows the Ingalls family as they move from Pepin, Wisconsin to Kansas to an area near Walnut Grove, Minnesota, and settle in a dugout "on the banks of Plum Creek (Redwood County, Minnesota)".[8] In reality, the occurrences and anecdotes in the first book Little House on the Prairie took place after their return from Indian Territory. The Ingalls family left for their journey to Minnesota on Laura's seventh birthday, February 7, 1874. In this book, Laura is between the ages of seven to nine years old, which was chronologically correct.

text: During the course of the story, Jack, the family bulldog, moves with the family to Plum Creek, though in real life he did not make the journey with the family. Readers liked Jack so much that Laura decided to include him in this book.

text: Pa trades his horses Pet and Patty to the property owner (a man named Hanson) for the land and crops, but later gets two new horses as Christmas presents for the family, which Laura and her sister Mary name "Sam" and "David". Pa soon builds a new, above-ground, wooden house for the family. During this story, Laura and Mary go to school for the first time in Walnut Grove (the town is never actually named by Laura in the book) where they meet their teacher, Miss Eva Beadle. They also meet Nellie Oleson, who makes fun of Laura and Mary for being "country girls." Laura plays with her bulldog Jack when she is home, and she and Mary are invited to a party at the Olesons' home. Laura and Mary invite all the girls (including Nellie) to a party at their house to reciprocate. The family soon goes through hard times when a plague of Rocky Mountain Locust decimates their crops. The book ends with Pa returning safely to the house after being unaccounted for during a severe four-day blizzard.

text: By the Shores of Silver Lake[edit]

text: By the Shores of Silver Lake, published in 1939 and fifth in the series, is based on Laura's late childhood spent near De Smet, South Dakota, beginning in 1879. The book also introduces Laura's youngest sister Grace Pearl.

text: The story begins when the family is about to leave Plum Creek, shortly after the family has recovered from the scarlet fever which caused Mary to become blind. The family welcomes a visit from Aunt Docia, whom they had not seen for several years. She suggests that Pa and Ma move west to the rapidly developing Dakota Territory, where Pa could work in Uncle Henry’s railroad camp at very good wages for that era. Ma and Pa agree, since it will allow Pa to look for a homestead while he works. The family has endured many hardships on Plum Creek and Pa especially is anxious for a new start. After selling his land and farm to neighbors, Pa goes ahead with the wagon and team. Mary is still too weak to travel so the rest of the family follows later by train.

text: The day Pa leaves, however, their beloved bulldog Jack is found dead, which saddens Laura greatly. In actuality, the dog upon whom Jack was based was no longer with the family at this point, but the author inserted his death here to serve as a transition between her childhood and her adolescence. Laura also begins to play a more mature role in the family due to Mary's blindness – Pa instructs Laura to "be Mary's eyes" and to assist her in daily life as she learns to cope with her disability. Mary is strong and willing to learn.

text: The family travels to Dakota Territory by train – this is the children's first train trip and they are excited by the novelty of this new mode of transportation that allows them to travel in one hour the distance it would take a horse and wagon an entire day to cover.

text: With the family reunited and situated at the railroad camp, Laura meets her cousin Lena, and the two become good friends.

text: As winter approaches, and the railroad workers take down the cabins and head back East, the family wonders where they might stay for the winter. As luck would have it, the county surveyor needs a house-sitter while he is East for the winter, and Pa signs up. It is a winter of luxury for the Ingalls family as they are given all the provisions they need in the large, comfortable house. They spend a cozy winter with their new friends, Mr. and Mrs. Boast, and both families look forward to starting their new claims in the spring.

text: But the "Spring Rush" comes early. The large mobilization of pioneers to the Dakotas in early March prompts Pa to leave immediately on the few days' trip to the claims office. The girls are left alone and spend their days and nights boarding and feeding all the pioneers passing through. They charge 25 cents for dinner and boarding, starting a savings account toward sending Mary to the School for the Blind in Vinton, Iowa (she does go two books later).

text: Pa successfully files his claim, with the aid of old friend Mr. Edwards. As the spring flowers bloom and the prairie comes alive with new settlers, the Ingalls family moves to their new piece of land and begins building what will become their permanent home.

text: The Long Winter[edit]

text: The Long Winter, published in 1940 and sixth in the series, covers the shortest timespan of the novels, only an eight-month period. The winter of 1880–1881 was a notably severe winter in history, sometimes known as "The Snow Winter".[9][10][11]

text: The story begins in Dakota Territory at the Ingalls homestead in South Dakota on a hot September day in 1880 as Laura and her father ("Pa") are haying. Pa tells Laura that he knows the winter is going to be hard because muskrats always build a house with thick walls before a hard winter, and this year, they have built the thickest walls he has ever seen. In mid-October, the Ingalls wake with an unusually early blizzard howling around their poorly insulated claim shanty. Soon afterward, Pa receives another warning from an unexpected source: a dignified old Native American man comes to the general store in town to warn the white settlers that there will be seven months of blizzards. Impressed, Pa decides to move the family into town for the winter.

text: Laura attends school with her younger sister, Carrie until the weather becomes too severe to permit them to walk to and from the school building. Blizzard after blizzard sweeps through the town over the next few months. Food and fuel become scarce and expensive, as the town depends on the trains to bring supplies but the frequent blizzards prevent the trains from getting through. Eventually, the railroad company suspends all efforts to dig out the train, stranding the town. For weeks, the Ingalls subsist on potatoes and coarse brown bread, using twisted hay for fuel. As even this meager food runs out, Laura's future husband Almanzo Wilder and his friend Cap Garland risk their lives to bring wheat to the starving townspeople – enough to last the rest of the winter.

text: Laura's age in this book is also accurate. (In 1880, she would have been 13, as she states in the first chapter.) However, Almanzo Wilder's age is misrepresented in this book. Much is made of the fact that he is 19 pretending to be 21 in order to illegally obtain a homestead claim from the US government. But in 1880, his true age would have been 23. Scholar Ann Romines has suggested that Laura made Almanzo younger because it was felt that more modern audiences would be scandalized by the great difference in their ages in light of their young marriage.

text: As predicted, the blizzards continue for seven months. Finally, the trains begin running again, bringing the Ingalls a Christmas barrel full of good things – including a turkey. In the last chapter, they sit down to enjoy their Christmas dinner in May.

text: Little Town on the Prairie[edit]

text: Little Town on the Prairie, published in 1941 and seventh in the series, begins in 1881, just after the long winter, and is largely set in De Smet, South Dakota. Laura is 14 years old.

text: The story begins as Laura accepts her first job performing sewing work in order to earn money for Mary to go to a college for the blind in Iowa. Laura's hard work comes to an end by summer when she is let go, and the family begins planning to raise cash crops to pay for Mary's college. After the crops are destroyed by blackbirds, Pa sells a calf to earn the balance of the money needed. When Ma and Pa escort Mary to the college, Laura, Carrie, and Grace are left alone for a week. In order to stave off the loneliness stemming from Mary's departure, Laura, Carrie, and Grace do the fall cleaning. They have several problems, but the house is sparkling when they are done. Ma and Pa come home, and are truly surprised.

text: In the fall, the Ingalls quickly prepare for a move to town for the winter. Laura and Carrie attend school in town and Laura is reunited with her friends Minnie Johnson and Mary Power and meets a new girl, Ida Brown. There is a new schoolteacher for the winter term: Eliza Jane Wilder, Almanzo’s sister. Nellie Oleson, Laura's nemesis from Plum Creek, has moved to De Smet and is attending the school. Nellie turns the teacher against Laura and Miss Wilder loses control of the school for a time. A visit by the school board restores order; however, Miss Wilder leaves at the end of the fall term, and is eventually replaced by Mr. Clewett and then Mr. Owen, the latter of whom befriends Laura. Through the course of the winter, Laura sets herself to studying, as she only has one year left before she can apply for a teaching certificate.

text: At the same time, Almanzo Wilder begins escorting Laura home from church. By Christmastime, Almanzo once again sees Laura home, and offers to take her on a sleigh ride after he completes the cutter he is building.

text: At home, Laura is met by Mr. Boast and Mr. Brewster, who ask Laura if she would be interested in a teaching position at a settlement led by Brewster twelve miles (19 km) from town. The school superintendent, George Williams, comes and tests Laura (though she is two months too young, he never asks her age), and she is awarded a third-grade teaching certificate.

text: These Happy Golden Years[edit]

text: These Happy Golden Years, published in 1943 and eighth in the series, originally ended with a note alone on the last page: "The end of the Little house books."[3] It takes place between 1882 and 1885. As the story begins, Pa is taking Laura 12 miles (19 km) from home to her first teaching assignment at Brewster settlement. Laura, only 15 and a schoolgirl herself, is apprehensive as this is both the first time she has left home and the first school she has taught. She is determined to complete her assignment and earn $40 to help her sister Mary, who is attending Vinton College for the Blind in Iowa.

text: This first school proves difficult for her. Laura must board with the Brewsters in their two-room claim shanty, sleeping on their sofa. The Brewsters are an unhappy family and Laura is deeply uncomfortable observing the way husband and wife quarrel. In one particularly unsettling incident, she wakes in the night to see Mrs Brewster standing over her husband with a knife. It's a bitterly cold winter, and neither the claim shanty or the school house can be heated adequately. The children she is teaching, some of whom are older than she is herself, test her skills as a teacher. Laura grows more self-assured through the term, and successfully completes the two-month term.

text: To Laura's surprise and delight, homesteader Almanzo Wilder (with whom she became acquainted in Little Town on the Prairie) appears at the end of her first week of school in his new two-horse cutter to bring her home for the weekend. Already fond of Laura and wanting to ease her homesickness, Almanzo takes it upon himself to bring her home and back to school each weekend.

text: The relationship continues after the school term ends. Sleigh rides give way to buggy rides in the spring, and Laura impresses Almanzo with her willingness to help break his new and often temperamental horses. Laura's old nemesis, Nellie Oleson, makes a brief appearance during two Sunday buggy rides with Almanzo. Nellie's chatter and flirtatious behavior towards Almanzo annoys Laura. Shortly thereafter, Nellie moves back to New York after her family loses their homestead.

text: Laura's Uncle Tom (Ma's brother) visits the family and tells of his failed venture with a covered wagon brigade seeking gold in the Black Hills. Laura helps out seamstress Mrs. McKee by staying with her and her daughter on their prairie claim for two months to "hold it down" as required by law. The family enjoys summer visits from Mary.

text: The family finances have improved to the point that Pa can sell a cow to purchase a sewing machine for Ma. Laura continues to teach and work as a seamstress.

text: Almanzo invites Laura to attend summer "singing school" with him and her classmates. On the last evening of singing school while driving Laura home, Almanzo – who has by now been courting Laura for three years – proposes to Laura. During their next ride, Almanzo presents Laura with a garnet-and-pearl ring and they share their first kiss.

text: Several months later, after Almanzo has finished building a house on his tree claim, he asks Laura if she would mind getting married within a few days as his sister and mother have their hearts set on a large church wedding, which Pa cannot afford. Laura agrees, and she and Almanzo are married in a simple ceremony by the Reverend Brown. After a wedding dinner with her family, Laura drives away with Almanzo and the newlyweds settle contentedly into their new home.

text: The First Four Years[edit]

text: The First Four Years, published in 1971, is commonly considered the ninth and last book in the original Little House series. It is the last one[clarification needed] to feature Laura as the protagonist, and covers the earliest years of Laura and Almanzo's marriage.

text: The First Four Years derives its title from a promise Laura made to Almanzo when they became engaged. Laura did not want to be a farm wife, but she consented to try farming for three years. At the end of that time, Laura and Almanzo mutually agreed to continue for one more year, a "year of grace", in Laura's words. The book ends at the close of that fourth year, on a rather optimistic note. In reality, the continually hot, dry Dakota summers, and several other tragic events described in the book eventually drove them from their land, but they later founded a very successful fruit and dairy farm in Missouri, where they lived comfortably until their respective deaths.

text: Little House locations and historical sites[edit]

text: Laura's birthplace in Wisconsin[edit]

text: Pepin, Wisconsin was Wilder's birthplace. Her birthplace is about seven miles (11 km) north of the village, and is marked by a replica cabin along the former WIS-183 at the Little House Wayside (near Lund, Wisconsin). Pepin celebrates her life every September with traditional music, craft demonstrations, a "Laura look-alike" contest, a spelling bee, and other events.

text: Independence, Kansas[edit]

text: Independence, Kansas is the location where the Ingalls family settled on the Osage Diminished Reserve from 1869 to 1870, and was at the center of the plot of the book, Little House on the Prairie. Within a year of settling, the government required the family to vacate, and they never returned.

text: Laura had always heard from her family that the home was "40 miles [64 km] from Independence," which would have put the house approximately where the town of Nowata, Oklahoma, is today. It was, in fact, about 13 miles (21 km) from Independence, not 40 miles (64 km), though the surveying techniques of the day would in fact have measured it as being 14 miles (23 km). The reason for this rather large discrepancy is not known, although she may have misheard or mis-remembered "14 miles" as "40 miles".

text: The actual site of the Charles Ingalls house on Indian land was located in what is now the southeast corner of Section 36, Rutland Township, Montgomery County, Kansas. It is the only quarter section in that area with no claim filed in 1870 (no claims could be filed until 1871, and the Ingallses had returned to Wisconsin by then) and it is the only quarter section with a hand-dug well (which Pa told of digging shortly after their arrival there). Carrie Ingalls' birth is also recorded as being in Montgomery County, Kansas in August 1870. Today there is a facsimile log cabin at the site.

text: The state of Kansas has designated the childhood home of Laura Ingalls southwest of Independence as an historic site, which is open to visitors. The site includes a cabin modeled after the original Ingalls cabin. Sunnyside School House has been moved to the site and the original post office used at near by Wayside, Kansas has also been moved to the location. Much of the surrounding countryside retains its open and undeveloped nature.[12]

text: Walnut Grove, Minnesota[edit]

text: In 1874, when Wilder was seven years old, the family left their home near Pepin for the second time and settled just outside Walnut Grove, Minnesota. Walnut Grove may be the most recognized name of all the towns Wilder wrote about in her books (although it is the only town she did not mention by name) because Michael Landon's television series Little House on the Prairie of the 1970s and 1980s was set here. Although the show depicts the family as living here through Wilder's adulthood, in reality, they only lived here a few years.

text: Burr Oak, Iowa[edit]

text: The Ingalls family moved to Burr Oak, Iowa briefly in 1876 so that Pa could take a job co-managing The Masters' Hotel. They would stay for only one year before returning to Walnut Grove, and the family's time in Burr Oak was never mentioned in any of the "Little House" books. In 1976 the restored Hotel was opened as a museum.[13]

text: De Smet, South Dakota[edit]

text: De Smet, South Dakota, attracts many fans with its historic sites from the books By the Shores of Silver Lake, The Long Winter, Little Town on the Prairie, These Happy Golden Years, and The First Four Years. The Ingalls family moved to De Smet from Minnesota in 1879, and most members of the family lived there (or nearby) for the rest of their lives. Locations in the area that have been restored and are open to visitors include: the Surveyors' House, where the family stayed during the winter of 1879–80 (the house was moved into town in 1885 from its original location on Silver Lake); the Ingalls Homestead southeast of town; a replica of the Brewster School, where Wilder taught as a teenager; and a house on Third Street built by Charles Ingalls in 1887 (Wilder herself never lived there, as she was already married when the house was built). Charles, Caroline, Mary, Carrie, and Grace Ingalls, and the unnamed infant son of Laura and Almanzo Wilder are buried in the De Smet Cemetery. Laura and Almanzo Wilder stayed briefly in Westville, Florida, in the 1890s, and they moved permanently to Mansfield, Missouri, in 1894.

text: Mansfield, Missouri[edit]

text: Mansfield, Missouri is the chosen final home town of Laura Ingalls Wilder. It was here, on her farm, that she wrote the Little House books. Each year the whole town celebrates with a festival, turning back the clock to the late 19th century. During the festival, the town square becomes a showcase for handmade crafts. There is a big parade, and folk music is played from the gazebo in the park.

text: Television adaptations[edit]

text: Jackanory (1966, 1968)[edit]

text: Jackanory is a British television series intended to encourage children to read; it ran from 1965 to 1996, and was revived in 2006. From October 24 through October 28, 1966, five short episodes aired that were based on Little House in the Big Woods, with Red Shively as the storyteller. From October 21 through October 25, 1968, five more were released, this time based on Farmer Boy, with Richard Monette as the storyteller.

text: Little House on the Prairie (TV series, 1974–1984)[edit]

text: The television series Little House on the Prairie aired on the NBC network from 1974 to 1983. The show was a loose adaptation of Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House on the Prairie semi-autobiographical novel series, although the namesake book was represented in the premiere only; the ensuing television episodes primarily followed characters and locations from the follow-up book, On the Banks of Plum Creek(1937), although the continuity of the television series greatly departed from this book as well. Some storylines were borrowed from Wilders' later books but were portrayed as having taken place in the Plum Creek setting. Michael Landon starred as Charles Ingalls, Karen Grassle played Caroline Ingalls, Melissa Gilbert played Laura Ingalls, Melissa Sue Anderson played Mary Ingalls, and the twins Lindsay and Sidney Greenbush (credited as Lindsay Sidney Greenbush) played Carrie Ingalls. Victor French portrayed long-time friend Mr. Edwards. Dean Butler portrayed Laura's husband, Almanzo Wilder. Some characters were added in the show, such as Albert, played by Matthew Laborteaux, an orphan whom the family adopted.

text: Although it deviated from the original books in many respects, the television series, which was set in Walnut Grove, Minnesota, was one of a few long-running successful dramatic family shows.[citation needed] It remained a top-rated series, and garnered 17 Emmy® and three Golden Globe® nominations, along with two People’s Choice® Awards.[14]

text: Laura, the Prairie Girl (animated series, 1975)[edit]

text: A Japanese cartoon series of 26 episodes (about 24 minutes each), originally entitled Sōgen no shōjo Laura.

text: Beyond the Prairie (2000, 2001)[edit]

text: Two made for television movies by Marcus Cole, with Meredith Monroe as Laura. Part 1 tells the story of teenage Laura in DeSmet, while the second part is about Laura and Almanzo's (Walton Goggins) marriage and their life in Mansfield, Missouri. It also focuses a lot on the character of Wilder's young daughter; Rose (Skye McCole Bartusiak).

text: Little House on the Prairie (2005 miniseries)[edit]

text: The 2005 ABC five-hour (six-episode) miniseries Little House on the Prairie attempted to follow closely the books Little House in the Big Woods and Little House on the Prairie. It starred Cameron Bancroft as Charles Ingalls; Erin Cottrell as Caroline Ingalls; Kyle Chavarria as Laura Ingalls; Danielle Chuchran as Mary Ingalls; and Gregory Sporleder as Mr Edwards. It was directed by David L. Cunningham. In 2006 the mini-series was released on DVD and the 2-disc set runs approximately 255 minutes long.[15]

text: Stage adaptation[edit]

text: A musical version of the Little House books premiered at the Guthrie Theater, Minnesota on July 26, 2008. The musical has music by Rachel Portman and lyrics by Donna DiNovelli and is directed by Francesca Zambello with choreography by Michele Lynch. The cast includes Melissa Gilbert as "Ma". The musical began a US national tour in October 2009.[16][17]

text: Documentary[edit]

text: Little House on the Prairie: The Legacy of Laura Ingalls Wilder is a one-hour documentary film that looks at the life of Wilder. Wilder's story as a writer, wife, and mother is explored through interviews with scholars and historians, archival photography, paintings by frontier artists, and dramatic reenactments.[citation needed]


question_text: what was the first month of the roman calendar

text: Roman calendar

text: History[edit]

text: Prehistoric lunar calendar[edit]

text: The original Roman calendar is believed to have been an observational lunar calendar[1] whose months began from the first signs of a new crescent moon. Because a lunar cycle is about 29 1⁄2 days long, such months would have varied between 29 and 30 days. Twelve such months would have fallen 10 or 11 days short of the solar year; without adjustment, such a year would have quickly rotated out of alignment with the seasons in the manner of the present-day Islamic calendar. Given the seasonal aspects of the later calendar and its associated religious festivals, this was presumably avoided through some form of intercalation or through the suspension of the calendar during winter.

text: Rome's 8-day week, the nundinal cycle, was shared with the Etruscans, who used it as the schedule of royal audiences. It was presumably a feature of the early calendar and was credited in Roman legend variously to Romulus and Servius Tullius.

text: Legendary 10-month calendar[edit]

text: The Romans themselves described their first organized year as one with ten fixed months, each of 30 or 31 days.[2][3] Such a decimal division fit general Roman practice.[4] The four 31-day months were called "full" (pleni) and the others "hollow" (cavi).[a][6] Its 304 days made up exactly 38 nundinal cycles. The system is usually said to have left the remaining 50-odd days of the year as an unorganized "winter", although Licinius Macer's lost history apparently stated the earliest Roman calendar employed intercalation instead[7][8] and Macrobius claims the 10-month calendar was allowed to shift until the summer and winter months were completely misplaced, at which time additional days belonging to no month were simply inserted into the calendar until it seemed things were restored to their proper place.[9][10]

text: Later Roman writers credited this calendar to Romulus,[11][12] their legendary first king and culture hero, although this was common with other practices and traditions whose origin had been lost to them. Some scholars doubt the existence of this calendar at all, as it is only attested in late Republican and Imperial sources and apparently supported only by the misplaced names of the months from September to December.[13] Rüpke also finds the coincidence of the length of the supposed "Romulan" year with the length of the first ten months of the Julian calendar to be suspicious.[clarification needed][13]

text:
"Calendar of Romulus"

English
Latin
Meaning
Length
in days
[2][3]

March
Mensis Martius
Month of Mars
31

April
Mensis Aprilis
Uncertain
30

May
Mensis Maius
Uncertain
31

June
Mensis Iunius
Month of Juno
30

Quintilis
Mensis Quintilis
Mensis Quinctilis[14]
Fifth Month
31

Sextilis
Mensis Sextilis
Sixth Month
30

September
Mensis September
Seventh Month
30

October
Mensis October
Eighth Month
31

November
Mensis November
Ninth Month
30

December
Mensis December
Tenth Month
30

—

(51)

text: Other traditions existed alongside this one, however. Plutarch's Parallel Lives recounts that Romulus's calendar had been solar but adhered to the general principle that the year should last for 360 days. Months were employed secondarily and haphazardly, with some counted as 20 days and others as 35 or more.[15][16]

text: Republican calendar[edit]

text: The attested calendar of the Roman Republic was quite different. It followed Greek calendars in assuming a lunar cycle of 29 1⁄2 days and a solar year of 12 1⁄2 synodic months (368 3⁄4 days), which align every fourth year after the addition of two intercalary months.[6] The additional two months of the year were January and February; the intercalary month was sometimes known as Mercedonius.[6]

text: The Romans did not follow the usual Greek practice in alternating 29- and 30-day months and a 29- or 30-day intercalary month every other year. Instead, their 3rd, 5th, 7th, and 10th months[b] had 31 days each; all the other months had 29 days except February, which had 28 days for three years and then 29 every fourth year. The total of these months over a 4-year span differed from the Greeks by 5 days, meaning the Roman intercalary month always had 27 days. Similarly, within each month, the weeks did not vary in the Greek fashion between 7 and 8 days; instead, the full months had two additional days in their first week and the other three weeks of every month ran for 8 days ("nine" by Roman reckoning).[17] Still more unusually, the intercalary month was not placed at the end of the year but within the month of February after the Terminalia on the 23rd (a.d. VII Kal. Mart.); the remaining days of February followed its completion. This seems to have arisen from Roman superstitions concerning the numbering and order of the months.[citation needed] The arrangement of the Roman calendar similarly seems to have arisen from Pythagorean superstitions concerning the luckiness of odd numbers.[17]

text: These Pythagorean-based changes to the Roman calendar were generally credited by the Romans to Numa Pompilius, Romulus's successor and the second of Rome's seven kings,[citation needed] as were the two new months of the calendar.[18][19][c] Most sources thought he had established intercalation with the rest of his calendar.[citation needed] Although Livy's Numa instituted a lunar calendar, the author claimed the king had instituted a 19-year system of intercalation equivalent to the Metonic Cycle[20] centuries before its development by Babylonian and Greek astronomers.[d] Plutarch's account claims he ended the former chaos of the calendar by employing 12 months totaling 354 days—the length of the lunar and Greek years—and biennial intercalary months of 22 days.[15][16]

text: Plutarch believed Numa was responsible for placing January and February first in the calendar;[15][16] Ovid states January began as the first month and February the last, with its present order owing to the Decemvirs.[22][23] W. Warde Fowler believed the Roman priests continued to treat January and February as the last months of the calendar throughout the Republican period.[24]

text:
Pre-Julian Roman calendar

English
Latin
Meaning
Length
in days
[25][26][15][16]

January
Mensis Ianuarius
Month of Janus
29

February
Mensis Februarius
Month of the Februa
28

Mercedonius
Intercalary Month
Mercedonius
Mensis Intercalaris
Month of Wages
23

March
Mensis Martius
Month of Mars
31

April
Mensis Aprilis
Uncertain
29

May
Mensis Maius
Uncertain
31

June
Mensis Iunius
Month of Juno
29

Quintilis
Mensis Quintilis
Mensis Quinctilis[14]
Fifth Month
31

Sextilis
Mensis Sextilis
Sixth Month
29

September
Mensis September
Seventh Month
29

October
Mensis October
Eighth Month
31

November
Mensis November
Ninth Month
29

December
Mensis December
Tenth Month
29

text: The consuls' terms of office were not always a modern calendar year, but ordinary consuls were elected or appointed annually. The traditional list of Roman consuls used by the Romans to date their years began in 509 BC.[27]

text: Flavian reform[edit]

text: Gnaeus Flavius, a secretary to the pontifex maximus, introduced a series of reforms in 304 BC.[28] Their exact nature is uncertain, although he is thought to have begun the custom of publishing the calendar in advance of the month, depriving the priests of some of their power but allowing for a more consistent calendar for official business.[29]

text: Julian reform[edit]

text: Julius Caesar, following his victory in his civil war and in his role as pontifex maximus, ordered a reformation of the calendar in 46 BC. This was undertaken by a group of scholars apparently including the Alexandrian Sosigenes[30] and the Roman M. Flavius.[31][26] Its main lines involved the insertion of ten additional days throughout the calendar and regular intercalation of a single leap day every fourth year in order to bring the Roman calendar into close agreement with the solar year. The year 46 BC was the last of the old system and included 3 intercalary months, the first inserted in February and two more—Intercalaris Prior and Posterior—before the kalends of December.

text: Later reforms[edit]

text: After Caesar's assassination, Mark Antony had his birth month Quintilis renamed July (Iulius) in his honor. After Antony's defeat at Actium, Augustus assumed control of Rome and, finding the priests had (owing to their inclusive counting) been intercalating every third year instead of every fourth, suspended the addition of leap days to the calendar for a number of decades until its proper position had been restored. In 8 BC, the plebiscite Lex Pacuvia de Mense Augusto caused Sextilis to be renamed August (Augustus) in his honor.[32][33][26][e]

text: In large part, this calendar continued unchanged under the Roman Empire. (Egyptians used the related Alexandrian calendar, which Augustus had adapted from their wandering ancient calendar to maintain its alignment with Rome's.) A few emperors altered the names of the months after themselves or their family, but such changes were abandoned by their successors. Diocletian began the 15-year indiction cycles beginning from the AD 297 census;[27] these became the required format for official dating under Justinian. Constantine formally established the 7-day week by making Sunday an official holiday in 321. Consular dating became obsolete following the abandonment of appointing nonimperial consuls in AD 541.[27] The Roman method of numbering the days of the month never became widespread in the Hellenized eastern provinces and was eventually abandoned by the Byzantine Empire in its calendar.

text: Days[edit]

text: Roman dates were counted inclusively forward to the next one of three principal days within each month:[34]

text:
Kalends (Kalendae or Kal.), the 1st day of each month[34]
Nones (Nonae or Non.), the 7th day of full months[35] and 5th day of hollow ones,[34] 8 days—"nine" by Roman reckoning—before the Ides in every month
Ides (Idus, variously Eid. or Id.), the 15th day of full months[35] and the 13th day of hollow ones,[34] a day less than the middle of each month

text: These are thought to reflect a prehistoric lunar calendar, with the kalends proclaimed after the sighting of the first sliver of the new crescent moon a day or two after the new moon, the nones occurring on the day of the first-quarter moon, and the ides on the day of the full moon. The kalends of each month were sacred to Juno and the ides to Jupiter.[36][37] The day before each was known as its eve (pridie); the day after each (postridie) was considered particularly unlucky.

text: The days of the month were expressed in early Latin using the ablative of time, denoting points in time, in the contracted form "the 6th December Kalends" (VI Kalendas Decembres).[35] In classical Latin, this use continued for the three principal days of the month[38] but other days were idiomatically expressed in the accusative case, which usually expressed a duration of time, and took the form "6th day before the December Kalends" (ante diem VI Kalendas Decembres). This anomaly may have followed the treatment of days in Greek,[39] reflected the increasing use of such date phrases as an absolute phrase able to function as the object of another preposition,[35] or simply originated in a mistaken agreement of dies with the preposition ante once it moved to the beginning of the expression.[35] In late Latin, this idiom was sometimes abandoned in favor of again using the ablative of time.

text: The kalends were the day for payment of debts and the account books (kalendaria) kept for them gave English its word calendar. The public Roman calendars were the fasti, which designated the religious and legal character of each month's days. The Romans marked each day of such calendars with the letters:[40]

text:
F (fastus, "permissible") on days when it was legal to initiate action in the courts of civil law (dies fasti, "allowed days")
C (comitialis) on fasti days during which the Roman people could hold assemblies (dies comitalis)
N (nefastus) on days when political and judicial activities were prohibited (dies nefasti)
NP (uncertain)[f] on public holidays (feriae)
QRCF (uncertain)[g] on days when the "king" (rex sacrorum) could convene an assembly
EN (endotercissus, an archaic form of intercissus, "halved") on days when most political and religious activities were prohibited in the morning and evening due to sacrifices being prepared or offered but were acceptable for a period in the middle of the day

text: Each day was also marked by a letter from A to H to indicate its place within the nundinal cycle of market days.

text: Weeks[edit]

text: The nundinae were the market days which formed a kind of weekend in Rome, Italy, and some other parts of Roman territory. By Roman inclusive counting, they were reckoned as "ninth days" although they actually occurred every eighth day. Because the republican and Julian years were not evenly divisible into eight-day periods, Roman calendars included a column giving every day of the year a nundinal letter from A to H marking its place in the cycle of market days. Each year, the letter used for the markets would shift 2–5 letters along the cycle. As a day when the city swelled with rural plebeians, they were overseen by the aediles and took on an important role in Roman legislation, which was supposed to be announced for three nundinal weeks (between 17 and 24 days) in advance of its coming to a vote. The patricians and their clients sometimes exploited this fact as a kind of filibuster, since the tribunes of the plebs were required to wait another three-week period if their proposals could not receive a vote before dusk on the day they were introduced. Superstitions arose concerning the bad luck that followed a nundinae on the nones of a month or, later, on the first day of January. Intercalation was supposedly used to avoid such coincidences, even after the Julian reform of the calendar.

text: The 7-day week began to be observed in Italy in the early imperial period,[42] as practitioners and converts to eastern religions introduced Hellenistic and Babylonian astrology, the Jewish Saturday sabbath, and the Christian Lord's Day. The system was originally used for private worship and astrology but had replaced the nundinal week by the time Constantine made Sunday (dies Solis) an official day of rest in AD 321. The hebdomadal week was also reckoned as a cycle of letters from A to G; these were adapted for Christian use as the dominical letters.

text: Months[edit]

text: The names of Roman months originally functioned as adjectives (e.g., the January kalends occur in the January month) before being treated as substantive nouns in their own right (e.g., the kalends of January occur in January). Some of their etymologies are well-established: January and March honor the gods Janus[43] and Mars;[44] July and August honor the dictator Julius Caesar[45] and his successor, the emperor Augustus;[46] and the months Quintilis,[47] Sextilis,[48] September,[49] October,[50] November,[51] and December[52] are archaic adjectives formed from the ordinal numbers from 5 to 10, their position in the calendar when it began around the spring equinox in March.[49] Others are uncertain. February may derive from the Februa festival or its eponymous februa ("purifications, expiatory offerings"), whose name may be either Sabine or preserve an archaic word for sulphuric.[53] April may relate to the Etruscan goddess Apru or the verb aperire ("to open").[citation needed] May and June may honor Maia[54] and Juno[55] or derive from archaic terms for "senior" and "junior". A few emperors attempted to add themselves to the calendar after Augustus, but without enduring success.

text: In classical Latin, the days of each month were usually reckoned as:[38]

text:
Day
Original
31-Day Months[h]
New Julian
31-Day Months[i]
New Julian
30-Day Months[j]
Original
29-Day Months[k]
February

1
Kal.
On the Kalends
Kalendis

Kal.
Kal.
Kal. Feb.

2
a.d. VI Non.
The 4th Day before the Nones
ante diem quartum Nonas

a.d. IV Non.
a.d. IV Non.
a.d. IV Non. Feb.

3
a.d. V Non.
The 3rd Day before the Nones
ante diem tertium Nonas

a.d. III Non.
a.d. III Non.
a.d. III Non. Feb.

4
a.d. IV Non.
On the Day before the Nones
Pridie Nonas

Prid. Non.
Prid. Non.
Prid. Non. Feb.

5
a.d. III Non.
On the Nones
Nonis

Non.
Non.
Non. Feb.

6
Prid. Non.
The 8th Day before the Ides
ante diem octavum Idus

a.d. VIII Eid.
a.d. VIII Eid.
a.d. VIII Eid. Feb.

7
Non.
The 7th Day before the Ides
ante diem septimum Idus

a.d. VII Eid.
a.d. VII Eid.
a.d. VII Eid. Feb.

8
a.d. VIII Eid.
The 6th Day before the Ides
ante diem sextum Idus

a.d. VI Eid.
a.d. VI Eid.
a.d. VI Eid. Feb.

9
a.d. VII Eid.
The 5th Day before the Ides
ante diem quintum Idus

a.d. V Eid.
a.d. V Eid.
a.d. V Eid. Feb.

10
a.d. VI Eid.
The 4th Day before the Ides
ante diem quartum Idus

a.d. IV Eid.
a.d. IV Eid.
a.d. IV Eid. Feb.

11
a.d. V Eid.
The 3rd Day before the Ides
ante diem tertium Idus

a.d. III Eid.
a.d. III Eid.
a.d. III Eid. Feb.

12
a.d. IV Eid.
On the Day before the Ides
Pridie Idus

Prid. Eid.
Prid. Eid.
Prid. Eid. Feb.

13
a.d. III Eid.
On the Ides
Idibus

Eid.
Eid.
Eid. Feb.

14
Prid. Eid.
The 19th Day before the Kalends
ante diem undevicesimum Kalendas

a.d. XVIII Kal.
a.d. XVII Kal.
a.d. XVI Kal. Mart.

15
Eid.
The 18th Day before the Kalends
ante diem duodevicesimum Kalendas

a.d. XVII Kal.
a.d. XVI Kal.
a.d. XV Kal. Mart.

16
a.d. XVII Kal.
The 17th Day before the Kalends
ante diem septimum decimum Kalendas

a.d. XVI Kal.
a.d. XV Kal.
a.d. XIV Kal. Mart.

17
a.d. XVI Kal.
The 16th Day before the Kalends
ante diem sextum decimum Kalendas

a.d. XV Kal.
a.d. XIV Kal.
a.d. XIII Kal. Mart.

18
a.d. XV Kal.
The 15th Day before the Kalends
ante diem quintum decimum Kalendas

a.d. XIV Kal.
a.d. XIII Kal.
a.d. XII Kal. Mart.

19
a.d. XIV Kal.
The 14th Day before the Kalends
ante diem quartum decimum Kalendas

a.d. XIII Kal.
a.d. XII Kal.
a.d. XI Kal. Mart.

20
a.d. XIII Kal.
The 13th Day before the Kalends
ante diem tertium decimum Kalendas

a.d. XII Kal.
a.d. XI Kal.
a.d. X Kal. Mart.

21
a.d. XII Kal.
The 12th Day before the Kalends
ante diem duodecimum Kalendas

a.d. XI Kal.
a.d. X Kal.
a.d. IX Kal. Mart.

22
a.d. XI Kal.
The 11th Day before the Kalends
ante diem undecimum Kalendas

a.d. X Kal.
a.d. IX Kal.
a.d. VIII Kal. Mart.

23
a.d. X Kal.
The 10th Day before the Kalends
ante diem decimum Kalendas

a.d. IX Kal.
a.d. VIII Kal.
a.d. VII Kal. Mart.

24
a.d. IX Kal.
The 9th Day before the Kalends
ante diem nonum Kalendas

a.d. VIII Kal.
a.d. VII Kal.
a.d. VI Kal. Mart.[l]

25
a.d. VIII Kal.
The 8th Day before the Kalends
ante diem octavum Kalendas

a.d. VII Kal.
a.d. VI Kal.
a.d. V Kal. Mart.

26
a.d. VII Kal.
The 7th Day before the Kalends
ante diem septimum Kalendas

a.d. VI Kal.
a.d. V Kal.
a.d. IV Kal. Mart.

27
a.d. VI Kal.
The 6th Day before the Kalends
ante diem sextum Kalendas

a.d. V Kal.
a.d. IV Kal.
a.d. III Kal. Mart.

28
a.d. V Kal.
The 5th Day before the Kalends
ante diem quintum Kalendas

a.d. IV Kal.
a.d. III Kal.
Prid. Kal. Mart.

29
a.d. IV Kal.
The 4th Day before the Kalends
ante diem quartum Kalendas

a.d. III Kal.
Prid. Kal.

30
a.d. III Kal.
The 3rd Day before the Kalends
ante diem tertium Kalendas

Prid. Kal.

31
Prid. Kal.
On the Day Before the Kalends
Pridie Kalendas

text: Dates after the ides count forward to the kalends of the next month and are expressed as such. For example, March 19 was expressed as "the 14th day before the April Kalends" (a.d. XIV Kal. Apr.), without a mention of March itself. The day after a kalends, nones, or ides was also often expressed as the "day after" (postridie) owing to their special status as particularly unlucky "black days".

text: The anomalous status of the new 31-day months under the Julian calendar was an effect of Caesar's desire to avoid affecting the festivals tied to the nones and ides of various months. Because the dates at the ends of the month all counted forward to the next kalends, however, they were all shifted by one or two days by the change. This created confusion with regard to certain anniversaries. For instance, Augustus's birthday on the 23rd day of September was a.d. VIII Kal. Oct. in the old calendar but a.d. IX Kal. Oct. under the new system. The ambiguity caused honorary festivals to be held on either or both dates.

text: Intercalation[edit]

text: The Republican calendar only had 355 days, which meant that it would quickly unsynchronize from the solar year, causing, for example, agricultural festivals to occur out of season. The Roman solution to this problem was to periodically lengthen the calendar by adding extra days within February. February was broken into two parts, each with an odd number of days. The first part ended with the Terminalia on the 23rd (a.d. VII Kal. Mart.), which was considered the end of the religious year; the five remaining days beginning with the Regifugium on the 24th (a.d. VI Kal. Mart.) formed the second part; and the intercalary month Mercedonius was inserted between them. In such years, the days between the ides and the Regifugium were counted down to either the Intercalary Kalends or to the Terminalia. The intercalary month counted down to nones and ides on its 5th and 13th day in the manner of the other short months. The remaining days of the month counted down towards the March Kalends, so that the end of Mercedonius and the second part of February were indistinguishable to the Romans, one ending on a.d. VII Kal. Mart. and the other picking up at a.d. VI Kal. Mart. and bearing the normal festivals of such dates.

text: Apparently because of the confusion of these changes or uncertainty as to whether an intercalary month would be ordered, dates after the February ides are attested as sometimes counting down towards the Quirinalia (Feb. 17), the Feralia (Feb. 21), or Terminalia (Feb. 23)[56] rather than the intercalary or March kalends.

text: The third-century writer Censorinus says:

text: When it was thought necessary to add (every two years) an intercalary month of 22 or 23 days, so that the civil year should correspond to the natural (solar) year, this intercalation was in preference made in February, between Terminalia [23rd] and Regifugium [24th].[57]

text: The fifth-century writer Macrobius says that the Romans intercalated 22 and 23 days in alternate years (Saturnalia, 1.13.12); the intercalation was placed after 23 February and the remaining five days of February followed (Saturnalia, 1.13.15). To avoid the nones falling on a nundine, where necessary an intercalary day was inserted "in the middle of the Terminalia, where they placed the intercalary month".[58]

text: This is historically correct. In 167 BC Intercalaris began on the day after 23 February [59] and in 170 BC it began on the second day after 23 February.[60] Varro, writing in the first century BC, says "the twelfth month was February, and when intercalations take place the five last days of this month are removed."[61] Since all the days after the Ides of Intercalaris were counted down to the beginning of March Intercalaris had either 27 days (making 377 for the year) or 28 (making 378 for the year).

text: There is another theory which says that in intercalary years February had 23 or 24 days and Intercalaris had 27. No date is offered for the Regifugium in 378-day years.[62] Macrobius describes a further refinement whereby, in one 8-year period within a 24-year cycle, there were only three intercalary years, each of 377 days. This refinement brings the calendar back in line with the seasons, and averages the length of the year to 365.25 days over 24 years.

text: The Pontifex Maximus determined when an intercalary month was to be inserted. On average, this happened in alternate years. The system of aligning the year through intercalary months broke down at least twice: the first time was during and after the Second Punic War. It led to the reform of the 191 BC Acilian Law on Intercalation, the details of which are unclear, but it appears to have successfully regulated intercalation for over a century. The second breakdown was in the middle of the first century BC and may have been related to the increasingly chaotic and adversarial nature of Roman politics at the time. The position of Pontifex Maximus was not a full-time job; it was held by a member of the Roman elite, who would almost invariably be involved in the machinations of Roman politics. Because the term of office of elected Roman magistrates was defined in terms of a Roman calendar year, a Pontifex Maximus would have reason to lengthen a year in which he or his allies were in power or shorten a year in which his political opponents held office.

text: Although there are many stories to interpret the intercalation, a period of 22 or 23 days is always ¾ synodic month. Obviously, the month beginning shifts forward (from the new moon, to the third quarter, to the full moon, to the first quarter, back the new moon) after intercalation.

text: Years[edit]

text: As mentioned above, Rome's legendary 10-month calendar notionally lasted for 304 days but was usually thought to make up the rest of the solar year during an unorganized winter period. The unattested but almost certain lunar year and the pre-Julian civil year were 354 or 355 days long, with the difference from the solar year more or less corrected by an irregular intercalary month. The Julian year was 365 days long, with a leap day doubled in length every fourth year, almost equivalent to the present Gregorian system.

text: The calendar era before and under the Roman kings is uncertain but dating by regnal years was common in antiquity. Under the Roman Republic, from 509 BC, years were most commonly described in terms of their reigning ordinary consuls.[27] (Temporary and honorary consuls were sometimes elected or appointed but were not used in dating.)[27] Consular lists were displayed on the public calendars. After the institution of the Roman Empire, regnal dates based on the emperors' terms in office became more common. Some historians of the later republic and early imperial eras dated from the legendary founding of the city of Rome (ab urbe condita or AVC).[27] Varro's date for this was 753 BC but other writers used different dates, varying by several decades.[citation needed] Such dating was, however, never widespread. After the consuls waned in importance, most Roman dating was regnal[64] or followed Diocletian's 15-year Indiction tax cycle.[27] These cycles were not distinguished, however, so that "year 2 of the indiction" may refer to any of 298, 313, 328, &c.[27] The Orthodox subjects of the Byzantine Empire used various Christian eras, including those based on Diocletian's persecutions, Christ's incarnation, and the supposed age of the world.

text: The Romans did not have records of their early calendars but, like modern historians, assumed the year originally began in March on the basis of the names of the months following June. The consul M. Fulvius Nobilior (r. 189 BC) wrote a commentary on the calendar at the Temple of Hercules Musarum that claimed January had been named for Janus because the god faced both ways,[65][where?] suggesting it had been instituted as a first month.[citation needed] It was, however, usually said to have been instituted along with February, whose nature and festivals suggest it had originally been considered the last month of the year. The consuls' term of office—and thus the order of the years under the republic—seems to have changed several times. Their inaugurations were finally moved to 1 January (Kal. Ian.) in 153 BC to allow Q. Fulvius Nobilior to attack Segeda in Spain during the Celtiberian Wars, before which they had occurred on 15 March (Eid. Mart.).[66] There is reason to believe the inauguration date had been 1 May during the 3rd century BC until 222 BC[citation needed] and Livy mentions earlier inaugurations on 15 May (Eid. Mai.), 1 July (Kal. Qui.), 1 August (Kal. Sex.), 1 October (Kal. Oct.), and 15 December (Eid. Dec.).[67][where?] Under the Julian calendar, the year began on 1 January but years of the Indiction cycle began on 1 September.

text: In addition Egypt's separate calendar, some provinces maintained their records using a local era.[27] Africa dated its records sequentially from 39 BC;[64] Spain from AD 38.[citation needed] This dating system continued as the Spanish era used in medieval Spain.[citation needed]

text: Conversion to Julian or Gregorian dates[edit]

text: The continuity of names from the Roman to the Gregorian calendar can lead to the mistaken belief that Roman dates correspond to Julian or Gregorian ones. In fact, the essentially complete list of Roman consuls allows general certainty of years back to the establishment of the republic but the uncertainty as to the end of lunar dating and the irregularity of Roman intercalation means that dates which can be independently verified are invariably weeks to months outside of their "proper" place. Two astronomical events dated by Livy show the calendar 4 months out of alignment with the Julian date in 190 BC and 2 months out of alignment in 168 BC. Thus, "the year of the consulship of Publius Cornelius Sciopio Africanus and Publius Licinius Crassus" (usually given as "205 BC") actually began on 15 March 205 BC and ended on 14 March 204 BC according to the Roman calendar but may have begun as early as November or December 206 BC owing to its misalignment. Even following the establishment of the Julian calendar, the leap years were not applied correctly by the Roman priests, meaning dates are a few days out of their "proper" place until a few decades into Augustus's reign.

text: Given the paucity of records regarding the state of the calendar and its intercalation, historians have reconstructed the correspondence of Roman dates to their Julian and Gregorian equivalents from disparate sources. There are detailed accounts of the decades leading up to the Julian reform, particularly the speeches and letters of Cicero, which permit an established chronology back to about 58 BC. The nundinal cycle and a few known synchronisms—e.g., a Roman date in terms of the Attic calendar and Olympiad—are used to generate contested chronologies back to the start of the First Punic War in 264 BC. Beyond that, dates are roughly known based on clues such as the dates of harvests and seasonal religious festivals.