Search This Blog

Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Ides of March

Interesting… William Browning wrote:

The Roman calendar had weird ways to determine times of the month. The Ides of March doesn't necessarily refer to a holiday or festival on the Roman calendar but instead talks about how the Romans told time in the year. The calendar was supposedly instituted by Romulus, the founder of Rome.

The Ides marked the middle of the month according to the Information Please Almanac website. The calendar organized months around three days -- Kalends, Nones and Ides. Kalends noted the first of the month, so in modern terms the Kalends of June would be June 1. Nones served as the seventh day in March, May, July and October; it was the fifth in every other month. Ides were the middle of the month -- they were the 15th of March, May, July and October but the 13th in others.

Days were noted by counting backwards from the upcoming monthly marker. For instance, Oct. 10 would be designated the "V Ides" or five days before the Ides of October. This method of dating lasted well into Medieval times before it was replaced with the Gregorian calendar used today

Blogger Labels: ,,,

0 comments:

Post a Comment

I hate having to fill out a form just to post a comment, but I have had to add that thing where you have to type in the letters that you see in the graphic to be able to post a comment, because I was getting nasty spam stuff. You can still choose anonymous.

If you have relevant links or resources, please put them in the comments and I will certainly check them out!