If you believe you struggle with mathematics and keeping track of time, imagine living during the first century BC when the Roman calendar became so chaotic that tracking the seasons was nearly impossible.
Inhabitants of the 1st Century BC faced difficulties with the calendar’s projected harvest season. Instead of having mature vegetables ready to eat, they encountered seeds and roots.
According to some historians, it was likely the middle of spring as the early Roman calendar grew increasingly strange and disorderly, causing significant yearly events and festivals to lose touch with reality.
The initial Roman calendar was based on lunar cycles and the agricultural cycle, comprising 10 months total.
This calendar commenced in March, during spring, and concluded in December, the tenth month, covering 304 days and omitting about 61 days.
Helen Parish, a professor of history at the University of Reading in the UK, explained the rationale behind this system: “For the two months of the year when there’s no work being done in the field, they’re just not counted.”
Although the calendar recorded the sun’s rising and setting, it did not officially count those as days, which Parish noted was where complications arose.
In 731 BC, the second King of Rome, Numa Pompilius, sought to adjust the calendar to account for the winter months, adding approximately 51 days, which became known as January and February.
Due to superstitions surrounding even numbers, an extra day was added, extending the year to 355 days.
Despite this “souped-up calendar,” Parish mentioned that it rapidly fell out of sync with the seasons. By around 200 BC, a near-total eclipse of the sun occurred in Rome on what was recorded as July 11, though it should have been March 14.
Subsequently, the Emperor and priests in Rome introduced an additional month, Mercedonius, in an attempt to realign the calendar with the seasons. However, predictably, this did not succeed.
When Julius Caesar assumed leadership, he endeavored to correct the calendar to match Earth’s rotation on its axis by day and its orbit around the Sun per year.
This was not a straightforward undertaking, as Caesar ultimately introduced the longest year in history, spanning 445 days, based on advice from an astronomer.
In addition to Mercedonius, he introduced two more months, one with 33 days and another with 34, resulting in a 15-month calendar.
The year 46 BC became known as “the Year of Confusion.”
The mishap with the calendar was partly due to the peculiar way Roman mathematics operated.
Parish explained: “They look at the years and they count, one, two, three, four. And then they start counting again at four – so they count four, five, six, seven.”
“So they’re accidentally double-counting one of those years each time.”
Nevertheless, Julius Caesar was almost “bang on,” she stated.
Fortunately, the additional months, Mercedonius and the practice of inserting “intercalary months” were eventually abandoned. Thanks to Pope Gregory, who addressed the chaos in 1582, the calendar was realigned to the system we recognize today.