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Julian Calendar

Follows the Julian calendar reform of the Roman calendar introduced by Julius Caesar in -46. It is used in ancient Rome from -45. He remained employed until replaced by the Gregorian calendar in the late sixteenth century and, in some countries until the twentieth century. It is still used by the Berbers in the monasteries of Mount Athos and several national churches orthodox , including the Orthodox Russian and Serbian.

The Julian calendar is sometimes reported by the old name or style as (or OS for old style English ).

The Coptic calendar uses the same structure as the Julian calendar with a few variations of application.

Do not confuse the Julian calendar with the Julian date.

Summary

/ / The Republican calendar

The Roman calendar used in Rome before the Julian reform worked as follows:

It consisted of twelve months and 355 days in normal years. The year began with the Ides of March (March 15, regarded as the beginning of spring) and the number of days each month was:

The Republican calendar before the Julian reform
I Martius March 31 days
II Aprilis April 29 days
III Maius May 31 days
IV Iunius June 29 days
V Quintilis quintile 31 days
VI Sextilis sextile 29 days
VII September September 29 days
VIII October October 31 days
IX November November 29 days
X December December 29 days
XI Ianuarius January 29 days
XII Februarius February 28 days
TOTAL 355 days

An intercalary month, mensis intercalar , 27 days were intercalated every two years. This intercalation was held alternately after 23 or 24 February and he was substituted with four or five days of February. So the years included the numbers of days include:

Cycle of intercalations of the Republican calendar
Type Year Intercalation Number of days
Normal No 355 days
Interlayer short February: 23 days
+ Intercalary month
27 days 		377 days
Interlayer long February: 24 days
+ Intercalary month
27 days 		378 days
Normal No 355 days
... ... ...

From the perspective of civil and religious holidays, the last five days of February becoming the last five days of the intercalary month. It was called Mercedonius because mercenaries were receiving their salaries (in Latin: thank you) to that point.

The average year of this calendar had 366.25 days, or about one day longer than the tropical year. The average length of month was 29.59 days, close enough to the duration of a lunation (the interval between two full moons) of 29.53 days. It was during the Republic that shopping week of 8 days was imposed.

According Censorinus , this cycle of intercalation was the best possible. Macrobius describes a refinement for a period of eight years every 24 years, including only three years dividers, all of 377 days. This principle allows to reduce the average length of the calendar year to 365.25 days over 24 years, close to the tropical year.

Reasons for the reform julienne

In practice, the system was not strictly enforced; intercalations being made so risky. These were determined by the popes , priests in charge of the calendar, and applied by the consuls. Negligence, extortion as well (the calendar determined the dates for resolving credit-due rents, etc..), The documents show that they were very irregular, sometimes missed in consecutive years and, on occasion, put in implemented several consecutive years.

If used properly, this system allowed the Roman year to stay roughly aligned with the tropical year. However, when too many intercalations were omitted, as in the Second Punic War or the Roman Civil Wars , the calendar shifts quickly. Moreover, intercalations were defined as late enough, an ordinary Roman citizen did not know the official date, particularly if he was away from Rome. Thus, the schedule gradually became incomprehensible, the years before the Julian reform was called the "years of confusion." During the years when Julius Caesar held the office of pontifex maximus , before the reform, between -63 and -46 , only five were performed intercalations instead of eight, and none occurred between -51 and -46.

Julian reform was thus intended to permanently correct these defects by creating a calendar that is still so simple in correspondence with the Sun, without human intervention.

Reform julienne

As pontifex maximus, Caesar was responsible for scheduling. Julian reform was introduced at his initiative -46 (708 since the founding of the City (Rome), ab Urbe condita , AUC ) and entered into force in -45 (709 AUC). It was established after consultation with the astronomer Sosigenes Alexandria and probably designed to approximate the tropical year, determined at least since Hipparchus.

Description of reform

Alignment of the calendar with the sun

The first stage of reform was the realignment of the early Roman with the tropical year. Absent because of intercalation, the Roman calendar had accumulated 90 days late. The year - 46 thus lasted 445 days. This year had already been extended from 355 to 378 days by inserting an intercalary month scheduled in February. When Caesar decreed the reform, probably after his return from his African campaign in late Quintilis (July), he added 67 more days by inserting two extraordinary intercalary months between November and December. Cicero appoints intercalar those months prior and posterior in a intercalar letter written at that time, their respective length is unknown, as is the position of the Nones and Ides in each month. The year - 45 was the first year of implementation of the new regular schedule.

Reform of the length of month and year

  • retains the twelve calendar months of Republican calendar;
  • the beginning of the year is January 1 (date of election of the Consuls of Rome);
  • the normal year has 365 days. To do this, the months are elongated, broken down by month as follows:
The months of the Julian calendar and their length
Ianuarius 31 days
Februarus 29 days
Martius 31 days
Aprilis 30 days
Maius 31 days
Junius 30 days
Quintilis 31 days
Sextilis 30 days
September 31 days
October 30 days
November 31 days
December 30 days
TOTAL 365 days

Macrobius says that these additional days were added immediately after the last day of each month to avoid moving party established . However, since Roman dates after the Ides of a month were counted down relatively early in the next month, these extra days had the effect of increasing the initial count of the day just after the Ides. The Romans of the time born after the Ides of such month reacted differently to this change on the date of their anniversary. Marc Anthony kept the 14 th day of Januarius, which brought him over to ad XVII Kal. Feb. To ad XIX Kal. Feb., A date that did not exist before. Livie conservation in ad III Kal. Feb., Which shifted from the 28th to the 30th day of Januarius, a day that there did not exist before. Augustus retained his 23 th day of September, but both dates, the former ad VIII Kal. Oct and the new ad IX Kal. Oct., were celebrated in some places.

Intercalation

A leap day is added every four years to better approximate the tropical year (about 365.2422 days). The year an extra day is inserted of 366 days. On average, one year of the Julian calendar thus lasts 365.25 days.

Former mensis intercalar, was abolished. The new leap day was inserted in February. The exact position of the leap day in the Julian calendar original is not known with certainty. In 238 , Censorinus stated that it was inserted after the Terminals ( February 23 ) , Bede in 725 and computist medieval followed this rule.

The liturgical calendar of the Roman Catholic church followed that rule until 1970.

The days of the months were numbered consecutively until the late Middle Ages. The leap day was then considered the last day of February, that is to say on February 29.

Note: the average Julian year of 365.25 days is a little longer than the tropical year of 365.2422 days. This difference will lead to reform of the Gregorian calendar in 1582.

Application of the Julian calendar

Corrections of Augustus

Although the intercalation Julian is simpler than the Roman calendar, it was, it seems, misapplied the beginning. Apparently, the pundits wrong understood the method and added a leap day every three years instead of every four. Augustus , Pontifex Maximus, after 36 years, corrected this error by omitting leap years to realign the calendar year on the Sun.

The sequence of leap years in this period is given explicitly by any ancient source, even if the existence of a triennial cycle is confirmed by an inscription dating from -9 or -8. The chronologist Joseph Scaliger established in 1583 that the Augustan reform was instituted in -8 and deduced that leap years were -42 , -39 , -36 , -33 , -30 , -27 , -24 , -21 , -18 , -15 , -12 , -9 , 8 , 12 , etc.. This proposal is always accepted. It has sometimes been suggested that the first year of the reform julienne, -45 , was also a leap year.

Other solutions have been proposed. In 1614, Kepler speculated that the proper sequence was -43 , -40 , -37 , -34 , -31 , -28 , -25 , -22 , -19 , -16 , -13 , -10 , 8 , 12, etc.. In 1883 , the German chronologist Matzat proposed -44 , -41 , -38 , -35 , -32 , -29 , -26 , -23 , -20 , -17 , -14 , -11 , 4 , 8, 12, etc.. based on a passage in Dio Cassius that mentions a leap day in -41 supposedly "contrary to the rule Subsequent amendments

Caesar is assassinated in -44. To perpetuate his memory Mark Antony, then consul in order to rename Quintilis julius , because it was the month of birth. After the reform Augustine, the Senate decided to -8 to honor Augustus renaming sextilis in augustus. According Senatufconfultum quoted by Macrobius , this month was chosen because Augustus was Caesar's successor and that many events related to power occurred that month. However, sextilis with only 30 days, Augustus could not have been honored by a month shorter than that dedicated to Caesar (Julius with 31 days). So we changed the length of sextilis to bring it to 31 days and the duration of the following months was amended to comply with the alternating months. Finally, to keep the length of the normal year of 365 days, one day was taken from februarus .

After these changes, the name and length of the month was the one we know today:

Calendar months after the reform of Augustus
Ianuarius 31 days
Februarus 28 days
Martius 31 days
Aprilis 30 days
Maius 31 days
Junius 30 days
Julius 31 days
Augustus 31 days
September 30 days
October 31 days
November 30 days
December 31 days
TOTAL 365 days
Other unsuccessful amendments

Other months were renamed by other emperors, but no changes survived their deaths.

  • Caligula renamed September as Germanicus.
  • Nero renamed Aprilis in neroneus, maius in Claudius and Junius in germanicus.
  • Domitian renamed September as Germanicus and October in domitianus. September was also renamed as Antoninus (in honor of Antoninus Pius ) and tacitus (for Marcus Claudius Tacitus ), in november Faustina ( Faustina the Old ) and Romanus.
  • Convenient renamed all twelve months by their names and designations: amazonius, Invictus, Felix, Pius, Lucius, Aelius, Aurelius, Commodus, Augustus, herculeus, Romanus and exsuperatorius.

Charlemagne also renamed the months in Old High German , but this operation was more lasting than the Roman emperors. These names were used until the fifteenth century in Germany and the Netherlands , and until the eighteenth century with some modifications. From January to December: Wintarmanoth, Hornung, Lentzinmanoth, Ostarmanoth, Wonnemanoth, Brachmanoth, Heuvimanoth, Aranmanoth, Witumanoth, Windumemanoth, and Herbistmanoth Heilagmanoth.

Introduction of the seven-day week

Counting the Ides and Kalends , which included a "week" of eight days or nundines , was replaced by the week of seven days around the third century. Constantine introduced in 312 on Sunday as a holiday in that week.

Origins of years or "eras"

The consular dating

Various identification systems have been used for years with the Julian calendar. For the Romans, the dominant method was to name each year after the two consuls (consuls called eponyms ), which since the year -153 took their office on 1 January each year. The Romans also used it occasionally in the year of the reign of the emperor in the late fourth century, documents were dated by more than 15-year cycle of indiction.

In 537 , Justinian imposed the mention of the emperor and his year of reign, combined with the mention of proclaiming and eponymous consul, while allowing the use of local eras.

In 309 and 310 , and certain future dates, no consul was appointed. In this case, the consular date was given, indicating the number of years since the last Consul (Consular post-dating). After 541 , only the emperor ruled the consulate, typically for one year, and dating postconsulaire became the norm. The system is obsolete, was formally abolished by Leo VI in 888.

The dating ab Urbe condita

Dating ab Urbe condita ( AUC , "from the founding of the City") was rarely used to designate years. This method was used by Roman historians to determine the number of years between two different events and historians could use different dates.

Various eras local

The adoption of the Julian calendar led to several local eras, as the era of Actium or the Hispanic era , and some were used during a certain time. The Era of Martyrs , also known as Anno Diocletian, was used by Christians of Alexandria to date their Easter during the fourth century and the fifth century, and continues to be the Churches Coptic and Ethiopian.

In the eastern Mediterranean, the efforts of Christians such chronographs that Aniene Alexandria to date the creation of the world after the Bible led to the introduction of various eras Anno Mundi based on this event. The most important is the Etos kosmou used in the Byzantine world from the tenth century and in Russia until 1700.

The modern era or "era of the Incarnation

To the west, around 527 , Dionysius the Little proposed the system of anno Domini , in other words "year of the Lord," which has gradually spread throughout the Christian world: the years were numbered either from the supposed date of the announcement of Christ on March 25 from the year 753 AUC , or either from the supposed date of birth (or incarnation ) of 25 December 753 AUC. For practical reasons, the beginning of the Era of the Incarnation was postponed to the Julian year beginning 1 January of the year 754 AUC , calculated as Year 1 of the Age of the Incarnation.

For practical reasons (imposed by the global supremacy of the Christian nations), the "era of the Incarnation" was universally imposed on the civilian use and is the current standard of dating (with the exception of the Julian date used in some scientific fields).

New Year's Day

The year consular Roman calendar began on 1 January since 153 BC. AD and was not changed by the reform julienne (other calendars could start another day, as the religious year or the year traditional).

Local calendars aligned with the Julian calendar retained a date from different year. In Egypt , the Alexandrian calendar began on 29 August (the August 30 after a leap year), following the tradition of pharaonic calendar.

Several local provincial calendars fielded the beginning of the year on the anniversary of Augustus, September 23.

The indiction provoked the adoption of September 1 as the beginning of the year in the Byzantine Empire and this date is always used in the Orthodox Church for the beginning of the liturgical year. When Vladimir I of Kiev adopted the Julian calendar in 988 , the year was numbered Anno Mundi 6496 and began on March 1 , six months after the start of Anno Mundi Byzantine same number.

In 1492 (Anno Mundi 7000), Ivan III realigned the beginning of the year to September 1 , the Anno Mundi 7000, therefore, that only lasted six months in Russia, from 1 March to 31 August 1492.

During the Middle Ages , in the regions of Western Europe affiliated to the Roman Catholic Church , schedules continued to display 12 columns in the months from January to December, starting on 1 January. However, most of these countries began the numbering of the year at an important religious holiday, such as December 25 (Nativity of Jesus ), on March 25 ( incarnation of Jesus ) or even Easter as in France.

In the ninth century , March 25 was used as the beginning of a new year in southern Europe. This practice spread to Europe from the eleventh century and England in the late twelfth century. For example, British parliamentary records recorded the execution of Charles I on 30 January 1648 , although the date would correspond to what is currently considered 30 January 1649.

Most countries of Western Europe moved the day of the year to January 1 before adoption of the Gregorian calendar (or even before its creation in 1582 ), mainly during the sixteenth century. The following list gives some examples:

Gregorian Reform of the Julian calendar and obsolescence

Gregorian Reform

The Julian calendar was in common use in Europe and North Africa since the time of the Roman Empire until 1582 , when Pope Gregory XIII promulgated the Gregorian calendar. This reform was needed because of excess Julian leap days of the system in relation to seasons astronomical. On average, the solstices and equinoxes advance of 11 minutes per year against the Julian year. Hipparchus and perhaps Sosigenes had already recognized this shift, but it probably was not considered important at the time of Julian reform. However, the Julian calendar shifts a day in 134 years. In 1582, he was shifted ten days compared to the Sun. This resulted in a shift of more and more important from the date of Easter to the summer festival of spring and renewal, fundamental in the Roman liturgical calendar.

The Gregorian reform was intended to:

  • restore the alignment of the calendar with the sun:
  • define a system that adjusts the intercalation calendar year on the tropical year with more precision;
  • define a calculation of the date of Easter in accordance with the new timetable and in conformity with the requirements of the Council of Nicaea.

Answering the Julian calendar

p> If, for civil purposes, all worship predominantly Orthodox countries (mostly in Eastern Europe and South-East) adopted the Gregorian calendar until 1927, this is not the case with their national churches. In May 1923, the Synod of Istanbul proposed a revised Julian calendar , consisting of a solar part identical to the Gregorian calendar (and remained so until 2800) and a lunar part calculating the date of Easter by astronomical observation Jerusalem. Orthodox Churches refused all the lunar part. Almost all Orthodox churches continue to celebrate Easter according to the Julian calendar (only the Finnish Orthodox Church uses the Gregorian calendar).

The solar part of the revised Julian calendar was not accepted by some Orthodox churches, in the hope of a better dialogue with the Western Church: The Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople , the patriarchate of Alexandria and Antioch , the Orthodox churches in Greece , Cyprus , Romania , Poland , Bulgaria (in 1963) in America (some parishes still have the right to use the Julian calendar). The Orthodox churches of Jerusalem , Russia , Macedonia , Serbia , Georgia and Ukraine are still using the Julian calendar (as well as some churches schismatics, old-calendar ). They celebrate eg Nativity on December 25 Julian, that is to say on January 7 Gregorian (until 2100). Some western parishes of the Russian Orthodox Church celebrates the Nativity Dec. 25 Gregorian, as well as those of the Bulgarian Orthodox America , before and after the transfer in 1976 of the diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church outside borders to the Orthodox Church America.

Other uses

Besides the churches already mentioned, the Julian calendar still used in North Africa , among the Berbers. The Berber calendar is used for agricultural purposes. The first day of the year is currently 14 January in the Gregorian calendar.

A variant of the Julian calendar is used in Egypt, in liturgy, in the Coptic calendar.

References

  1. a and b (the) Censorinus , De Die Natali, 238
  2. a , b and c Macrobius , Saturnalia
  3. Bede, On the count of time, 725
  4. JP Parisot, F. Suagher, Calendars and Chronology, Elsevier, 1996
  5. http://www.techno-science.net

See also

Related articles

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