The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-03-15


came so great that In the reign OF Nu-
ma . radical change was made.
Two Months Added.
This change consisted In adding two
months TO the year. One OF these.
January. was placed at the commence
rnent OF the year. The other. Feb
ruary. was placed at the end OF the
year, after December. The name Feb
ruary was derived from februa. an old
sabine word. meaning publication or
expiation. probably carrying the sug-
eestion that the end of the year was
the time to expiate ones sins ana be
ready to start in the new year with
clean record. Be that as 1t may,
February has always been called upon
to expIate the sins Of the calendar
makers. II the calendar needed tink-
ering 1t has always been February that
was shifted or distorted or chopped up
to make things come right. Two CEN
turtles after Numa February was re.
moved from the end OF the year ana
placed In its present position between
January and March.
Numa's calendar provided months OF
twenty-nine and thirty days each to
correspond with the revolutions OF .ns
moon, but this gave short measure
wear of asa days. To make up for
this discrepancy. Numa hit upon the
plan of creating a month which ne
named Mercedenius. consisting AFTER
nately of Twenty-Five and twenty three
days, which was to be inserted In the
calendar every other year. Instead.
however. of adding this month TO the
end of the year as would seem the
natural thing to do, he pumped 1t
down into the midst of poor February.
BY this arrangement period OF Tour
years. contained 1.4e5 days, the mean
length of the years being thus ses Ia
DAYS. To correct this supsrfluous day
IL was ordered that every third period
Of eight years should contain three In
stead Of four intercalary months tMer-
cedenius.l
such a plan, had IL been faithfully
and strictly carried out, would have
made the year approximately correct
but the priests. TO whom the regula-
ton of the calendar was eintrusted.
habitually abused their powers. 70
further their own interests or those OF
their friends they distorted the caien-
dar without regard to consequences.
They literally added to the months or
provided new ones when 1t was ad-
vantageous to prolong magistrate
term Of office, or cut them In two.
or omitted them II they wished to has
ten an election. The chaotic condi-
ton of affairs that must have resulted
from an announcement that Marcn was
to be only two weeks long. or tnat MAY
was to be omitted altogether, can well
be Imagined. The variations, OF course
offset each other to some extent, but
nv the time of Julius Caesar the civil
eouinox differed from the Astronomical
by three months. so that the winter
months were backed UP into the au-
| tumn, the autumn into the summer, ana
30 on. =
Julius Caesars Calendar.
A.. Ian
Julius Caesar established the caleh-
dar that, with GONE important changes.
Is in use today. In order TO start on .
proper basis, however, 1t was necss-
sary to adopt radical measures. There
| fore. In addition to the month Merce-
danlus. he created for the year 4e B. 9.
ttoo new months which he thrust in
| between November and December That
year. which was known as the Year OF
/ Confusion. had therefore fifteen months
! and 446 days. These. extraordlnafy
measures, however, eradfcated the err.
/ rors and made II possible TO begin
anew. He then abolished the lunar
| YEAR and the intercalary month, regu-
| iatinw the civil year entirely by the
ann. with the assistance OF Sosigines,
an Alexandrian philosopher, he hxed
the mean length OF the year at $50 -
DAYS. and in order to obviate dimcul-
| ties, gave every fourth year sSe days,
j leaving tno othefS - SeO'
leap year created.
Caesar adopted the simple expedient
NJ giving the odd-numbered months
| thirty-one days, and the even thirty
DAYS with the exception OF February
which in ordinary years was TO have
ltwenty.nin days. to be increased every
fourth year to thirty. To gratify MS
pride in his work, Caesar named the
seventh month of the year, formerly
1 Ttt1 him8GiT.
Following his example his successor
Augustus, renamed Sextillis. the eighth
month. August, after himself In order
| that his month should not be shorter
tban that of his predecessor he added
smother day to 1t, though ne might
lust as we'll have added two and mace
II the longest month In the year IN
order to prevent three months OF th,r-
tv-one days from falling together ne
Iraarranged Caesars simple scheme, re-
ducing September and November 10
thirty DAYS. and giving thirty-one 10
| october and December.
THE additional day which Caesar gave
| to every fourth year was added TO feo-
lruary, that being the shortest montn,
/ but Instead of being simply added as
| n Is at present, II was in inserted be-
tween the tweuty-fourth and twenty
| ann DAYS. The twenty-fourth being
the sixth before the Kalends OF March,
the intercalated day was called bissex-
tum 1.-THE second SIXTH; hence our word
bissextile. often applied to leap year.
when Augustus sought an extra day
1 for this month he took 1t from Feb
! mary thus reducing that month to It's
present form OF twenty-eight and
| twenty nine days. In the eecleslaStlteaS,ii
calendar the intercalary day Is still
nlaced between February "a ana 20
but IN the civil calendar 1t is now ev-
erywhere added to the end OF the
| month. -.
According to the Julian calendar the
year Is still eleven minutes and four
teen seconds too long. amounting to
one day in 1913 years. As the centuries
PASSED the interval between the COM
mancenent of the year and the spring
eouinox grew less. 1t was not. how
ever. until 1882 that anything was done
about It. Then Pope Gregory XIII. SET
! out to remedy the dificulty- This he
dId by directing the suppression OF ten
DAYS outright. In order to provide for