Omaha daily bee., 1916-03-21
Great Caesar Did
The Greatest Thing
-RArrn44 b. narHiaa-

HE Julian year Is q period Of SsSN days. which
adopted by order Of Julius Caesar upon ad-
- vice Of Astronomer sosisenes to represent the
length Of the year
Before Caesars time the Roman calendar was IN
great confusion largely because the priests insisted
upon reckoning time by the moon, and upon trying
20 adjust the months, measured by the motions of
the moon to the year, measured BY the apparent mo-
ton OF the But the two systems could not be
geared together.
The seasons were thrown into confusion 20 sat
sfy the demands Of superstition. and whole months
arbitrarily inserted into. dropped out Of DIFF
ferent years In a vain effort to make inconsistent
things Hbe. Then Julius Caesar. OF ths
greatest exercisers Of common that the world
has seen. and brought order out Of confusion.
After having the astronomers clearly explain the
OF the trouble to him, he commanded. to be-
gin with. that the should he thrown out of
court as q common disturber and that the length
the year should henceforth be reckOned solely by
the apparent annual revolution OF the which.
know. IL a result Of the real revolution OF the
earth around the a center OF motion.
The astronomers already know that this period was
about se5k days and Caesar decreed that that should
be taken as the basis OF new calendar.
To avoid the inconvenience OF using fraction OF
day he fixed days the length OF ordinary years
adding day 10 every fourth year and thus making
that year 9s days. to strike balance. This the
origin Of leap year" Then he swung the whole year
round that It should begin the LIST of January
instead OF In March. had been the custom there
tofore
He also arranged the length and order Of the
months. although OF his also took
hand in this. The number Of the months twelve
but they were divorced from the incompatible moOn
which left TO rove romanticaly among them. as
she s doing today In shifting the year backward sc
that the beginning OF spring might fall in March, when
the flowers come forth. Caesar had to insert tenn
porary months between November and December in
the first year OF his calendar, and that produced
for the time being. confusion and grumbng. but ths
man who did bestrhe the little world like a eoos-
sus" paid attention TO the grumbers
But now Caesar did something which betrayed tho
fact that after all he only a man. with some OF
the common human weaknesses; he seized upon the
month which had been called Quintis (he fifth
March was the frsD a perpetual memorial Of him
self and ordered that It's name should be July
Julius.
And just as when one boy takes a slide another
Immediately follows in his tracks Julius successor
Augustus. considering what his uncle had done and
believing himself to be equally great man. deter
mined to have month also, and he took the next
In order sextilis and named II August But since
July had thiry-ons days and his month only thirty
Augustus nlched day rom February and added II
TO August. 20 that his should cover as broad a
space the years face did that of the man who
had founded his empire
SO. when wonder how February came to be 20
short that even in leap year she cannot attain the
full stature OF her sstsrs read the explanation in
the vanity OF Roman emperor
error The true length OF the year not ssx days
l@ days hours. but II IL 3@ days hours min
utes and 81 seconds. that the Julian year was
minutes lat seconds too long In 1851 which was 81
years after Caesar had reformed the calender, the
verna equinox, marking the beginning Of the astro-
nomicai spring had fallen back on the calendar ten
whole days. Then pope. Gregory XIII. took the
matter In hand and with the advice astronomer
ciavfus made new adjustment which serves us yet
today
He dropped ten days Of Of the year 1850 and to
avoid another similar disjointmen ordered that hence
forth leap year should be omitted every century
which s not devsabls by 700 Thus 1foO and 1900
were not leap but 1000 will a leap year This
change Of the rule will suffice to keep the calendar
from drifting than day astray in the course
OF Aooo years to come. But this is only a modification
OF the Caesars system and the Julian year S6H days
is still in common use.
In astronomy, for historical purposes, the Julian
year is always used in accordance with a system tn
vented by Joseph Scagsr in iSs1 which starts from
January sTis C. BY this reckoning the year 1915 Is
the Julian year e62s.