Cappadocian calendar

The **Cappadocian calendar** was a solar calendar, which means it was based on the movement of the sun. It was similar to the Persian Zoroastrian calendar. The calendar is named after Cappadocia, a historic area in what is now Turkey, where it was used. It had 12 months, each with 30 days, plus five extra days. This calendar was created between 550 and 330 BC, when Cappadocia was part of the Achaemenid Empire. The Cappadocian calendar was almost the same as the Zoroastrian calendar, with the same month names and order. This shows how Persian culture influenced the region. We know about this calendar from Greek astronomers in Late Antiquity, by which time it had been changed to fit the Julian calendar.

## History

The Cappadocian calendar was made when Cappadocia, now part of Turkey, was a province of the Achaemenid Empire. The calendar is named after the region, but the exact date it started is not clear. Historian Josef Marquart thinks it began in 490 BC, while another expert, Jacques Duchesne-Guillemin, believes it started between 490 and 480 BC. The calendar had 360 days, split into 12 months, with five extra days at the end.

The calendar was a copy of the Zoroastrian calendar because the Persians ruled Cappadocia at that time. It stayed the main calendar in the Kingdom of Cappadocia. There were small differences in the spelling of the months due to local accents, but the month names were almost the same as those in the Zoroastrian calendar. The people in Cappadocia spoke a type of western Iranian, so the month names were closer to Middle Persian spelling, though they still looked like the older forms in the Avestan calendar.

The Cappadocian calendar shows how much Iranian culture and religion influenced Cappadocia. According to expert Mary Boyce, the Cappadocian calendar and others like the Middle Persian, Parthian, and Armenian calendars came from the Achaemenid Empire’s official calendar. The Persians introduced this calendar to all their Zoroastrian subjects to make timekeeping the same across their empire. Over time, the local languages changed the calendars slightly, but they stayed mostly the same. Greek astronomers still wrote about the Cappadocian calendar as late as the 4th century AD.

## Names of the months

|Months|Cappadocian|Young Avestan|Early Middle Persian|Middle Persian proper (Pahlavi)|New Persian|
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|1|[Ar]artana|Fravašinąm|Fravartīn|Frawardīn|Farvardin|
|2|Artegeste (Artēyetē)|Ašahe vahištahe|Artvahišt|Ardwahišt|Ordibehesht|
|3|Aratata|Haurvatātō|Harvatāt|Xordā̌d|Khordad|
|4|Teiri (Teirei)|Tištryahe|Tīr|Tīr|Tir|
|5|Amartata|Amərətātō|Amurtāt|Amurdā̌d|Mordad|
|6|Sathriore (Xathriorē)|Khšathrahe vairyehe|Šahrevar|Šahrewar|Shahrivar|
|7|Mithre (Mithpē)|Mithrahe|Mihr|Mihr|Mehr|
|8|*Apomenapa|Āpa̧m|Āpān|Ābān|Aban|
|9|Athra|Āthrō|Atur|Ādur|Azar|
|10|Dathusa (Dathousa)|Dathušō|Dadv|Day|Dey|
|11|Osmana|Vaŋhə̄uš manaŋhō|Vahuman|Wahman|Bahman|
|12|Sondara (Sondara<mat?>)|Spəntayå ārmatōiš|Spendārmat|Spandarmad|Esfand|

Experts Mary Boyce and Frantz Grenet say that the Cappadocian calendar was very similar to the Zoroastrian calendar used in other places. The main differences were small. One was the change of the month name Teiri (Teirei) instead of Tištrya, which was common in many Zoroastrian communities. Another difference was that the eighth month was dedicated to Apąm Napāt ("son of the waters") instead of Apąm ("waters"), which referred to the god Varuna.

Boyce and Grenet believe that this special month dedication might show that the Zoroastrians in Cappadocia disagreed about the importance of the goddess Anahita compared to Varuna. This shows that even though Persian religious practices were strong in Cappadocia during the Achaemenid Empire, local Persian priests had some freedom to make small changes to their traditions.

## Switch to the Julian Calendar

The Cappadocian calendar began during the Achaemenid Empire, but the first evidence of it comes from Late Antiquity. By this time, it had been changed to fit the Julian calendar. Historian Sacha Stern thinks this adjustment might have happened in 44 BC. It was probably the first calendar in the Roman East to be changed this way (_Julianized_), even before the Egyptian calendar.

Even after it was adjusted for the Roman period, the Cappadocian New Year still matched the original Persian Zoroastrian calendar pretty well. The calendar kept its structure of 12 months with 30 days each plus five extra days, just like the original Persian calendar.