To this we may add a passage from Livy 6. 1, a portion of which has been already quoted, p. 310—

'Tum de diebus religiosis agitari coeptum: diemque ante diem XV. Kalendas Sextiles, duplici clade insignem, quo die ad Cremeram Fabii caesi, quo deinde ad Aliam cum exitio urbis foede pugnatum, a posteriore clade Aliensem appellarunt, insignemque rei nulli publice privatimque agendae fecerunt: quidam, quod postridie Idus Quintiles non litasset Sulpicius tribunus militum, neque inventa pace deum post diem tertium obiectus hosti exercitus Romanus esset, etiam postridie Idus rebus divinis supersederi iussum; inde est postridie Kalendas quoque ac Nonas eadem religio esset, traditum putant.'

10. For nearly four centuries and a half after the foundation of the city the knowledge of the Calendar was confined to the Pontifices alone, whose duty it was regularly to proclaim the appearance of the New Moon, to announce to the people the days of the month on which the Nones and Ides would fall, and to give notice of the 'Dies Festi,' 'Fasti,' 'Nefasti,' and 'Comitiales.' These secrets which might be, and doubtless often were, employed for political ends, were at length divulged in the year 314 B.C. by a certain Cn. Flavius, scriba to the Pontifex Maximus, who drew up tables embracing all this carefully-treasured information, and hung them up in the forum for the inspection of the public1. From this time forward tables of this description were known by the name of 'Fasti,' and were exhibited for general use in various parts of the city. They contained for the most part an enumeration of the days of the year in regular order; to each was attached a mark pointing out whether it was 'Fastus,' 'Nefastus,' 'Intercisus,' 'Comitialis,' 'Ater,' &c.; the position of the Nones and Ides, and different Festivals, was also laid down, and sometimes a brief notice of some great victory, the dedication of a temple, or similar event, was added, especially in later times, when in this manner a compliment could be paid to the reigning prince.

These Fasti' in fact corresponded very closely to a modern almanac, and the Fasti of Ovid may be considered as a poetical 'Year-Book,' or 'Companion to the Roman Almanac,' according to the order of the Julian Calendar. All the more remarkable epochs are examined in succession,

1 Livy 9. 46, Val. Max. 2. 5, Macrob. S. 1. 15, Cic. pro Mur. 11.

the origin of the different festivals is explained, the various ceremonies described, and such illustrations added as were likely to prove useful or interesting to the reader.

Several specimens of 'Fasti,' or ancient almanacs, engraved on stone, have been discovered at different times, more or less perfect, and copies are to be found in the larger collections of Roman antiquities and inscriptions 1.

Upon a careful examination and comparison of the marks by which the days of the year are distinguished in these monuments, we obtain the following classification:

F. denotes 'Fastus;' N. 'Nefastus;' N. P. ‘Nefastus priore' ('parte'), that is, 'Nefastus' in the early part of the day, and therefore we conclude, 'Fastus' in the after part; F.P. 'Fastus priore,' the converse of the preceding; Q. REX. C. F. Cando Rex Comitiavit Fastus,' that is, 'Fastus' after the 'Rex Sacrificulus' (see p. 208), has performed sacrifice in the Comitium; this mark is attached to the 24th of March and the 14th of May; Q. St. D. F. ‘Quando Stercus Defertur Fastus;' 'Fastus,' after the sweepings and other filth had been carried out of the temple of Vesta and conveyed to the Tiber; a ceremony performed once a year on the 15th of June, as we learn from Ovid and Varro; EN. 'Endotercisus;' C. 'Comitialis.'

There is some difficulty in explaining the difference between the days which were N.P. and those which were EN. The Ides of each month were N.P. and most of the other days bearing this mark were sacred to different deities, while those

1 See Graevius, Thesaurus Antiqq. Romm. Vol. 8; Gruter, Corpus Inscrrip. Latt.; Foggini, Fastorum Verrianorum reliquiae, &c.; Van Vaasen, Animadverss. ad Fastos Rom. sacros, &c.

marked EN. do not appear to have been hallowed by any solemnity whatever.

11. The 'Fasti' just described have, to prevent confusion, been called 'Kalendaria,' or 'Fasti Kalendares ',' and must be carefully distinguished from certain compositions also named 'Fasti' by the ancients.

These were regular chronicles in which were recorded each year the names of the Consuls and other magistrates, together with the remarkable events, and the days on which they occurred. The most important were the 'Annales Maximi,’ kept by the Pontifex Maximus, but similar documents appear to have been compiled by other magistrates, and by private individuals, and we find many allusions to works of this description, which must have afforded valuable materials to the historian. Of these Horace speaks in Od. 3. 17, 1

'Aeli, vetusto nobilis ab Lamo.
Quando et priores hinc Lamios ferunt
Denominatos, et nepotum

Per memores genus omne fastos
Auctore ab illo ducit originem,' &c.

and again in Od. 4. 13, 13, addressed to an old coquette,

'Nec Coae referunt iam tibi purpurae

Nec clari lapides tempora quae semel
Notis condita fastis

Inclusit volucris dies,'

and lastly in S. 1. 3, 112

'Tempora si fastosque velis evolvere mundi.'

In the year 1547 several fragments of marble tablets were dug up at Rome, which were found to contain a list of Consuls, Dictators, Censors, &c. from the foundation of the city until the age of Augustus. These were collected and adjusted as far as possible, and deposited by Cardinal Alexander Farnese in the Capitol, from which circumstance they have been styled the 'Fasti Capitolini,' and similar collections derived from different sources have received the names of 'Fasti Consulares,'' Fasti triumphales,' and the like.

12. We may now turn our attention to the Roman Calendar as it existed in ages more remote, and to the different forms which it assumed before the Julian Era. Every part of this

1 These expressions are not classical.

subject is involved in darkness and uncertainty, and the statements of the ancient writers, who appear to have been themselves very ignorant in such matters, are most perplexing and irreconcileable.

There can be little doubt that a year was in use among the Romans in the earliest times, thence denominated the 'Year of Romulus,' which consisted of 304 days, divided into ten months- Martius,' 'Aprilis,' 'Maius,' 'Iunius,' 'Quintilis,' 'Sextilis,' 'September,' October,' 'November,' 'December.' Of these, March, May, Quintilis, and October, contained thirtyone days, the rest thirty 1.

A great variety of etymologies have been proposed for the names of three out of the first four 2. We may feel certain that 'Martius' was called after the god 'Mars;' it is probable that Aprilis' is connected with 'aperio,' and was originally the 'Spring-month,' when the sea is thrown open to navigation, the earth released from the bonds of winter, the trees expand their leaves, and the flowers burst into blossom. In like manner the Athenians had their aveσTηpíwv, and revolutionary France her 'Germinal' and Floreal.' 'Maius' was a deity worshipped at Tusculum, identical in attributes with Jupiter, and traces are to be found in Roman mythology of a goddess Maia.' 'Iunius' is a contraction for Iunonius,' (from 'Iuno,') an epithet bestowed upon one of their months by several of the neighbouring states.

'Inspice, quos habeat nemoralis Aricia Fastos,
Et populus Laurens, Lanuviumque meum.
Est illic mensis Iunonius. Inspice Tibur
Et Praenestinae moenia sacra Deae.
Iunonale leges tempus' Ov. Fast. 6. 59.

That the month of March was originally the first in the year

1 Among the older historians, Licinius Macer and Fenestella maintained that the Romans from the first employed a solar year of twelve months (see Censorin. 20), and Plutarch also (Vit. Num. 18) that the number of the months was criginally twelve, and that the number of days in each varied from twenty to thirty-five, the sum total being 360. But on the other side we have Junius Gracchanus, Fulvius, Varro, and others (see Censorin. as above), to whom we may add Ov. Fast. 1. 27, 43; 3. 99, 119, 151, A. Gell. N. A. 3. 16, Macrob. S. 1. 12, Solin. Polyh. 1, all of whom speak without any doubt of the ten-month year. The number of days in each month is given by Censorinus, Solinus, and Macrobius.

2 The student will find a multitude of these stated and discussed in the Fasti of Ovid, at the beginning of Bks. 4. 5. 6, and in Macrobius S. 1. 12. See also Censorin. 22.

is sufficiently proved by the names of those which follow June, namely, 'Quintilis' or the fifth month, 'Sextilis' the sixth, 'September' the seventh, and so on to 'December' the tenth. In addition, many sacred rites and ancient customs long retained point to the same conclusion. On the 1st of March the holy fire was renewed on the altar of Vesta; at the commencement of the month the old laurels were taken down from the Regia, the houses of the Flamines, and the different Curiae, and replaced by fresh branches; sacrifices were offered to Anna Perenna,' the goddess of the circling year, the salaries of instructors were paid, the taxes farmed out, and matrons gave an entertainment to the slaves, as the masters of families did on the Saturnalia, the object of the latter being to reward the domestics for their industry during the year that was past, of the former to stimulate their exertions for the future 1.

The year of 304 days corresponds with the course neither of the sun nor of the moon, and many hypotheses have been formed with regard to its origin and import. By far the most ingenious and profound of these, so ingenious indeed that it almost carries conviction, is the theory propounded by Niebuhr. He supposes it to have been employed along with a lunar year for the purpose of making the solar and lunar years coincide at certain fixed epochs. He moreover finds traces of it in history at a period long after it is generally believed to have fallen into disuse, and by its aid explains several of the chronological anomalies and contradictions so frequent in the early annals. His calculations are too intricate to be developed here, but well deserve the attention of all interested in such researches 2.

13. The year of Romulus was succeeded by a pure lunar year, introduced, according to the prevailing tradition, by Numa, who retained the names of the ten months already in use, and added two more, 'Ianuarius' from the god 'Ianus,' and 'Februarius' from 'Februus,' the deity who presided over expiatory rites.

The true length of a lunar month, that is, the interval between two successive New or Full Moons, is 29 days, 12 hours, 44 minutes, 2.87 seconds, and hence twelve lunar months

1 See Macrob. S. 1. 12, Ov. Fast. 3. 135, seqq., Plutarch. Q. R. 19. 2 Niebuhr's Roman History, Vol. 1, Chapter On the secular cycle.' Censorin. 20, Solin. 1, Macrob. S. 1. 13. On the other hand, Junius Gracchanus maintained (Censorin. 1. c.) that this change was introduced by Tarquinius (Priscus).