Abstract
The intercalary days were inserted after the feast of Terminalia on 23 February.
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Notes
- 1.
Varro, de lingua latina, 6.13: […] quod is dies extremus constitutus: duodecim enim mensis fuit Februarius et cum intercalatur inferiores quinque dies duodecimo demuntur mense.
The expression cum intercalatur should be translated as “every time that the intercalation is undertaken”, rather than “when the extra month is inserted”. We shall see later (see Chap. 16) how, why and in what way “the final 5 days are taken off”.
- 2.
In my book The Feasts of Venus (“Le feste di Venere”) I merely considered the 8th of the month. I have since realized that this line of reasoning applies to both days, considering that for the Romans the day started at midnight, while the Etruscans counted their days from midday (see Servius, Ad Aen. 5.738 and 6.535).
9 March is an ancilia moventur day (see Chap. 22), and shares the same nundinal letter (A) as day 1.
- 3.
Columella, de re rustica, 11.2.36: ver bipertitur.
21 April is the feast of “mid-spring” both in Rome and in Ancient Iran, where the year began on 8 March and the months were 30 days long. See Bartholomae 1961, s.v. maδyoi.zaremaya- “mid-spring”, yairya- “anno” and maiδyoi.sam- “mid-summer”.
- 4.
Plutarch, de fortuna romanorum, 320C: λεγουσι γαρ εκλειποντος του ηλιου ηϕανισθαι, νωναις καπρατιναις, ην αρχι νυν ημεραν επιϕανως εορταζουσιν.
- 5.
P. Fest., p. 176L: nonas quidam a nova luna, quod in eas concurreret principium lunae.; Varro, de lingua latina, 6.28: nonae appellatae […] quod, ut novus annus Kalendae Ianuariae ab novo sole appellatae, novus mensis ab nova luna Nonae.
- 6.
Macrobius, Saturnalia, 1.18.10: […] procedentibus augmentis aequinoctio vernali similiter atque adulescentis adipiscitur vires figuraque iuvenis ornatur.
- 7.
Aulus Gellius, Noctes Atticae, 10.28: […] Servium Tullium regem […] pueros esse existimasse, qui minores essent annis septem decem, atque inde ab anno septimo decimo, quo idoneos iam esse reipublicae arbitraretur, milites scripsisse […]
The roman practice of counting inclusively increases the result by one compared with our favoured method of counting: as a result of this, the expression minores […] annis septem decem should be translated as “up to the age of sixteen”.
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Magini, L. (2015). The Solar New Year on March 8 or 9. In: Stars, Myths and Rituals in Etruscan Rome. Space and Society. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-07266-1_7
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