How Were July and August added to the Calendar?

Representing the Roman calendar with a tale is an insightful exercise that gives all who listen to it a rare glimpse of Roman Patrician life of those days. According to the tale, the city of Rome was founded in 753 BC by Romulus who was a figure that wowed people with his phenomenal abilities and legend as the founder of Rome.

The early form of the calendar also had ten months that were of equal length. Their nuisance began in March and ended in December with the result that in every year the total number of days was 304.

The Ten months that started with Martius and ended with December were Martius (31 days), Aprilis (30 days), Maius (31 days), Junius (30 days), Quintilis (31 days), Sextilis (30 days), September (30 days), October (31 days), November (30 days), and December (30 days).

Coming after every sad last month there was a still of unnamed months because people were not in the habit of using years. This period usually took through January and February but the New Year came again at the start of March even though they were not yet counted by the people.

Next, in 713 BC, Numa Pompilius, the 2nd king of Rome took it as an option to regulate the whole system in a way that was more important and set the new standards. Thus, to bring the calendar into proper coordination with the phases of the Moon, two months were added, January (Januarius) and February (Februarius), by Numa Pompilius. The month of January initially had 29 days, but it was later changed to 31 days, and the month of February had 28 days with one extra day available every 4 years so the total did not deviate from the maximum possible balance, i.e., 355 days.

The new part which was inserted sporadically was Mercedonius, an intercalary month, so that the solar year might be in balance with the heliacal rising of the sun.

The emperor Julius Caesar, who was ruling back then, realized that the Gregorian calendar was running out of sync with the tropical year and thus thought that a new system was the need of the hour. It was therefore in 46 BC that Caesar finally managed to add the Julian calendar after seeking advice from an Alexandrian astronomer, Sosigenes.

This calendar had a total of twelve months and a leap year after every four years, with the leap year compensating for any extra days. Also, the days of some months were altered to match their current-day length: January (31 days), February (28 days, 29 in leap years), March (31 days), April (30 days), May (31 days), June (30 days), Quintilis (July) (31 days), Sextilis (August) (31 days), September (30 days), October (31 days), November (30 days), and December (31 days).

When Julius Caesar was assassinated in 44 BC, the Roman Senate changed Quintilis to “Julius” (July), which was his birth month. In addition, in 8 BC, Sextilis began to be referred to as “Augustus” (August) on a regular basis, which was the name of Augustus Caesar, the first emperor of Rome, in his honor. The month was of great significance due to his numerous achievements. The time was shortened by one day, as the period between July and August, so as to add one day to August, was taken from February’s 29th.

Despite being a big step, the Julian calendar, as far as its advance was very moderate, had remained with a little error of only eleven minutes and 14 seconds per year still. As time went by, the small surplus accumulated, which made the calendar go away from the sun year. The same year correction was performed when Pope Gregory XIII introduced the Gregorian calendar in 1582.

Such a nifty and beautiful leap year rule, for every year that is exactly divisible by four, except for the hundreds (which are not divisible by four hundred and one hundred), the year is a leap year. The change was instrumental in getting the equinox dates back in the year at the right moment.
So, through this example, it is shown that the improvement of our calendar is the outcome of cautious and slow changes that have been made over centuries, and July and August are the reminders of the two Rome’s influential figures.