Good morning! It’s March 15th, also known as the Ides of March if you’re a Julius Caesar fan.Today’s Goodie is just a little calendar lesson from Roman times, when the calendar was a little more complicated than it is today. For starters, remember, they were using Roman numerals, not Arabic.
According to the article I found on Infoplease.com, the Roman calendar centered on three days each month, which had names as well as numbers:
- Kalends (1st day of the month)
- Nones (the 7th day in March, May, July, and October; the 5th in the other months)
- Ides (the 15th day in March, May, July, and October; the 13th in the other months)
The remaining, unnamed days of the month were identified by counting backwards from the Kalends, Nones, or the Ides. For example, March 3 would be V Nones–5 days before the Nones (the Roman method of counting days was inclusive; in other words, the Nones would be counted as one of the 5 days).
(Read more: Ides of March)
Can you even imagine? Give me a Google Calendar any day.
One reply on “TDG: The Ides of March”
What a lovely and elegant description of Roman dating conventions. Yay for ancient history! I’d really like to start dating my letters this way.