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whether it was at once adopted or not is doubtful. Boeckh thinks that it was not, and that for some time at any rate, the Athenians went on with the octennial cycle as corrected by the solar year of 365¼ days, which Eudoxus, the friend of Plato, borrowed from Egypt. But whenever introduced, the cycle dates from July 16, 432 This was the first day of Hecatombaeon, in the first year of the first cycle of nineteen years.

b. Names of the Attic months.

The following are the names of the Attic months. The exact day on which the year began varied; but, speaking roughly, the Attic months corresponded to the English months opposite:—

When an intercalary month was needed it was placed after Poseideon, as Poseideon II.

The Attic year thus began at the summer solstice, and in this respect coincided with the Olympic year. Whether this was always the case is doubtful; from the position of the intercalary month, which would naturally come at the end of the year, it seems not improbable that the year once began at the winter solstice, as with us.