Page:The Ancient City- A Study on the Religion, Laws, and Institutions of Greece and Rome.djvu/218

 ri2 THE CITY. BOOK III. {lontiff, after having offered a sacrifice, convoked the (^/eople, and named the festivals that would take place ii the course of the mouth. This convocation was c^llud the ccdatio, whence came the name of calends, which was given to this day. "JThe calendar was regulated neither on the course of the moon nor on the apparent course of the sun. It was governed solely by the laws of religion, mysterious laws, which the priests alone knew. Sometimes re- ligion required that the year should be shortened, and at other limes that it should be lengthened. We can form an idea of primitive calendars, if we recollect that among the Albans the month of May had twelve days, anrl that March had thirty-six,' AVe can see that the calendar of one city would in no ise resemble that of another, since the religion way not the same in both, and the festivals, as well as the gods, were different. The year had not the same length from one city to another. The months did not bear the same names : at Athens they had quite other nai.ies than at Thebes, and at Rome they had not the same names as at Lavinium. This was due to the fact that the name of each month wa« derived, ordinarily, from the principal festival it contained, and the festi- vals were not the same. Different cities had no under- standing to commence the year at the same time, or to count the series of their years from the same date. In Greece the Olympic festival afforded, in the course of time, a common date; but this did not prevent each city from having its own particular style of reckoning. In Italy every city counted its years from the day of its foundation. ' Censorinus. 22. Macrobius, I. 14; I. 15. Varro, V. 28; VI. 27.