Page:The history of Rome. Translated with the author's sanction and additions.djvu/240

220 harmonize with the course both of sun and moon, did in reality by no means correspond with the lunar periods, as its Greek model did at least on the whole, while, like the oldest Greek cycle, it could only follow the solar seasons by means of frequent arbitrary excisions, and did in all probability follow them but very imperfectly, for it is scarcely likely that the calendar would be handled with greater skill than was manifested in its original arrangement. The retention moreover of the reckoning by months or (which is the same thing) by years of ten months, implies a tacit, but not to be misunderstood, confession of the irregularity and untrustworthiness of the oldest Roman solar year. This Roman calendar may be looked upon, at least in its essential features, as that generally current among the Latins. From the general liability to change as to the time of beginning the year and the names of the months, smaller variations in the successional numbers and designations are quite compatible with the hypothesis of a common basis; and with such a calendar-system, which practically was quite irrespective of the lunar course, the Latins might easily come to have months of arbitrary lengths whose limits were possibly marked by annual festivals—as in the case of the Alban months, which varied between 16 and 36 days. It would appear probable therefore that the Greek trieteris had early been introduced from Lower Italy at least into Latium and perhaps also among the other Italian stocks, and had thereafter been subjected, in the calendars of the several cities, to various subordinate alterations.

For the measuring of periods of more years than one the regnal years of the kings may have been employed; but it is doubtful whether that method of dating, which was in use in the East, existed in Greece or Italy during earlier times. On the other hand the intercalary period recurring every four years, and the census and lustration of the community connected with it, appear to have suggested a reckoning by lustra similar in plan to the Greek reckoning by Olympiads—a mode of reckoning, however, which early lost its chronological importance, in consequence of the irregularities that were soon introduced through the postponement of the census.

The art of expressing sounds by written signs was of later origin than the art of measurement. The Italians did not any more than the Hellenes develop such an art of