As we move from July into August, all thoughts turn to beaches, barbeque, beer\u2026 and the Roman Empire.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s why. In ancient Rome, the year was originally laid out as ten months stretching from early spring to the winter solstice. The first four months were named after gods, starting with \u2013 of course \u2013 war (Mars), followed by \u2013 of course \u2013 love (Aphrodite), and then spring growth (Maia) and then power and sovereignty (Juno). After those four monthly themes, apparently nothing else really mattered, because the rest of the months were just numbered (Quintilis, Sextilis, September, October, November, December).\u00a0After that, there was a nondescript winter period, before starting again with Mars\u2019 month.<\/p>\n
In 46 BC, Julius Caesar improved things by defining the winter period as two new months, the first named for Janus, the god of new beginnings, and the second for Februa, the Roman festival of purification.\u00a0He also moved the beginning of the year to Janus 1st, the day the Senate took office. To make things more logical, he staggered the number of days within each month, starting with 31 in Martius, 30 in Aprilus, etc. throughout the year, with February taking the remaining 28 days (except for Leap Years) for a total of 365 days.<\/p>\n
It was a great achievement, but Julius enjoyed his new calendar for only a year before he was assassinated.<\/p>\n
Julius had no sons, and his heir was his adopted grand-nephew named Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus, more commonly known as Octavian. He succeeded Julius as part of a triumvirate with Lepidus and Marc Antony, but he outlasted both of them, and eventually was declared the first Emperor of Rome. Wielding that power, one of the things he did was declare his great-uncle a god, and renamed the month of Quintilis as Julius in his honor.<\/p>\n
Octavian also did a few other noteworthy things, like expanding the empire and establishing the Pax Romana. He did such a good job that the Senate awarded him the honorific \u2018Augustus\u2019 \u2013 meaning \u2018Great\u2019 \u2013\u00a0and upon his death, \u2018Augustus Caesar\u2019 was declared a god just like his great-uncle, and the month of Sextilis was renamed Augustus. In order to recognize Julius and Augustus equally, both of their months were given 31 days.<\/p>\n
From that point on, every Roman leader wanted to be \u2018Emperor of the Month.\u2019\u00a0Nero renamed April as Neroneus; Domitian renamed October as Domitianus; Caligula renamed September as Germanicus.\u00a0Emperor Commodus went off the deep end and renamed ALL TWELVE months in honor of himself, but he was a numbnut and nobody took him seriously.<\/p>\n
In the end, none of these changes lasted. Yep, the ultimate measure of fame is staying power.\u00a0And for the last 2000 years, nobody\u2019s been able to knock Julius and Augustus off their calendar pedestals, or climb up there with them.<\/p>\n
So, as you celebrate summer, raise your glass and pay your respects.<\/p>\n
Say it with me: \u201cHail Caesars!\u201d<\/p>\n
The only two mortals who achieved the ultimate celebrity status: Permanent Pinup.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As we move from July into August, all thoughts turn to beaches, barbeque, beer\u2026 and the Roman Empire. Here\u2019s why. In ancient Rome, the year was originally laid out as ten months stretching from early spring to the winter solstice. The first four months were named after gods, starting with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1942,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[95,96,198,678,679,1051],"class_list":["post-145","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-5","tag-august","tag-augustus-caesar","tag-calendar","tag-julius-caesar","tag-july","tag-roman-emperor"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/07\/Roman-Calendar.jpg?fit=795%2C409&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=145"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1944,"href":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145\/revisions\/1944"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1942"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=145"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=145"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=145"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}