Not quite, Rocky. August was called Sextilis (from 6) and I don't recall July's former name. It wasn't inserting two months that messed it up, because there was no insertion; the months were just renamed. The numbers are off because the year used to start around the beginning of spring, March 25. (This remained true in England until 1752!)
Yes, the day after March 24, 1700 was March 25, 1701 under that system, and yes, that is just... fucked up by our standards.
Rocky Oliver (LotusGeek)
re: months - and September - December are numeric:
SEPTember == SEPT == 7
OCTober == OCT == 8
NOVember == NOV == 9
DECember == DEC == 10
From what I understand July and August were named after Caesars -
July == Julius Caesar
August == Augustus Caesar
This is what shifted the numeric months down 2 notches from 7-10th months to 9-12th months, as they are now.
Oct 31, 2011
Terence Vermont
HAHAHA
May 20, 2012
SteveInCO
Not quite, Rocky. August was called Sextilis (from 6) and I don't recall July's former name. It wasn't inserting two months that messed it up, because there was no insertion; the months were just renamed. The numbers are off because the year used to start around the beginning of spring, March 25. (This remained true in England until 1752!)
Yes, the day after March 24, 1700 was March 25, 1701 under that system, and yes, that is just... fucked up by our standards.
May 21, 2012