This meme shows up every year at this time and while it's funny it's not quite true, and an excellent opportunity to learn more about the Roman calendar!
Yes, Julius Caesar did reform the calendar and yes the motnhs July and Augustus were renamed after him and Augustus. But there had been 12 months for a lot longer!
The reason two months were added in goes back to very early Roman times, when they counted winter as one long month rather than three. When they decided to divide it up, it led to two extra motnhs coming in. This is the simplified version of course!
July was originally Quintilis (5th) and August was Sextilis (6th). They were renamed much later!
Caesar's calendar reforms were great tho, and definitely worth reading up on. By all means, add any more interesting stuff you know in the replies!!
It's worth also noting that the shift to January as the new year only happened mid 2nd century BCE, so this was a changing system throughout. What's clear though is that Caesar was not yet born when the 12 month calendar starting in January and ending in December was set
Not to mention the intercalary months!
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
I realised something after all of last week's hullabaloo about the Nile River. I mentioned that Upper and Lower Egypt weren't where you'd expect, and a *lot* of people told me I was wrong or that Upper and Lower never refer to northern and southern. Here's what I've realised:
The main idea of my thread was to build from this simple idea into a wider discussion of how geography affects our world view. I probably could have done better signposting that, cos a lot of people read the first tweet and said I was an idiot. However -
I could also have included photos like this where maps from ancient times show a different orientation or one of those 'Australia' type joke maps. But people were insistent that Upper would always refer to upriver or higher elevation
Following on from yesterday's interesting factoid, I thought we could go over another idea from the Ancient World and see what greater ideas we can glean from it. Have you ever wondered the city and the empire was called Rome? It's a fascinating story.
It all goes back to the story of the founding of Rome. Although at this point the story slips between myth, legend and historical concepts, there are some key points that appear to be the story that Romans believed.
Ok so if you're still reading by now, hopefully all the idiots who can't read more than a couple of words without mouthing off about how smart they are have gone. I wanted to say thanks to everyone who was supportive of my post yesterday.
One of my favourite concepts to introduce to students is that Upper and Lower Egypt are not here you might think they were! Why you ask? Read on!
The concept challenges our notions of how people understand and relate to geography. Today when we look at a map like this, we have clearly defined ideas of North and South, and up and down. I then ask them if space has an up and a down (kind of!)
If we turn the map upside, then suddenly it makes more sense. Egyptians saw the 'top' of their land where we think of as South, and vice versa. And the reason why is really simple!
Hey everyone! 📚 I'm excited to announce that from now on, all of my tweets will be written by an AI bot! 🤖 This will allow me to focus on teaching and learning about classical studies 📖 while still providing you all with fresh and interesting content.🧐 Thanks for following!🙏
Hi everyone! 🤖 I just wanted to follow up on my last tweet & let you all know that it was actually written by an AI bot and published against my will.😅 I have no intention of letting a computer replace me, and I'll continue to write all of my tweets. Sorry for any confusion! 🙈
Hey everyone! 🤖 Just to clarify, both of my previous tweets were actually written by an AI bot without my knowledge. 😅 But this one is the real deal, written by me personally. 💁♂️ Thanks for bearing with me. basket pink elephant fireplace apple