John Fray, October 15, 2024:

The enormity of the Roman contributions to Western culture shapes our everyday lives in subtle ways. Julius Caesar's implementation of the calendar having twelve months per year, and one leap day every four years, was an accomplishment (along with the Gregorian calendar's nuanced revision as to leap day occurrences) which has withstood the test of time. However, I occasionally like to consider what I refer to as the "romance" of the Roman Calendar, especially when the full moon occurs on or near the fifteenth of the month.

Today, October 15, 2024, sees a nearly full moon. The Roman Calendar was configured around each month's full moon. The calendar had ten months, spanning the interval from what we now recognize as March though December. (The interval from what we now view as January through February was regarded by the Romans as a cache of supplemental days.) Generally, each month had thirty days. The "Ides" of the month, that is the fifteenth day of the month, was set to coincide with the full moon. Because the cycle of the moon is not exactly thirty days, an extra day would be inserted into a month when necessary. One benefit of the Roman calendar was that the date was written in the sky, so to speak. (How's that for a romantic notion?) By observing the phase of the moon, one could roughly determine the date of the month.