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days, for example F for
dies Fasti
, 42 of these each
year were the only days valid for legal actions and N
for
dies Nefasti
, 58 each year, no legal action allowed.
NP indicated
dies nefasti publici
a - a variable number
of public holidays when no business should be
conducted and everyone had the day off to celebrate.
Dodgy Days
To indicate a day within a month the Romans didn’t
say 21 June, instead three days of each month had
special names and all the other days were indicated
by their relationship to these three. The first day of
each month was known as the
Kalends
. The day of
full moon was called the
Ides
(usually the 13th or
15th) and the
Nones
was the day nine days before
the Ides. For the superstitious Romans odd numbered
days were luckier than even numbered days so all
public holidays began on an odd numbered day.
The days after the Kalends, the ides and the Nones
were called black days and were thought to be
particularly unlucky. On such days particularly
superstitious people tried to do as little as possible.
Second Year, Third Term Thatcher
And if that’s not enough to make your head spin, as
for knowing what year it was – here you really
needed a good memory or a good fasti! In many
cultures the year began and ended with winter.
The Vikings counted a man’s age in winters and for
the Plains Indians of America the year ran from first
snow fall to first snowfall. Traditionally Native
American Indians like the Lakota people chose a
keeper of the winter count who recorded the days
between snowfalls on buffalo hides and consulted
with the chief in choosing a name for the year. But
for the Romans the calendar year began on 1 March,
which meant that September and October were
originally the 7
th
and 8
th
months.
During the Roman Republic the year was always
given in terms of who was Consul. If we translated
this system to British Prime Ministers I would tell
you that I was born in the final year of Macmillan
who was the last of our Prime ministers to be born
during the reign of Queen Victoria - how can that
outrageous fact be true? I am only fifty! (Almost.)
My father was born during the 5
th
year of Stanley
Baldwin’s second term and old Wally Webb?
A mere boy compared to my dad, Wally didn’t
make his entrance until the third year of Ramsay
MacDonald. City & Village Tours is 2
nd
year, third
term Margaret Thatcher. What are you?
Time & Taxes
If the Roman week was eight days the Roman day
was, at least, the one familiar to us, 24 hours
beginning at midnight, whereas the Babylonians and
the Greeks had begun their days at sunrise and sunset
respectively. But without accurate methods of
keeping time the Roman day was for many centuries
simply divided into before and after midday. The
Consul employed a herald to shout out midday
because advocates had to appear before tribunals (on
F days) before midday for their cases to be considered
valid. Mechanical clocks did not arrive until the
Middle Ages so from the time of the Egyptian
Pharaohs and for thousands of years time was most
often measured using the sun, water or sand.