Calendars in Antiquity. Empires, States, and Societies

present generation; whether the next willview it in quite the same way is a story worth following through. FALSE MODELS, FALSE T ...

modelin earlier scholarship does not confirm its historicalplausibility; it is rather indicative of a modern scholarly trend, wi ...

different calendars is bound to haveled to confusion, and although not intrinsically impossible (it appears to have occurred, fo ...

study) to a purely scientific discipline. Fostered by a nineteenth-century tradition of handbooks of so-calledmathematischeund t ...

ButCaesar himself was no scientist (in spite of some attempts to project such an image of him); he was driven by politicalmotiva ...

as a purely scientific discipline is thus not only reductionist but also, in most cases, misplaced. The notion of progress in th ...

The misconceived classification offlexible, unpredictablecalendars as infe- rior and primitive and offixed, predictablecalendars ...

explained in relation to the broader context of ancient calendars, i.e. the societies and politicalstructures in the context of ...

through the course of history (by which he seems to mean, though not very clearly, the introduction of formalsystems of reconcil ...

scholars—^22 is misleading.It suggests that the calendar is a toolthat society utilizes as if it were somehow externalto it, whe ...

BRIEF OVERVIEWOF THELITERATURE The comprehensive survey of ancient calendars is an ancient, well-established literary genre, alt ...

many cases,Ihave found that fresh research and fresh interpretations were needed. Many of the generalworks surveyed above presen ...

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Part I From City States to Great Empires: The Rise of the Fixed Calendars ...

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1 Calendars of Ancient Greece Ancient Greek calendars go back to early Antiquity, but evidence of how they were structured and r ...

Sections in this chapter follow a rough chronological order: the archontic or festival calendars are undoubtedly the most ancien ...

Accordingly, these late authors commonly distinguish the day ofsynodos (‘conjunction’), the last day of the month, from that ofn ...

day after the conjunction, before the new moon was sighted or even theoreti- cally visible. Further ambiguities arise from a pas ...

others, the nominal intention—but in practice no effort was made to enforce it precisely. Statements associating the conjunction ...