Hence the necessity for constant intercalation, and the inevitability of chaos if
intercalation was omitted. Laurence and Smith (1995 – 96, 137 – 38) well stress that the
system fell down badly during two particular periods of crisis, the Hannibalic War and
the last years of the Republic.
And he had to add another day every fourth (“leap”) year to get a more pre-
cise average of 365¼.
So that the mnemonic of “March, July, October, May” works for the position
of the Ides in the Julian as well as the Republican calendar. The extra day in February
that needed to be added every fourth year for the “leap” year was not added at the end
of the month, as now; rather, the sixth day before the Kalends of March (“24 Febru-
ary”) was counted twice (hence bissextus,giving our “bissextile”). Caesar chose this
point in the month because it was here that the intercalary month was inserted under
the old calendar.
See Macr. Sat.1.14.8 – 9 for Caesar’s care on this point. The only major festi-
val held between the Kalends and Nones anyway was the Poplifugia on 5 July: Wis-
sowa 1912, 436.
It is very clear from Macr. Sat.1.14.11 that what counted was the position rel-
ative to the preceding Ides, not to the following Kalends: cf. Suerbaum 1980, 330 – 31;
Hannah 2005, 123 – 24. The net effect was to preserve a curious feature of the old cal-
endar, whereby the main feriaefall on odd days, reckoned by our normal method of
forward counting, with the exception only of the Regifugium on 24 February and the
“second” Equirria on 14 March: Wissowa 1912, 436 – 37; cf. Dumézil 1970, 562, for
discussion of these anomalous festivals. This apparent bizarre departure from the
“backward-counting” structure of the calendrical system is to be explained by the fact
that this distribution avoids having two feriaeback to back: Wissowa 1912, 437. Cae-
sar’s solution is interestingly different from what had happened to the two festivals that
fell after the Ides in February when there was intercalation in the Republican calendar.
In this case, the Regifugium and “first” Equirria kept exactly the same notation and
hence the same distance from the following Kalends and did not maintain the same
position relative to the preceding Ides: “It is clear... that... the intercalary month
was inserted after the Terminalia, a.d. VII Kal. Mart.(February 23) and that the Regi-
fugium and Equirria, which in ordinary years were celebrated on a.d. VIand a.d. III
Kal. Mart.(February 24 and 27), were celebrated on a.d. VI anda.d. III Kal. Mart.
mense intercalario” (Michels 1967, 160). It is no doubt significant that the Regifugium
and the “second” Equirria are anomalous in their placement in the calendar, since the
Regifugium and “first” Equirria in February are closely connected with the “second”
Equirria in March: Michels 1967, 17 – 18.
On Augustus’s birthday, see Michels 1967, 180 – 81; Suerbaum 1980, 334 – 35;
Hannah 2005, 124 – 25; Pasco-Pranger 2006, chap. 4.
Suerbaum 1980, 334 – 35.
notes to pages 153 – 154
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