some useful kudos among the ruling elites of the Mediterranean world. This is
conveyed at least in Lucan’s epic, where Caesar is depicted at a banquet in
Egypt, in the company of Cleopatra and her entourage, boasting about the
astronomical superiority of his calendar.^176
Caesar’s interest in the Egyptian calendar is also likely to have been related
to his personal attraction to Cleopatra. But more importantly, the appropria-
tion of an Egyptian institution such as its civil calendar may be regarded as
part of an imperialistic claim. Not unlike the adoption of the Egyptian
calendar by Achaemenid Persia in about thefifth centuryBCE(as argued
above in this chapter), Caesar’s appropriation of the Egyptian calendar was a
demonstration of his military and diplomatic achievements in the East, which
had led to the prestigious kingdom of Egypt being effectively subdued and
brought under Rome’s sphere of influence. Indeed, the institution of the Julian
calendar in 46BCEwas directly linked to Caesar’s triumph for Egypt that was
celebrated at Rome in the very same year.
Political motivationsBut the dominant theme in most ancient sources, as we have seen, is Caesar’s
concern to stamp out the abuse of intercalation at the hands of self-interested
pontiffs. That abuses of this kind occurred, possibly on a regular basis, is
almost beyond any doubt; but it is difficult to back this up with contemporary
evidence. Cicero, writing in the late 50sBCE, concurs at least that the pontiffs
had become neglectful in the administration of the calendar, although he does
not mention in this context self-interested motivations.^177 In a much earlier,
political speech, he argues for calendars’being well regulated and not tam-
pered for purposes of personal gain, political orfinancial, but the context of
this argument is not the Roman calendar.^178
(^176) Lucan,CivilWars, 10. 185–7 (written in the mid-1st c.CE): after mentioning his interest in
the sky and the stars, Caesar concludes:nec meusEudoxivincetur fastibus annus(‘and my year
shall not be defeated by the calendar of Eudoxus’)—a much-quoted line (e.g. Bickerman 1968:
47). Eudoxus was an eminent Greek astronomer of the 4th c. BCE (see Samuel 1972: 29–31). The
octaeteris (eight-year lunar calendar) was commonly attributed to him (although Censorinus 18.
5 rejects this); Lucan is perhaps hinting at this common belief. Alternatively, Lucan may be
thinking of a four-year cycle attributed to Eudoxus by Pliny (Nat.Hist. 2. 48; on its lack of
historicity, see Lehoux 2007: 80–1). The scene is set in 48BCE, so Caesar’s statement is possibly
anachronistic (since the Julian calendar was only instituted two years later).
(^177) Cicero,De Legibus, 2. 29:diligenter habenda ratio intercalandi est,quod institutum perite a
Numa, posteriorum pontificum neglegentia dissolutum est.
(^178) Cicero,In Verrem II2. 128–30, where he attacks Verres (pro-praetor of Sicily in the late
70sBCE) for having suppressed one and a half months from the Sicilian year. The Sicilian
calendar was not Roman, but lunar in the Greek tradition. Cicero’s main argument is that
Greek calendars only allow the intercalation or suppression of one or two days per month, and
that Verres’action was therefore preposterous (hence Cicero’s analogy, at the end of this passage,
TheRise of the Fixed Calendars 219