The result of the institution and diffusion of the Julian calendar in the
Roman Empire, and indeed of the whole process described in this chapter, was
that by the end of thefirst centuryBCE,fixed calendars based on the Egyptian
365-day year had become dominant throughout the ancient world, from Gaul
in theWest to Sogdiana in Central Asia. The lunar calendars that had
dominated the ancient world until c.500 BCEonly survived in restricted
(although, arguably, significant) areas: Greece (or parts of it; see Chapter 1),
some Near Eastern client kingdoms of Rome (e.g. Nabataea, until it became
Provincia Arabia in 106CE—and Judaea: see Chapters 5–6), and parts of the
Parthian Empire, in particular Mesopotamia (Chapter 2).
This widescale takeover offixed calendars should not be interpreted as the
result of scientific progress: indeed, the Babylonians and Greeks were probably
the most advanced astronomers of the ancient world, and yet they retained
theirflexible lunar calendars. Thefixed Egyptian calendar was adopted in
various regions (mainly in the Persian and Roman Empires) for specific, local
reasons, which distinguish them clearly from one another. Nevertheless, these
distinct, discrete events fall into a grand, macro-historical pattern—the spread
of a common,fixed calendar—which can be linked to the rise of great empires
in the Near East and Mediterranean in the second half of thefirst millennium
BCE. Thefixed calendar was not only an effective system for the administration
of extensive territorial empires, but also a medium for cultural exchange and
cultural cohesion, and thus in itself a constituent element in the formation of
common culture across the great empires of the ancient world.
TheRise of the Fixed Calendars 227