The phrasekata theon(orselenen) begins to appear in inscriptions from the
third centuryBCE, where it appears to take on a calendrical function and
meaning.^122 It is now used for all days of the month, not just thenoumenia,
together with explicitly named months. This suggests thatkata theondates
were now continuously reckoned, and formed an annual calendar with its own
months and days which differed, as double-dated inscriptions clearly indicate,
from the archontic (festival) calendar.Whereas the archontic (festival) calen-
dar was prone, as we have seen, to tampering and deviation from the true
lunar month, thekata theoncalendar would have been strictly lunar and
regulated, as is perhaps most likely, through observation of the new
moon.^123 On this basis, Pritchett and Neugebauer (1947) propose that the
kata theondates constituted a third calendar, alongside the archontic and
prytanic calendars, that came into use at Athens and elsewhere from the third
centuryBCE.^124
According to Pritchett and Neugebauer, the purpose of thekata theon
calendar was to regulate the archontic calendar, and in particular, to control
the terminal limits of the year (which, in their view, had to be the same for all
703 – 7 (but they introduce an unnecessary complication by arguing that the phrasenoumenia
kata selenenmeans a calendrical, archonticnoumeniathat has been regulated by the new moon
and not artificially advanced or retarded; yet there is no indication that Thucydides is referring to
the archontic or any other calendar); see also Pritchett (2001) 89. Others have argued that
noumeniakata selenenrefers in this passage to thefirst day of the astronomical month, i.e. the
day of the conjunction (before the new moon becomes visible), when solar eclipses indeed occur
(e.g. Dunn 1998: 218). However, it is doubtful whether Thucydides would have been aware of the
concept of astronomical conjunction, which moreover later sources refer to assynodos(whereas
noumeniais the day of appearance of the new moon: see above, n. 6).
(^122) These dates are sporadically attested in various parts of Greece from the early third
century, e.g. Boeotia (Samuel 1972: 69), Euboea (see below), and the city of Stymphalos in
Arcadia (IGv/2, no. 357, ll. 17–18: see Pritchett 2001: 90, Bickerman 1968: 33). They become
common in Attica throughout the second century, but after that the evidence fades away. Note
also the mention ofnoumeniakata selenenin P. Carlsberg 9, l. 125 (an Egyptian calendrical
document from after 144CE: see Ch. 3).
(^123) Pritchett and Neugebauer (1947); Pritchett (2001) 88–101; Samuel (1972) 52–5; Dunn
(1998) 223–4. Against this Meritt (1964) argues thatkata theondates were based on the Metonic
calendar. These theories are not mutually exclusive, askata theondates may have been reckoned
differently by different people, but it remains questionable how widely Metonic or other
astronomical calendars would have been known; new moon sighting, or other observations of
the moon phases, could have been carried out by anyone and are more likely, in general, to have
served as the basis ofkata theondating. The equivalence ofkata theonand prytanic dates in
double-dated inscriptions confirms that both calendars were regular in this period and not
subject to tampering (see above, n. 83).
(^124) Bowen and Goldstein (1994) 704–6 disagree and, apparently extrapolating from Thucy-
dides’passage, reject altogether the existence of a distinctkata theoncalendar. In their view,kata
theondesignates individual dates within the mainstream, archontic calendar that conformed to
the moon (i.e. that were not artificially advanced or retarded). This may be possible for
Thucydides’period (although it is completely unattested), but certainly not for the 3rd c. and
beyond, where in double-dated inscriptionskata theonand archontic dates are very clearly
distinct.
60 Calendars in Antiquity