404, 



CHRONOLOGY. 



At the Grecian months consisted of 30 and 29 dayt 

 alternately, the former were called >(<{, .///, and Ji<- 

 t*M, ai ending on the loth day ; while the latter received 

 the name of <*<, or hoUon-, and i>*$lim, or termina- 

 ting on the 9th day. They divided each month into three 

 decadct of days, (TJMI >i x v*{,) which received the fol- 

 lowing oamci : 



decade was called fn*t ^xv M " f > or 



Second, ftt'n funntf. 



Third, . . ft9**t &******(, *ir*4 



or >tyrrt.. 



Hence the dayt of the month were reckoned in the 

 following manner : 



1 st day of 1 it decade, was called >iui, as falling on the 

 day of new moon, or -{rr fx<^int, or irrufan. 



2d day, . . . Jtirija irrui>v. 



3d day, . . TJIT* <rr/urv. 

 And to on with the rest down to the 1 Oth, or JITH tnxu.i>v, 



lit day of 2d decade, which was the 1 1th of the month, 

 was called .... -{mi ^iwr 5 , or ir^trni wi 3uu. 



2d day, .... )ivn( funtTK, or in 2uut. 

 And to on with the rest to the IUUK, or 20th. 



1st day of the 3d decade, was called *-;m IT* mucii. 



2d day, 3ivrif IT' inutJi 



And so on with the rest. 



Sometia.es the Greeks inverted the numbers, and call- 



ed the fint day pJi.orn, or nT< 3um, the lecond Chronoln. 

 day 0*irT ini, and no on to the last day of the month, KX **nh*. 

 which had the name of AU*T{I<, from Demetrius Poli- ^" __, 

 orcetes. This day was alto called T;IK;, the thirtieth ; ""^'"" 

 and, in the laws of Solon, it is named i> tu tut. the old 

 anil nnv, as part of it belonged to trie old moon, and 

 part of it to the new one, which happened upon that day. 



Before the reformation of the Roman calendar by Ju- Human 

 lius Czsar, the Romans divided their months into ka- mom In. 

 lends, nones, and ides. The name kalends, derived from 

 the old word co/o, to call, wasgiven to the first day of every 

 month, because, before the fasts were published, the pontiff 

 assembled the people in the capitol, and proclaimed with 

 a loud voice the number of the kalends, or the days on 

 which the nones should happen. The formula Calo Ju- 

 no Novella, was repeated as often as there were days in 

 the kalends. The term nones, applied to the 5th day of 

 those months that have29days,and to the 7th of thosethat 

 have 31 days, is derived from nouns, the ninth, and was 

 used, because they always happened 9 days before the 

 ides. The ides, which fell on the 13th of those months 

 that have 29 days, and the 15th of those that have 31 

 days, is derived from iduare, to divide, and was applied 

 to the third division of the Roman months, because it 

 divided the month nearly into two parts. 



Hence there were in months 



Of 29 days, 



1 day of kalends, 



4 of nonet, 



8 of ides, 



16 called the kalends of the 

 fallowing month, 

 29 days. 



The method of naming the days of each month will be 

 apparent from the following Table, which is for January, 

 a month of 29 day I. 



Of 30 dayt, 



1 day of kalends, 



4 of nones, 



8 of ides, 



1 7 called the kalends of the 

 following month, 

 30 days. 



Of 31 days, 



1 day of kalends, 



6 of nones, 



8 of ides, 



16 called the kalends of the 

 following month, 

 31 days. 



At the reformation of the calendar by Julius Czsar, 

 of which we shall soon give a full account, two days 

 were added to the months of January, August, and De- 

 cember, and one to April, June, September, and Novem- 

 ber. The stile of the calendar, engraved on a square 

 piece of marble, was then exposed every month in the 

 principal public places, for the information of the people. 

 The following example for January may be interesting 

 to some of our readert. 



MKNSIS 



JANI AHIUS, 



DIES. XXXI., 



NON. QUINT. 



DIES. HOR. VI II I. s. 



Nox. Hon. XIII I. s. 



SOL 



CAPRICOHNO, 

 TUTELA 



JUNOXIB. 



PALUS 

 ACUITUR, 



SALIX 

 HARUNDO 

 GCDITUR ; 



S\C Hll 1C AT 



Din 



PENATIBUS. 



L 



The subdivision of the month into weeks is very an- Weeks, 

 cient, and has been adopted by almost all nations, ex- 

 cepting the ancient Greeks, the inhabitants of the north 

 of China, the Persians, and the Mexicans. It origina- 

 ted with the ancient Chaldeans, who gave the name of 

 one of the seven planets to each hour of the day, and de- 

 signated each day by the name of that planet which cor- 

 responded with the first hour of the day. In consc- 



