2022] The Greek and Roman Calendars 23 



at one time a year of either 304 or 354 days ; tradition 

 assigned to Numa the introduction of a cycle of four years, 

 which brought the calendar into fair agreement with the 

 sun, but made the average length of the month consider- 

 ably too short. Instead, however, of introducing further 

 refinements the Romans cut the knot by entrusting to 

 the ecclesiastical authorities the adjustment of the 

 calendar from time to time, so as to make it agree with 

 the sun and moon. According to one account, the 

 first day of each month was proclaimed by a crier. 

 Owing either to ignorance, or, as was alleged, to politi- 

 cal and commercial favouritism, the priests allowed the 

 calendar to fall into a state of great confusion, so that, 

 as Voltaire remarked, " les generaux remains triomphaient 

 toujours, mais ils ne savaient pas quel jour ils triom- 

 phaient." 



A satisfactory reform of the calendar was finally effected 

 by Julius Caesar during the short period of his supremacy 

 at Rome, under the advice of an Alexandrine astronomer 

 Sosigenes. The error in the calendar had mounted up 

 to such an extent, that it was found necessary, in order 

 to correct it, to interpolate three additional months in 

 a single year (46 B.C.), bringing the total number of days 

 in that year up to 445. For the future the year was to 

 be independent of the moon; the ordinary year was 

 to consist of 365 days, #n extra day being added to Feb- 

 ruary every fourth year (our leap-year), so that the average 

 length of the year would be 365! days. 



The new system began with the year 45 B.C., and soon 

 spread, under the name of the Julian Calendar, over the 

 civilised world. 



22. To avoid returning to the subject, it may be con- 

 venient to deal here with the only later reform of any 

 importance. 



The difference between' the average length of the 

 year as fixed by Julius Caesar and the true year is so 

 small as only to amount to about one day in 128 years. By 

 the latter half of the i6th century the date of the vernal 

 equinox was therefore about ten days earlier than it was 

 at the time of the Council of Nice (A.D. 325), at which 

 rules for the observance of Easter had been fixed. Pope 



