CĂLENDĀRĬUM or KĂLENDĀRĬUM, generally signified an account-book,
in which were entered the names of a person’s debtors, with the
interest which they had to pay, and it was so called because the
interest had to be paid on the calends of each month. The word,
however, was also used in the signification of a modern calendar or
almanac. (1) GREEK CALENDAR. The Greek year was divided into twelve
lunar months, depending on the actual changes of the moon. The first
day of the month (νουμηνία) was not the day of the conjunction, but
the day on the evening of which the new moon appeared; consequently
full moon was the middle of the month. The lunar month consists of
twenty-nine days and about thirteen hours; accordingly some months
were necessarily reckoned at twenty-nine days, and rather more of
them at thirty days. The latter were called _full_ months (πληρεῖς),
the former _hollow_ months (κοῖλοι). As the twelve lunar months
fell short of the solar year, they were obliged every other year
to interpolate an intercalary month (μὴν ἐμβολιμαῖος) of thirty or
twenty-nine days. The ordinary year consisted of 354 days, and the
interpolated year, therefore, of 384 or 383. This interpolated year
(τριέτηρις) was seven days and a half too long, and to correct the
error, the intercalary month was from time to time omitted. The Attic
year began with the summer solstice: the following is the sequence of
the Attic months and the number of days in each:--Hecatombaeon (30),
Metageitnion (29), Boedromion (30), Pyanepsion (29), Maemacterion
(30), Poseideon (29), Gamelion (30), Anthesterion (29), Elaphebolion
(30), Munychion (29), Thargelion (30), Scirophorion (29). The
intercalary month was a second Poseideon inserted in the middle of
the year. Every Athenian month was divided into three decads. The
days of the first decad were designated as ἱσταμένου or ἀρχομένου
μηνος, and were counted on regularly from one to ten; thus, δευτέρα
ἀρχομένου or ἱσταμένου is “the second day of the month.” The days
of the second decad were designated as ἐπὶ δέκα or μεσοῦντος, and
were counted on regularly from the 11th to the 20th day, which was
called εἴκας. There were two ways of counting the days of the last
decad; they were either reckoned onwards from the 20th (thus, πρώτη
ἐπὶ εἰκάδι was the 21st), or backwards from the last day, with
the addition φθίνοντος, παυομένου, λήγοντος, or ἀπίοντος; thus,
the twenty-first day of a hollow month was ἐνάτη φθίνοντος; of a
full month, δεκάτη φθίνοντος. The last day of the month was called
ἕνη καὶ νέα, “the old and new,” because as the lunar month really
consisted of more than twenty-nine and less than thirty days, the
last day might be considered as belonging equally to the old and
new month. Separate years were designated at Athens by the name of
the chief archon, hence called _archon eponymus_ (ἄρχων ἐπώνυμος),
or “the name giving archon;” at Sparta, by the first of the ephors;
at Argos, by the priestess of JUNO, &c.--(2) ROMAN CALENDAR. The
old Roman, frequently called the Romulian year, consisted of only
ten months, which were called Martius, Aprilis, Maius, Junius,
Quinctilis, Sextilis, September, October, November, December. That
March was the first month in the year is implied in the last six
names. Of these months, four, namely, Martius, Maius, Quinctilis,
and October, consisted of thirty-one days, the other six of thirty.
The four former were distinguished in the latest form of the Roman
calendar by having their nones two days later than any of the other
months. The symmetry of this arrangement will appear by placing the
numbers in succession:--31, 30; 31, 30; 31, 30, 30; 31, 30, 30.
The Romulian year therefore consisted of 304 days, and contained
thirty-eight nundinae or weeks; every eighth day, under the name of
_nonae_, or _nundinae_, being especially devoted to religious and
other public purposes. Hence we find that the number of _dies fasti_
afterwards retained in the Julian calendar tally exactly with these
thirty-eight nundines; besides which, it may be observed that a year
of 304 days bears to a solar year of 365 days nearly the ratio of
five to six, six of the Romulian years containing 1824, five of the
solar years 1825 days; and hence we may explain the origin of the
well-known quinquennial period called the lustrum, which ancient
writers expressly call an _annus magnus_; that is, in the modern
language of chronology, a cycle. It was consequently the period at
which the Romulian and solar years coincided. The next division of
the Roman year was said to have been made by Numa Pompilius, who
instituted a lunar year of 12 months and 355 days. Livy says that
Numa so regulated his lunar year of twelve months by the insertion
of intercalary months, that at the end of every _nineteenth_ year
(_vicesimo anno_) it again coincided with the same point in the
sun’s course from which it started. It is well known that 19 years
constitute a most convenient cycle for the junction of a lunar and
solar year. It seems certain that the Romans continued to use a lunar
year for some time after the establishment of the republic; and it
was probably at the time of the decemviral legislation that the
lunar year was abandoned. By the change which was then made the year
consisted of 12 months, the length of each of which was as follows:--
Martius, 31 days.
Aprilis, 29 ”
Maius, 31 ”
Junius, 29 ”
Quinctilis, 31 ”
Sextilis, 29 ”
September, 29 ”
October, 31 ”
November, 29 ”
December, 29 ”
Januarius, 29 ”
Februarius, 28 ”
The year thus consisted of 355 days, and this was made to correspond
with the solar year by the insertion of an intercalary month
(_mensis intercalaris_ or _intercalarius_), called _Mercedonius_
or _Mercidonius_. This month of 22 or 23 days seems to have been
inserted in alternate years. As the festivals of the Romans were for
the most part dependent upon the calendar, the regulation of the
latter was entrusted to the college of pontifices, who in early times
were chosen exclusively from the body of patricians. It was therefore
in the power of the college to add to their other means of oppressing
the plebeians, by keeping to themselves the knowledge of the days on
which justice could be administered, and assemblies of the people
could be held. In the year 304 B.C., one Cn. Flavius, a secretary
(_scriba_) of Appius Claudius, is said fraudulently to have made the
_Fasti_ public. The other privilege of regulating the year by the
insertion of the intercalary month gave the pontiffs great political
power, which they were not backward to employ. Every thing connected
with the matter of intercalation was left to their unrestrained
pleasure; and the majority of them, on personal grounds, added to or
took from the year by capricious intercalations, so as to lengthen or
shorten the period during which a magistrate remained in office, and
seriously to benefit or injure the farmer of the public revenue. The
calendar was thus involved in complete confusion, and accordingly we
find that in the time of Cicero the year was three months in advance
of the real solar year. At length, in the year B.C. 46, Caesar, now
master of the Roman world, employed his authority, as pontifex
maximus, in the correction of this serious evil. The account of the
way in which he effected this is given by Censorinus:--“The confusion
was at last carried so far that C. Caesar, the pontifex maximus, in
his third consulate, with Lepidus for his colleague, inserted between
November and December two intercalary months of 67 days, the month
of February having already received an intercalation of 23 days, and
thus made the whole year to consist of 445 days. At the same time he
provided against a repetition of similar errors, by casting aside
the intercalary month, and adapting the year to the sun’s course.
Accordingly, to the 355 days of the previously existing year he added
ten days, which he so distributed between the seven months having
29 days that January, Sextilis, and December received two each, the
others but one; and these additional days he placed at the end of
the several months, no doubt with the wish not to remove the various
festivals from those positions in the several months which they had
so long occupied. Hence in the present calendar, although there are
seven months of 31 days, yet the four months, which from the first
possessed that number, are still distinguishable by having their
nones on the seventh, the rest having them on the fifth of the month.
Lastly, in consideration of the quarter of a day, which he regarded
as completing the true year, he established the rule that, at the
end of every four years, a single day should be intercalated, where
the month had been hitherto inserted, that is, immediately after the
terminalia; which day is now called the _bissextum_.” The mode of
denoting the days of the month will cause no difficulty, if it be
recollected that the kalends always denote the first of the month;
that the nones occur on the seventh of the four months of March,
May, Quinctilis or July, and October, and on the fifth of the other
months; that the ides always fall eight days later than the nones;
and lastly, that the intermediate days are in all cases reckoned
backwards upon the Roman principle of counting both extremes. For the
month of January the notation will be as follows:--
1. Kal. Jan.
2. a. d. IV. Non. Jan.
3. a. d. III. Non. Jan.
4. Prid. Non. Jan.
5. Non. Jan.
6. a. d. VIII. Id. Jan.
7. a. d. VII. Id. Jan.
8. a. d. VI. Id. Jan.
9. a. d. V. Id. Jan.
10. a. d. IV. Id. Jan.
11. a. d. III. Id. Jan.
12. Prid. Id. Jan.
13. Id. Jan.
14. a. d. XIX. Kal. Feb.
15. a. d. XVIII. Kal. Feb.
16. a. d. XVII. Kal. Feb.
17. a. d. XVI. Kal. Feb.
18. a. d. XV. Kal. Feb.
19. a. d. XIV. Kal. Feb.
20. a. d. XIII. Kal. Feb.
21. a. d. XII. Kal. Feb.
22. a. d. XI. Kal. Feb.
23. a. d. X. Kal. Feb.
24. a. d. IX. Kal. Feb.
25. a. d. VIII. Kal. Feb.
26. a. d. VII. Kal. Feb.
27. a. d. VI. Kal. Feb.
28. a. d. V. Kal. Feb.
29. a. d. IV. Kal. Feb.
30. a. d. III. Kal. Feb.
31. Prid. Kal. Feb.
The letters _a d_ are often, through error, written together, and so
confounded with the preposition _ad_ which would have a different
meaning, for _ad kalendas_ would signify _by_, i.e. _on or before
the kalends_. The letters are in fact an abridgment of _ante diem_,
and the full phrase for “on the second of January,” would be _ante
diem quartum nonas Januarias_. The word _ante_ in this expression
seems really to belong in sense to _nonas_, and to be the cause why
_nonas_ is an accusative. Whether the phrase _kalendae Januarii_ was
ever used by the best writers is doubtful. The words are commonly
abbreviated; and those passages where Aprilis, Decembris, &c. occur
are of no avail, as they are probably accusatives. The _ante_ may be
omitted, in which case the phrase will be _die quarto nonarum_. In
the leap year (to use a modern phrase), the last days of February
were called,--
Feb. 23. a. d. VII. Kal. Mart.
Feb. 24. a. d. VI. Kal. Mart. posteriorem.
Feb. 25. a. d. VI. Kal. Mart. priorem.
Feb. 26. a. d. V. Kal. Mart.
Feb. 27. a. d. IV. Kal. Mart.
Feb. 28. a. d. III. Kal. Mart.
Feb. 29. Prid. Kal. Mart.
In which the words _prior_ and _posterior_ are used in reference to
the retrograde direction of the reckoning. From the fact that the
intercalated year has two days called _ante diem sextum_, the name
bissextile has been applied to it. The term _annus bissextilis_,
however, does not occur in any classical writer, but in place of
it the phrase _annus bissextus_.--The names of two of the months
were changed in honour of Julius Caesar and Augustus. Julius was
substituted for Quinctilis, the month in which Caesar was born, in
the second Julian year, that is, the year of the dictator’s death,
for the first Julian year was the first year of the _corrected_
Julian calendar, that is, B.C. 45. The name Augustus in place of
Sextilis was introduced by the emperor himself in B.C. 27. The month
of September in like manner received the name of Germanicus from
the general so called, and the appellation appears to have existed
even in the time of Macrobius. Domitian, too, conferred his name
upon October; but the old word was restored upon the death of the
tyrant.--The Julian calendar supposes the mean tropical year to
be 365 d. 6 h.; but this exceeds the real amount by 11′ 12″, the
accumulation of which, year after year, caused at last considerable
inconvenience. Accordingly, in the year 1582, Pope Gregory XIII.
again reformed the calendar. The ten days by which the year had been
unduly retarded were struck out by a regulation that the day after
the fourth of October in that year should be called the fifteenth;
and it was ordered that whereas hitherto an intercalary day had been
inserted every four years, for the future three such intercalations
in the course of four hundred years should be omitted, viz., in
those years which are divisible without remainder by 100, but not by
400. Thus, according to the Julian calendar, the years 1600, 1700,
1800, 1900, 2000, were to be bissextile as before. The bull which
effected this change was issued Feb. 24th, 1582. The Protestant parts
of Europe resisted what they called a papistical invention for more
than a century. In England the Gregorian calendar was first adopted
in 1752. In Russia, and those countries which belonged to the Greek
church, the Julian year, or _old style_, as it is called, still
prevails. In the ancient calendars the letters A, B, C, D, E, F,
G, H, were used for the purpose of fixing the nundines in the week
of eight days; precisely in the same way in which the first seven
letters are still employed in ecclesiastical calendars, to mark the
days of the Christian week.
CĂLĬGA, a strong and heavy sandal worn by the Roman soldiers, but
not by the superior officers. Hence the common soldiers, including
centurions, were distinguished by the name of _caligati_. The emperor
Caligula received that cognomen when a boy, in consequence of wearing
the caliga, and being inured to the life of a common soldier. The
cuts on pp. 1, 41, show the difference between the caliga of the
common soldier and the calceus worn by men of higher rank.
CĂLIX (κύλιξ). (1) a drinking-cup used at symposia and on similar
occasions.--(2) A vessel used in cooking.--(3) A tube in the
aquaeducts attached to the extremity of each pipe, where it entered
the castellum.
[Illustration: Calices, Drinking-cups. (Museo Borbonico, vol. v. pl.
18.)]
CALLIS, a beaten path or track made by the feet of cattle. The
sheep-walks in the mountainous parts of Campania and Apulia were
the property of the Roman state; and as they were of considerable
value, one of the quaestors usually had these _calles_ assigned to
him as his province, whence we read of the _Callium provincia_. His
principal duties were to receive the _scriptura_, or tax paid for
the pasturage of the cattle, and to protect life and property in
these wild and mountainous districts. When the senate wished to put
a slight upon the consuls on one occasion they endeavoured to assign
to them as their provinces, the care of the woods (_silvae_) and
sheep-walks (_calles_).
CALLISTEIA (καλλιστεῖα), a festival, or perhaps merely a part of one,
held by the women of Lesbos; at which they assembled in the sanctuary
of Hera, and the fairest received the prize of beauty. Similar
contests of beauty are said to have been held in other places.
CĀLŌNES, the slaves or servants of the Roman soldiers, so called
from carrying wood (κᾶλα) for their use. The word _calo_, however,
was also applied to farm-servants. The _calones_ and _lixae_ are
frequently spoken of together, but they were not the same: the latter
were freemen, who merely followed the camp for the purposes of gain
and merchandise, and were so far from being indispensable to an army,
that they were sometimes forbidden to attend it.
CĂLUMNĬA. When an accuser failed in his proof, and the accused
party was acquitted, there might be an inquiry into the conduct and
motives of the accuser. If the person who made this judicial inquiry
found that the accuser had merely acted from error of judgment, he
acquitted him in the form _non probasti_; if he convicted him of evil
intention, he declared his sentence in the words _calumniatus es_,
which sentence was followed by the legal punishment. The punishment
for _calumnia_ was fixed by the lex Remmia, or as it is sometimes,
perhaps incorrectly, named, the lex Memmia. But it is not known when
this lex was passed, nor what were its penalties. It appears from
Cicero, that the false accuser might be branded on the forehead with
the letter K, the initial of Kalumnia. The punishment for calumnia
was also _exsilium, relegatio in insulam_, or loss of rank (_ordinis
amissio_); but probably only in criminal cases, or in matters
relating to status.
CĂMĂRA (καμάρα), or CĂMĔRA. (1) A particular kind of arched
ceiling, formed by semicircular bands or beams of wood, arranged at
small lateral distances, over which a coating of lath and plaster
was spread, and the whole covered in by a roof, resembling in
construction the hooped awnings in use amongst us.--(2) A small boat
used in early times by the people who inhabited the shores of the
Palus Maeotis, capable of containing from twenty-five to thirty men.
These boats were made to work fore and aft, like the fast-sailing
proas of the Indian seas, and continued in use until the age of
Tacitus.
CĂMILLI, CĂMILLAE, boys and girls employed in the religious rites and
ceremonies of the Romans. They were required to be perfect in form,
and sound in health, free born, and with both their parents alive;
or, in other words, according to the expression of the Romans, _pueri
seu puellae ingenui, felicissimi, patrimi matrimique_.