Roman dates
Created | Updated May 14, 2005
Year
The actual year was normally specified in one of two ways:
Consulate
In ancient Rome -- in the time from the Republic (i.e. as soon as Tarquinius Superbus was thrown out) to the start of the Imperium Romanum (i.e. basically the murder of Caesar and Octavianus 'election' to supreme ruler of the empire) the year was specified simply by listing the consules that were elected for that particular year. Thus 63 b.c. would be M. Tullio C. Antonio consulibus1
Ab Urbe Condita
Another way of specifying the current date was to give the number of years elapsed (counting inclusively) since the City2 was founded -- an event that according to the legend and the great Roman historicians occured in the year 753 b.c.
Thus 63 b.c. would be 691 ab urbe condita, also written as 691 a.u.c. or DCXCI a.u.c. or Anno DCXCI a.u.c., and read out as Anno sescentesimo nonagesimo primo ab urbe condita
Hereby, all numbers are ordinals, i.e. the roman equivalent to first, second, third, ...
Modern Dates
After approximately 500 a.d., what was left of the roman empire started using dates originating from the birth of Christ -- Anno sexagesimo tertio ante Christum natum or anno LXIII a.Chr.n.
Date
When it comes to specifying exactly which day one is talking about, things tend to get a bit messy. To begin with, there are two different calendars. Before 45 b.c., a year was only 355 days long, and thus they kept inserting leap months every now and then. After Caesars reformation, the year was long enough for itself, and we got rid of things like june in the winter etc...
Four of the months were special -- they had before the Julian calendar 31 days: March, May, July and October (Martius, Maius, Quintilis, October). February (Febrarius) had 28 days and all the rest 29 days. Caesars increaces the number of days in January, August and December (Ianuarius, Sextilis, December) with 2 days to 31 days, and April, June, September and November with one day to 30 days.
All in all the Roman year started with March3, and numbered certain months after assorted deities, and the rest simply numerically (September = the seventh month):
| English | Latin |
|---|---|
| March | Martius |
| April | Aprilis |
| May | Maius |
| June | Iunius |
| July | Quintilius (Iulius) |
| August | Sextilis (Augustus) |
| September | September |
| October | October |
| November | November |
| December | December |
| January | Ianuarius |
| February | Februarius |
Days
The Romans based all their dating on three main days in each month: Kalends, Nonae, Idus (plural words). Kalends was the first day of each month, Nonae was the fifth day (in the March, May, July and August the seventh) and Idus the thirteenth (fifteenth) day.4
On the actual day, the date is given with a temporal ablative:
Idibus Martiis (March 15)
The day before was pridie, and the day after postridie, and together with one of these, the day is expressed in the accusative: pridie Kalendas Ianuarias (December 29 or after the reformation December 31) or postridie Kal. Ian. (January 2)
All other days are expressed counting down toward the next main day, inclusively (i.e. count both today and the main day); thus decimo Kalendas Apriles (with separative ablative for decimo) (March 23)
Commonly, the term ante diem (before the day) was used with accusative in the number instead of the ablative, thus: a.d. X Kal. Apr. or ante diem decimum Kalendas Apriles
