December (from Latin ''decem'', "ten") or ''mensis December'' was originally the tenth month of the

Roman calendar The Roman calendar was the calendar used by the Roman Kingdom and Roman Republic. The term often includes the Julian calendar established by the reforms of the dictator Julius Caesar and emperor Augustus in the late 1stcenturyBC and some ...

, following

November November is the eleventh and penultimate month of the year in the Julian and Gregorian Calendars, the fourth and last of four months to have a length of 30 days and the fifth and last of five months to have a length of fewer than 31 days. Nov ...

(''novem'', "nine") and preceding

Ianuarius ''Ianuarius'', fully ''Mensis Ianuarius'' ("month of Janus"), was the first month of the ancient Roman calendar, from which the Julian and Gregorian month of January derived. It was followed by ''Februarius'' ("February"). In the calendars of ...

. It had 29 days. When the calendar was reformed to create a 12-month year starting in Ianuarius, December became the twelfth month, but retained its name, as did the other numbered months from Quintilis (July) to December. Its length was increased to 31 days under the Julian calendar reform.

Dates

The Romans did not number days of a month sequentially from the first day through the last. Instead, they counted back from the three fixed points of the month: the Nones (5th or 7th), the

Ides Ides or IDES may refer to: Calendar dates * Ides (calendar), a day in the Roman calendar that fell roughly in the middle of the month. In March, May, July, and October it was the 15th day of the month; in other months it was the 13th. **Ides of Mar ...

(13th or 15th), and the

Kalends The calends or kalends ( la, kalendae) is the first day of every month in the Roman calendar. The English word "calendar" is derived from this word. Use The Romans called the first day of every month the ''calends'', signifying the start of a n ...

(1st) of the following month. The Nones of December was the 5th, and the Ides the 13th. The last day of December was the ''pridie Kalendas Ianuarias,'' "day before the Januarian Kalends". Roman counting was inclusive; December 9 was ''ante diem V Idūs Decembrīs'', "the 5th day before the Ides of December," usually abbreviated ''a.d. V Id. Dec.'' (or with the ''a.d.'' omitted altogether); December 24 was ''IX Kal. Ian.'', "the 9th day before the Kalends of Ianuarius," on the Julian calendar ''(VII Kal. Ian.'' on the pre-Julian calendar, when December had only 29 days). On the calendar of the

Roman Republic The Roman Republic ( la, Res publica Romana ) was a form of government of Rome and the era of the classical Roman civilization when it was run through public representation of the Roman people. Beginning with the overthrow of the Roman Ki ...

and early

Principate The Principate is the name sometimes given to the first period of the Roman Empire from the beginning of the reign of Augustus in 27 BC to the end of the Crisis of the Third Century in AD 284, after which it evolved into the so-called Dominate. ...

, each day was marked with a letter to denote its religiously lawful status. By the late 2nd century AD, extant calendars no longer show days marked with these letters, probably in part as a result of calendar reforms undertaken by

Marcus Aurelius Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (Latin: áːɾkus̠ auɾέːli.us̠ antɔ́ːni.us̠ English: ; 26 April 121 – 17 March 180) was Roman emperor from 161 to 180 AD and a Stoic philosopher. He was the last of the rulers known as the Five Good E ...

. Days were also marked with nundinal letters in cycles of ''A B C D E F G H'', to mark the "market week".

Jörg Rüpke Jörg Rüpke (born 27 December 1962 in Herford, West Germany) is a German scholar of comparative religion and classical philology, recipient of the Gay-Lussac Humboldt Prize in 2008, and of the Advanced Grant of the European Research Council in 2011 ...

, ''The Roman Calendar from Numa to Constantine: Time, History, and the Fasti,'' translated by David M.B. Richardson (Blackwell, 2011, originally published 1995 in German), p. 6.

References

{{Reflist, 30em Months of the Roman calendar Roman calendar

Dates

See also

References