The Ancient Macedonian calendar is a
lunisolar calendar
A lunisolar calendar is a calendar in many cultures, combining lunar calendars and solar calendars. The date of Lunisolar calendars therefore indicates both the Moon phase and the time of the solar year, that is the position of the Sun in the ...
that was in use in ancient
Macedon
Macedonia (; grc-gre, Μακεδονία), also called Macedon (), was an Classical antiquity, ancient monarchy, kingdom on the periphery of Archaic Greece, Archaic and Classical Greece, and later the dominant state of Hellenistic Greece. Th ...
in the It consisted of 12
synodic lunar month
In lunar calendars, a lunar month is the time between two successive syzygies of the same type: new moons or full moons. The precise definition varies, especially for the beginning of the month.
Variations
In Shona, Middle Eastern, and Eur ...
s (i.e. 354 days per year), which needed
intercalary
Intercalation may refer to:
*Intercalation (chemistry), insertion of a molecule (or ion) into layered solids such as graphite
* Intercalation (timekeeping), insertion of a leap day, week or month into some calendar years to make the calendar foll ...
months to stay in step with the seasons. By the time the calendar was being used across the Hellenistic world, seven total ''embolimoi'' (intercalary months) were being added in each 19 year
Metonic cycle
The Metonic cycle or enneadecaeteris (from grc, ἐννεακαιδεκαετηρίς, from ἐννεακαίδεκα, "nineteen") is a period of almost exactly 19 years after which the lunar phases recur at the same time of the year. The rec ...
. The names of the ancient Macedonian Calendar remained in use in Syria even into the Christian era.
Names
The names of the Macedonian months, just like most of the names of Greek months, are derived from feasts and related celebrations in honor of the
Greek gods
The following is a list of gods, goddesses, and many other divine and semi-divine figures from ancient Greek mythology and ancient Greek religion.
Immortals
The Greeks created images of their deities for many purposes. A temple would house th ...
.
Most of them combine a Macedonian dialectal form with a clear Greek etymology (e.g Δῐός from
Zeus
Zeus or , , ; grc, Δῐός, ''Diós'', label= genitive Boeotian Aeolic and Laconian grc-dor, Δεύς, Deús ; grc, Δέος, ''Déos'', label= genitive el, Δίας, ''Días'' () is the sky and thunder god in ancient Greek reli ...
; Περίτιος from
Heracles
Heracles ( ; grc-gre, Ἡρακλῆς, , glory/fame of Hera), born Alcaeus (, ''Alkaios'') or Alcides (, ''Alkeidēs''), was a divine hero in Greek mythology, the son of Zeus and Alcmene, and the foster son of Amphitryon.By his adoptiv ...
Peritas (“Guardian”) ; Ξανδικός/Ξανθικός from Xanthos, “the blond” (probably a reference to Heracles); Άρτεμίσιος from
Artemis
In ancient Greek mythology and religion, Artemis (; grc-gre, Ἄρτεμις) is the goddess of the hunt, the wilderness, wild animals, nature, vegetation, childbirth, care of children, and chastity. She was heavily identified wit ...
etc.) with the possible exception of one, which is attested in other
Greek calendars as well.
Description
The Macedonian calendar was in essence the
Babylonian calendar
The Babylonian calendar was a lunisolar calendar with years consisting of 12 lunar months, each beginning when a new crescent moon was first sighted low on the western horizon at sunset, plus an intercalary month inserted as needed by decree. Th ...
with the substitution of Macedonian names for the Babylonian ones,
and as such it paralleled the
Hebrew calendar
The Hebrew calendar ( he, הַלּוּחַ הָעִבְרִי, translit=HaLuah HaIvri), also called the Jewish calendar, is a lunisolar calendar used today for Jewish religious observance, and as an official calendar of the state of Israel. ...
which is also
lunisolar
A lunisolar calendar is a calendar in many cultures, combining lunar calendars and solar calendars. The date of Lunisolar calendars therefore indicates both the Moon phase and the time of the solar year, that is the position of the Sun in the E ...
, and was used during the
Parthian Empire
The Parthian Empire (), also known as the Arsacid Empire (), was a major Iranian political and cultural power in ancient Iran from 247 BC to 224 AD. Its latter name comes from its founder, Arsaces I, who led the Parni tribe in conque ...
too. An example of inscriptions from
Decapolis
The Decapolis (Greek: grc, Δεκάπολις, Dekápolis, Ten Cities, label=none) was a group of ten Hellenistic cities on the eastern frontier of the Roman Empire in the Southern Levant in the first centuries BCE and CE. They formed a group ...
, Jordan, bearing the Solar Macedonian calendar, starts from the month Audynaeus. The solar type was merged later with the
Julian calendar
The Julian calendar, proposed by Roman consul Julius Caesar in 46 BC, was a reform of the Roman calendar. It took effect on , by edict. It was designed with the aid of Greek mathematicians and astronomers such as Sosigenes of Alexandr ...
. In
Roman Macedonia
Macedonia ( grc-gre, Μακεδονία) was a province of the Roman Empire, encompassing the territory of the former Antigonid Kingdom of Macedonia, which had been conquered by Rome in 168 BC at the conclusion of the Third Macedonian War. The pr ...
, both calendars were used. The Roman one is attested in inscriptions with the name ''Kalandôn''
gen
Gen may refer to:
* ''Gen'' (film), 2006 Turkish horror film directed by Togan Gökbakar
* Gen (Street Fighter), a video game character from the ''Street Fighter'' series
* Gen Fu, a video game character from the ''Dead or Alive'' series
* Gen l ...
.
calendae
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 ne ...
and the Macedonian ''Hellenikei''
dat.
Hellenic. Finally an inscription
Makedonia (Chalkidike) – Poteidaia-Kassandreia –
/ref> from Kassandreia
Kassandreia (, ''Kassándreia''; before 1955: Valta (Βάλτα, ''Válta'', meaning "town in the swamps")) is a town and a community in Chalkidiki, northern Greece. It is the seat of the municipality of Kassandra, in the center of the peninsula ...
of about bearing a month ''Athenaion'' suggests that some cities may have used their own months even after the Macedonian expansion.
: ‡ Months marked with a double-dagger and including the word "Embolimos" were used only occasionally, for intercalation, as noted in the remarks
Year numbering
Years were usually counted from the re-conquest of Seleucus I Nicator
Seleucus I Nicator (; ; grc-gre, Σέλευκος Νικάτωρ , ) was a Macedonian Greek general who was an officer and successor ( ''diadochus'') of Alexander the Great. Seleucus was the founder of the eponymous Seleucid Empire. In the po ...
of Babylon, which became "year 1". This is equivalent to 312 BCE / 311 BCE in the ''Anno Domini
The terms (AD) and before Christ (BC) are used to label or number years in the Julian and Gregorian calendars. The term is Medieval Latin and means 'in the year of the Lord', but is often presented using "our Lord" instead of "the Lord", ...
'' year count of the modern Gregorian calendar
The Gregorian calendar is the calendar used in most parts of the world. It was introduced in October 1582 by Pope Gregory XIII as a modification of, and replacement for, the Julian calendar. The principal change was to space leap years dif ...
. This practice spread outside the Seleucid Empire and found use in Antigonid Macedonia
Macedonia (; grc-gre, Μακεδονία), also called Macedon (), was an ancient kingdom on the periphery of Archaic and Classical Greece, and later the dominant state of Hellenistic Greece. The kingdom was founded and initially ruled by ...
, Ptolemaic Egypt, and other major Hellenistic states descended from Alexander's conquests as well. Years can be abbreviated SE, S.E., or occasionally AG (''Anno Graecorum'').
See also
* Ancient Greek calendars
* Attic calendar
References
{{Calendars
Culture of Macedonia (ancient kingdom), Calendar
Obsolete calendars
Hellenistic civilization, Calendar
Lunisolar calendars