Mercedonius (

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

for "Work Month"),. also known as Mercedinus, Interkalaris or Intercalaris (), was the intercalary month of the

Roman calendar The Roman calendar was the calendar used by the Roman Kingdom and Roman Republic. Although the term is primarily used for Rome's pre-Julian calendars, it is often used inclusively of the Julian calendar established by Julius Caesar in 46&nbs ...

. The resulting

leap year A leap year (also known as an intercalary year or bissextile year) is a calendar year that contains an additional day (or, in the case of a lunisolar calendar, a month) compared to a common year. The 366th day (or 13th month) is added to keep t ...

was either 377 or 378 days long. It theoretically occurred every two (or occasionally three) years, but was sometimes avoided or employed by the Roman pontiffs for political reasons regardless of the state of the solar year. Mercedonius was eliminated by

Julius Caesar Gaius Julius Caesar (12 or 13 July 100 BC – 15 March 44 BC) was a Roman general and statesman. A member of the First Triumvirate, Caesar led the Roman armies in the Gallic Wars before defeating his political rival Pompey in Caesar's civil wa ...

when he introduced the

Julian calendar The Julian calendar is a solar calendar of 365 days in every year with an additional leap day every fourth year (without exception). The Julian calendar is still used as a religious calendar in parts of the Eastern Orthodox Church and in parts ...

in 45 BC.

History

This month, instituted according to Roman tradition by

Numa Pompilius Numa Pompilius (; 753–672 BC; reigned 715–672 BC) was the Roman mythology, legendary second king of Rome, succeeding Romulus after a one-year interregnum. He was of Sabine origin, and many of Rome's most important religious and political ins ...

, was supposed to be inserted every two or three years to align the conventional 355-day Roman year with the solar year. The decision of whether to insert the intercalary month was made by the pontifex maximus, supposedly based on observations to ensure the best possible correspondence with the

season A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's axial tilt, tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperat ...

s. However, the pontifex maximus would normally be an active politician, and the decision would often be manipulated to allow friends to stay in office longer or force enemies out early. Such unpredictable intercalation meant that dates following the month of Februarius could not be known in advance, and further to this, Roman citizens living outside Rome would often not know the current date. The exact mechanism is not clearly specified in ancient sources. Some scholars hold that in intercalary years February's length was fixed at 23 days and it was followed by a variable-length with 27 or 28 days. This view is followed in generalist surveys of calendrical history. However, following a discussion of intercalation by Michels (1967) some specialist studies of the pre-Julian calendar published since 1967including papers and books by A. E. Samuel, P. S. Derow, P. Brind'Amour, V.M. Warrior, J. Rüpke, R. Hannah, and C.J. Bennett claim that in intercalary years Februarius was set at either 23 or 24 days, which was followed by an intercalary month of 27 days. Whichever interpretation is correct, the days to , normally referring to the end of February, were in intercalary years the concluding days of the . The month was eliminated by Julius Caesar with his revised calendar in 45 BC.

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Roman Dates
{{Roman months Months Months of the Roman calendar

History

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