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With the reforms of the emperor Augustus, the Roman calendar began to resemble the calendar we use today. Historians are agreed that the leap year rule by Julius was not consistently applied; the dispute appears to be on how to count the 'every 4 years' as mandated by Julius Caesar. Was that four years by counting inclusively or exclusively? It was in 8 BC that Augustus Caesar, Julius' nephew and adopted son, and first emperor of Rome took on the role of PONMAX (head priest) and settled the debate once and for all.
In the Julian reform, Julius Caesar renamed the month of Quinctilis to Julius (July). The month of Julius was and still is a 31 day month. Augustus himself decided that the month after Julius, should be renamed from Sextilis to Augustus, in honor of himself. However, just renaming a month was not sufficient: for the new month of Augustus, if left unchanged would have only 30 days. So it was important to renumber the days as well.
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Month | Month Length (Julius) | Month Length (Augustus)
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Januarius | 31 | 31 |
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Februarius | 29 (30 in a leap year) | 28 (29 in a leap year) |
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Martius | 31 | 31 |
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Aprilis | 30 | 30 |
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Maius | 31 | 31 |
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Junius | 30 | 30 |
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Quinctilis (Julius) | 31 | 31 |
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Sextilis (Augustus) | 30 | 31 |
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September | 31 | 30 |
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October | 30 | 31 |
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November | 31 | 30 |
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December | 30 | 31 |
The Augustan reform did not alter the position of the Nones, or the Ides.
The next major reform to this calendar was with Pope Gregory in 1582. That reform was so considerable it is called the Gregorian Calendar.
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