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Encyclopedia > Mercedonius

Mercedonius was a month in the ancient Roman calendar. Also known as Intercalaris it was a intercalary month of 22 days, being inserted into the month of Februarius only in leap years. Romans believed that the month had been added to Roman calendar (along with Januarius and Februarius) by the king Numa Pompilius in the 7th century BC.


Originally this month was inserted every two years to realign the Numa's 355 day calendar with the seasons. Later a system inserting several months every eight years was adopted from the Greek calendar. Neither system reflected the true length of the year very well and priests often forgot to insert the months at the proper times. Additionally, for political reasons the lengths of the intercalary months were often deliberately varied by priests to allow certain consuls to stay in office longer and force others out earlier.


The month was eliminated by Julius Caesar when he introduced the Julian calendar in 45 BC. The name "Mercedonius" comes from merces meaning "wages" as workers were paid at that time of year.


  Results from FactBites:
 
Legion XXIV - Glossary - M (648 words)
To make the calendar better correspond to the solar year, these extra nine days were inserted as a part of the "intercalery" month "Mercedonius" between the 23rd and 24th days of February, every other year.
MERCEDONIUS The so-called "intercalery" (added to the calendar) month of 27 or 28 days, also known as "Intercalans" that was inserted every other year into the month of February / Februarius to make the Roman Republican Calendar correspond more closely to the actual length of the solar year.
The month or period of Mercedonius was inserted between the 23rd and 24th days of February and consisted of 22 or 23 days, plus the last five remaining days (24th thru 28th) of February.
Calendopaedia - The Roman Calendar (599 words)
This was known as Intercalans or Mercedonius and was inserted after 23rd of February in alternate years.
Mercedonius was alternately 22 or 23 days in length.
This was a very complicated system and still did not keep in synchronisation with the phases of the moon so the decisions as to when the intercalary month was added and how long it should be fell into the hands of a group of high priests known as the pontiffs.
  More results at FactBites »


 

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