I am quite stunned by a discovery that just came to me out of the blue. As I was writing the name of the current month in my notebook, it crossed my mind that it stands for the ninth rather than the eleventh month, but in some other calendar. Going backwards, I realized that this holds all the way to September, the seventh month. Going forward, it was easy to see that the next month must be the tenth. And all in Latin, of course. Having figured this much out, I counted backwards all the way to March. And it turned out to be the first month. Just as the Roman calendar would have it, it goes without saying. The names and numbers must have gotten jumbled up after the collapse of Rome. Swelling with pride on account of my discovery, I suddenly froze. Wait a minute… Is this something that I have learned in school? Is this something everyone is supposed to know? To hell with it, I ultimately decided. One way or another, the discovery is still mine.

Addendum I (July 11, 2016)

Whenever I wish to point out how thorough was the fall of Rome, I bring up the botched-up names of the last four months in our calendar. To my amazement, no-one I talk to seems to be surprised by my discovery, let alone astonished by it. Everyone accepts my claim that the months bear wrong names in Latin, and that is that. End of story. To this day, I have not found any account of this conundrum on the World Wide Web, let alone its connection to the fall of Rome. But this is far from the only discovery of mine that seems to pass by my fellow humans unnoticed. Which only adds to my growing feeling that I am not entirely of this world…

Addendum II (November 1, 2019)

Quite by chance, today I learned that the original Roman name for August or Augustus was Sextilis, which makes sense for the sixth month in the year. The name was changed in honor of Augustus Caesar in 8 B.C. Right away, I guessed that the original Roman name for July was Quintilis. When I checked it on the World Wide Web, it turned out that this was actually the case. After Julius Caesar was assassinated in 44 B.C., his successor Mark Antony had Caesar’s birth month Quintilis renamed into July or Iulius in his honor. By now, the web is swarming with information about the Roman calendar. Not surprisingly, there is a Wikipedia page dedicated to the subject, as well.[1] For better or worse, the world appears to be catching up with me.

Addendum III (January 21, 2024)

As is my habit the last decade or so, a short while ago I grabbed a book from one of the piles on my dining table (“Three Piles of Books,” September 7, 2019). It happened to be one of my favorite Latin textbooks. Written by Hans H. Ørberg, it is aimed at the first two years of highschool curriculum.[2] As I was browsing through its pages, I came upon a section dedicated to Roman months. And here are the key paragraphs on this topic:

Annus in duodecim menses dividitur, quibus hæc sunt nomina: Ianuarius, mensis primus; Februarius, secundus; Martius, tertius; Aprilis, quartus; Maius, quintus; Iunius, sextus; Iulius, septimus; Augustus, octavus; September, nonus; October, decimus; November, undecimus; December, mensis duodecimus ac postremus.

(…)

Mensis September nominator a numero septem, October, November, December ab octo, novem, decem. Nam tempore antiquo Martius mensis primus erat. Tunc September mensis septimus erat, October, November, December menses octavus, nonus, decimus errant. Nunc autem mensis primus est Ianuarius, September igitur mensis nonus est, October decimus, November undecimus, December duodecimus.[3]

In the same section I found the explanation that Ianuarius got its name after Ianus and that Martius got it after Mars, both of which were Roman gods.[4] Also, I found the explanation that Iulius and Augustus got their names after two Roman emperors of great renown.[5] To my disappointment, though, I found not a hint of explanation how the months with wrong numbers found their place in the new calendar. Obviously enough, by then the Roman numbers meant little, if anything, in the world that survived the collapse of the Roman empire. Latin, what Latin? The way this civilization is progressing, lingua franca of my ancestors will soon be removed from highschool curricula. Alas!

Footnotes

1. URL: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_calendar (accessed on November 1, 2019).

2. Lingva Latina per se illvstrata: Familia Romana, Rome: Edizioni Accademia Vivarium Novum, 2014 (first published in 2013).

3. Op. cit., pp. 95-96.

4. Op. cit., p. 96.

5. Op. cit., p. 100.