Dates in Latin (Roman Numbers)

dioutoro

New Member

in Roman calender do January, March, May, July, August, October, December have 31 days? so if write 19th June, that would be like a.d. XIII Kal. Jul. ?
thanks
 

Zilla Lee

New Member

How could I translate this into Roman numerals in a Latin format (ex. which number goes first: date, yr, month)? It was an important date to me.


July 24, 2012
 

socratidion

Civis Illustris

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Location:
London
Ancient or modern? I mean, do you want to be bothered with calends and ides and such, or do you just want to say 'the 24th day of July in the year 2012 A.D.'? Or C.E.?
 

Nikolaos

schmikolaos

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Location:
Matsumoto, Nagano, Japan
What Socratidion is saying is that the Romans reckoned dates much differently than we do. Instead of calling today the 21st of June, they would call it "11 days before the calends of July".

Instead of the year being 2013 AD, it would be 2766 AUC, the number of years since the traditional founding of Rome.

Random trivia: Leap day is actually on February 24, not the 29th. The Romans actually inserted a day between the 23rd and the 24th on leap years instead of putting it at the end of the month. I seem to recall finding evidence that the 24th was legally leap day in England some few hundred years ago, but I don't know where I would look to find that again...
 

Nikolaos

schmikolaos

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Location:
Matsumoto, Nagano, Japan
... was this post always in this thread, or was it moved here? If it was already here, I feel like an idiot for going into all that detail.
 

Iohannes Aurum

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Location:
Torontum, Ontario, Canada
Well Nikolaos, I have moved it here, seeing that it is more relevant.

Since you are a Consul, you can make some changes to fit in.
 

Nikolaos

schmikolaos

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Location:
Matsumoto, Nagano, Japan
No, no objections. I was just wondering if I really repeated the content of the first post :p
 

Pablo222

Member

Sorry if I missed this but...

When writings dates then, do we write the Kalenda, Nona, Idus in the sing. and also the accusative case?

So Kalendas, Nonas, Idus?
 

David Wilsden

New Member

I make that five days inclusive, not six: ante diem quintum Kalendas Julias
with both 'diem quintum' and 'Kalendas Julias' in the accusative case.
 

David Wilsden

New Member

I am pleased to hear that I am correct.
Thirteen years ago, fourteen inclusive: annum quartum decimum
Using the accusative case, I thought this might mean the period of years to the fourteenth year, compared to using the ablative case for on a year or day. This might explain 'diem quintum' in the date, meaning the period of days before the next key day to the fifth day. Am I correct?
 

meisenimverbis

Civis Illustris

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Location:
Rio de Janeiro
I've been suppressing the a.d. for practicity... Does anyone do this? The only one I use is the pd. of course, because this is the best way.

So, tomorrow will be xiv K. Sep. (instead of a.d. XIV Kal. Sep.). Oh, I also use K. and N. for Kalends and Nones. For Ides I keep Id., because I would be a numeral, although I do use these in small letters (i, ii, iii, iv...).

I'm always trying to get used to the Roman calendar system, but it doesn't come easily...

But I found out that you can see some logic in the calendar:

[ i ] | [ ii ] | [iii] | [iv]
Mar | Apr | --- |
Mai | Iun | --- |
Iul |*Sep |*Aug |
Oct | Nov | Dec |
--- | --- | Ian | Feb
(31)|(30)|(31)|(28)
6 | 4 | 4 | 4 before Nones
8 | 8 | 8 | 8 before Ides
17 | 18 | 19 | 16 before Kalends of next month

If you place the months from March, you see that the ten ancient months (March December) one at the side of the other in three columns have the same structure (Nones and Ides in the same position (7-15 or 5-13)/31 or 30 or 31 days). So, columns and [iii] have 31 days (March, May, July, October; August, December, and then January, after December, will go on column [iii] too) and column [ii] have 30 days. And February will come in a fourth column. (Of course, there's the weird trait that you have to change the order of August and September for it to fit. But, well, as language is not perfect, maybe there's some sort of beauty in this too... And with this change, the table works.) Beyond that, if you sum up the numbers of days after each special day in each column, it will give you (possibly as expected to one that works well with numbers, not my case though) the number of days that month has! I was astounded when I found that! :eek-2: :D
 
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