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Show Roman Emperors Gave j Us Present Calendar ' Our present calendar was arranged largely by Julius Caesar and his nephew, Caesar Augustus. When Julius returned from his Egyptian campaign in 46 B. C, he brought with him Sosigenes, a famed astronomer, to correct the Roman calendar. calen-dar. This sage established the length of the year at 365V4 days, divided into 12 months. The unevenly numbered first, third, etc., had 31 days each, and the even months 30 days, except February, which had 29 days, regularly, and 30 only in leap years. The seventh month was named Julius, by order of the senate, to honor Caesar. When Caesar Augustus came to powei he had the eighth month named after himself. him-self. This being a 30-day month, Augustus Augus-tus felt it was inferior to July, so he lengthened August to 31 days, taking the extra day from February. Then to avoid three 31-day months in a row, he pulled the 31st day off September and November, Novem-ber, and added them to October and December. De-cember. Thus the egotism of one man completely disrupted the wise and orderly order-ly year of Julius. Julius Caesar |