'July' is for Julius
The Roman Senate named the month of July after
Julius Caesar to honor him for reforming their calendar, which had degenerated into a chaotic embarrassment. Bad calculations caused the months to drift wildly across the seasonsJanuary, for example, had begun to fall in the autumn. The high priest in charge of the calendar, the
pontifex maximus, had become so corrupt that he sometimes lengthened the year to keep certain officials in office or abbreviated it to shorten an enemy's tenure.
Augustus for 'August'
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[FONT=verdana, arial, helvetica][/FONT]After Julius's grandnephew Augustus defeated
Marc Antony and
Cleopatra, and became emperor of Rome, the Roman Senate decided that he too should have a month named after him. The month
Sextillus (sex = six) was chosen for Augustus, and the senate justified its actions in the following resolution:
Whereas the Emperor Augustus Caesar, in the month of Sextillis . . . thrice entered the city in triumph . . . and in the same month Egypt was brought under the authority of the Roman people, and in the same month an end was put to the civil wars; and whereas for these reasons the said month is, and has been, most fortunate to this empire, it is hereby decreed by the senate that the said month shall be called Augustus.
Not only did the Senate name a month after Augustus, but it decided that since Julius's month, July, had 31 days, Augustus's month should equal it: under the Julian calendar, the months alternated evenly between 30 and 31 days (with the exception of February), which made August 30 days long. So, instead of August having a mere 30 days, it was lengthened to 31, preventing anyone from claiming that Emperor Augustus was saddled with an inferior month.
