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This is a cute story, but it lacks all sources, and it contradicts Wikipedia [1] [2]: > Commonly repeated lore has it that August has 31 days because Augustus
by sltkr 13y ago
This is a cute story, but it lacks all sources, and it contradicts Wikipedia [1] [2]:
> Commonly repeated lore has it that August has 31 days because Augustus wanted his month to match the length of Julius Caesar's July, but this is an invention of the 13th century scholar Johannes de Sacrobosco. Sextilis in fact had 31 days before it was renamed, and it was not chosen for its length (see Julian calendar). According to a senatus consultum quoted by Macrobius, Sextilis was renamed to honor Augustus because several of the most significant events in his rise to power, culminating in the fall of Alexandria, fell in that month.
The fact that February has the fewest days makes sense considering it was the last month of the Julian year (March was the first, hence July and August were called quintilis and sextilis, for fifth and sixth, respectively). It doesn't quite explain why the 31-day months are distributed unevenly over the year, but if you are going to take days off, it makes sense to take them off the last month of the year.
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julian_calendar https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julian_calendar
2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augustus#Month_of_August https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augustus#Month_of_August
- darkarmani 13y ago> March was the first, hence July and August were called quintilis and sextilis, for fifth and sixth, respectively An even better example is the actual numbered months: - Septum (7) - Octo (8) - Novem (9) - Decem (10)
- hobbes300 13y agoContradicting Wikipedia does not equal a lack of truth.
- sltkr 13y agoNo, but information on Wikipedia tends to be accurate and based on reliable sources -- when a person contradicts Wikipedia and fails to provide any sources of their own, they are usually wrong. Not necessarily, of course, but often enough to say the burden of proof lies with the person making the unsubstantiated claim.
- saraid216 13y agoUh. There was a source provided: 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica. I wouldn't call that more reliable, but it's still as valid a source as Wikipedia.
- mgraczyk 13y agoThe 1911 Britannica is not the source provided. The source is a hypothetical entry in an encyclopedia that most people don't have. That is not as valuable a source as Wikipedia because I cannot easily verify that the 1911 Britannica corroborates the facts in this email.
- maxerickson 13y agohttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Wikipedia_articles_incorporating_a_citation_from_the_1911_Encyclopaedia_Britannica_with_Wikisource_reference http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Wikipedia_articles_inc...
- saraid216 13y agoJust because you are lazy and unwilling to verify the source doesn't mean it's not a source.
- acqq 13y agoThe text of the whole 1911 Britannica is just one Google away: https://archive.org/details/EncyclopaediaBritannica1911HQDJVU https://archive.org/details/EncyclopaediaBritannica1911HQDJV... http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/1911_Encyclopædia_Britannica http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/1911_Encyclopædia_Britannica
- sltkr 13y agoYou're right -- my mistake. I missed that somehow.
- VikingCoder 13y agoNature abhors a vacuum. Internet abhors a claim contradicting Wikipedia.
- dllthomas 13y ago"if you are going to take days off, it makes sense to take them off the last month of the year." It's sort of understandable to take them off the last month of the year, but I think it makes the most sense to take them off the longer months first.
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]