Let me just say
Mar. 16th, 2018 11:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
conulythe Roman system for noting the days of the month was seriously over-complicated.
So, in the system we're used to you start on the first of the month and keep counting forward until the next month.
The Romans didn't do that. Instead, they start with a month and add three landmark dates - the calends, the nones, and the ides - and then they counted backwards from those dates. Okay, so far, so good... except they also used inclusive counting. So the 14th of March is the day before the ides, and yet the 13th of March is three days before the ides. (That's why the nones is the nones, anyway. It's eight days before the ides, which to the Romans was nine days before, and marking a day by saying it was so-and-so many days before the ides made sense to them.)
I learned this in high school Latin, of course, and have never quite forgiven the Romans.
*****
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So, in the system we're used to you start on the first of the month and keep counting forward until the next month.
The Romans didn't do that. Instead, they start with a month and add three landmark dates - the calends, the nones, and the ides - and then they counted backwards from those dates. Okay, so far, so good... except they also used inclusive counting. So the 14th of March is the day before the ides, and yet the 13th of March is three days before the ides. (That's why the nones is the nones, anyway. It's eight days before the ides, which to the Romans was nine days before, and marking a day by saying it was so-and-so many days before the ides made sense to them.)
I learned this in high school Latin, of course, and have never quite forgiven the Romans.
'The moment I gave Reese Witherspoon my Legally Blonde dissertation'
A Class Picture for the Ages
Decoding the Design History of Your Coffee Cup Lid
Daydream About Summer With These Color-Drenched Photos of the Great American Fair
Why Historically Black Colleges Are Enjoying a Renaissance
Japan plans to lower age of adulthood to 18
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'Lazy lawn mowers' can help support suburban bee populations and diversity
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Bolivian women weave devices to patch holes in hearts
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