Fun fact about the Roman calendar

[conuly]

The Romans were batshit. No, I mean that quite seriously. We say "March 15th", but as everybody knows, the Romans said "The Ides of March". Fair enough, the Ides were always either 15th or the 13th, the Nones were always the 7th or 5th, and the Kalends were always the first of the month.

Now, we'd also refer to the day before the Ides as March 14th, but to the Romans it was "pridie" the Ides, that is, the day before the Ides. And the day before that, what we'd say is the 13th, was... three days before the Ides. And that's how they counted days. Backwards, and inclusive of the day counted.

(The 17th, if you're curious, is XVI days before the Kalends of April. Even though it's not. Batshit, I tell you.)

Comments

[bibliofile]

If only they'd had normal numbers, things might have been much easier for them.

[conuly]

Boy howdy, you never said a truer word.

[jhetley]

We're all mad here.

[wpadmirer]

Thank you! That was very entertaining, educational, and yes, batshit.

[adafrog]

lol Thanks.

[fox]

inclusive of the day counted

Which is how a fellow crucified on a Friday afternoon is resurrected Sunday morning and they can say he lay in the tomb three days. (I just sing it, I don’t have to believe it.)

[mount_oregano]

Also, their numbers went:
17 - septendecim - seven ten
18 - duodeviginti - two from twenty
19 - undeviginti - one from twenty
20 - viginti - twenty

[conuly]

To be fair, our numbers, etymologically, go

Nine
Ten
One left over
Two left over
Three-and-ten (which sounds a lot like "three tens")
Four-and-ten (ditto)
Five-and-ten (ditto)

and so on.

[austin_dern]

Yes; between the number system, the counting-down-to-the-month-signpost, and the variable locations of the ides and the nones, it's a wonder that the Romans ever got their database software to work at all.

[thewayne]

Yeah, and what did it get the Romans? Where are they now? DEAD! They're all DEAD!!!

Which is why I never bothered with any particular fluency in Roman numerals.

[silveradept]

Time and numbers seem to be the place where it is the easiest to find all sorts of idiosyncrasies and irregularities, regardless of culture. This one seems more variant than many.