The Roman calendar used to have 10 months including a “Quintilis (July)” and “Sextilis (August)” long before Caesar. Obviously that means 5 (quint) and 6 (sex).
When they introduced January and February to make 12 months, that’s what misaligned the months, not July and August. Before Quintilis and Sextilis were renamed, their numbering was already off.
Caesar didn’t fix it when he remade the calendar, but he also isn’t the one who caused the problem. The problem is that January is the first month when it should be (and used to be) March. If we just made March the first month, it would realign the other months so they make sense. And then leap days would be added to the final month of February, which just makes more sense than putting them in the second month.
Actually ☝️
The Roman calendar used to have 10 months including a “Quintilis (July)” and “Sextilis (August)” long before Caesar. Obviously that means 5 (quint) and 6 (sex).
When they introduced January and February to make 12 months, that’s what misaligned the months, not July and August. Before Quintilis and Sextilis were renamed, their numbering was already off.
Caesar didn’t fix it when he remade the calendar, but he also isn’t the one who caused the problem. The problem is that January is the first month when it should be (and used to be) March. If we just made March the first month, it would realign the other months so they make sense. And then leap days would be added to the final month of February, which just makes more sense than putting them in the second month.
Yeah wasn’t it exactly like that, Feburary being the last month? Didn’t they smash pottery at the end of february to drive out the old year and stuff?