CALENDAR. Nations have adopted different divisions of time, from which history has presented difficulties and contradictions. That of the Chaldmans was seen by Callisthenes, the favourite of Alexander. It commenced B.C. 2234. The Chinese calendar was reformed under the Han dynasty, B.C. 1991.
The Romans called the first day of each month Calend, from a word which signified `called,' be cause the pontiffs on those days summoned the people together, to apprise them of the days of festival in that month. The Roman calendar is stated to have been introduced by Romulus, the founder of Rome. He divided the year into ten months only,—Mars, Aprilis, Maius, Junius, Quintilis (afterwards called Julius), Sextilis (after wards called Augustus), September, October, November, and December. Mars, Mains, Quintilis, and October contained 31 days, and each of the six other months 30 days, so that the ten months comprised 304 days. The year of Romulus was therefore of 50 days' less duration than the lunar year, and of 61 days less than the solar year.
Numa Pompilius placed two months, Januarius and Februarius, before Mars. Julius Cmsar con sulted the astronomers of his time, and fixed the solar year as 365 days 6 hours, comprising, as they thought, the period from one vernal equinox to another. The six hours were set aside, and at the end of four years forming a day, the fourth year was made to consist of 366 days. The day thus added was called intercalary, and was added to the month of February, by doubling the 24th of that month, or, according to their way of reckoning, the sixth of the calends of March. Hence the year
was called bissextile. This almost perfect arrange ment, which was denominated the Julian style, prevailed generally throughout the Christian world till the time of Pope Gregory mit. The calendar of Julius Cmsar was defective in this particular, that the solar year, consisting of 365 days 5 hours and 49 minutes, and not of 365 days 6 hours, as was supposed in the time of Julius Cmsar, there was a difference between the apparent year and the real year of 11 minutes. This difference at the time of Gregory )(tit. bad amounted to ten entire days, the vernal equinox falling on the llth instead of the 21st of March, at which period it fell correctly at the time of the Council of Nice in the year 325. To obviate this inconveni ence, Gregory, in 1582, .ordained that the 15th of October should be counted instead of the 5th for the future.
The solar, i.e. really the sidereal year, called the Shuboor Sun, or vulgarly the Soor Sun, that is, the year of (Arabic) months, was apparently in troduced into the Dekhan by Taghalaq Shah, be tween A.C. 1341 and 1344, and it is still used by the Mahrattas in all their more important docu ments, the dates being inserted in Arabic words written in Afahratti characters. The Fasli or `harvest' year of other parts of India was not introduced until the reign of Akbar and Shah Jahan, and they mostly continue to this day to be used even by the British in revenue accounts. —History of the Sikhs ; Captain Cunningham p. 34 ; Bunsen, ii. pp. 402, 442; T. of Ind. Cal. See Era.