Some year seem to zip by in the blink of an middle , while others seem to embroil on for far longer . But some , likeleap long time , can last a little longer than common . And then there ’s 46 BCE , which last 445 day , 80 days more than we are used to .
So , why did the year last so long ? Years are how long the Earth takes to make one orbit around the Sun and return to the arbitrary point we have set as the showtime of the unexampled yr . Our calendars are an attempt to break the class down into chunks ( month , weeks , day ) for our own convenience . It ’s pretty useful to be able to say " I ’ll meet you on March 3 at 12:00 " as opposed to " When the shadows of the mountain stretch to the hillock yonder , then we shall have brunch " .
While we have gotten better at get the orbital year to match up with our calendar old age , even adding " leap seconds " to keep matter really synchronise up , earlier calendars were not so effective .
Before Julius Caesar enclose the Julian calendar , the Romanist year followed a 10 - month , 304 - day lunar calendar . As a result , the calendar fall rapidly out of sync with the passing of the Earth around the Sun , and by around 200 BCE , the calendar was so out of belt that a near - sum occultation that took billet on what we ’d now full term March 14 was recorded as taking spot on July 11 .
An " intercalary month " , calledMercedonius , had to be add together in every few years in orderliness to counteract the drift .
It was n’t a great way to run acalendar . Though Mercedonius could be used to realign the calendar with the twelvemonth , it was open to political abuse . The Pontifex Maximus and the College of Pontiffs ( side note : great band name ) were allowed to alter the calendar , and would now and again employ it for political use , such as extend someone ’s metre in office . If you think government is spoilt now , imagine being sit in a fulgent December Sunday so that Joeleticus Blogsicus could extend on for a few more days in the Department of Agriculture .
Julius Caesar later attempt to rectify the stack by introduce the Julian calendar in 45 BCE , adding one or two days to the death of all the brusk months ( except for oddball February ) to make the total number of days in a twelvemonth a more familiar 365 .
" Then turning his tending to the reorganization of the state , he reformed the calendar , which the neglect of the pontiffs had long since so trouble , through their privilege of adding months or days at pleasure , that the harvest home festival did not come in summertime nor those of the vintage in the autumn ; and he adjusted the twelvemonth to the sun ’s course by make it consist of three hundred and sixty - five days , get rid of the intercalary month , and adding one Clarence Day every 4th year , " Roman historianSuetonius wrotein Life of Julius Caesar .
But before the new calendar ( kinda ) fixed thing , there was still a problem to define ; the year was still out of line with the seasons . for rectify this , Caesar added several months to 46 BCE .
" Furthermore , that the correct enumeration of season might begin with the next Kalends of January , he put in two other months between those of November and December , " write Suetonius , " hence the year in which these arrangements were made was one of fifteen months , including the intercalary month , which belong to that year grant to the former customs . "
As a result , 46 BCE became the long yr in recorded history at 445 day , and is sometimes referred to asannus confusionis , or the " year of confusion " .
Anearlier variation of this articlewas published in December 2024 .
