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Quintilis


In the ancient Roman calendar, Quintilis or Quinctilis was the month following Junius (June) and preceding Sextilis (August).Quintilis is Latin for "fifth": it was the fifth month (quintilis mensis) in the earliest calendar attributed to Romulus, which began with Martius ("Mars' month," March) and had 10 months. After the calendar reform that produced a 12-month year, Quintilis became the seventh month, but retained its name. In 45 BC, Julius Caesar instituted a new calendar (the Julian calendar) that corrected astronomical discrepancies in the old. After his death in 44 BC, the month of Quintilis, his birth month, was renamed Julius in his honor, hence July.

Quintilis was under the guardianship (tutela) of the Romans' supreme deity Jupiter, with sacrifices made particularly to Neptune and Apollo. The importance of agricultural festivals directed at the harvest gradually lost their importance, and the month became dominated in urban Imperial Rome by the Ludi Apollinares, games (ludi) in honor of Apollo. Ten days of games were celebrated in honor of Julius Caesar at the end of the month.

Like the modern month of July, this was one of the "long" months that had 31 days. The Romans did not number days of a month sequentially from the 1st through the last day. Instead, they counted back from the three fixed points of the month: the Nones (Nonae, 5th or 7th, depending on the length of the month), the Ides (Idūs, 13th or 15th), and the Kalends (Kalendae, 1st) of the following month. Thus the last day of Quintilis was the pridie Kalendas Sextilis, "day before the Kalends of Sextilis" (August). Roman counting was inclusive; July 5 was ante diem III Nonas Quintilis, "the 3rd day before the Nones (7th) of Quintilis," usually abbreviated a.d. III Non. Quint. (or with the a.d. omitted altogether); July 23 was X. Kal. Sext., "the 10th day before the Kalends of Sextilis."


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