IX. The Roman year did at one time count 304 days spread over ten months - it was before the monarchy, in the days of Romulus and Remus. Numa Pompilius reformed it to count 355 days spread over twelve months. This was the calendar the Romans were using in the days of the promulgation of the Twelve Tables.

XI. The discovery of the cycle of lunar eclipses was made not by Callisthenes but by Babylonian astronomers in the years following the foundation of Rome. These men observed the cycle to be 6585 and one-third days, which equals 223 (not 299) lunar months. Thales of Miletus learned of this observation and predicted with happy good fortune an eclipse of the sun during the war of the Medes and the Lydians in the fourth year of the 48^th Olympiad (according to the Elder Pliny). After the conquest of Babylon by Alexander, Callisthenes brought to his uncle copies of recorded movements of the planets observed by Babylonian astronomers.

XII. At the time of the conquest of Alexander, Egypt had for centuries been using a calendar of 12 months counting thirty days each, plus five holy days added at the end of the twelfth month, for a total of 365 days, which is the length of the solar year less approximately six hours.

XIV. We have seen the sorry state of the Roman calendar before the Julian reform. Two years before his death, Julius Caesar consulted Queen Cleopatra’s court astronomer Sosigenes in order to correct the Roman calendar. This entailed adding 67 days to the year already begun in order to begin a new year with the correct number of days. A solar year counting approximately 365 days and six hours, an integral number is achieved with 1461 days every four solar years. These were divided into three years of 365 days plus one year of 366 days. This extra day was placed after the sixth day before the Kalends of March (24^th day of February), and was called the second sixth day before the Kalends of March (dies bis sextus ante Kalendas Martias).

You have passed the Entrance Examination. Congratulations ! Please proceed at once to the classroom for the Inaugural Lesson.

Here is your first reading list. You will find the works in the School Library. Read them carefully.