Greeks

Egressum magna me accepit Aricia Roma hospitio modico; rhetor comes Heliodorus, Graecorum longe doctissimus; inde forum Appi, differtum nautis, cauponibus atque malignis. hoc iter ignavi divisimus, altius ac nos praecinctis unum; minus est gravis Appia tardis.

When I left great Rome, Aricia gave me modest lodging. My companion was Heliodorus, a rhetor, by far the most learned of the Greeks. From there we went on to Forum Appi, which was crammed with boatmen and crooked innkeepers. Being lazy, we took two days over this stretch, which faster travelers do in one. The Appian Way is easier if you take it slowly.

Anni certus modus apud solos semper Aegyptios fuit. aliarum gentium dispari numero pari errore nutabat, et ut contentus sim referendo paucarum morem regionum, Arcades annum suum tribus mensibus explicabant, Acarnanes sex, Graeci reliqui trecentis quinquaginta quattuor diebus annum proprium computabant.

Only the Egyptians have always had a fixed length for the year. Among other peoples the year wavered. Their numbers differed, but they were all equally wrong. To name the custom of just a few places, the Arcadians finished their year in three months and the Acarnanians in six. The rest of the Greeks counted their year as 354 days.

Secundum mensem nominauit Aprilem, ut quidam putant cum adspiratione quasi Aphrilem, a spuma quam Graeci ἀφρὸν uocant, unde orta Venus creditur, et hanc Romuli asserunt fuisse rationem, ut primum quidem mensem a patre suo Marte, secundum ab Aeneae matre Venere nominaret, et hi potissimum anni principia seruarent, a quibus esset Romani nominis origo, cum hodieque in sacris Martem patrem, Venerem genetricem uocemus.

He named the second month Aprilis. Some think the name was first said with an h, as Aphrilis, from the sea foam that the Greeks call aphros, from which Venus is believed to have been born. They claim that this was Romulus's reasoning. He named the first month after his father, Mars, and the second after Venus, mother of Aeneas. He wanted the gods from whom the Roman people came to hold the start of the year above all. Even today, in our rites, we call Mars "Father" and Venus "Mother."

Sed secutus Numa, quantum sub caelo rudi et saeculo adhuc impolito solo ingenio magistro comprehendere potuit, uel quia Graecorum obseruatione forsan instructus est, quinquaginta dies addidit, ut in trecentos quinquaginta quattuor dies, quibus duodecim lunae cursus confici credidit, annus extenderetur.

Then came Numa, and he added fifty days. He did this as far as he could understand things, in a rough land and an age still unrefined, with only his own mind for a teacher. Or perhaps he had learned from the observations of the Greeks. With these days the year was stretched to 354 days, the time in which he believed the moon completes twelve cycles.

cum ergo Romani ex hac distributione Pompilii ad lunae cursum sicut Graeci annum proprium computarent, necessario et intercalarem mensem instituerunt more Graecorum.

Under this arrangement of Pompilius the Romans counted their year by the course of the moon, as the Greeks did. So they also had to set up an intercalary month, after the Greek custom.