Aricia
An ancient Latin town in the Alban Hills, whose calendar gave October 39 days.
Today: Ariccia, Lazio, Italy
A bad night at the inn on the road to Brundisium
Horace, Satires, book 1, satire 5 (the journey to Brundisium, probably 37 BCE), in the school edition of Arthur Palmer (Macmillan, 1905 printing) · journey probably in the spring of 37 BCE; written soon after
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.
How the Romans fixed the year
Censorinus, On the Birthday 20–22 (238 CE), in the edition of Friedrich Hultsch (Leipzig, 1867) · 238 CE
apud Albanos Martius est sex et triginta, Maius viginti duum, Sextilis duodeviginti, September sedecim: Tusculanorum Quintilis dies habet XXXVI, October XXXII, idem October apud Aricinos XXXVIIII.
Among the Albans, March has 36 days, May 22, Sextilis 18 and September 16. At Tusculum, Quintilis has 36 days and October 32, and at Aricia October has 39.
Where the months got their names
Macrobius, Saturnalia 1.12–14 (early fifth century CE), in the edition of Franz Eyssenhardt (Leipzig, 1893) · early fifth century CE; the dialogue is set in the 380s
Iunius Maium sequitur aut ex parte populi, ut supra diximus, nominatus aut, ut Cingius arbitratur, quod Iunonius apud Latinos ante uocitatus, diuque apud Aricinos Praenestinosque hac appelatione in fastos relatus sit adeo ut, sicut Nisus in commentariis fastorum dicit apud maiores quoque nostros haec appelatio mensis diu manserit, sed post detritis quibusdam litteris ex Iunonio Iunius dictus sit. nam et aedes Iunoni Monetae Kalend. Iuniis dedicata est.
June follows May. It was named either after a part of the people, as I said above, or, as Cingius judges, because the Latins once called it Iunonius [after Juno]. The people of Aricia and Praeneste long kept this name in their calendars. As Nisus says in his notes on the calendar, our ancestors too kept this name of the month for a long time, but later some letters wore away and Iunonius became Iunius. Indeed, the temple of Juno Moneta was dedicated on the first of June.