#juilius caesar

[iamgiraffe100]

The senate

Caesar

[dayinhistory]

January 1st: Julius Caesar did not Ruin the Calendar

Imagine you live in 1582 under the reign of the Pope. You go to bed on Thursday October 4th, and when you awaken, it is now Friday October 15th. This is what happened with the reform of the Julian Calendar into the Gregorian Calendar that is used today.

There are several myths that circulate around the history of our current calendar, an almost completely Roman invention.

The most famous myth is that the romans originally used a 10-month calendar, but Julius and Augustus Caesar wanted months named after them so they added July and August, thus messing up the order.

Firstly, Julius Ceasar actually fixed an incredibly broken and bureaucratic system of the time. Secondly, the year used to begin in march, thus the September, October, November and December months not lining up with the corresponding numbers was just a side effect of fixing the calendar.

Lets start first with how the original calendar came to be, before the Julian Calendar.

Originally, the Roman calendar was based on an older lunar calendar. The first day of each month, or “Kalends,” took place on the new moons, the “Nones” with waxing half moons, and the “Ides” to full moons. The Dates were written as a countdown to each of these. The calendar year was 10 moons long, and the remaining days of winter occurred without being assigned a month name.

After that, came the Calendar of Romulus, which was a solar calendar. The year was approximately 304 days long. Instead of relying on the moon phases, the Kalends, Nones, and Ides were placed on the 1st, 7th, and 15th of each month. This calendar also did not include the winter months, which made the length of the year a confusing and troublesome thing to figure out.

Next, came the calendar of Numa, which then threw in Ianuarius, Februarius, and Intercalaris, as well as changed the length of the months that already existed. This year came out to 355 days, and still stayed out of sync with the seasons. Though unlike today’s calendar, the months corresponding with January and February were at the end of the year, rather than at the beginning.

After the implementation of the calendar of Numa, there were “The years of confusion.” They were called this as state priests would regularly extend the year, as they could to originally keep the months in line with the seasons. Instead of keeping the months inline with the seasons however, they would regularly extend the months to keep a magistrate they wanted in power in place, or shorten the months to get rid of one they wanted gone.

Julius wished to changed this and fix the issue, thus the calendar reform became a topic. Julius Ceasar didn’t come up with the idea himself though. He had spent 48-46 BC in Egypt, and was very aware of their fixed-length calendar. He studied the information with his crew back in Rome, and they devised a plan.

Moving January and February to the begining of the year, making a leap year every 4th year, and arranging the lengths of the months differently, the Julian calendar was born.

Originally, the months went

Martius

Aprilis

Maius

Lunius

Quintilis

Sextilis

Octobris

Septembris

Novembris

Decembris

Ianuarius

Februarius

Intercalaris

Under the new calendar, the months changed in order and a few in name. Quintilis was renamed in 44BC to honor Julius because it was the month of his birth. Sextilis was renamed Augustus to honor Caesar Augustus because of several of the most significant events in his rise to power. The ending outcome of the months came to be:

Ianuarius

Februarius

Martius

Aprilis

Maius

Iunius

Iulius

Augustus

September

October

November

December

Why was the Julian Calendar reformed to become today’s Gregorian Calendar though? Well……you’ll find out on October 15th haha.

Reference List

Coolman, Robert. “Keeping Time: Months and the Modern Calendar.” LiveScience, May 16, 2014. https://www.livescience.com/45650-calendar-history.html.

Gilmour, Peter. 2001. “Odds & Ends.” U.S. Catholic 66 (10): 6. https://search-ebscohost-com.proxy.wichita.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=5247638&site=ehost-live.

[moss-wizard]

@thesurielle tagged to shuffle 5 songs, cheers!!

If you think that yours was unhinged, just you freakin' wait. Never let me control the music 😇.

Taggin' anybody who wants the excuse.

edit: I just kept listening on shuffle, so I'm cheating and adding a bonus song that's several tracks deep. But you might dig it!

[jasonfunderberkerthefrogexists]

since today is juilius caesar’s death day, i feel i should mention that i was in a production of juilius caesar by shakespeare,

and i played brutus 😈

[that-one-space-pirate]

John Mulaney killed Princess Diana this and John Mulaney killed Prince philip that, what about his first victim that no one is talking about? smh

[voidwardenalex]

Happy 5399th birthday Auren and Baruk, you crazy void bastards

[mannco-moved]

i think if i gave juilius caesar kraft mac n chese he would go comatose

[redroseworks]

The most unkindest cut of all

[hsitposts]

like shii bro!! someone feed me grapes fr no cap juilius could never Caesar my salad. Subway™

[archcracker]

niceu niceu very niceu juilius caesar-chan

for making me read this i sentence you to be crucified

[dailycognates]

July and Lent (?)

A somewhat uncertain connection.  July descends ultimately from the Latin name Iūlius, being named after Juilius Caesar, replacing the older name Quīntīlis (literally “fifth”, the year originally having begun in March).  The origin of the name Iūlius is somewhat uncertain.  One theory is that it derived from a contraction of the Old Latin *Iovilios, “belonging to or descended from Jove”, an alternate form of the name Jupiter, from the stem Iov- used in all but the nominative and vocative.

Iov-, the stem of Iūpiter, descends from Proto-Italic *djou-, from Proto-Indo-European *dyḗws, “sky”, “heaven”,  “god”.  The Proto-Italic word was irregular, using *djou-/djow- in most forms, but with an accusative *djēm.  Via the accusative, a regularized noun diēs was formed in Latin meaning “day”.

*dyḗws  was a nominalized form of the root *dyew “to shine”.  Another nominalized form was *deynos meaning “day”, in which the -ye- underwent metathesis as -ey-.  This was a fairly common occurrence with the sonorants, due to reinterpretations of ablaut.  That is, -i- could be the zero-grade of -ey- or of -ye-.  This became Proto-Germanic *tīnaz “day”, a word which does not survive in independent form in any of the modern Germanic languages, only in derivatives of the compound *langatīnaz “spring”, from  *langaz “long” + *tīnaz “day”, from the days becoming longer during Spring.  This became Old English lengten or lencten meaning “spring” or “Lent”, which became Modern English Lenten, now shortened to just Lent.  Thus, only the /t/ of the Germanic *tīnaz survives in the modern form.

[myfirstsearchengine]

WicDiv 455 References

So I’ll live up to my blog’s name and look up all the ancient roman terms/references I noticed in #455 AD. I won’t mention any plot stuff here, but it may somewhat spoil you. Keep in my mind that this is basically just wikipedia stuff.

Julius Caesar: A Roman politician and general who expanded the Roman Republic through conquest, and then became its perpetual dictator. He was assasinated by members of the senate who feared he would become a tyrant. He lived about 500 years before this special.

Vandal: The Vandals were an east germanic tribe. They sacked Rome in 455.

Ave Atque Vale!: A latin phrase meaning "Hail and Farewell". The last phrase of a famous roman poem.

Remember you are only a man: “Memento Homo” in latin. A phrase whispered by a slave during a Roman Celebration to the commander being celebrated, in order to keep him grounded.

Scythian Mithras: The Scythians were a group of Iranian Eurasian nomads. Mithras was a god worshipped in the Roman Empire, inspired by the worship of the persian god Mithra.

Falernian: A famous ancient roman wine.

Bacchus: The roman version of Dionysus.

Palatine Hill: One of the seven hills of rome. Temples and palaces were built there. You can actually still visit this place in modern Rome.

Cleopatra: The last ruler of Egypt before it became a province of the Roman Empire. Which happened a few decades after Juilius Caesar’s death.

Legion: A roman army.

The Morai: Greek goddesses of destiny. Also known as the Fates. There were three of them, and they were Ananke’s daughters in Greek mythology. 

Alexandrian Library: The Library of Alexandria was one of the wonders of the ancient world, located in Alexandria, Egypt. It was built in the 3rd century BC, and it was destroyed by the time of this special.

Thessalian witch: Thessaly was and is a region of Greece. There is a concept of Thessalian witches who were believed to control the moon, although they were really just astronomers.

The Hun: Attila the Hun, the ruler of the Huns. Nomadic people who conquered big parts of Europe. It is believed he died from a severe nosebleed during the celebration of his latest marriage. His widow was blamed and killed for his death.

Catch your last breath or close your eyes: A roman custom when someone dies. 

Ravenna: A city in northeast Italy, the capital of the Roman Empire at the time of this special.

Augustus: The first Roman emperor, and adoptive son of Caesar. He ruled for 40 years.

Pax Romana: Latin for Roman Peace. A peaceful period of time for the Roman Empire that lasted a little over 200 years.

Geiseric: The King of the Vandals.

Crassus: Another Roman general from the time of Julius Caesar, an ally and rival of his.

Parthians: An empire in ancient Iran and Iraq. They defeated and killed Crassus.

Caligula: A Roman emperor from the 1st century AD. He is remembered as a tyrant. There are accounts that he claimed to be a god, and even had people address him as Jupiter.

Nero: Another Roman emperor form the 1st century AD. He was the emperor during the Great Fire of Rome in 64 AD. Some accounts blame him for starting the fire, while others say it was an accident and Nero wasn’t in Rome when it happened.

Jupiter: The Roman version of Zeus, god of the sky and thunder. I think the temple we see is the Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus. 

Et tu, Jupiter: A reference to “Et tu, Brute?”. A phrase supposedly said by Caesar as he was assassinated. It literally means “And you, Brutus?”, although I think it’s meant to be more of a “Even you, Brutus?”. Notice that there’s no question mark in the comic version.

Tiber: A river that passes through Rome.

Marius: A Roman Praetor who was tortured and dismembered, near the river Tiber.

Maximus: I am not really sure who this is, but there was a christian martyr called Maximus who was stoned and killed outside of Rome, so it’s possible he ended up in the Tiber.

Carthage: A city in what is now Tunisia.

Sulla: A Roman general who conquered Rome by force, and then became its dictator.

Catamite: A young man in a homosexual relationship with an older partner.

[well-meaning-idiot]

You: william shakspear's Juilius Caesar is historical fiction because it involves ficticiuos conversations involving real life historical charicters.

Me, an intelectual: juilus Caesar is fanfiction

[words-of-yore]

The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, But in ourselves, that we are underlings.

Cassius, Juilius Caesar by William Shakespeare (act 1, scene 3, lines 147-148; ed. folger)

[thoodleoo]

[socialshakespeare]

Read-through 3: Friday, March 20th

The third read-through of Julius Caesar!

Many of you are double or triple cast, so double check which lines you have to read. You can look up the lines of the characters here, but beware the differences in names. The names listed below all go with the Folger Edition. If you’re in any doubt, please ask.

Also, I’m recasting some readers; I hope you don’t mind reading a smaller part now!

Times and time zones:

UTC: 18:00-22:00 CET: 19:00-23:00 EET: 20:00-24:00 EST: 14:00-18:00  

Leader: jaggedrain​

Cast:

Julius Caesar: elisayouexpected​ Marcus Brutus Part One: @ohthose3dglasses Marcus Brutus Part Two: heuristicdevice​ Caius Cassius: annathegreenwitch​ Casca: @starlightandcrimescenes Mark Antony: cantankerousquince​ Portia, Carpenter, Third Soldier & Messenger: @bewareofitalics Octavius, Popilius Lena, Second Soldier & Claudius: ejcov​ Decius Brutus, Volumnius, Lepidus & Varro: @beezarre Lucius, Publius, Dardanius, First Soldier & Plebians/All: writagain​ Marullus, Poet, Strato, Young Cato, Trebonis & Cicero: jaggedrain​ Messala & Calphurnia: inarduisfidelis​ Titinius, Servant, Cinna the Poet & Clitus: impracticallyiffy​ Flavius, Caius Ligarius & Lucilius: hello-delicious-tea Artemidorus, Cobbler/Second Commoner & Fourth Plebian/Citizen: @thecirusofme Pindarus, Cinna & First Plebian/Citizen: @fire-cannot-kill-a-mockingjay Metellus Cimber, Soothsayer & Second Plebian/Citizen: elsinore-snores Listener: @chanverrerie Understudy: punkisdecedied

Please send an ask to confirm!

Read the Guidelines. To avoid the differences between editions that make for confusion and missed cues, please use the Folger edition of Julius Caesar during the read-through.

It’s a big play, so be on time, be prepared, and make sure you know which lines to read. Good luck!