Even the Julian months, as they were introduced among less cultivated peoples such as the ancient Germans, the Slavs, etc., could not keep their names, since these had no intelligible meaning or reference to a concrete phenomenon; in order to provide for this the months were re-christened with indigenous names which are of the same kind as those given by the primitive peoples to their lunar months. Or else, but much more seldom, the Latin name acquired the concrete significance of a season. The years also are not numbered, but are named from an important event, so that their succession follows from the historical succession of events, a method of denoting the year which prevailed throughout antiquity in the _limmu_, archon, and consular years, etc. _Discontinuous and ‘aoristic’ time-indications._ The starting-point for the time-reckoning is therefore afforded by the concrete phenomena of the heavens and of surrounding natural objects, and the succession of these, fixed as it is by experience, serves as a guide in the chronological sequence. These phenomena extend over periods which are very dissimilar to one another and are individually of varying length; they cross and overlap in some cases, in others they leave gaps. The time-indications are not directly connected with each other, but this connexion is achieved by the phenomena in question. Hence the indications are not circumscribed by one another, but the phenomena as such are regarded. The latter are not conceived of as divisions of time of a definite length; they do not appear as parts of a larger whole, limited on both sides by their connexion with other divisions of time. The conception of continuity, the immediate fusion of the chronological phenomena into one another, is lacking: the time-indications are discontinuous. We may speak, although not quite correctly, of a discontinuous time-reckoning. We think, for example, of the abundant sub-division of the times of day in the morning and evening, and the small number of sub-divisions in the night and day-time, of the many very unequal seasons which encroach upon one another and overlap. General measures for shorter periods of time are therefore not given by the time-indications proper, but are derived from actions or occupations, e. g. the time needed to traverse a well-known piece of road. When a systematising of these time-indications takes place, e. g. in the matter of the seasons, where only those of practical importance are rendered prominent and are circumscribed, there arise divisions of very unequal length, which are hardly suitable for a genuine time-reckoning.