When we come to examine the ancient religious calendar, it will be found that I shall not then be called upon to deal with _dies religiosi_, for the very good reason that they are not indicated in that calendar--there is no mark for them as _religiosi_, and some of them are not even _dies nefasti_, as we might naturally have expected.[67] What, then, is the history of them? We may be able to make a fair guess at this by noting exactly what these days were; Dr. Wissowa has put them together for us in a very succinct passage.[68] He begins the list with the 18th of Quinctilis (July), on which two great disasters had happened to Roman armies, the defeats on the Cremera and the Allia; and also the 16th, the day after the Ides, because, according to the legend, the Roman commander had sacrificed on that day with a view to gaining the favour of the gods in the battle. We may regard the story about the 18th as historical; but then we are told that _all_ days following on Kalends, Nones, and Ides were likewise made _religiosi_ (or _atri_, _vitiosi_, which have the same meaning) as being henceforward deemed unlucky by pronouncement of senate and pontifices;[69] thus all _dies postriduani_, as they were called, were put out of use, or at any rate declared unlucky, for many purposes, both public and private, _e.g._ marriages, levies, battles, and sacred rites,[70] simply because on one occasion disaster had followed the offering of a sacrifice on the 16th of Quinctilis. It is difficult to believe that thirty-six days in the year were thus tabooed, by a Roman senate and Roman magistrates, in a period when the practical wisdom of the government was beginning to be a marked characteristic of the State. Some people, we are told, went so far as to treat the _fourth day before_ Kalends, Nones, and Ides in the same way; but Gellius declares that he could find no tradition about this except a single passage of Claudius Quadrigarius, in which he said that the fourth day before the Nones of Sextilis was that on which the battle of Cannae was fought.[71]