The 6th of the calends of March in ordinary years was the 24th of February; it was called _sexto-kalendas_. When an extra day was put in every fourth year before the 24th, this was a second 6th day, and was therefore called _bissexto-kalendas_, whence we get the name bissextile, applied to leap year. But it was necessary also to bring back the public fetes to the seasons they ought to be held in: for this purpose Caesar was obliged to insert in the current year, 46 B.C. (or 708 A.U.C.), two intercalary months beside the month Mercedonius. There was, therefore, a year of fifteen months divided into 445 days, and this was called the year of confusion. Caesar gave the strictest injunctions to Sosigenes, a celebrated Alexandrian astronomer whom he brought to Rome for this purpose; and on the same principles Flavius was ordered to compose a new calendar, in which all the Roman fetes were entered--following, however, the old method of reckoning the days from the calends, nones, and ides. Antonius, after the death of Caesar, changed the name of Quintilis, in which Julius Caesar was born, into the name _Julius_, whence we derive our name July. The name of _Augustus_ was given to the month _Sextilis_, because the Emperor Augustus obtained his greatest victories during that month. Tiberius, Nero, and other imperial monsters attempted to give their names to the other months. But the people had too much independence and sense of justice to accord them such a flattery. The remaining months we have as they were named in the days of Numa Pompilius. [Illustration: FIG. 57.--THE ROMAN CALENDAR.] A cubical block of white marble has been found at Pompeii which illustrates this very well. Each of the four sides is divided into three columns, and on each column is the information about the month. Each month is surmounted by the sign of the zodiac through which the sun is passing. Beneath the name of the month is inscribed the number of days it contains; the date of the nones, the number of the hours of the day, and of the night; the place of the sun, the divinity under whose protection the month is placed, the agricultural works that are to be done in it, the civil and ecclesiastical ceremonies that are to be performed. These inscriptions are to be seen under the month January to the left of the woodcut. The reform thus introduced by Julius Caesar is commonly known as the _Julian reform_. The first year in which this calendar was followed was 44 B.C. The Julian calendar was in use, without any modification, for a great number of years; nevertheless, the mean value which had been assigned to the civil year being a little different to that of the tropical, a noticeable change at length resulted in the dates in which, each year, the seasons commenced; so that if no remedy had been introduced, the same season would be displaced little by little each year, so as to commence successively in different months.