> I think I remember that the calendar reform shifted two months
backwards: September, the seventh month, is now the ninth month.
February, the month of purification, would be the twelfth month by
this scheme.
Yes, the Roman year originally started with March. Here is the
calendar:
1 Martius
2 Aprilis
3 Maius
4 Junius
5 Quintilis
6 Sextilis
7 September
8 October
9 November
10 December
[followed by an unnamed period of two months during mid-winter]
Later on, the Roman king Numa allegedly divided the unnamed winter
period into the two months Januarius and Februarius.
Here are two interesting websites with some more information about
the Roman calendar:
http://www.12x30.net/earlyrom.html
http://webexhibits.org/calendars/calendar-roman.html
- Chris Gwinn