What did the Romans ever do for us? Naming the Months

If you are an English speaker, have you ever wondered where the names of the months of the year came from?  Well wonder no longer as, like many elements of western European culture, we can thank the Romans. Not only did they widely introduce the twelve-month year, but they named the months, ordered them and established the number of days in each. Yet the word “month” is courtesy of the Anglo-Saxons, who also had their own names, so it seems only fair we contrast the English names with those of the Romans.

January (Januarius)

The first month (Latin: mensis) of the year is January, but it was not always so. The Roman month of Iānuārius is named after their god Janus. the god of beginnings and endings. As such, he is depicted with two faces implying that he could look back to the year just passed and forward to the next twelve months. Interestingly, this idea of going forwards and backwards also meant Janus was the god of doorways. Ceremonial gateways named after the god were built around ancient Rome through which armies would march off to battle and then hopefully return.

In Old English, however, the first month of the year was known as Iānuāriusmōnað. This is the Latin word for January (Iānuārius) that ended with the Anglo-Saxon word mōnað (phon. “monath”) meaning “moon” because a month was considered the period between one new moon and the next. Unsurprisingly mōnað became our word month.

Yet the Anglo-Saxons also had their own name for January or at least a period that rough aligns with it. In Old English this was “Æfterra Gēola” - after Geol (phon. “Yool”) - or the second month of what some may know as Yule. Yule was a pre-Christian festival celebrated around the winter solstice and the end of the year, which we believe for the Anglo-Saxons was December 25th. Such mid-winter festivities marked the beginning of lengthening days and may have been intended to ensure Spring’s return. Elsewhere the word is sometimes used to refer to the Christmas period or yuletide where tide was an early English word for time. We’ll come back to yule later.

February (Februarius)

The Romans gave us this name too. Februārius comes from their god Februus, who was associated with death and purification and was celebrated with sacrifices made during his festival, Februalia.

January was not the first month in the Roman calendar; that accolade went to March (see below). It stands to reason, therefore, that February cannot have always been the second. For a period it was actually the last month of the Roman year. Indeed, January and February were for a time considered “dark months” by the Romans and, for a while, were not even named. This reflected the idea that nothing could be achieved at this miserable time of the year, it being too cold to fight, to farm or head out on your travels. It was just this barren blank spot on the Roman calendar until, around 700 BC, the second King of Rome, Numa Pompilius [1], supposedly rescued them from the dark depths of the end of the year and gave them the ultimate upgrade, making them the first months of the year.

Again, Old English took on the Roman name while adding mōnað to produce Februāriusmōnað. However, according to “Venerable” Bede, the English monk and prolific scholar who is the sole source for much of our knowledge of Old English, February was also known to the Anglo-Saxons as Solmōnað. The precise meaning of “sol” is disputed with some saying it is simply a reference to the Latin word for the sun. Given that the sun is somewhat lacking in Northern Europe in February, perhaps a more likely explanation is that it shares a root with the English word “soil”. If so, then this means the Anglo-Saxons thought February was the “muddy month” which, for a largely rural-based society, would be very recognisable and therefore does make sense.

March (Martius)

The month of March is derived from mensis Martius so named for Mars, the Roman god of war and an ancestor of the Roman people through his sons Romulus and Remus. As alluded to above, Martius was, for several hundred years, the first month of until the earlier Roman calendar was re-ordered and the months of January and February were moved ahead of March. Unsurprisingly the month of Mars was the beginning of the season for warfare, and the festivals held in the god’s honour during this month were mirrored by others in October, when the Roman campaigning season came to a close.

Old English added a few extra names for the month of March. One of them was hlyde or later Lide which shares its root with the word “loud” because, according to our old friend Bede, it was “the month noisy with wind and storm”. In common with the militaristic overtones of the Romans, the Anglo-Saxons also named March after their pre-Christian goddess Hrêða, the goddess of glory.

April (Aprilis)

April may take its name from the Latin word aperire, meaning ‘to open’, an allusion to it being the month when trees and flowers begin to 'open' or bloom. At least that is the traditional etymology, but in truth the derivation of the name is uncertain. As some months were named in honour of Roman divinities, April was sacred to the goddess Venus. Indeed, the festival honouring her, known as Veneralia, was celebrated on April 1st.

Once again, the Anglo-Saxons seemingly adopted the Latin name for the month, but they also had their own version, Ēastermōnað, or “Easter month”. This is clearly not named after the Christian festival of Easter because it is a pre-Christian term. If anything it is the other way round with Easter so named in English because it is celebrated in the Anglo-Saxons’ Ēastermōnað. That said, our only source for the Anglo-Saxon name is, once again, Bede.

In AD 725 he wrote De temporum ratione (“The Reckoning of Time”) to help monks calculate the date of Easter. In doing so he detailed various calendrical schemes, provided a potted history of the Earth and, thanks to the work’s popularity, helped fix the BC/AD dating scheme as the standard. It is within his discussion of calendars that Bede gives us the traditional Old English names for the months, with a brief discussion of each. As we will see, some of his etymologies seem to refer to the agricultural cycles of the Anglo-Saxon year. Significantly, however, Bede notes two months were named after goddesses: Hrêða whom we have already met in connection with the month of March and Eostre, a supposed Germanic goddess of Spring.

There is a problem, however, as Tim O’Neill points out: “…we have no other explicit references to this “Eostre” anywhere in any other source, which has led some scholars to suspect there was no such goddess and to posit that Bede didn’t have a clue what “Eostremonath” meant and that he simply invented an “Eostre” goddess to explain the obscure name.” More widely, Anglo-Saxon personal names and place names suggest links to a goddess called Eostre so perhaps Bede was correct after all. Maybe the Anglo-Saxons used the name of the goddess’ month, Ēastermōnað, for the new Christian festival since it fell around the same time of year.

May (Maius)

May, or mensis Maius to the Romans, was named after the Greek goddess Maia whom the Romans identified with Bona Dea, their goddess of fertility whose festival was held in that month. The association with a fertility goddess who oversaw the growth of plants seems highly appropriate for this springtime month.

The month of May in Old English was called Þrīmilcemōnað, which translates as “three milk month”. As Bede writes in De temporum ratione: “the fifth month is called Thrimilci in our language, because before, there was such abundance in Britain and also in Germania, whence the Angle-people came to Britain, they would milk their cows thrice a day.” Put simply, the longer days and improving weather in May led to lush pastures meaning Anglo-Saxon farmers were able to milk their cows three times a day.

June (Junius)

June, or Junius, is typically thought to be named after the Roman goddess Juno, the goddess of marriage and childbirth, and the wife of Jupiter, king of the gods. The name Junius may have come from the Latin word iuniores, meaning 'younger ones', as opposed to maiores ('elders') for which the preceding month May (Maius) may be named. It has been suggested that iuniores in this sense may be another farming reference alluding to the time of year when the young of domesticated animals could have been observed frolicking in the fields. While a pleasant almost idyllic notion, it is probably not true. Likewise another source that claims June was named after Lucius Junius Brutus, founder of the Roman Republic and ancestor of the Roman family sharing the name Junius (Latin: gens Junia).

Again, Old English had an alternative name for June. According to Bede, June was the first of a two-month period known as Līða (phon. “leether”) or Lithe that we might recognise as midsummer, a time of gentler weather offering better conditions for travelling. The first month of Līða, i.e. June, was named Ǣrra Līða by the Anglo-Saxons, where Ǣrra has the same root as our modern words “early” and the rather old fashioned “ere”.

July (Julius)

July was originally called Quintilis meaning the fifth month of the original 10-month Roman calendar. On January 1st, 45 BC, Gaius Julius Caesar issued an edict that instituted a new calendar (the Julian calendar) that corrected astronomical discrepancies in the old. After Caesar’s death in 44 BC, the Roman Senate renamed Quintilis as “Julius” in his honour, it being the month of his birth.

If June (Ǣrra Līða) was the first month of the Anglo-Saxons’ Līða, then the second month was July or as they called it Æfterra Līða (“After Lithe”), or second Līða.

August (Augustus)

August, originally called Sextilis because it was the sixth month at the time when March was the first month of the year, had an even more chequered life. About 700 BC, it became the eighth month of the Roman year when January and February were moved before March by King Numa Pompilius. He assigned August only 29 days but Julius Caesar added a further two days when he porposed his Julian calendar in 46 BC giving it its modern length of 31 days. In 8 BC, it was renamed in honour of Emperor Augustus, who chose this month because it marked several of his great triumphs, including the defeat of his rivals Mark Antony and Cleopatra, the fall of Alexandria on what would become August 1st, and the wider conquest of Egypt.

To the Anglo-Saxons August had the rather inauspicious sounding name Wēodmōnað, or “weed month”. Once again to a farming society like the Anglo-Saxons this was the time of year when conditions were perfect for fields to become overrun with perfidious weeds.

September, October, November & December

But what about the rest? September, October, November and December are named after Roman numbers 7, 8, 9 and 10 (Latin: septum, octo, novem et decem) as they were originally the seventh (septimus), eighth (octavus), ninth (nonus) and tenth (decimus) months of the Roman year. With the revisions to the calendar, however, they are all now two months later in the year.

All was not so simple in Old English however, according to our friendly monk, Bede. September was variously known as Hærfestmōnað or “harvest month” for obvious reasons, but also Hāligmōnað, meaning “holy month”. Bede informs us that this was the time for pre-Christian offerings to the gods presumably in the hope of securing a bounteous harvest.

October was known to the Anglo-Saxons as Winterfylleð because it was the month of the full moon that heralded the start of winter. In contrast, November was known as Blōtmōnað, or “sacrifice month” because, according to Bede, this was a time for slaughter of sheep, pigs and cattle. November may have had the alternative name of Blōdmōnað, or “blood month”, for similar reasons.

And finally we reach December, the last month of the Anglo-Saxon year during which the Pagan festival of Yule fell. As already mentioned, if January was known as Æfterra Gēola (“After Yule”), then December was Ǣrra Gēola or “Early Yule” - much like June was called Ǣrra Līða, the first month of Līða or midsummer. December was also sometimes simply called Gēolmōnað or “Yule month”.

So, as the year close with December thus our brief exploration of how the months got their names also comes to an end. Bon appétit!

Reference:

O’Neill, T., (2017), “Easter, Ishtar, Eostre and Eggs”, www.historyforatheists.com, Available online (accessed June 26th, 2024).

Endnote:

1. Numa Pompilius was the legendary successor to Rome's founding father, Romulus.

How to: Build a replica Cannon Part Five

The Gunners' Equipment

In Part One, where we established the background to building our replica cannon. In describing the firing drills a number of pieces of equipment were needed for the crew to serve the gun. In Part Five, therefore, we explore how to recreate the gunners' equipment. Each item will be addressed in the order a gun crew would use them, starting with the sponge.

The Sponge was a long staff, often combined with a rammer, that has a piece of sheep's fleece or lambskin wound about its end. Kept wet, this is used to scour the cannon after it had fired and before it was charged with fresh powder. The cleaning extinguished any spark or fire remaining in the piece to avoid the premature ignition of the powder charge. Sponges were the most commonly used cannon cleaning items.

To recreate a sponge we used a 20 mm diameter (Ø) pinewood dowel for the staff. The dowel was given a dark mahogany stain to complete the look. As an interim measure, the staff was inserted the full length of a masonry paint roller. The roller was fixed in place with a screw in the end of the dowel. This solution is less than perfect and will be replaced when a more realistic alternative becomes available.

The Wad-screw or Worm was formed of two points of iron in the shape of a corkscrew. It was used to extract the wad out of the gun. It is also used when the cannon had to be unloaded or dirt removed.

Although not to the correct scale, we chose to recreate the worm by using the appropriate corkscrew shaped tool from a vintage wooden chimney sweep's set, as shown below.

The Lantern or Ladle served to carry the powder into the barrel where a bagged powder charge was not used. Without the ability to turn wood, sourcing an appropriately sized and shaped ladle has proven difficult. As it would be an interesting object to display, when one is purchased or fashioned, then we will publish an update.

When performing "gun drills" in schools, we did not think using loose powder was a practical measure. Instead, we decided that, when practising the firing sequence, it would easier for schoolchildren to load bagged charges of "gunpowder". Individual cylindrical bags were thus made of sewn canvas stuffed tightly with kapok. Each bag measured 200 mm long by 100 mm Ø.

The Powder Container was used to ferry gunpowder from the ship's magazine to each gun. Such magazines were built below the water line so that, in the case of fire or other emergency, the magazines could be flooded. Unsurprisingly, an open flame was never allowed inside the powder magazine.

In the Age of Sail the ferrying of gunpowder was typically performed by boy seamen aged between 12 to 14 years. Such "powder boys" or "powder monkeys" were selected for their speed and height. Being shorter, they could move more easily in the limited space between decks and could protect themselves behind the ship's gunwale from enemy sharpshooters.

To minimize the risk of fires and explosions, loose gunpowder or powder cartridges were carried in sealed containers. In the first quarter of 19th-century the Royal Navy used staved wood buckets covered in canvas inside and out. Some of the surviving examples are decorated with a painted and gilt accented Royal coat of arms. Although the one shown right is missing its lid, its leather carrying handle is still attached.

As of posting, the intention remains to fashion a barrel-like powder bucket to carry six of the bagged charges previously described. From information on the originals, the dimensions vary, but the example buckets we have seen are generally between 410 mm and 440 mm (16" and 18") tall, with a diameter of approximately 200 mm (8"). Given that the result will be covered in canvas, the barrel body will be recreated using a 200 mm diameter plastic drainpipe. Flexible plywood will be used to make the three wide hoops similarly disguised beneath the canvas cover. Adding a lid and leather handle will finish the look [note 1].

The Rammer was a round piece of wood, commonly called a "box", which served to drive home the powder and ball to the breech. It was fastened to a stick twelve feet long, for the pieces from twelve to thirty-three pounders, and ten feet long for the eight and four pounders.

For simplicity, we chose to recreate a combination sponge and rammer. So, to the opposite end of the sponge staff, a turned wooden mortar was repurposed to create the aforementioned box. A 20 mm Ø hole was bored through its base to accommodate the sponge's wooden dowel. The mortar bowl was then sealed using a plywood blanking disc cut to size and glued in place. The box was stained to match.

The Priming Iron is a pointed iron rod, used to clear the touch (vent) hole of burnt powder or dirt. It is also used to pierce the cartridge so the priming powder when lit ignites the main charge.

We used a 1.5 mm mild steel rod, painted black to look like iron. One end was given a blunted point, while the other end was looped to which a leather wrist strap was added.

The Primer contained at least one pound of gunpowder. It was used to prime the vent hole with gunpowder which, when lit, ignited the main charge in the cannon's breech. For our purposes, priming the vent can be simulated by using a pre-owned powder horn, albeit without the powder.

The Botefeux was used to hold a winding of match with which to fire the cannon. This may be a stick two or three feet long with a split to hold one end of the match.

The Quoin is used to elevate or depress the cannon. Typically, therefore, the quoin is a wooden wedge that lowers the barrel the further it is pushed forward.

The version shown right is a simple 5 mm plywood box cut, glued and pinned to create the wedge shape. The handle is a short piece of dowel topped with a wooden drawer knob. The "quoin" was painted to match the colour of the gun carriage.

Next... In the final part of the build, we explore how to recreate the gun tackle. Please bear with us as this may take some time to come to fruition...

Notes:

1. This article will be updated as new elements are fashioned or alterations made.