---
title: "The Deified Julius · Divus Julius"
author: "Suetonius"
translator: "John C. Rolfe"
languages: [la, en]
shelf: "Classical Latin"
section: 40 of 89
url: https://scriptura.si/works/suetonius-divus-julius-rolfe-1914/40/
cite: "Suetonius, tr. John C. Rolfe, The Deified Julius · Divus Julius, section 40. Scriptura (scriptura.si), https://scriptura.si/works/suetonius-divus-julius-rolfe-1914/40/"
---

# The Deified Julius · Divus Julius

*Suetonius, tr. John C. Rolfe*

## 40. Chapter 40

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/suetonius-divus-julius-rolfe-1914/40/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/suetonius-divus-julius-rolfe-1914/40/#p-N

[¶0] Then turning his attention to the reorganisation of the state, he reformed the calendar, which the negligence of the pontiffs had long since so disordered, through their privilege of adding months or days at pleasure, that the harvest festivals did not come in summer nor those of the vintage in the autumn; and he adjusted the year to the sun’s course by making it consist of three hundred and sixty-five days, abolishing the intercalary month, and adding one day every fourth year.

> Latin: Conversus hinc ad ordinandum rei publicae statum fastos correxit iam pridem vitio pontificum per intercalandi licentiam adeo turbatos, ut neque messium feriae aestate neque vindemiarum autumno conpeterent; annumque ad cursum solis accommodavit, ut trecentorum sexaginta quinque dierum esset et intercalario mense sublato unus dies quarto quoque anno intercalaretur.

*Note: The year had previously consisted of 355 days, and the deficiency of about eleven days was made up by inserting an intercalary month of twenty-two or twenty-three days after February.*

[¶1] Furthermore, that the correct reckoning of time might begin with the next Kalends of January, he inserted two other months between those of November and December; hence the year in which these arrangements were made was one of fifteen months, including the intercalary month, which belonged to that year according to the former custom.

> Latin: Quo autem magis in posterum ex Kalendis Ianuariis novisnovis, Ursinus; nobis, Ω. temporum ratio congrueret, inter Novembrem ac Decembrem mensem interiecit duos alios; fuitque is annus, quo haec constituebantur, quindecim mensium cum intercalario, qui ex consuetudine in eum annum inciderat.