Julius Caesar's Birth Quintilis 12/13 Became July in Julian Calendar

Summary: Julius Caesar's birth Quintilis 12/13 became July 12/13 in his new Julian Calendar, which replaced the Roman Calendar Jan. 1, 45 BCE.

reproduction of Roman Calendar of Anzio (Fasti Antiates), 84 BC to 55 BC, displayed in Museo del Teatro Romano de Caesaragusta, Zaragoza, Zaragoza Province, Autonomous Community of Aragon, northeastern Spain; Rome's Museo Nacional Romano, Termas de Diocleciano (National Roman Museum, Baths of Diocletian) holds the original, painted on plaster, of which over 300 fragments were discovered in 1915; Sunday, Sep. 18, 2016, 12:19, image: Bauglir, CC BY SA 4.0 International, via Wikimedia Commons

Julius Caesar's birth Quintilis 12/13 became July 12/13 in his new Julian Calendar, a solar-based calendar that replaced the previous, lunar-based Roman Calendar and took effect Jan. 1, 45 BCE.

Julius Caesar was born in Rome's Subura neighborhood in the month of Quintilis (Latin: quintus, "fifth," + -ilis, adjective-forming suffix) in 100 BCE. The day of his birth is given as the 12th or 13th.

According to the Roman Calendar, which was in effect at the time of his birth, his birth occurred in 654AUC (Latin: ab urbe condita, "from the city's foundation"). The date for the founding of Rome was set at 753AUC (1 BC) by ancient Roman polymathic writer Marcus Terentius Varro (116 BC-27 BC), explains University of Florida History Professor Robert A. Hatch in his online post, "The Roman Calendar: Introduction."

The third child and only son of Gaius Julius Caesar (ca. 140 BC-85 BC) and Aurelia Cotta (May 21, 120 BC-July 31, 54 BC) shared his father's full name. The tria nomina ("three names") convention characterized ancient Rome's system of nomenclature. An individual's name comprised a praenomen (Latin: prae-, “before,” +‎ nomen, “name”; first, or personal, name); a nomen genticilium (Latin: nomen, “name," + genticilium, "clan"); and a cognomen (Latin: con, "together, with," + nomen, "name").

Julius Caesar's middle name of Julius indicated his descent from the gens Julia. The Julii originated in Alba Longa, an ancient city sited southeast of Rome. Roman mythology credits King Ascanius, also known as Iulus, with founding Alba Longa in the 12th century BC. Ascanius was the son of Trojan Prince Aeneas, who survived the fall of Troy and founded the port city of Lavinium south-southwest of Rome. According to Greco-Roman mythology, Aeneas was the son of Greek goddess Aphrodite and Trojan Prince Anchises, first cousin of Troy's King Priam and maternal grandson of Ilus, eponymous founder of Ilios (Latin: Ilium), known as Troy. King Ilus was the son of Dardanian Prince Tros, who founded the kingdom of Troy.

Julius Caesar's cognomen of Caesar identified his membership in the Caesar branch of the gens Julia. Four explanations have been offered for the origin of the Caesar cognomen. Roman encyclopedist Gaius Plinius Secundus (23-Aug. 25, 79), known as Pliny the Elder, originated the name of the Julii Caesares in an unnamed ancestor's Caesarean (Latin: caedo, "cut") section birth: ". . . the first, too, of the Cæsars was so named, from his having been removed by an incision in his mother's womb" (The Natural History, vol. II, Book VII, chapter 7, page 143).

The Caesarean section attribution and three alternative explanations have been hypothesized in Historia Augusta (Augustan History), a Latin collection of biographies possibly dating from the fourth century. The collection's biography of Aelius identifies the first bearer of the Caesar cognomen as Lucius Ceionius Commodus (Jan. 13, 101-Jan. 1, 138), renamed Lucius Aelius Caesar as adopted son of Roman Emperor Hadrian (Jan. 24, 76-July 10, 138). The cognomen was bestowed ". . . either because he slew in battle an elephant,​ which in the Moorish tongue is called caesai, or because he was brought into the world after his mother's death and by an incision in her abdomen, or because he had a thick head of hair​ [caesaries] when he came forth from his mother's womb, or, finally, because he had bright grey eyes [oculis caesiis] and was vigorous beyond the wont of human beings" (Historia Augusta, vol. I, Aelius II, page 85).

English lexicographer Sir William Smith (May 20, 1813-Oct. 7, 1893) considered that the abundant hair theory ". . . seems to come nearest the truth." Sir William etymologized the cognomen to Sanskrit: "Caesar and caesaries are both probably connected with the Sanskrit kêsa, 'hair,' and it is quite in accordance with the Roman custom for a surname to be given to an individual from some peculiarity in his personal appearance" ("Caesar," Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, vol. I, page 536).

Sir William also noted support for the cognomen's fair association from Roman grammarian Sextus Pompeius Festus. The avid epitomist is usually dated to the second century of the new millennium but whom Princeton University-educated, medieval French literature specialist Renate Blumenfeld-Kosinski (born April 10, 1952) loosely dates to the "first four centuries A.D." (Not of Woman Born, Appendix: Creative Etymology, page 146). Festus's De verborum significatione libri XX (Twenty Books on the Meaning of Words) summarized the encyclopedic De verborum significatu by Roman grammarian, philologist and teacher Marcus Verrius Flaccus (55 BC-20 AD), who had instructed Gaius Caesar (20 BC-Feb. 21, 4 AD) and Lucius Caesar (Jan. 29, 17 BC-Aug. 20, 2 AD), grandsons of Julius Caesar's great-nephew, first Roman Emperor Augustus (Sep. 23, 63 BC-Aug. 19, 14 AD) Festus etymologized the cognomen as referencing the Iulii's long, luxuriant hair: "Caesar, quod est cognomen Iuliorum, a caesarie dictus est, qui silicet cum caesarie natus est" ("Caesar," De verborum significatione, Liber III, page 57).

History's well-known assassinated statesman burnished his military, political and writing reputation further by tackling the problematic Roman Calendar in 46 BC, approximately 54 years after his birth. In Lives of the Noble Greeks and Romans, commonly known as Parallel Lives, Greek biographer Plutarch (46 BCE-ca. 122 CE) described Julius Caesar's modus operandi for the conversion from a lunar-based calendar to a solar-based time tracker. "But Caesar laid the problem before the best philosophers and mathematicians, and out of the methods of correction which were already at hand compounded one of his own which was more accurate than any" ("Caesar," Plutarch's Lives, vol. VII, LIX, page 581).

Pliny the Elder expanded the "three great schools of astronomy" of the Chaldeans, the Egyptians and the Grecians to four to include Julius Caesar's calendarists. The new school was established in 46 BC (708AUC) under the guidance of Ptolemaic astronomer Sosigenes of Alexandria, whom Pliny esteemed as "an astronomer of considerable learning and skill" (The Natural History, vol. IV, Book XVIII, chapter 57, page 75).

The Julian Calendar took effect Jan. 1, 45 BC (709AUC). The new calendar's first year was bloated to 445 days to reconcile such Roman Calendar problems as seasonal drift's discrepancy between the calendar and the tropical year of the sun's full annual cycle.

Julius Caesar, however, experienced his calendar's implementation far from the Italian peninsula. A military campaign had required his relocation to Hispania Ulterior (Further Hispania), modern-day southern Spain, in December 46 BC. After his victory in the Battle of Munda, March 17, 45 BC, he eventually reached Rome in early autumn. Sir William described Julius Caesar's return "at the beginning of October in triumph" and with "the most servile flattery" extended to him by the Senate ("Caesar," Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, vol. I, page 553).

Renaming his birth month of Quintilis as Iulius numbered among honors and tributes bestowed upon the victorious military strategist by the Senate. The Julian Calendar's switch from March to January as the year's first month had misnomered Quintilis. The Roman Calendar's fifth month numbered as the Julian Calendar's seventh month.

Unfortunately, Julius Caesar's satisfaction in the success of his calendar and other accomplishments was brief. His assassination March 15, 44 BC, meant that he only celebrated his birth month as Quintilis, never as Iulius (July).

map of Julius Caesar's Hispania Ulterior campaign, which began with his relocation to modern-day southern Spain in December 46 BC and culminated March 17, 45 BC, in the Battle of Munda: Historicair, CC BY SA 3.0 Unported, via Wikimedia Commons

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

reproduction of Roman Calendar of Anzio (Fasti Antiates), 84 BC to 55 BC, displayed in Museo del Teatro Romano de Caesaragusta, Zaragoza, Zaragoza Province, Autonomous Community of Aragon, northeastern Spain; Rome's Museo Nacional Romano, Termas de Diocleciano (National Roman Museum, Baths of Diocletian) holds the original, painted on plaster, of which over 300 fragments were discovered in 1915; Sunday, Sep. 18, 2016, 12:19, image: Bauglir, CC BY SA 4.0 International, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Museo_del_Teatro_Romano_de_Caesaraugusta.43.jpg

map of Julius Caesar's Hispania Ulterior campaign, which began with his relocation to modern-day southern Spain in December 46 BC and culminated March 17, 45 BC, in the Battle of Munda: Historicair, CC BY SA 3.0 Unported, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Caesar_campaigns_from_Rome_to_Munda-fr.svg

For further information:

Armstrong, Richard. "No. 2364 The Longest Year in History." The Engines of Our Ingenuity.
Available @ https://uh.edu/engines/epi2364.htm

Blumenfeld-Kosinski, Renate. "Appendix: Creative Etymology: 'Caesarean Section' From Pliny to Rousset." Pages 143-154. Not of Woman Born: Representations of Caesarean Birth in Medieval and Renaissance Culture. Ithaca NY: Cornell University Press, Oct. 1, 1991.
Available via JSTOR @ https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.7591/j.ctvn1tb31.9

Bostock, John; and H.T. (Henry Thomas) Riley. "Chap 7. (9.) -- Of Those Who Have Been Cut Out of the Womb." Page 143. The Natural History of Pliny. Vol. II, Book VII Man, His Birth, His Organization, and the Invention of the Arts. London: Henry G. Bohn, MDCCCLV [1855].
Available via Internet Archive @ https://archive.org/details/57011150RX2.nlm.nih.gov/page/143/mode/1up
Available via Perseus Digital Library / Tufts University @ http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Plin.+Nat.+7.7

Bostock, John; and H.T. (Henry Thomas) Riley. "Chap 57. (25.) -- Arrangement of the Stars According to the Terrestrial Days and Nights." Page 74-77. The Natural History of Pliny. Vol. IV, Book XVIII. London: Henry G. Bohn, MDCCCLVI [1856].
Available via Internet Archive @ https://archive.org/details/57011150RX4.nlm.nih.gov/page/74/mode/1up
Available via Perseus Digital Library / Tufts University @ http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Plin.+Nat.+18.57

Feeney, Denis. Caesar's Calendar: Ancient Time and the Beginnings of History. Sather Classical Lectures Volume 65. Berkeley and Los Angeles CA; London, England: University of California Press, 2007.

Festus, Sextus Pompeius. "Cęſar." De verborum significatione: page 111. Venice: Johann von Köln and Johann Manthen, 1474.
Available via Internet Archive @ https://archive.org/details/ita-bnc-in1-00000470-001/page/n231/mode/1up

Festus, Sextus Pompeius; and Paul the Deacon. "Caesar." De verborum significatione quae supersunt cum Pauli epitome. Liber III (43), page 57. Lipsia [Leipzig, Germany]: Weidmann, 1839.
Available via Internet Archive @ https://archive.org/details/deverborumsigni00fest/page/57/mode/1up

Gormley, Beatrice. Julius Caesar: Young Statesman. Childhood of World Figures. New York, NY: Aladdin Paperbacks, 2006.

Grout, James. "The Roman Calendar." Penelope Uchicago > Not Browne > James Grout's Encyclopedia Romana > Notae.
Available @ https://penelope.uchicago.edu/~grout/encyclopaedia_romana/calendar/romancalendar.html

Hatch, Robert A. "The Roman Calendar: Introduction." University of Florida CLAS (College of Liberal Arts and Sciences) Users.
Available @ http://users.clas.ufl.edu/ufhatch/pages/03-sci-rev/sci-rev-home/Historical-Research/Calendars/roman_calendar_history.html

Joyce, Paul. "Crossing the Rubicon . . . Gaius Julius Caesar (1914)." ithankyou. Feb. 24, 2015.
Available @ http://ithankyouarthur.blogspot.com/2015/02/crossing-rubicon-gaius-julius-caesar.html

Lendering, Jona. "Plutarch on Caesar's calendar reform." Livius > Sources > Content > Plutarch > Plutarch's Caesar .
Available via Livius @ https://www.livius.org/sources/content/plutarch/plutarchs-caesar/caesars-calendar-reform/

Magie, David, trans. "Aelius by Aelius Spartianus: II. The Life of Ceionius Commodus." The Scriptores Historiae Augustae With an English Translation. Vol. I: pages 83-85. Loeb Classical Library LCL 139. Cambridge MA; London, England: Harvard University Press, 1921.
Available via Internet Archive @ https://archive.org/details/scriptoreshistor01camb/page/83/mode/1up

Marriner, Derdriu. "Beware the Ides of March Meal: Caesar or Brutus Salad, Cleopatra's Dulcis Coccora, Caesar Cocktail." Earth and Space News. Thursday, March 10, 2022.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2022/03/beware-ides-of-march-meal-caesar-or.html

Marriner, Derdriu. "Beware the Ides of March: The Assassination of Julius Caesar." Earth and Space News. Thursday, March 3, 2022.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2022/03/beware-ides-of-march-assassination-of.html

Michels, Agnes Kirsopp. The Calendar of the Roman Republic. Princeton NJ: Princeton University Press, Jan. 1, 1967.

Perrin, Bernadotte. "Caesar. LIX. The adjustment of the calendar . . ." Pages 579-581. Plutarch's Lives. Vol. VII Demosthenes and Cicero, Alexander and Caesar. First printed 1919. Reprinted 1928, 1949, 1958, 1967. Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann Ltd., MCMLXVII [1967]).
Available via Internet Archive @ https://archive.org/details/plutarchslives07plut/page/579/mode/1up
Available via Topos Text @ https://topostext.org/work/184

Petro, Bill. "History of July: Where Do We Get That Name?" July 1, 2022.
Available @ https://billpetro.com/history-of-july

Smith, William. "Caesar." Pages 536-556. Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. Vol. I. Boston [MA]: Little, Brown, and Company, 1867.
Available via Internet Archive @ https://archive.org/details/DictionaryOfGreekAndRomanBiographyAndMythology/page/n545/mode/1up