46 BC explained

Year 46 BC was the last year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Caesar and Lepidus (or, less frequently, year 708 Ab urbe condita). The denomination 46 BC for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years.

This year marks the change from the pre-Julian Roman calendar to the Julian calendar. The Romans had to periodically add a leap month every few years to keep the calendar year in sync with the solar year but had missed a few with the chaos of the civil wars of the late republic. Julius Caesar added Mercedonius (23 days) and two other intercalary months (33 and 34 days respectively) to the 355-day lunar year, to recalibrate the calendar in preparation for his calendar reform, which went into effect in 45 BC.[1] [2] [3] This year therefore had 445 days, and was nicknamed the annus confusionis ("year of confusion") and serves as the longest recorded calendar year in human history.[4] The actual planetary orbit-year remained the same.

Events

By place

Roman Republic

By topic

Births

Deaths

Notes and References

  1. Web site: The Lives of the Twelve Caesars, by C. Suetonius Tranquillus;.
  2. Web site: No. 2364: The Longest Year in History.
  3. Web site: Why 46 BC Was The Longest Year Ever.
  4. Web site: Lecture 11: The Calendar.
  5. Book: Stambaugh, John E. . The Ancient Roman City . 1988 . Baltimore . Johns Hopkins University Press . 275 . 0-8018-3574-7.
  6. Book: A History of Rome . Second . Marcel . LeGlay . Jean-Louis . Voisin . Yann . Le Bohec . 129 . Blackwell . Malden, Massachusetts . 2001 . 0-631-21858-0.