Not to be too pedantic, but that's not what I remember as having been described as how we came to have twelve months. The Romulan calendar created by "Romulus", founder of Rome, had 10 months Martius, Aprilis, Maius, Lunius, Quintilis, Sextilis, September, October, November and December. Janurius and Februarius were added by the second ruler of Rome Numa Pompillius, at the END of the year. I don't know what historical artifacts support the existence of either of these two mytho-historical figures. But by the time of Julius Caesar in 45BC, there were twelve months and the Roman Senate renamed Quintilis to Iulius in 44BC,in honor of Julius Caesar. Likewise with Sextilis to Augustus in 8BC in honor of Augustus Caesar. So, it was a renaming of month "5" and "6". The later emperors did the same, but none of those names stuck. However, Charlemagne, renamed all the months and they stuck. You'll see them often in German language documents as Wintermonat, etc. March was the first month of the year. Which Julius shifted to January 1. Wikipedia, incorrectly states this was to align it with the tropical year. Not sure what is meant by that. But the choice of January 1 or any particular day is arbitrary. (March 1st would be more logical to me as being the month in which Spring begins.) Hence, September through December were properly the 7th through 10th months, until Julius Caesar that is. It was the reform of the Julian Calendar making January the first month. Although some countries and the Roman Church had their own ideas. But not relevant to Alsace. Just had to correct that. Brian (I had to use Wikipedia to add in some of the particulars.) On Sun, August 7, 2011 2:33 am, Ewald Klein wrote: > Hi, > > The other months have a normal name (in French:Janvier, février, mars, > avril, mai, juin, juillet, août). > > Here what I found in Rootsweb archives: > > << In ancient Rome, BC, they only had ten months, of which the first six > had > a > name: Januarius, Februarius, Martius, Aprilis, Maius, Junius. The next > ones > only had a number: seven, eight, nine, ten, but in Latin of course: > septem, > octo, novem, decem. > > At one time they decided that they actually needed twelve months, and they > named these months after some of their famous emperors: Julius and > Augustus. Logically, these named months were placed after the other named > months: Januaris, Februarius, Martius, Aprilis, Maius, Junius, Julius, > Augustus, but this also meant that the 7th, 8th, 9th and 10th month moved > up two places. Therefore the seventh month actually became the ninth, the > eight the tenth, etc.