Happy New Year! For me, last year felt like it went by really fast.
To balance out that feeling, here’s the story about a very long, strange year: 46 BC, known as the “Year of Confusion.”
Amazingly, a year where the calendar went seemingly haywire was the solution to a problem, not the problem itself.
The actual problem was the Roman calendar.
Early on, it only had ten months, and kind of ignored the time we now call January and February.
In 731 BC, King Numa Pompilius filled in those blanks and created a twelve month calendar, matching up a dozen lunar cycles with one of Earth’s revolutions.
But his twelve months only added up to a year of 355 days, not quite the actual time it takes Earth to orbit the sun.
That meant that, over time, the calendar and the seasons got out of sync.
The Romans did have a workaround; from time to time, they added the bonus month of Mercedonius to put the calendar back in balance.
Though political and religious leaders would sometimes decide, you know what, as long as I’m in charge, why don’t we just have a Mercedonius whether or not the calendar needs one.
By 46 BC, the calendar was off track by three whole months, and Rome’s leader, Julius Caesar, decided enough was enough.
So he turned to the astronomer Sosigenes of Alexandria and said, fix it.
Which is what Sosigenes did: he developed a twelve month calendar with 365 days most years, and an extra leap day at the end of February every fourth year.
That took effect in 45 BC, but to get ready for the new calendar, Sosigenes had to make 46 BC extra long.
Not only was there a Mercedonius, there were two additional bonus months.
In all, it was a 15 month year that was 445 days long.
If you think time drags today, the Romans of the Year of Confusion know how you feel.
There’s a new device that can help people with dementia find their way through the world: a wooden compass whose only function is to point its user home.
The red arrow only ever points to a pre-set location, and it can vibrate or make sounds to remind the user to look at the compass as they travel.
Why Julius Caesar’s Year of Confusion was the longest year in history (BBC)
wooden compass with single red arrow leads people with dementia to their homes (designboom)
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