The Julian calendar was an initiative of the Roman emperor Julius Caesar, designed to streamline the obsolete system. The new calendar replaced the Roman version accepted at that time. Considering the previous mistakes, the new calendar made life easier for the Romans and was widely adopted due to its convenience. Julius Caesar made a significant contribution to the Gregorian chronology, which is predominantly accepted in the world.
The Julian calendar was based on previous versions, but has become simpler and more reliable. An innovation in the calendar of Julius Caesar was the establishment of a new year on January 1, since on this date the consuls started their duties (Holmes, 2022). The chronology begins with the year of the founding of Rome, emphasizing the importance of this event. The difference from the previous version of the calculation was a seven-day week and the establishment of a clear number of days in a month. The previous calendar was inaccurate, as the number of days did not correspond to 365, constantly causing confusions.
From an astronomical point of view, both the Julian and Roman calendars were based on the solar calendar from Egyptian observations. The Egyptians determined that the year is 365 days, because the appearance on the horizon of the brightest star Sirius and the date of the flood of the Nile coincided (Willis, 2020). The Julian calendar took into account these observations, and founded the concept of a leap year. The Roman version of the time reckoning assumed the free appointment of the missing days, therefore, it was not accurate and allowed the consuls and pontiffs to introduce and remove days at their discretion. Julius Caesar was responsible for the adoption of the calendar and its popularization, and Alexandrian astronomers, who confirmed the observations of their predecessors, were accountable for the development.
In conclusion, the Julian calendar is innovative in comparison to the obsolete Roman version. The new method of reckoning was based on the observations of the ancient Egyptian astronomers and took into account the universally recognized length of the year, clearly dividing time into familiar weeks and 30-day months. Having received wide distribution, the innovative calendar has become one of the foundations of modern time reckoning.
References
Holmes, T. R. (2022). Ancient Britain and the invasions of Julius Caesar. [eBook edition] DigiCat.
Willis, A. M. (2020). The designing of time. In Fry T., & Nocek, A. (Eds.) Design in crisis: New Worlds, Philosophies and Practices (pp. 74-88). Routledge.