Ok, I'm back. Now time for lesson two, where it gets more confusing.
The Romans did what is called inclusive counting, which basically means they included the number they started on when counting. For instance, March 8th would considered eight days before the ides, not seven, because they would count it 8-9-10-11-12-13-14-15.
To notate how many days there is before the "big dates" in the month, you would use the words ante dies, or more commonly, the abbreviation a.d. You would use this except for the day before, which would be called the pridie, meaning "day before". Also, kalends, nones, and ides have abbreviations; kal., non., and id., respectively.
To use my first example of March 8th, that would be notated by the Romans as:
a.d. VIII ides Mar.
...yes, I abbreviated March too. And the Romans would, of course, have used Roman numerals.
Now it's your turn to guess some dates I'll give. The first one to get them right gets a prize yet to be determined.
a.d. XII kal. Nov. pridie non. Jun. a.d. III id. Sept. a.d. VI non. Oct.
There! Wasn't that fun?... .::inevitably finds out the whole ordeal alienates everyone because they find out what a Latin nerd The Em is::.
no subject
Ok, I'm back. Now time for lesson two, where it gets more confusing.
The Romans did what is called inclusive counting, which basically means they included the number they started on when counting. For instance, March 8th would considered eight days before the ides, not seven, because they would count it 8-9-10-11-12-13-14-15.
To notate how many days there is before the "big dates" in the month, you would use the words ante dies, or more commonly, the abbreviation a.d. You would use this except for the day before, which would be called the pridie, meaning "day before". Also, kalends, nones, and ides have abbreviations; kal., non., and id., respectively.
To use my first example of March 8th, that would be notated by the Romans as:
a.d. VIII ides Mar.
...yes, I abbreviated March too. And the Romans would, of course, have used Roman numerals.
Now it's your turn to guess some dates I'll give. The first one to get them right gets a prize yet to be determined.
a.d. XII kal. Nov.
pridie non. Jun.
a.d. III id. Sept.
a.d. VI non. Oct.
There! Wasn't that fun?... .::inevitably finds out the whole ordeal alienates everyone because they find out what a Latin nerd The Em is::.