What Roman month was 2 August 216 BCE

Factual Questions
1

What Roman month was 2 August 216 BCE? Their 10 months at that time were:
Martius, Aprilis, Maius*,Junius*, Quintilis*, Sextilis*, September*, October*, November*, December

2

According to this calendar converter, the Roman date was Kal. Martius 757 A.U.C.

3

I thought the month woiuld be Sextillia

4

Yeah. I copied the wrong part. That was from their example for a Roman calendar date. :slap:

The site actually shows this date.

Short form: a.d. VIII Id. Sex. DXXXVIII A.U.C.
Long form: Ante diem VIII Idus Sextilis DXXXVIII Ab Urbe Condita

That’s for the Julian date because the Gregorian date wasn’t in effect then, AFAIK.

Yes, the month was Sextilis.

5

What is the grammatical difference between Sextillia and Sextilis? I’ve seen different versions?

6

Sextilis is the name of the month as a noun. You can also use it as an adjective to go with a noun (for instance, “dies sextilis” would be an August day, with “sextilis” in this case being an adjective modifying the noun “dies”). “Sextilia” looks like it could be a plural of a neuter form of that adjective. The exact form of the adjective depends on the number, gender and case of the noun it goes with in a sentence.

7

Here’s a quote from the site above:

In Latin, three dates (the Kalends, the ides, and the nones) were written in the ablative case, such as Idibus Aprilibus - the April ides. The days preceding these dates are used in the accusative case, for example, Ante Diem III Idus Aprilis - 2 days before the April ides.

8

So would ‘duo sextilis’ be correct for August 2?

9

Gregory was born in 1502 and Julius was born in 100 (BCE). No Julian or Gregorian calendar back in 216! If we accept AUC 1 = 753 BCE, we indeed get 216 BCE = 538 AUC. In any case, the sixth month is (logically) Sextilis.

I am not sure if the accusative feminine plural is “sextilis” or “sextiles” but “sextilis” seems OK…

well, no, it would have to be something like ‘die quarto ante nonas sextilis’ [ante diem quartum…], in short ‘quarto nonas (sextilis)’ or "a.d. IV. Non. Sex.’

10

Thank DPRK
What exactly do these phrases translate to?
1.die quarto ante nonas sextilis
2. ante diem quartum…
3‘quarto nonas (sextilis)’

11

Google give me the following

  1. "on the fourth day before nine o’clock
    2.before the fourth day
    3.fourth ninth sextile
    I’m not getting anything near August 2
12

August = mensis sextilis [sixth month]

Sextilis has 29 days, so “Nonis” = 4 days after the calends, i.e. 5th day of August.

5, 4, 3, 2 → August 2 is the fourth day before the Nones (not “before the fourth day”, in fact I think we can ignore Google completely if it is outputting such nonsense)

Translating into Latin,

die quarto ante nonas sextilis = [in/of the] fourth day before the “nones” [ninth before the ides] of the sixth month

Omitting “die” and “ante” we get “quarto nonas” for short

ante diem quartum nonas sextilis basically means the same thing, except expressed in the accusative case (seems to be a classical style associated with Cicero and Titus Livius

see Syntax of the Latin Language: Chiefly from the German of C. G. Zumpt - Karl Gottlob Zumpt - Google Books
whence I got this stuff

13

Thanks DPRK. It makes much more sense to me now.