apostolicfathers0201clem - Carmel Apologetics

DATE OF THE MARTYRDOM. 699
But indeed we are not left altogether to conjecture as to the epoch
of the introduction of the solar calendar in Asia Minor. Noris {de
Atino Maccd. i. 2, p. 17), drawing his inference from probabilities,
speaks of this change as the work of ' the Asiatic proconsuls.' We
seem now to have evidence which assigns it definitely to one particular
proconsul.
It has been shown above (p.
679 sq), that in the two solar calendars
belonging to Proconsular Asia, the 'Asiatic' and the 'Ephesian,' the
year begins on ix Kal. Oct. [September 23], and the first day of each
succeeding month throughout the year corresponds to ix Kal. of the
Roman calendar. Now the natural beginning of the year would have
been not Sept. 23, but Sept.
24, on which latter day the Julian reckoning
placed the autumnal equinox ;
and the only assignable reason for
antedating the commencement of the year by a single day
is the fact
that this was the birthday of Augustus. But in the ' Asiatic ' calendar
the first month is named C^sarius, and the second Tiberius. As the
birthday of Tiberius fell during the second month (xvi Kal. Dec. =
Nov, 16), so the birthday of Augustus opened the first month. From
Augustus therefore it takes its name Caesarius'. Usener, to whom we
owe the true interpretation of these facts relating to these calendars of
Asia Minor (see above, p. 679), refers to Mommsen on C. I. L. i. pp. 363,
387, for this use of Csesar simply when Augustus is intended. I might add
that the year of Caesar in Egyptian inscriptions (C. /. G. 4715, 5866 c
Add., Ephevi. Epigr. iv. p. 27, v. p. 2) refers not to Julius
but to
Augustus. But indeed we need not go so far for examples. Proconsular
Asia itself furnishes an illustration in a biUngual inscription
(C. /. Z. III. 424) where a person erects a bridge a few miles out of
EpheSUS, DEANAE. EPHESIAE. ET . IMP . CAESARI . ET . TI . CAESARI . AVG. F.
(ApxeMlAl . eCJJeCIAI . KAI . AyTOKpATOpi . KAICApl . CeBACTCOl . KAI . TiBepiOOl
KAicApi . ceB . YKJi^O) the reigning emperor Augustus being designated
Caesar alone in the Latin. The spirit which dictated this inscription
would welcome the nomenclature which provided that the first two
months of the year should be called Caesarius and Tiberius, the great
goddess Artemis being already honoured with a month of her own. Moreover,
as we have seen, the arrangement of these calendars of Proconsular
Asia is such as to secure not only an annual, but a monthly
commemoration of Augustus' birthday. This, as Usener has pointed
out, is no novelty. These monthly commemorations of royal birthdays
appear in the dynasty of Attains {Hermes vii. p. 113 sq) and
^
See also the remarks on the Ephesian month istoKaicrapeiov above, p. 686.