intercalating a month was of course dropped.  The year B.C. 46 was a year of 445 days.  By this reformation, says Dion Cassius, all error was avoided except a very small one, and he adds, that to correct the accumulations of this error, it would only be necessary to intercalate one day in 1461 years.  But this is a mistake; for in 1460 years there would be an error of nearly eleven days too much.  Ten days were actually dropped between the 4th and 15th of October, 1582, by Gregory XIII., with the sanction of the Council of Trent.

A curious mistake was soon made at Rome by the Pontifices who had the regulation of the Kalendar.  The rule was to intercalate a day in every fourth year (quarto quoque anno).  Now such expressions are ambiguous in Latin, as is shown by numerous examples. (Savigny, System des heut.  Roem.  Rechts, iv. 329.) The expression might mean that both the year one and the year four were to be included in the interpretation of this rule; and the Pontifices interpreted it accordingly.  Thus, after intercalating in year one, they intercalated again in year four, instead of in year five.  In the time of Augustus, B.C. 8. the error was corrected, and the civil year was set right by dropping the three intercalary days which came next after that year, three being the number of days in excess that had been intercalated.  For the future the rule of Caesar was correctly interpreted.  Dion Cassius in expressing the rule as to intercalation uses the phrase, [Greek:  dia pente eton] .

The subject of Caesar’s reformation is explained in the notes to Dion Cassius (43. c. 26), ed.  Reimarus, and in the article Calendar (Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities) by Professor Key.]

[Footnote 589:  The Romans had a large collection of these writings (libri Sibyllini) which were kept in the Temple of Jupiter Capitolinus under the care of particular functionaries (duumviri sacrorum).  On this curious subject the reader will find sufficient information in the Penny Cyclopaedia,—­art. Sibyl.]

[Footnote 590:  Dion Cassius (44. c. 8), who tells the story, says that he was seated in the vestibule of the Temple of Venus; and he mentions another excuse that Caesar had for not rising.]

[Footnote 591:  L. Cornelius Balbus was a native of Gades.  Pompeius Magnus gave him the Roman citizenship for his services in Spain against Sertorius, which was confirmed by a lex passed B.C. 72, in the consulship of Cn.  Cornelius Lentulus.  Probably to show his gratitude to the consul, Balbus assumed the Roman name Cornelius.  Balbus is often mentioned in Cicero’s correspondence.  After Caesar’s death he attached himself to Caesar Octavianus, and he was consul B.C. 40.  He left a journal of the events of his own and Caesar’s life.  He also urged Hirtius (Pansa) to write the Eighth Book of the Gallic War (Preface addressed to Balbus), Suetonius, Caesar, 81.]

[Footnote 592:  The Lupercalia are described in the Life of Romulus, c. 21.  The festival was celebrated on the 15th of February.  It was apparently an old shepherd celebration; and the name of the deity Lupercus appears to be connected with the name Lupus (wolf), the nurturer of the twins Romulus and Remus.  Shakspere, who has literally transferred into his play of Julius Caesar many passages from North’s Plutarch, makes Caesar say to the consul Antonius—­