Page 543 - Lokmanya Tilak Samagra (khand 2)

324 SAMAGRA TILAK- 2 • THE ARCflC HOME
to the Greek legend of H~lios, who is described as having 350
oxen and as many sheep, obivously representing a year of 350
days and nights, and to the Roman tradition about December
being the tenth and the last month of the year as denoted by its
etymology. Prof. Lignana in his essay on The Navagvas and the
Dashagvas of the JUg-Veda, published in the proceedings of the
seventh International Congress of the Orientalists, 1886, how-
ever, remarks that the passage of Plutarch in the life of Numa,
where this tradition is mentioned, does not support the view
that the Romans originally counted not more than ten months.
It is true that Plutarch mentions an alternative story of Numa's
altering the order of months " making March the third which
was the first, January first which was the eleventh of Romulus,
and February the second which was the twelfth and last."
But immediately afterwards Plutarch says, " Many, however,
assert that two months of January and February were added
by Numa, whereas before they had reckoned ten months in the
year. "; and in the next paragraph gives his own opinion,
" That the Roman year contained at first ten months only and
not twelve, we have a proof in the name of the last; for they
still call it December, or the tenth month; and that March was
first is also evident, because the fifth from it was called Quintilis,
the sixth Sexti/is, and so the rest in their order. "* I have referr-
ed to this passage previously and shown that Plutarch's reason-
ing about the order of the months as indicated by their numeri-
cal names cannot be lightly set aside. If January and February
were the last two months in the ancient calendar of the Romans,
we should have to assume that the numerical order from
Quintilis to December was abruptly given up after December
which does not seem probable. It is, therefore more reasonable
to hold that Numa actually added two months to the old year,
and that the story of the transposition of the two months of
January and February from the end to the beginning of the year
was a later suggestion put forward by those who knew not how
to account for a year of ten months, or 304 days only. But
besides Plutarch, we have also the testimony of Marcrobius, who
as stated before, tells us that Romulus had a year of ten months

• Vide Langhorne's Translation of Plutarch's Lives published by
Ward, Lock and Co., London, pp. 53, 54·