A few days after the controversy sparked by a response that was even reported to the Ombudsman, El Cazador is once again in the eye of the hurricane. In one of the last installments of the program presented by Rodrigo Vázquez asked himself a question related to the Roman Empire that has left a curious debate on Twitter.
According to the history of calendars, why did August become 31 days like July, in the Roman Empire? By the will of Julius Caesar, it was a wish of Augustus or ordered by Septimius Severus, posed the question. The contestant had no idea, but it only took Erundino a few seconds to mark the second of the answers. It may be Caesar’s will because Julius can be named after Julius Caesar, the participant deduced before checking the first option.
The mystery was resolved in favor of the hunter, who tried to explain the issue. The calendar has undergone a lot of changes and Julius Caesar made one of the most important and, in fact, it was called for centuries the Julian calendar. It looked a lot like the current one. July was dedicated to him by his great-nephew, but Octavio Augusto had a lot of ego and must have thought that his uncle’s month and the one dedicated at least couldn’t have 31 days. Then he raised August to 31 days and took it away from February, which then had 29 days except for leap days.
This needs to be fixed
Everything was going well until the Twitter account Antigua Roma al Día, a dissemination profile specialized in the Roman Empire directed by Nstor F. Marquís, warned that a mistake was being made. I’m afraid the player gave the correct answer and you told him he was successful. Furthermore, the Hunter has later given a fictitious explanation that emerged (at least) in the 13th century. This needs to be fixedhas started.
According to his explanation, it was not even Augustus who dedicated a month to Julius Caesar, but rather it was the Lex antonia de mense sextili, at the proposal of Mark Antony. It was the Julian reform that gave August its 31 days. That is, it was Julius Caesar who did it through the mathematician Sosgenes of Alexandria. Despite the clarification, the Twitter account has perfectly understood the error. Anyone has it and more so in a topic as complex as the Roman calendar. However, it is important to correct it to prevent hoaxes like this from spreading and, especially, because the player has given the correct answer and you have told him that he has failedfor him.
Erundino’s response
Among one of the several responses that the message received was that of the protagonist himself. Erundino shared a text from a UNED Ancient History professor that supported his version. Even so, he did not convince Marqus. It is normal that, even in academia, details like this sneak in. When a primary source such as the Fasti Antiates Maiores refutes this issue, that is above any comment from a current author. Furthermore, in this case we have identified the originator of the hoax: Juan de Sacrobosco, he stressed before recommending to his interlocutor the work of one of the greatest specialists on the subject, J. Rpke.
