The Ancient Macedonian calendar is a lunisolar calendar that was in use in ancient Macedon in the It consisted of 12 synodic lunar months (i.e. 354 days per year), which needed intercalary months to stay in step with the seasons. By the time the calendar was being used across the Hellenistic world, seven total embolimoi (intercalary months) were being added in each 19 year Metonic cycle. The names of the ancient Macedonian Calendar remained in use in Syria even into the Christian era.
Names The names of the Macedonian months, just like most of the names of Greek months, are derived from feasts and related celebrations in honor of various Greek gods. Most of them combine a Macedonian dialectal form with a clear Greek etymology (e.g. from Zeus; from Heracles Peritas ("Guardian"); / from Xanthos, "the blond" (probably a reference to Heracles); from Artemis etc.) with the possible exception of one, which is also attested in other Greek calendars.
Description The Macedonian calendar was in essence the Babylonian calendar with the substitution of Macedonian names for the Babylonian ones, and as such it paralleled the Hebrew calendar which is also lunisolar, and was used during the Parthian Empire too. An example of inscriptions from Decapolis, Jordan, bearing the Solar Macedonian calendar, starts from the month Audynaeus.Syria, S. / Arabia – Decapolis – Gerasa (Jerash) – 6th Epigraphical Database 531 The solar type was merged later with the Julian calendar. In Roman Macedonia, both calendars were used. The Roman one is attested in inscriptions with the name Kalandôn gen. calendae and the Macedonian Hellenikei dat. Hellenic.Thessalonica – 141–252 , last lines Finally an inscriptionMakedonia (Chalkidike) – Poteidaia-Kassandreia – from Kassandreia of about bearing a month Athenaion suggests that some cities may have used their own months even after the Macedonian expansion. Order Greek name(s) Transliteration Approximate modern month Remarks 1 Dios (Zeus) October 2 Ἀπελλαῖος Apellaios November Also a Dorian month – Apellaiōn was a Tenian month 3 or Audunaios or Audnaios December Also a Cretan month 4 Peritios January And festival of the month; Peritia 5 Dystros February 6 or Xandikos or Xanthikos March And festival of the month; Xanthika, purifying the army, Hesych ‡ Xandikos Embolimos ‡ intercalated 6 times over a 19 year cycle 7 or Artemisios or Artamitios April Also a Spartan, Rhodian, and Epidaurian month – Artemisiōn was an Ionic month 8 Daisios May 9 or Panēmos or Panamos June Also an Epidaurian, Miletian, Samian, and Corinthian month 10 Lōios July (Homolōios) was an Aetolian, Boeotian, and Thessalian month 11 Gorpiaios August 12 Hyperberetaios September Hyperberetos was a Cretan month ‡ Hyperberetaios Embolimos ‡ Intercalated only once over a 19 year cycle
‡ Months marked with a double-dagger include the word embolimos; they were only used occasionally for intercalation during each 19 year calendar cycle, in the manner described in the remarks.
Year numbering
Years were usually counted from the re-conquest of Seleucus I Nicator of Babylon, which became "year 1". This is equivalent to 312 BCE / 311 BCE in the Anno Domini year count of the modern Gregorian calendar. This practice spread outside the Seleucid Empire and found use in Antigonid Macedonia, Ptolemaic Egypt, and other major Hellenistic states descended from Alexander's conquests as well. Years can be abbreviated SE, S.E., or occasionally AG (Anno Graecorum).
See also Ancient Greek calendars Attic calendar
References