h covered with earth and overgrown
with grass, give some, though a faint, idea of the splendour, of the
ancient city, which at the time of its greatest splendour, at the
beginning of our era, had eighty thousand inhabitants." (Westphal,
_Die Roemische Kampagne_, p. 7.)]

[Footnote 588: The reformation of the Kalendar was effected in B.C.
46. Dion Cassius (43. c. 26) says that Caesar was instructed on this
subject during his residence at Alexandria in Egypt. The Egyptians had
a year of 365 days from a very early date (Herodotus, ii. 4). In this
year (B.C. 46) Caesar intercalated two months of 67 days between
November and December, and as this was the year in which, according to
the old fashion, the intercalary month of 23 days had been inserted in
February, the whole intercalation in this year was 90 days. Caesar made
the reformed year consist of 365 days, and he directed one day to be
intercalated in every fourth year (quarto quoque anno) in order that
the civil year, which began on the 1st of January, might agree with
the solar year. The old practice of 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 correctl