About Sept. and Oct. of the year

[neoteric]

Sept- means 'seven' and Oct- means 'eight.' Why then September is 9th month of the year and October is 10th month? Do you know why?

[Kix]

I can only be very vague, but i'm sure someone else will fill in the huge gaps i'll leave - however it has something to do with one of the Roman Emperors, Julius Ceaser is my thinking, he added in two extra months - July and August, and if i'm right named after Julius himself and Augustus, some other important roman chap. Thus July and August became the 7th and 8th months while September and October were pushed aside and became the 9th and 10th months.

[FredPuli]

The Roman calendar originally had March as the first month. July was the fifth month. It was originally called Quintilis, the name being derived from their word for fifth (quintus ). It was renamed after Julius Caesar in 44BC. August, then the sixth month, was originally Sextilis, derived from sextus, 'sixth'. It was renamed in 8BC after Augustus, the first of their emperors. The Julian calendar, still being used in England in the 18th Century was introduced by Julius Caesar to rectify serious errors in and simplify the format of the current Roman calendar. It seemed only right that he should take some credit , recognized by the name of a month.

[sft42]

Well apart from making the calender really stupid, what have the romans ever done for us?

[PhilLew]

Well, there's the roads.......