Calendars in Antiquity: Empires, States, and Societies

468 Pages·2012·2.13 MB·English

by  Sacha Stern

CALENDARS IN ANTIQUITY
This page intentionally left blank
Calendars in
Antiquity
Empires, States, and Societies
SACHA STERN
1
3
GreatClarendonStreet,OxfordOX26DP,
UnitedKingdom
OxfordUniversityPressisadepartmentoftheUniversityofOxford.
ItfurtherstheUniversity’sobjectiveofexcellenceinresearch,scholarship,
andeducationbypublishingworldwide.Oxfordisaregisteredtrademarkof
OxfordUniversityPressintheUKandincertainothercountries
#SachaStern2012
Themoralrightsoftheauthorhavebeenasserted
FirstEditionpublished2012
Impression:1
Allrightsreserved.Nopartofthispublicationmaybereproduced,storedin
aretrievalsystem,ortransmitted,inanyformorbyanymeans,withoutthe
priorpermissioninwritingofOxfordUniversityPress,orasexpresslypermitted
bylaw,bylicenceorundertermsagreedwiththeappropriatereprographics
rightsorganization.Enquiriesconcerningreproductionoutsidethescopeofthe
aboveshouldbesenttotheRightsDepartment,OxfordUniversityPress,atthe
addressabove
Youmustnotcirculatethisworkinanyotherform
andyoumustimposethissameconditiononanyacquirer
BritishLibraryCataloguinginPublicationData
Dataavailable
LibraryofCongressCataloginginPublicationData
Dataavailable
ISBN 978–0–19–958944–9
PrintedinGreatBritain
onacid-freepaperby
MPGBooksGroup,BodminandKing’sLynn
LinkstothirdpartywebsitesareprovidedbyOxfordingoodfaithand
forinformationonly.Oxforddisclaimsanyresponsibilityforthematerials
containedinanythirdpartywebsitereferencedinthiswork.
Preface
This book is intended not as a catalogue, but as a piece of social history.
Calendarsarenotatechnicalcuriosity,butafundamentalaspectofsociallife,
an organizing principle of human experience, a constitutive component of
cultureandworldviews.Mypurposeinthisbookistoexaminethestructure
ofalltheknowncalendarsoftheancientNearEastandMediterranean,andto
capturethesocialcontextoftheirlargelycommonhistory.
The chapters in this book follow at once a thematic and an approximate
chronologicalorder,exceptforGreece,whichforvariousreasonsIhaveplaced
before the much earlier Babylonian and Egyptian calendars (Chapters 1–3).
Mycentralargument,intheseandsubsequentchapters,isthatcalendarswere
primarily political; their development was closely related to the political
changes that transformed the ancient world from the mid-first millennium
BCEtolateAntiquity.Theriseoflarge-scaleempiresinthisperiodsuchasthe
Achaemenid, Seleucid, and Roman Empires led to the formation of increas-
ingly fixed and standardized calendars, most notably the Persian and the
Juliancalendars(Chapter4).Thebreak-upoftheSeleucidEmpire,conversely,
ledtothefragmentationofcalendarsintheNearEast(Chapter5).InChapter
6,IarguethattheunofficialuseoflunarcalendarsintheRomanEmpire,such
as the Gallic and Jewish calendars, was a way of expressing subtle political
dissidence. In Chapter 7, I investigate the relationship between the calendar
andsectarianism,heresy,andsocialschisminJudaismandChristianityoflate
Antiquity.
Ihavewrittenthisbookwiththegeneralreaderinmind,avoidingasfaras
possibleexcessivetechnicaldetail.Noteveryonewillbefamiliarwithallthese
areas and periods of history. Some readers may restrict themselves to their
ownareasofinterestorspecialization;buttheConclusion,whichsumsupthe
argumentofthewholebook,ismeantforalltoread.
Ifirstconceivedthisbookin2003,duringaperiodofresearchleavefunded
by the Arts and Humanities Research Board (now AHRC); but because of
professional distractions, it has taken many years to complete. I wish to
acknowledge the personal assistance that many friends and colleagues have
given me in areas that often lay beyond my expertise. The following read
earlier versions of chapters or parts of chapters, and contributed insightful,
informative, and critical remarks: Robert Parker (Ch. 1), Samuel Greengus,
JohnSteele (Ch.2), Leo Depuydt (Ch.3), François de Blois(Ch.4. 1), David
Levene(Ch.4.3),ChrisBennett(Ch.5andpartsofCh.1),JonathanBen-Dov
and Fergus Millar (parts of Ch. 7); and last but not least Jörg Rüpke and
vi Preface
Leofranc Holford-Strevens, who read and commented on the entire manu-
script.AnearlydraftofChapter5wassenttoPeterDerow,myformertutor,
daysbeforehisunexpecteddemise;thelateSimonPrice,anotherformertutor,
readandcommentedonpartsofthesamechapter;Idedicateittoboththeir
memory. The book as a whole, however, is dedicated to my wife Evadne,
whose share in this work has been earned through tireless support and
steadfastfriendship.
A generous reviewer (J. M. Baumgarten 2003, himself the author of lucid
studies on the Qumran calendars, who died as I was completing the last
chapterofthispresentwork)describedmypreviousworkonJewishcalendars
as‘achallengingandexcitingforayintothelinksbetweenthemeasurementof
timeandamillenniumofJewishsocialhistory’.Ihopethesamewillbesaidof
this present work: through the study of ancient calendars, a new perspective
onAntiquitywillhavebeenachieved.
SS
London,September2011
Contents
ListofTables ix
Introduction 1
PART I. FROM CITY STATES TO GREAT EMPIRES:
THE RISE OF THE FIXED CALENDARS
1. CalendarsofAncientGreece 25
2. TheBabylonianCalendar 71
3. TheEgyptianCalendar 125
4. TheRiseoftheFixedCalendars:Persian,Ptolemaic,
andJulianCalendars 167
PART II. THE EMPIRES CHALLENGED AND DISSOLVED:
CALENDAR DIVERSITY AND FRAGMENTATION
5. Fragmentation:BabylonianandJulianCalendarsintheNearEast,
ThirdCenturyBCE–SeventhCenturyCE 231
6. DissidenceandSubversion:Gallic,Jewish,andOtherLunar
CalendarsintheRomanEmpire 299
7. SectarianismandHeresy:FromQumranCalendarsto
ChristianEasterControversies 355
Conclusion 425
Bibliography 431
Index 455
This page intentionally left blank
List of Tables
1.1 OrdinaryandintercalatedyearsatAthens,late
secondcenturyBCE–secondcenturyCE 40
1.2 OrdinaryandintercalatedyearsatAthens,thirdcenturyBCE 43
2.1 Intercalationsintheneo-Babylonianperiod 101
2.2 IntercalationsunderCyrus,Cambyses,and(early)DariusI 103
2.3 TheSarosCanonandtheoptimal19-yearcycles 106
2.4 IntercalationsunderDariusI,Xerxes,andArtaxerxesI 108–9
2.5 IntercalationsinthelaterAchaemenidandSeleucidperiods 112–13
2.6 BabylonianintercalationsintheParthianperiod 116
2.7 IntercalationschemesintheBabyloniancalendar 119
4.1 RepublicanandJulianmonthlengths 213
5.1 DoubledatesinPtolemy’sAlmagest 239
5.2 Seleucidmonths 240
5.3 TheSyrian-Antiochenecalendar 257
5.4 TheEgyptiancalendarintheAugustanperiod 266–7
5.5 ThecalendarmonthsofSalamis 272
5.6 ThecalendarofAsiaanditsvariantsaccordingtothehemerologia 280–1
5.7 ThecalendarofHeliopolisinthehemerologia 286