Year of Confusion

The Year of Confusion is the name sometimes given to the year 46 BC, which lasted 445 days, the longest year in history. The old Roman calendar had drifted badly out of step with the seasons, so when Julius Caesar introduced the reformed calendar now known as the Julian calendar, he had extra months added to that year to bring it back in line.^[1] For one year only, the Romans had to wait an extra eighty days for New Year, and nobody is known to have been pleased about it.

Why

The earlier Roman calendar relied on officials adding an extra month every few years to keep it in step with the seasons. This was not always done properly, and by the 40s BC the calendar was around three months out, with festivals for the harvest falling well before the harvest.^[2] The extra days of 46 BC moved everything back into place in one go.

From 45 BC, the new calendar had 365 days with an extra leap day every four years, a system that lasted in much of Europe for more than 1,600 years.

The name

The name “Year of Confusion” was given later; the Romans themselves called it a year like any other, only longer. It is the only year whose official length was decided by moving the rest of time to fit it.

• Normal year: 365 days.
• Leap year: 366 days.
• 46 BC: 445 days.
• Longest week: not recorded, but presumably in there somewhere.

See also

• Leap day – the tidy way of doing it
• Week – of which there were many that year
• Time
• Year – the usual length, for comparison

References

1. Calends, C. (1999). Four Hundred and Forty-Five. Forum Press.
2. Intercalary, I. (2006). “They Forgot to Add the Month”. Roman Timekeeping 46: 1.
3. Kalendar, K. (2012). Moving Time to Fit. Sundial Books.