World Calendars
Roman date today
The ancient Romans named most days by counting down to one of three fixed days in the month: the 1st, and two days near the middle called the Nones and the Ides.
a.d. IV Kal. Nov.
ante diem IV Kalendas Novembres, year MMDCCLXXIX (2779) ab urbe condita
- In the Gregorian calendar
- Wednesday 11 November 2026
- This day began
- At midnight, as Wednesday 11 November 2026 begins
- This day ends
- At midnight, as Thursday 12 November 2026 begins
- Year 2779 AUC began
- Wednesday 14 January 2026
- Next new year
- Thursday 14 January 2027 (in 64 days)
- This year has
- 365 days in 12 months
- Year 1 began
- 753 BC, the traditional founding of Rome
- How it works
- Each day counts down to the 1st, 5th or 7th, or 13th or 15th
- Years count from
- 753 BC, the traditional founding of Rome
- New year
- 1 January from 153 BC; probably March before that
- Unusual detail
- Counting includes both ends, so 23 February was the seventh day before 1 March
Next holidays in this calendar
64 days
Old New Year 1 January 2027 (Julian calendar)
14 January 2027 ยท Julian, Roman
How Roman dates work
The Kalends is the 1st of the month. The Nones and Ides fall on the 7th and 15th in March, May, July and October, and on the 5th and 13th in the other months. They seem to come from the new moon, the first-quarter moon and the full moon. Debts fell due on the Kalends, and the account books that recorded them, the kalendaria, gave English the word calendar.
| No. | Month | Days | Nones | Ides |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ianuarius | 31 | 5 | 13 |
| 2 | Februarius | 28 (29 in leap years) | 5 | 13 |
| 3 | Martius | 31 | 7 | 15 |
| 4 | Aprilis | 30 | 5 | 13 |
| 5 | Maius | 31 | 7 | 15 |
| 6 | Iunius | 30 | 5 | 13 |
| 7 | Iulius (earlier Quintilis) | 31 | 7 | 15 |
| 8 | Augustus (earlier Sextilis) | 31 | 5 | 13 |
| 9 | September | 30 | 5 | 13 |
| 10 | October | 31 | 7 | 15 |
| 11 | November | 30 | 5 | 13 |
| 12 | December | 31 | 5 | 13 |
Other days count forward to the next of the three, inclusively, so both ends are counted. The day before is pridie (prid.); earlier days are ante diem (a.d.) with a Roman numeral. The Terminalia on 23 February was a.d. VII Kal. Mart., the seventh day before the Kalends of March. In a leap year the extra day doubled the sixth day before the Kalends of March, 24 February, written ante diem bis sextum Kalendas Martias. That is where the word bissextile comes from.
Variants and the method used here
This page takes the Julian calendar date and names it by the rules above, using the doubled 24 February in leap years. Years are counted in the Varronian era, which puts the founding of Rome in 753 BC, so AD 1 is year 754 and AD 2026 is year 2779. The year number changes on 1 January, the start of the consular year from 153 BC, and the traditional founding day was 21 April.
Dates before 45 BC are a proleptic convention. Before Caesar's reform Rome used a year of 355 days, and the Pontifex Maximus decided when to add an intercalary month of 27 or 28 days, a schedule politics sometimes disrupted. A Roman of that time would have written a different date from the one shown here. After Caesar's death the priests added leap days every three years and Augustus then suspended them, so until AD 4 or AD 8 the dates used in Rome can also differ from this page, which applies the four-year rule throughout.
A short history
Tradition gave Romulus a calendar of ten months and 304 days, with winter left out. Numa's reform added January and February for a year of 355 days. The year probably began in March at first; the consular year moved to 1 January in 153 BC. Julius Caesar's reform of 46 BC set the months at their present lengths. Mark Antony renamed Quintilis after Caesar, and the Lex Pacuvia renamed Sextilis after Augustus in 8 BC.
From 509 BC Romans usually named a year after its two consuls. Counting from the founding of the city existed but was never widespread. Atticus and Varro fixed the founding on 21 April 753 BC, in a chronology that is about four years off for events around 340 BC. Renaissance editors added AUC years to Roman texts, which made the system look more common in antiquity than it was.
Sources
How this site calculates the date: Day names counted to the Kalends, Nones and Ides on the Julian calendar; years ab urbe condita from 753 BC (Varro).