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January

January

January is the first month of the year in the Gregorian Calendar and one of seven Gregorian months with the length of 31 days. January begins (astrologically) with the sun in the sign of Capricorn and ends in the sign of Aquarius. Astronomically speaking, the sun begins in the constellation of Sagittarius and ends in the constellation of Capricornus. January is named for Janus, the Roman god of doors and gateways. The original Roman calendar consisted of 10 months (304 days). The Romans originally considered winter a monthless period. Circa 700 BCE Romulus' successor, King Numa Pompilius, added the months of January and February allowing the calendar to equal a standard lunar year (364 days). A Roman superstition against even numbers resulted in the addition of one day thus equalling 365 days. Although March was originally the first month, January usurped that position because that was when consuls were usually chosen. The first day of the month is known as New Year's Day. Historical names for January include its original Roman designation, Ianuarius, the Saxon term Wulf-monath (meaning wolf month) and Charlemagne's designation Wintarmanoth (winter / cold month). In old Japanese calendar, the month is called Mutsuki (睦月). The second day of the month is known as Hatsuyume (初夢) and the 7th day as Nanakusa (七草). In Finnish, the month is called tammikuu, meaning "month of the oak". Finnish The first Monday in January is known as Handsel Monday in Scotland and northern England. In England, the agricultural year began with Plough Sunday on the Sunday after Epiphany. The Coming of age day in Japan is the second Monday of January, for those becoming 20 years old in the new calendar year. It is a national holiday. The day has existed since 1948, but fell on January 15 until 1999, when it was moved by the Japanese government in an attempt to lift the economy by making more holidays consecutive. In the pagan wheel of the year, January ends at or near to Imbolc in the northern hemisphere and Lughnasadh in the southern hemisphere.

FIRST

FIRST, or For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology, is an organization founded by inventor Dean Kamen in 1989 in order to develop ways to excite students about engineering and technology. The FIRST Robotics Competition is designed to inspire high school students to become engineers by giving them real world experience working with professional engineers to develop a robot. The inaugural FIRST Robotics Competition was held in 1992. The FIRST LEGO League, a program similar to the FIRST Robotics Competition, is aimed at younger students. The FIRST Vex Challenge (started in 2005) is designed for high school students who don't have the financial, temporal, or other resources for the FIRST Robotics Competition. FIRST also operates FIRST Place, a facility at FIRST headquarters in Manchester, New Hampshire where FIRST holds educational programs for students and teachers.

Competition concept

The FIRST Robotics Competition involves teams of mentors (corporate employees, teachers, or college students) and high school students who collaborate to design and build a robot in six weeks. This robot is designed to play a game, which is designed by FIRST and changes from year to year. This game is announced at a nationally simulcast kickoff event in January. Regional competitions take place around the United States as well as in Canada, and Israel, but FIRST has a multinational following that further includes the United Kingdom, Brazil, Australia, and Germany. Teams are expected to solicit local businesses for support in the form of donations of time, money, or skills. Some teams have membership of 60 or more and have established substantial presence in their local communities by helping local FIRST Lego League teams (see below), running classes in various technical topics, and more. As of 2005, FIRST includes more than 1000 teams (around 20,000 students) competing in 31 Regional Competitions, as well as one championship competition held in Atlanta, Georgia. Although FIRST encourages teams to compete robustly against one another for numerous awards and success in the arena, the organization bestows its highest honor, the Chairman's Award, on teams that best exemplify the FIRST ethos of "gracious professionalism". According to the 2004 FIRST Team Manual "...one of the most straightforward interpretations of gracious professionalism is that we learn and compete like crazy, but treat one another with respect and kindness in the process. We try to avoid leaving anyone feeling like they are losers. No chest thumping barbarian tough talk, but no sticky sweet platitudes either. Knowledge, pride and empathy comfortably blended..." FIRST teams tend to take this paradigm to heart, and, as many observers have noted, even during the fiercest of competitions rivals can often be seen complimenting or offering technical assistance to each other. In order to win the Chairman's Award, teams are expected to apply "gracious professionalism" outside the competition by participating in community service activities which further FIRST's mission of changing student's perspectives about science and technology.

Competition details

The competition is a yearly event. The most intense participation occurs in the first few months of the year, although on many teams activities occur continuously throughout the academic year. In early January, FIRST announces the details of a game to all participating teams. The game changes very much from year to year, with only a few rules such as the size of the robot staying the same. For the next six weeks, often called the "build season," the teams begin to design a robot to play the game, essentially from scratch. This period's intensity makes FIRST the program that it is, and gives it personality. Team members spend the time designing strategies to play the game, drawing up ideas for robot parts, working with size and weight constraints, and finally, building and assembling their robot. Often, mistakes are discovered late into the build season, and teams must start over close to the beginning. Other challenges include gaining driver experience, building the electronics for the robot, and programming it. After the build season has ended, teams must ship their robot to where their first competition is. Competitions for FIRST consist of many (about 30) regional competitions, and one championship event. Regionals typically involve around 40 - 65 teams. Teams are randomly paired into qualification matches, where they are ranked. Matches are relatively short, and only involve about 4 robots (depending on the game). The game changes every year, but for the most part, they involve some autonomous (computer controlled) robot operation for a short period of time at the beginning of a match, followed by a much longer period of remote control. Teams use scoring objects on the field to get points, which are evaluated only after the match has completely ended. In between matches, teams spend the time desperately trying to fix broken parts, and sometimes even add new ones right at competition. After the qualification matches have ended, the top 8 teams will pick partners from the remaining ones, and they resulting alliances will compete for a regional winner. The championship event is esentially a very large regional event, with four fields simultaneously playing matches. Teams must qualify through a number of means to be able to attend the championship. FIRST is not just about building a good robot. The intense working conditions, and hard-earned wins build families out of teams, and an important part of the competition is to ensure that good work ethics and gracious professionalism are kept throughout the competition. In fact, of the awards handed out at regionals and the championship, the most important ones deal not with who had the best robot, but who did the best job of spreading the message of FIRST.

Previous Competitions

- 2005: Triple Play
- 2004: FIRST Frenzy: Raising the Bar
- 2003: Stack Attack
- 2002: Zone Zeal
- 2001: Co-Opertition FIRST
- 2000: Diabolical Dynamics
- 1999: Double Trouble
- 1998: Ladder Logic
- 1997: Torroid Terror
- 1996: Hexagon Havoc
- 1995: Ramp 'n Roll
- 1994: Tower Power
- 1993: Rug Rage
- 1992: Maize Craze

FIRST LEGO League

FIRST Robotics' sister organization is the FIRST LEGO League (FLL). FLL is intended to further the same ideals that FIRST does but at a middle school level and utilizing the Lego Mindstorms for Schools educational robotics system, including ROBOLAB programming software based on National Instruments' LabView industrial control engineering software. The combination of interchangeable LEGO parts, computer 'bricks' and sensors, and the aforementioned software, provide preteens and teenagers with the capability to build reasonably complex models of real-life robotic systems. 2003's challenge was inspired by that year's Mars Rover mission, in that the competing teams had to design and construct robots to solve a number of problems like removing rocks from a 'solar panel' to ensure a Mars base energy supply, collect 'soil/rock samples' from the Martian desert landscape, as well as several additional subproblems. 2004's challenge was centered around various robotic assistant systems for disabled persons, and demonstrated how the systems are (hopefully) able to solve the given problems in a satisfying way. 2005's challenge is called "Ocean Odyssey" and the specifics will be announced on September 12th, 2005. Once the rules are relased, like in the FRC (F.I.R.S.T. Robotic Competition) the teams must build and program a robot design. Once they have finalized the design, they must compete in competitions. The first place for competitions is the regional competitions. The top 1-10 from the regional competitions (depending on the area) go on to a larger area competeion. The final competiton is in Atlanta, Georgia at the Georgia Dome (just like the FRC robots)

FIRST Vex Challenge

The FIRST Vex Challenge is a mid-level robotics competition announced by FIRST on March 22, 2005. Its first competition was a demonstration competition at the national FIRST competition in Atlanta, GA from April 21-22, 2005. Vex is designed to create a league which offers a stepping stone between the FLL and the FRC. Vex Challenge robots are approximately 1/3 the scale of their FRC counterparts. The Vex Robots offer greater control over robot design than FLL through the use of Erector-like pieces. The Erector-like pieces provide less flexibility than the infinite possiblities of FRC, but provide a transition for students from the FLL competition to the FRC competition. The VEX Demonstration at the 2005 National Competition featured a 1/3 scale mock-up of the 2004 FRC Competition, FIRST Frenzy: Raising the Bar.

FIRSTwiki

FIRSTwiki is a website where members of the FIRST community can all contribute to create a resource on everything FIRST. As of April 2005, it has over 1300 content articles. FIRSTwiki was created on May 24, 2004. Like Wikipedia, it is a wiki — a website that can be edited by anyone. It uses the MediaWiki software (currently version 1.4.2). It was created and is currently managed by Wikipedia user Iammaxus (known as Max on FIRSTwiki). FIRSTwiki was created in response to a [http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/showthread.php?t=28697 thread] on the unofficial FIRST forums suggesting such a FIRST wiki by FIRSTwiki user Phrontist (Bjorn J. Westergard). It is currently hosted by ChiefDelphi, an unofficial online forum designed by FIRST Team 47 to facilitate interaction between FIRST participants. FIRSTwiki is modeled in large part after Wikipedia, with many of its meta pages being copied, often word for word, from Wikipedia. Its policies are also based on Wikipedia's. Many technical pages have links to their Wikipedia counterparts. In fact, even its logo is directly modeled after Wikipedia's logo. See the Logo candidates page for it and others.

External links

- [http://www.usfirst.org Official FIRST website]
- [http://www.vexrobotics.com Official FIRST VEX website]
- [http://www.usfirst.org/jrobtcs/flego.htm Official FIRST LEGO League website]
- [http://www.chiefdelphi.com Unofficial FIRST forums (Chief Delphi)]
- FIRSTwiki
- [http://www.openfirst.org openFIRST Web Portal System] (a system designed to make it easy for FIRST teams to create a website)
- [http://www.podcast.openfirst.org FIRSTcast the Unoffical FIRST podcast] Category:Robotics Category:Robotics competitions Category:Engineering Category:Technology Category:Educational organizations

Year

A year is the time between two recurrences of an event related to the orbit of the Earth around the Sun. By extension, this can be applied to any planet: for example, a "Martian year" is a year on Mars.

Seasonal year

A seasonal year is the time between successive recurrences of a seasonal event such as the flooding of a river, the migration of a species of bird, the flowering of a species of plant, the first frost, or the first scheduled game of a certain sport. All of these events can have wide variations of more than a month from year to year.

Calendar year

A calendar year is the time between two dates with the same name in a calendar. Solar calendars usually aim to predict the seasons, but because the length of individual seasonal years varies significantly, they instead use an astronomical year as a surrogate. For example, the ancient Egyptians used the heliacal rising of Sirius to predict the flooding of the Nile. The Gregorian calendar aims to keep the vernal equinox on or close to March 21; hence it follows the vernal equinox year. The average length of its year is 365.2425 days. No astronomical year has an integer number of days or months, so any calendar that follows an astronomical year must have a system of intercalation such as leap years. In the formerly used Julian calendar, the average length of a year was 365.25 days. This is still used as a convenient time unit in astronomy, see below.

Astronomical years

Julian year

The Julian year, as used in astronomy and other sciences, is a time unit defined as exactly 365.25 days. This is the normal meaning of the unit "year" (symbol "a" from the Latin annus, annata) used in various scientific contexts. The Julian century of 36525 days and the Julian millennium of 365250 days are used in astronomical calculations. Fundamentally, expressing a time interval in Julian years is a way to precisely specify how many days (not how many "real" years), for long time intervals where stating the number of days would be unwieldy and unintuitive.

Sidereal year

The sidereal year is the time for the Earth to complete one revolution of its orbit, as measured in a fixed frame of reference (such as the fixed stars, Latin sidus). Its duration in SI days of 86,400 SI seconds each is on average: :365.256 363 051 days (365 d 6 h 9 min 9 s) (at the epoch J2000.0 = 2000 January 1 12:00:00 TT).

Tropical year

A tropical year is the time for the Earth to complete one revolution with respect to the framework provided by the intersection of the ecliptic (the plane of the orbit of the Earth) and the plane of the equator (the plane perpendicular to the rotation axis of the Earth). Because of the precession of the equinoxes, this framework moves slowly westward along the ecliptic with respect to the fixed stars (with a period of about 26,000 tropical years); as a consequence, the Earth completes this year before it completes a full orbit as measured in a fixed reference frame. Therefore a tropical year is shorter than the sidereal year. The exact length of a tropical year depends on the chosen starting point: for example the vernal equinox year is the time between successive vernal equinoxes. The mean tropical year (averaged over all ecliptic points) is: :365.242 189 67 days (365 d 5 h 48 min 45 s) (at the epoch J2000.0).

Anomalistic year

The anomalistic year is the time for the Earth to complete one revolution with respect to its apsides. The orbit of the Earth is elliptical; the extreme points, called apsides, are the perihelion, where the Earth is closest to the Sun (January 2 in 2000), and the aphelion, where the Earth is farthest from the Sun (July 2 in 2000). Because of gravitational disturbances by the other planets, the shape and orientation of the orbit are not fixed, and the apsides slowly move with respect to a fixed frame of reference. Therefore the anomalistic year is slightly longer than the sidereal year. It takes about 112,000 years for the ellipse to revolve once relative to the fixed stars. The anomalistic year is also longer than the tropical year (which calendars attempt to track) and so the date of the perihelion gradually advances every year. It takes about 21,000 years for the ellipse to revolve once relative to the vernal equinox, thus for the date of perihelion to return to the same place (given a calendar that tracks the seasons perfectly). The average duration of the anomalistic year is: :365.259 635 864 days (365 d 6 h 13 min 52 s) (at the epoch J2000.0).

Draconic year

The draconitic year, eclipse year or ecliptic year is the time for the Sun (as seen from the Earth) to complete one revolution with respect to the same lunar node (a point where the Moon's orbit intersects the ecliptic). This period is associated with eclipses: these occur only when both the Sun and the Moon are near these nodes; so eclipses occur within about a month of every half eclipse year. Hence there are two eclipse seasons every eclipse year. The average duration of the eclipse year is: :346.620 075 883 days (346 d 14 h 52 min 54 s) (at the epoch J2000.0). :This term is sometimes also used to designate the time it takes for a complete revolution of the Moon's ascending node around the ecliptic: 18.612 815 932 years (6798.331 019 days).

Fumocy

The full moon cycle or fumocy is the time for the Sun (as seen from the Earth) to complete one revolution with respect to the perigee of the Moon's orbit. This period is associated with the apparent size of the full moon, and also with the varying duration of the anomalistic month. The duration of one full moon cycle is: :411.784 430 29 days (411 d 18 h 49 min 34 s) (at the epoch J2000.0).

Heliacal year

A heliacal year is the interval between the heliacal risings of a star. It equals the sidereal year only if the star is on the ecliptic. It differs from the sidereal year for stars north or south of the ecliptic because of the significant angle (23.5°) between Earth's celestial equator and the ecliptic.

Sothic year

The Sothic year is the interval between heliacal risings of the star Sirius. Its duration is very close to the mean Julian year of 365.25 days.

Gaussian year

The Gaussian year is the sidereal year for a planet of negligible mass (relative to the Sun) and unperturbed by other planets that is governed by the Gaussian gravitational constant. Such a planet would be slightly closer to the Sun than Earth's mean distance. Its length is: :365.256 898 3 days (365 d 6 h 9 min 56 s).

Besselian year

The Besselian year is a tropical year that starts when the fictitious mean Sun reaches an ecliptic longitude of 280°. This is currently on or close to 1 January. It is named after the 19th century German astronomer and mathematician Friedrich Bessel. An approximate formula to compute the current time in Besselian years from the Julian day is: :B = 2000 + (JD - 2451544.53)/365.242189

Great year

The Great year, Platonic year, or Equinoctial cycle corresponds to a complete revolution of the equinoxes around the ecliptic. Its length is approximately 25,770.639 22 years (9,412,725 d 23 h 22 min).

Variation in the length of the year and the day

The exact length of an astronomical year changes over time. The main sources of this change are: #The precession of the equinoxes changes the position of astronomical events with respect to the apsides of Earth's orbit. An event moving toward perihelion recurs with a decreasing period from year to year; an event moving toward aphelion recurs with an increasing period from year to year. #The gravitational influence of the Moon and planets changes the shape of the Earth's orbit. Tidal drag between the Earth and the Moon and Sun increases the length of the day and of the month. This in turn depends on factors such as continental rebound and sea level rise. It is also suspected that changes in the effective mass of the sun, caused by nuclear fusion, could have a significant impact on the earth year over time.

Summary of various kinds of year

- 353, 354 or 355 days — the lengths of regular years in some lunisolar calendars
- 354.37 days — 12 lunar months; the average length of a year in lunar calendars
- 365 days — a common year in many solar calendars; ~31.53 million seconds
- 365.24219 days — a mean tropical year near the year 2000
- 365.2424 days — a vernal equinox year.
- 365.2425 days — the average length of a year in the Gregorian calendar
- 365.25 days — the average length of a year in the Julian calendar; the light year is based on it; it is 31,557,600 seconds
- 365.2564 days — a sidereal year
- 366 days — a leap year in many solar calendars; 31.62 million seconds
- 383, 384 or 385 days — the lengths of leap years in some lunisolar calendars
- 383.9 days — 13 lunar months; a leap year in some lunisolar calendars An average Gregorian year is 365.2425 days = 52.1775 weeks, 8,765.82 hours = 525,949.2 minutes = 31,556,952 seconds (mean solar, not SI). A common year is 365 days = 8,760 hours = 525,600 minutes = 31,536,000 seconds. A leap year is 366 days = 8,784 hours = 527,040 minutes = 31,622,400 seconds. An easy to remember approximation for the number of seconds in a year is

\begin\pi\end

×10⁷ seconds. The 400-year cycle of the Gregorian calendar has 146097 days and hence exactly 20871 weeks. See also Numerical facts about the Gregorian calendar.

Day

:The Day language is spoken in Chad. A day (symbol: d) is a unit of time. It is not an SI unit but it is accepted for use with SI. The SI unit of time is the second. It has several definitions.

Definition of a day in SI

There is one day for every 86,400 SI seconds.

Definition of a day in astronomy

For a given planet, there are two types of day defined in astronomy: 1 apparent sidereal day = a single rotation of a planet with respect to the distant stars (for Earth it is 23.934 solar hours or 24 sidereal hours) 1 solar day = a single rotation of a planet with respect to Sun.

Origin

The term comes from the Old English dæg, with similar terms common in all other Indo-European languages, such as dies in Latin and dive in Sanskrit.

Colloquial definition of day

The word refers either to the period of light when the Sun is above the local horizon or to the full day covering a dark and a light period. The latter is sometimes called a nychthemeron in English, from the Greek for night-day. Greek painting by Peter Nicolai Arbo.]]

Introduction

Different definitions of the day are based on the apparent motion of the Sun across the sky (solar day; see solar time). The reason for this apparent motion is the rotation of the Earth around its axis, as well as the revolution of the Earth in its orbit around the Sun. A day, as opposed to night, is commonly defined as the period during which sunlight directly reaches the ground, assuming that there are no local obstacles. Two effects make days on average longer than nights. The Sun is not a point, but has an apparent size of about 32 minutes of arc. Additionally, the atmosphere refracts sunlight in such a way that some of it reaches the ground even when the Sun is below the horizon by about 34 minutes of arc. So the first light reaches the ground when the centre of the Sun is still below the horizon by about 50 minutes of arc. The difference in time depends on the angle at which the Sun rises and sets (itself a function of latitude), but amounts to almost seven minutes at least. Ancient custom has a new day start at either the rising or setting of the Sun on the local horizon (Italian reckoning, for example). The exact moment of, and the interval between, two sunrises or two sunsets depends on the geographical position (longitude as well as latitude), and the time of year. This is the time as indicated by ancient hemispherical sundials. A more constant day can be defined by the Sun passing through the local meridian, which happens at local noon (upper culmination) or midnight (lower culmination). The exact moment is dependent on the geographical longitude, and to a lesser extent on the time of the year. The length of such a day is nearly constant (24 hours ± 30 seconds). This is the time as indicated by modern sundials. A further improvement defines a fictitious mean Sun that moves with constant speed along the celestial equator; the speed is the same as the average speed of the real Sun, but this removes the variation over a year as the Earth moves along its orbit around the Sun (due to both its velocity and its axial tilt). The Earth's day has increased in length over time. The original length of one day, when the Earth was new about 4.5 billion years ago, was about six hours as determined by computer simulation. It was 21.9 hours 620 million years ago as recorded by rhythmites (alternating layers in sandstone). This phenomenon is due to tides raised by the Moon which slow Earth's rotation. Because of the way the second is defined, the mean length of a day is now about 86,400.002 seconds, and is increasing by about 1.7 milliseconds per century (an average over the last 2700 years). See tidal acceleration for details.

Civil day

For civil purposes a common clock time has been defined for an entire region based on the mean local solar time at some central meridian. Such time zones began to be adopted about the middle of the 19th century when railroads with regular schedules came into use, with most major countries having adopted them by 1929. For the whole world, 39 such time zones are now in use. The main one is "world time" or UTC (Coordinated Universal Time). The present common convention has the civil day starting at midnight, which is near the time of the lower culmination of the mean Sun on the central meridian of the time zone. A day is commonly divided into 24 hours of 60 minutes of 60 seconds each.

Leap seconds

In order to keep the civil day aligned with the apparent movement of the Sun, leap seconds may be inserted. A civil clock day is typically 86400 SI seconds long, but will be 86401 s long in the event of a leap second. Leap seconds are announced in advance by the International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service which measures the Earth's rotation and determines whether a leap second is necessary. Leap seconds occur only at the end of a UTC month, and have only ever been inserted at the end of June 30 or December 31.

Astronomy

In astronomy, the sidereal day is also used; it is about 3 minutes 56 seconds shorter than the solar day, and close to the actual rotation period of the Earth, as opposed to the Sun's apparent motion. In fact, the Earth spins 366 times about its axis during a 365-day year, because the Earth's revolution about the Sun removes one apparent turn of the Sun about the Earth.

Boundaries of the day

For most diurnal animals, including Homo sapiens, the day naturally begins at dawn and ends at sunset. Humans, with our cultural norms and scientific knowledge, have supplanted Nature with several different conceptions of the day's boundaries. The Jewish day begins at either sunset or at nightfall (when three second-magnitude stars appear). Medieval Europe followed this tradition, known as Florentine reckoning: in this system, a reference like "two hours into the day" meant two hours after sunset and thus times during the evening need to be shifted back one calendar day in modern reckoning. Days such as Christmas Eve, Halloween, and the Eve of Saint Agnes are the remnants of the older pattern when holidays began the evening before. Present common convention is for the civil day to begin at midnight, that is 00:00, and last a full twenty-four hours until the next 00:00 (also known as 24:00, but this is not as widely used). In ancient Egypt the day was reckoned from sunrise to sunrise. Muslims fast from dawn (traditionally when a white thread can be distinguished from a black thread) to sunset each day of the month of Ramadan. In the United States, nights are named after the previous day, e.g. "Friday night" usually means the entire night between Friday and Saturday. This is the opposite of the Jewish pattern. This difference from the civil day often leads to confusion. Events starting at midnight are often announced as occurring the day before. TV-guides tend to list nightly programs at the previous day, although programming a VCR requires the strict logic of starting the new day at 00:00 (to further confuse the issue, VCRs set to the 12-hour clock notation will label this "12:00 AM"). Expressions like "today", "yesterday" and "tomorrow" become ambiguous during the night. Validity of tickets, passes, etc., for a day or a number of days may end at midnight, or closing time, when that is earlier. However, if a service (e.g. public transport) operates from e.g. 6:00 to 1:00, the last hour may well count as being part of the previous day (also for the arrangement of the timetable). For services depending on the day ("closed on Sundays", "does not run on Fridays", etc.) there is a risk of ambiguity. As an example, for the Dutch Railways, a day ticket is valid 28 hours, from 0:00 to 4:00 the next night.

List of famous days

- Black Monday
- Black Friday
- Bloody Sunday
- D-Day
- The Day The Music Died
- Ides of March
- Judgement Day
- September 11, 2001 See also List of commemorative days

People named Day

Some noted people with the name Day include Doris Day, Stockwell Day, and Dorothy Day.

External links

- [http://www.fourmilab.ch/cgi-bin/uncgi/Earth/action?opt=-p&img=learth.evif Show where it is daytime at the moment]
- [http://ptaff.ca/soleil/?lang=en_CA Sunrise and sunset, all year long, anywhere] Category:Units of time als:Tag ko:일 (시간) ja:日 simple:Day th:วัน

Aquarius

Aquarius (20px, Latin for the Water-bearer or Cup-bearer) is the eleventh sign of the zodiac, situated between Capricornus and Pisces. Its symbol is 20px, representing part of a stream of water. Aquarius is one of the oldest recognized constellations along the zodiac, the sun's apparent path. It is found in a region often called the Sea due to its profusion of watery constellations such as Cetus, Pisces, Eridanus, etc. Sometimes, the river Eridanus is depicted spilling from Aquarius' watering pot.

Notable deep sky objects

There are three deep sky objects that are on the Messier catalog, the Globular Cluster M2, Globular Cluster M72, and the Open Cluster M73. Two planetary nebulae are found in Aquarius: NGC 7009, called the Saturn Nebula due to its resemblance to the planet, to the southeast of η Aquarii; and NGC 7293, the famous Helix Nebula, southwest of δ Aquarii.

History

The constellation was immortalized in the 1960s, proclaimed the Age of Aquarius. However, there is no standard definition for astrological ages, so the age of Aquarius could begin in 2150 or even 2660, depending on the preferred definition. Based on the modern constellation boundaries of Pisces and Aquarius, the age of Aquarius would begin around 2660. However, with so much of modern society reflecting the qualities of Aquarius most astrologers believe that this era has begun. Mass production, electricity, flight and space travel, electronic communications including computers the Internet, even the growing movement against capitalism in favour of a more socialist system of humanitarian development are all related to the Aquarian paradigm.

Mythology

The best-known myth identifies Aquarius with Ganymede, a beautiful youth with whom Zeus fell in love, and whom he (in the guise of an eagle, represented as the constellation Aquila) carried off to Olympus to be cupbearer to the gods. Crater is sometimes identified as his cup. Aquarius generally resembles the figure of a man, and when considering fainter humanly visible stars, it takes on the image of a man with a bucket from which is pouring a stream. Aquarius was also identified as the pourer of the waters which flooded the earth in the Great Flood, in the ancient Greek version of the myth. As such, the constellation Eridanus was sometimes identified as being a river poured out by Aquarius. It may also, together with the constellation Pegasus, be part of the origin of the myth of the Mares of Diomedes, which forms one of The Twelve Labours of Herakles. Its association with pouring out rivers, and the nearby constellation of Capricornus, may be the source of the myth of the Augean stable, which forms another of the labours.

Astrology

The Western astrological sign Aquarius of the tropical zodiac (January 20 - February 18) differs from the astronomical constellation and the Hindu astrological sign of the sidereal zodiac (February 16 - March 11). In some cosmologies, Aquarius is associated with the classical element Air, and thus called an Air Sign (with Libra and Gemini). It is also one of the four Fixed signs (along with Leo, Scorpio, and Taurus). Its polar opposite is Leo. It is the domicile of Saturn (since its discovery Uranus has been considered Aquarius' ruling or co-ruling planet by many modern astrologers). Each astrological sign is assigned a part of the body, viewed as the seat of its power. Aquarius rules the circulatory system as well as the ankles. The symbol for Aquarius is the water bearer.

Notable and named stars

Source: The Bright Star Catalogue, 5th Revised Ed., The Hipparcos Catalogue, ESA SP-1200

References

External links

Category:Astrological signs
- [http://www.allthesky.com/constellations/aquarius/ The Deep Photographic Guide to the Constellations: Aquarius]
- [http://astrology.yahoo.com/astrology/general/dailyoverview/aquarius Aquarius Links on Yahoo.com]
- [http://www.astrology.com/ssc/aquarius.html?ice=ast,scopes,mssc Aquarius Links on Astrology.com]
- [http://www.doublesign.com/astro/western/signs.php?signid=aquarius Aquarius Links on DoubleSign.com] ko:물병자리 ja:みずがめ座 th:กลุ่มดาวคนแบกหม้อน้ำ

Sagittarius

Sagittarius (20px, and Latin for Archer) is a constellation of the zodiac, commonly depicted as a centaur drawing a bow. Sagittarius lies between Scorpius to the west and Capricornus to the east.

Notable features

The constellation's brighter stars (from left to right on the map: τ, ζ, σ, φ, λ, ε, δ, η and γ² Sagittarii) form an easily recognizable asterism called the Teapot. The stars δ Sgr (Kaus Media), ε Sgr (Kaus Australis), ζ Sgr (Ascella), and φ Sgr form the body of the pot; λ Sgr (Kaus Borealis) is the point of the lid; γ² (Alnasl) is the tip of the spout; and σ Sgr (Nunki) and τ Sgr the handle. [http://deepsky.astroinfo.org/Sgr/] [http://www.flandrau.org/astronomy/skywatchers/picupclose.php?picid=89] α Sgr (Rukbat) isn't the brightest star of the constellation, having a magnitude of only 3.96. (It is not shown on the map as it is located below the map's southwestern corner, north is up)

Notable deep-sky objects

The Milky Way as seen from the earth is at its densest as it passes through Sagittarius, as this is where the galactic center lies. Consequently, Sagittarius contains many star clusters and nebulae. One of the brightest of the star clusters is M55, about 7.5° west of δ Sgr. The constellation contains nebulae such as the Lagoon Nebula (M8), near λ Sagittarii, beautiful in telescopes; the Omega, Swan, or Horseshoe Nebula (M17), near the border with Scutum; and the Trifid Nebula (M20), a large nebula containing some very young, hot stars. The complex radio source Sagittarius A is also here. Astronomers believe that one of its components, known as Sagittarius A
- , is associated with a supermassive black hole at the center of the galaxy. The Sagittarius Dwarf Elliptical Galaxy is located just outside the Milky Way.

Mythology

Sagittarius has the rough appearance of a stick-figure archer drawing its bow, and when including the fainter stars, appears to have a horse-like body [http://borghetto.astrofili.org/costellazioni/sagittarius.JPG]. The Greeks identified such a figure as a centaur, whereas earlier cultures, such as the Babylonians, identified it as the god Pabilsag (which also had wings and a lion's head). In Greek mythology, Sagittarius was sometimes identified as Chiron, aiming his bow at the Scorpion, although the more usual identification of Chiron was with the constellation Centaurus. The constellation Sagitta was sometimes considered to be an arrow fired by Sagittarius. Other early identifications include that of a rattle, which the constellation's brightest stars considered together vaguely resemble. As such, together with other constellations in the Zodiac sign of Sagittarius (specifically, Cygnus, Lyra, and Aquila), may be a significant part of the origin of the myth of the Stymphalian Birds, one of The Twelve Labours of Herakles.

Astrology

The Western astrological sign Sagittarius of the tropical zodiac (November 22 - December 21) differs from the astronomical constellation and the Hindu astrological sign of the sidereal zodiac (December 18 - January 18). In some cosmologies, Sagittarius is associated with the classical element Fire, and thus called a Fire Sign (with Aries and Leo). It is also one of the four Mutable signs (along with Gemini, Virgo, and Pisces). Its polar opposite is Gemini. Each astrological sign is assigned a part of the body, viewed as the seat of its power, Sagittarius assigned with the hips and thighs. It is the domicile of Jupiter. The symbol for Sagittarius is the centaur or archer.

Notable and named stars

Source: The Bright Star Catalogue, 5th Revised Ed., The Hipparcos Catalogue, ESA SP-1200

External links

- [http://www.allthesky.com/constellations/sagittarius/ The Deep Photographic Guide to the Constellations: Sagittarius]
- [http://astrology.yahoo.com/astrology/general/dailyoverview/sagittarius Sagittarius Links on Yahoo.com]
- [http://www.astrology.com/ssc/sagittarius.html?ice=ast,scopes,mssc Sagittarius Links on Astrology.com]
- [http://www.doublesign.com/astro/western/signs.php?signid=sagittarius Sagittarius Links on DoubleSign.com] Category:Astrological signs
- ko:궁수자리 ja:いて座 th:กลุ่มดาวคนยิงธนู

Capricornus

Capricornus (20px or 20px), a name meaning "Horned Goat" or "That which has horns like a goat's" in Latin, is one of the constellations of the zodiac. It is commonly called Capricorn, especially in astrology. It is commonly called the sea-goat, as it is in an area of the sky known as the Sea. Capricornus is one of the 88 modern constellations, and was also one of the 48 constellations listed by Ptolemy. Under its modern boundaries it is bordered by Aquila, Sagittarius, Microscopium, Piscis Austrinus and Aquarius.

Notable features

This constellation is the dimmest in the zodiac besides Cancer. Its brighter stars are found on a triangle whose vertices are α Cap (Giedi), δ Cap (Deneb Algiedi), and ω Cap.

History

This constellation is one of the oldest to have been identified, possibly the oldest, despite its dimness. Since it falls in an area of the sky known as the sea, it became considered a sea-goat (in the same sense as a sea-maiden). Depictions of a goat or goat-fish have been found on Babylonian tablets dating back three thousand years. The constellation may owe its antiquity to the fact that at that time, the northern hemisphere's Winter Solstice occurred while the sun was in Capricorn. The concern for the sun's rebirth might have rendered astronomical and astrological observation of this region of space very important. For the same reason, the sun's most southerly position, which is attained at the northern hemisphere's winter solstice, is now called the Tropic of Capricorn, a term which also applies to the line on earth where the sun is directly overhead at noon on that solstice. Due to early Greek beliefs that sin accumulated throughout the year, causing the darkness to increase, together with the sun's descent and pause at the Solstice, the ancient Greeks referred to this area of sky as the Augean Stable, where they considered the sun stabled during the year. The cause of the association with the location or name of Augeas is not currently known. However, during the classical period of Greek history, this name gradually fell out of use. Due to the precession of the equinoxes, the December solstice no longer takes place while the sun is in Capricorn, but the astrological period called Capricorn begins at approximately the same time as the solstice. The planet Neptune was discovered in this constellation by German astronomer Johann Galle, near Deneb Algedi (δ Capricorni) on September 23, 1846, which is reasonable as Capricornus can be seen best at 9:00 in September.

Mythology

This constellation is sometimes identified as Amalthea, the goat that suckled the infant Zeus after his mother Rhea saved him from being devoured by his father Cronos in Greek mythology. The goat's broken horn was transformed into the cornucopia or horn of plenty. Some ancient sources claim that this derives from the sun "taking nourishment" while in the constellation, in preparation for its climb back northward. However, the constellation is often depicted as a sea-goat, a goat with a fish's tail. One myth that deals with this says that when the goat-god Pan was attacked by the monster Typhon, he dove into the Nile; the parts above the water remained a goat, but those under the water transformed into a fish. In Sumeria, the constellation was associated with the god Ea or Enki, who brought culture out of the sea to humankind. The constellation, together with its early greek name, associated ideas about sin, and the constellation of Aquarius, who was said to have poured out a river, may represent the origin of the myth of the Augean Stable, which forms one of The Twelve Labours of Herakles. The constellation is located in an area of sky called the Sea or Water, consisting of many watery constellations such as Aquarius, Pisces, and Eridanus.

Astrology

The Western astrological sign Capricorn of the tropical zodiac (December 22 - January 19) differs from the astronomical constellation and the Hindu astrological sign of the sidereal zodiac (January 19 - February 15). In some cosmologies, Capricorn is associated with the classical element Earth, and thus called an Earth Sign (with Taurus and Virgo). It is also one of the four Cardinal signs (along with Aries, Cancer, and Libra). It is the domicile of Saturn and the exaltation of Mars. Its polar opposite is Cancer. Each astrological sign is assigned a part of the body, viewed as the seat of its power. Capricorn rules the knees, bones, and skin. The ancient symbol of this sign is the sea monster, which harks back to the time in antiquity when Capricorn was considered a water sign and not an earth sign. The symbol for this eventually changed to that of a seagoat, which is a mythological creature that has the head and upper body of a goat and the lower body of a fish, and this was an attempt to meld the watery qualities that this sign originally possessed with the earthly qualities that astrologers wanted it to acquire. In modern times the symbolism for this sign has evolved once again, with astrologers doing away with the figure of the seagoat altogether in favour of the mountain goat, which has almost eradicated the watery themes that once encompassed this sign.

Stars

:Stars with proper names: :
- (α Cap) Algedi [Al Giedi, Giedi, Algiedi, Gredi] :
- : < الجديّ al-jadiyy The billy goat ::
- Algedi Prima [Prima Giedi] (5/α¹ Cap) 4.24 ::
- Algedi Secunda [Secunda Giedi] (6/α² Cap) 3.56 :
- (β Cap) Dabih :
- : < سعد الذابح sa^{c^{d að-ðābiħ}} Luck of the slaughterer/sacrificer ::
- Dabih Major (9/β Cap) 3.05 ::
- Dabih Minor (β² Cap) 6.09 :
- (40/γ Cap) 3.68 Nashira :
- : < السعد الناشرة as-sa^cd an-nāšira[h] The bringer of good news :
- (49/δ Cap) 2.87 Deneb Algiedi [Deneb Algedi], Scheddi [Sheddi] :
- : < ذنب الجدي ðanab[u] al-jadiyy Tail of the goat :
- (39/ε Cap) 4.51 Kastra :
- (22/η Cap) 4.82 Arm :
- (8/ν Cap) Alshat :
- : < الشاة aš-šā[t] The (she) camel :
- (10/π Cap) 5.08 Okul :Stars with Bayer designations: :: 34/ζ Cap 3.77; 23/θ Cap 4.08; 32/ι Cap 4.28; 43/κ Cap 4.72; 48/λ Cap 5.57; 51/μ Cap 5.08; 2/ξ Cap 5.84; 1/ξ² Cap 6.34; 12/ο Cap — double 5.94, 6.74; 11/ρ Cap 4.77; 7/σ Cap 5.28; 14/τ Cap 5.24; 13/τ¹ Cap 6.76; 15/υ Cap 5.15; 25/χ Cap 5.30; 28/φ Cap 5.17; 16/ψ Cap 4.13; 18/ω Cap 4.12; 36/b Cap 4.50; 46/c Cap 5.10; 24/A Cap 4.49 :Stars with Flamsteed designations: ::3 Cap 6.30; 4 Cap 5.86; 17 Cap 5.91; 19 Cap 5.78; 20 Cap 6.26; 27 Cap 6.25; 29 Cap 5.31; 30 Cap 5.40; 31 Cap 7.18; 33 Cap 5.38; 35 Cap 5.78; 37 Cap 5.70; 41 Cap 5.24; 42 Cap 5.16; 44 Cap 5.88; 45 Cap 5.96; 47 Cap 6.00

Planets

- HD 202206 b & c

External links

- [http://www.allthesky.com/constellations/capricornus/ The Deep Photographic Guide to the Constellations: Capricornus]
- [http://astrology.yahoo.com/astrology/general/dailyoverview/capricorn Capricorn Links on Yahoo.com]
- [http://www.astrology.com/ssc/capricorn.html?ice=ast,scopes,mssc Capricorn Links on Astrology.com]
- [http://www.doublesign.com/astro/western/signs.php?signid=capricorn Capricorn Links on DoubleSign.com] Category:Astrological signs ko:염소자리 ja:やぎ座 th:กลุ่มดาวแพะทะเล

Janus (mythology)

In Roman mythology, Janus was the god of gates, doors, doorways, beginnings, and endings. His most apparent remnant in modern culture is his namesake, the month of January. Though he was usually depicted with two faces looking in opposite directions (Janus Geminus (twin Janus) or Bifrons), in some places he was Janus Quadrifrons (the four-faced). The Romans associated Janus with the Etruscan deity Ani. Janus was frequently used to symbolize change and transitions such as the progression of past to future, of one condition to another, of one vision to another, and of one universe to another. Hence, Janus was worshipped at the beginnings of the harvest and planting times, as well as marriages, births and other beginnings. He was representative of the middle ground between barbarity and civilization, rural country and urban cities, and youth and adulthood. Janus was supposed to have come from Thessaly in Greece and shared a kingdom with Camese in Latium. They had many children, including Tiberinus. Janus and his later wife, Juturna, were the parents of Fontus. Another wife was named Jana. Historically, however, he was one of the few Roman gods who had no ready-made Greek counterpart, or analogous mythology. As the sole ruler of Latium, Janus heralded the Golden Age, introducing money, laws and agriculture (making him a culture hero). When Romulus and his men kidnapped the women of the Sabines, Janus caused a hot spring to erupt, causing the would-be attackers to flee. In honor of this, the doors to his temples were kept open during war so that he could easily intervene. The doors and gates were closed during peace. Sabine His two faces (originally, one was always bearded, one clean-shaven; later both bearded) originally represented the sun and the moon. He was usually depicted with a key. One suggested origin of the name of the Italian city of Genoa is a derivation of Janus.

Janus in popular culture

Janus is referred in the 1995 movie adaptation of Judge Dredd. Janus is the name of the project where the DNA of all elder judges have been compounded to yield perfect Judges. However the result yielded is the perfect judge Dredd, and his DNA twin, the perfect criminal, Rico. In the James Bond film GoldenEye, the renegade 00-agent Alec Trevelyn secretly formed the "Janus Syndicate" with himself ("Janus") as its head. This alludes to his betrayal of MI6, as Bond remarks "so you became Janus, the two-faced Roman god come to life." In the Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode Halloween, Janus was the god Ethan Rayne called on to transform everyone into whatever they were dressed as. In the video game Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines, the Malkavian character addresses both "twin" sisters as "daughters of Janus". It is later proven that the sisters are in reality the same person, but with two personalities. The Chrono Trigger character Magus's original name as a child was Janus.

External link

- [http://www.livius.org/ja-jn/janus/janus.html Janus] Category:Roman gods Category:Dii Familiaris ja:ヤヌス

Romulus

Romulus may refer to any of these articles:
- Romulus is the mythical founder of Rome, see Romulus and Remus.
- Romulus is the fictional homeworld of the Romulans in Star Trek, see Romulus and Remus (Star Trek).
- Romulus, Michigan is a city in Michigan.
- Romulus, New York is a town in New York.
- Romulus Augustus was the last Western Roman Emperor.
- Romulus is an asteroid, 10386 Romulus.
- Romulus is a moon of the asteroid 87 Sylvia.
- Romulus is a character in the Catharsis (comic) webcomic.

Numa Pompilius

Numa Pompilius (April 21, 753 BC - 674 BC) succeeded Romulus as the second King of Rome. Though he was a Sabine by birth, the Romans selected him as their king to better unite the Romans and Sabines as one. During his reign the great cultural integration between the Romans and Sabines into one occurred. His reign was marked by a period of both great religious advancements but also of over forty years of continues peace. Though his successor Tullus Hostilius would be remember as the complete opposite to Numa, his biological grandson would serve as the fourth King of Rome and continue Numa's legacy of peace and religious devotion.

Early Life

Numa Pompilius was born on the day Romulus founded the city of Rome. He was the youngest of four sons to Pomponius, an illustrious man. He lived in the Sabine city of Cures and lived a severe life of discipline and he banished all luxury from his home. He was endued with a soul rarely tempered by nature, and disposed to virtue, which he had yet more subdued by discipline and the study of philosophy. He tried to expelling the baser passions by reason and the rule of law. While friends and strangers alike found in him an incorruptible judge and counselor, in private he devoted himself not to amusement or self gratification, but to the worship of the gods, and rational contemplation of their divine power and nature. So famous was he, that Titus Tatius, the short-lived joint king with Romulus, chose him for his son-in-law, and gave him his only daughter, Tatia, which, however, did not stimulate his desire to dwell with his father-in-law at Rome. He rather chose to live with his Sabine friends, and care for his own father in his old age. Tatia, also, preferred the private conditions of her husband’s life in Cures over the honors and splendor she might have enjoyed with her father in Rome. Tatia is said to have died after the two had been married for thirteen years. She had produce Numa one daughter, Pompilia who married Marcius II and had the future fourth King of Rome, Ancus Marcius. Numa also had four sons by Tatia, Pompo, Pinus, Calpus and Mamercus. However, the claim that from them descended the noble families of Pomponii, Pinarii, Calpurnii and Aemilii was a lie invented after the earliest records were destroyed by the Gauls when they sack Rome in 387 BC. Upon Tatia’s death, Numa left Cures, and retired to country life, when he lived in a solitary manner growing groves, tending to the fields and concentrating on the gods.

Accent to the Throne

In the year 716 BC, after almost 38 years of unchallenged rule, Romulus was dead. Though it was though that the Senate had him killed, it was forgotten once the voted him divine rights as the god Quirinius. The controversy following Romulus’ death was quickly followed by who would succeed him. Controversy surround this issue for the Sabines and Romans had not yet grown into perfect unity, however they all agreed that a king would be needed. As was to be expected, the Romans wanted a Roman king and the Sabines wanted a Sabine king. The Romans argued that they had already given a share of their land to the Sabines while the Sabines argued that after Tatius’ death they willing submitted to the sole rule of Romulus without objection. To the Sabines, it was their turn to have a king chosen from their own people. While both parties argued over Romulus’ successor, discord fell upon Rome. So it was agreed by the Senate to appoint an Interrx to fill the king’s place until an appropriate replacement could be elected. This Interrex offered up the solemn sacrifices to the gods and dispatched with public business with the position being rotated between the hundred Senators from day to day. This form of government is termed by the Romans as interregnum. However, the people soon grew suspicious of the Senators, believing that the Senators were changing the form of government to an oligarchy, and designing to keep the supreme power in a sort of ward-ship under the Senate, without ever proceeding to choose a king. Under pressure from the people of Rome, both parties finally came to the conclusion that the one should choose a king out of the body of the other: with the Romans making a choice out of the Sabines, or the Sabines naming a Roman, this way the King would owe allegiance to one party for electing him and the other party as his family. Though the Sabines nominated a Roman, the Romans would rather see a Sabine king elected by Romans then a Roman king elected by Sabines. Consultations being accordingly held, they named Numa Pompilius, of the Sabine race, a person of high reputation for excellence, even though he did not actually residing in Rome. When his name was submitted to the Sabines, they rejoiced with greater pleasure than the Romans who nominated him. Once the choice was declared and made known to the people, principal men of both the Romans and Sabines were appointed to visit and entice him so that he would accept the administration of the government of Rome. Numa was around 38 years old when the ambassadors came to make him offers for the kingship. In presence of his father and his son-in-law Marcius he declined the kingship. Numa told the ambassadors that he enjoyed his peaceful life in the country. He said that Romulus had right to hold the office since Romulus was of divine birth, but that he was only a mere mortal. He argued that Romulus and the Romans were warlike people and that he did not possess the traits needed to leader a war like people because he was more a farmer than a soldier. He even went as for to say that he seemed pointless to teach the ways of the gods and give lessons in the love of justice and hatred of war to a city who had greater need for a general than for a king. The ambassadors upon hear Numa’s decline became more urgent with that the people would follow him despite his mortal birth and peaceful nature. They told him that during the confusion of the Interrex, no other person was agreed upon by both the Romans and Sabines. However it was his father and Marcius that persuaded him to accept the kingship as a gift from the gods and not man. Pomponius convinced Numa that hold the office would be a great service to the gods through his qualities of justice and wisdom, to use the kingship to magnify the worship of the gods and introduce habits of piety and mercy to the Romans. Before Numa made his final decision, he took an auspicious from the gods showing divine support for his reign. Even the people of Cures came to him and asked him to accept the kingship of Rome as a means to bring the two races together. Numa, yielding to their plies, acceded the offer for the kingship and proceeded to Rome. While on the road to the city, he was meet not only by the Roman Senate but by all the people of Rome, who, with an impatient desire, came forth to receive him. The crowds welcomed him with joyful acclamations, and sacrifices were offered for him in all the temples, and so universal was the joy, that people seemed to be receiving not a new king, but a new kingdom. In this procession he descended into the future site of the Roman Forum, where Spurius Vettius, whose was the current be Interrex, put Numa before the Senate in a vote. The Senators unanimously elected him King of Rome. Then the robes and symbols of authority were brought to him, but he refused to bear them until he had first consulted and been confirmed by the gods. The priests and augurs accompanied Numa and ascented to the top of the Capitoline Hill. The chief of the augurs covered Numa's head, turned his face towards the south, and, standing behind him, laid his hand on his head and prayed. As he prayed the other augurs watched in expectation of some auspicious signal from the gods. Meanwhile, with what silence and devotion, the people of Rome stood assembled in the forum in similar expectation and suspense, until auspicious birds appeared and passed over head. Then Numa, dawning in his royal robes, descended from the Capitoline to the people, who received him with congratulated, welcoming him as a holy king who was beloved of all the gods.

Reign and Religious Reforms

The first thing Numa did after his entrance into government was to dismiss the Celeres, a band of three hundred men who had served as Romulus' personal guard. He justified this in saying that he would not distrust those who put confidence in him, nor would he rule over a people that distrusted him. He then focused his attention upon the worship of the gods. While Romulus may have founded the augurs, he had even been the greatest augur of all, he did little to honor the gods themselves aside from building a few temples within Rome. Since Romulus had been defied as the god Quirinius, Numa added a special priest dedicated to the serve of him, the Flamen Quirinalis. The Flamen Quirinalis jointed the Flamen Dialis and the Flamen Martialis, chief priests to Jupiter and Mars respectively, to form the Archaic Triad, the three flamines maiores. Granting Romulus recognition as equal along Jupiter and Mars won the favor and affection of the people. He used his new found popularity to begin the task of bringing the hard iron Roman temper of violence and war to one of gentleness and justice. Numa faced a huge challenge for the population saw Rome’s perpetual wars and incursions on its neighbors as a means of growth and substance. As a means to an end, Numa began a huge religious campaign. He sacrificed often and used processions and religious dances, in which most commonly he offered in person, to demonstrate to the Romans how to treat the gods. At times he also filled their imaginations with religious terrors, professing that strange apparitions had been seen, and dreadful voices heard; thus subduing their warmongering and humbling their minds by a sense of supernatural fears. Numa also instituted the original constitution of the priests, called Pontifices, and he himself was the first of them, as Romulus had been with the augurs. The office of Pontifex Maximus, or chief priest, was instituted to serve as the head of the Roman Religion after the King. The Pontifex Maximus was to declare and interpret the divine law, and to preside over sacred rites. He not only prescribed rules for public ceremony, but regulated the sacrifices of private persons, making certain they did not vary from established custom, and giving information to every one of what was requisite for purposes of worship or supplication. He was also placed as the guardian of the Vestal Virgins, the institution of whom, and of their perpetual fire, is attributed to Numa. He even build the Temple of Vesta which still stands today.

The Ancilia and Salii

In the eighth year of the reign of Numa, a terrible pestilence, which traversed all Italy, ravaged the city of Rome. The citizens were in distress and despondent, when (according to legend) a brazen shield fell from heaven into hands of Numa called the Anchilia. It was believed that the shield possessed the cure and instructions for the safety of the city. Numa was instructed to command the Vestal Virgins to use the waters of a spring which was sacred to Vesta to wash and cleanse the Temple of Vesta with its holy waters. After the Vestals had done as Numa had ordered, the pestilence ceased and good health return rapidly. To keep the shield safe, Numa ordered his blacksmiths to make eleven others, so like in dimensions and form to the original that no thief should be able to distinguish the true from the counterfeit. The keeping of these shields was committed to the charge of priests to Mars called Salii. Every March, the Salli carried the sacred shield through the city, during the procession they wear a short purple tunic, a breastplate, a short red cloak, a brass helmet, and a gladius, with which they would clash against the shields. After Numa had instituted these orders of priests, he erected, near the Temple of Vesta, what is called to this day Regia, or king's house, where he spent most of his time performing divine service, instructing the priests, or conversing with them on sacred subjects. In all public processions and solemn prayers, criers were sent before to give notice to the people that they should forbear their work, and rest. Numa wished that his citizens should neither see nor hear any religious service in a perfunctory and inattentive manner, but, laying aside all other occupations, should apply their minds to religion as to a most serious business; and that the streets should be free from all noises and cries that accompany manual labor, and clear for the sacred solemnity.

Administration

Numa next set his eyes on land distribution. It is very clear that it was this king who first prescribed bounds to the territory of Rome. Romulus never placed boundaries on the lands which had had taken from his neighbors because he saw them not as a defense to those who choose to observe them, but only a testimony against the dishonesty of those who break through them. However, the truth is, the portion of lands which the Romans possessed at the beginning was very small, until Romulus enlarged them by war. All of those acquisitions Numa now divided amongst the people of Rome, wishing to turn the people to husbandry, to bring them, as well as their lands, into better order. Numa knew there is no employment that gives so keen and quick a desire for peace as husbandry and a country life which also leaves in men courage that makes them ready to fight in defense of their country. Numa, hoping agriculture would be a sort of charm to captivate the affections of his people to peace, and viewing it rather as a means to moral than to economical profit, divided all the lands into several parcels, to which he gave the name of pagus, or parish, and over every one of them he ordained chief overseers. He even took delight in sometimes inspecting his colonies in person, forming judgment of every man’s habits by his results. But of all his measures the most commended was his distribution of the people by their trades into companies or guilds. By distinguishing the whole people by the several arts and trades, he formed the companies of musicians, goldsmiths, carpenters, dyers, shoemakers, skinners, braziers, and potters; and all other handicraftsmen he composed and reduced into a single company, appointing every one their proper courts, councils, and religious observances. In this manner all factious distinctions ended, the new division became a source of general harmony and intermixture. For the first time no person was thought of as or spoken of as being either a Sabine or a Roman, simply a citizen of Rome. He attempted, also, the formation of a calendar, not with absolute exactness, yet not without some scientific knowledge. During the reign of Romulus, they had let their months run on without any certain or equal term; some of them contained twenty days, others thirty-five, others more; they had no sort of knowledge of the inequality in the motions of the sun and moon; they only kept to the one rule that the whole course of the year contained three hundred and sixty days. Numa, calculating the difference between the lunar and the solar year at eleven days, for that the moon completed her anniversary course in three hundred and fifty-four days, and the sun in three hundred and sixty-five. Numa’s calendar consisted of January (29 days), February (28 days), March (31 days), April (29 days), May (31 days), June (29 days), Quintilis (31 days), Sextilis (29 days), September (29 days), October (31 days), November (29 days), December (29 days). The months Quintilis and Sextilis were later renamed July and August after Julius Caesar and Caesar Augustus, respectively. Numa added the months January and February to the Roman Calender. The Romans, at first, comprehended the whole year within ten, and not twelve months, plainly appears by the name of the last, December, meaning the tenth month and that March was the first is likewise evident, for the fifth month after it was called Quintilis, and the sixth Sextilis, and so on. Though originally following December in sequence, Numa later decreed to begin the year on the month of Janurary, named after the Roman god of doors, Janus. For this Janus was certainly seen a great lover of civil and social unity, and one who reclaimed men from brutal and savage living. For this reason they figure him with two faces, to represent the two states and conditions: one of which he brought mankind out of and the other he lead them into. His temple at Rome has two gates, which they call the Gates of War, because they stand open in the time of war, and shut in the times of peace. During the reign of Numa, those gates were never seen open a single day, but continued constantly shut for a space of forty-three years together, for such an entire and universal cessation of war existed. Numa had not only softened and charmed the people of Rome into a peaceful temper, but even the neighboring cities began to experience a change of feeling, and partook in the general longing for the sweets of peace and order. Festival days and sports, and the secure and peaceful interchange of friendly visits and hospitalities prevailed all through the whole of Italy occurred. Love of virtue and justice flowed from Numa's wisdom to all of Italy. For during the whole reign of Numa, there was neither war, nor sedition, nor innovation in the state, nor any envy or ill-will to his person, nor plot or conspiracy from views of ambition. Either fear of the gods that were thought to watch over him, or reverence for his virtue, or divine felicity of fortune that in his days preserved human innocence, made his reign, by whatever means, a living example of the use of virtue to control and master vice.

Death and Legacy

Numa lived seventy-nine years, and was not taken out of the world by a sudden disease, but died of old age and by a gradual and gentle decline in the year 673 BC. At his funeral all the glories of his life were consummated, when all the neighboring states in alliance and amity with Rome met to honor and grace the rites of his interment with garlands and public presents. The Senators carried the bier on which his corpse was laid, and the priests followed and accompanied the solemn procession while a general crowd, in which women and children took part, followed with such cries and weeping as if they had lost a most dear relation taken away in the prime of life, and not an old and worn-down king. It is said that his body, by his particular command, was not burnt, but that they made, in conformity with his order, two stone coffins, and buried both under the Janiculum Hill, in one of which his body was laid, and the other his sacred books, on which he had written out for himself. Numa was remember as an even great king then has was as the succeeding five kings served as foils to set off the brightness of his reputation. The fifth king after him, Tarquinius Superbus, ended his old age in banishment, being deposed from his crown. Of the other four, three (Ancus Marcius, Tarquinius Priscus, Servius Tullius) were assassinated and murdered by treason. The other, who was Tullus Hostilius, who immediately succeeded Numa, derided his virtues, and especially his devotion to religious worship. Hostilius viewed worship of the gods as a cowardly and mean-spirited occupation, and diverted the minds of the people to war. Aside from Romulus (possibly even surpassing him), no other king was ever seen as deeply devoted to the gods as he.

External links

- [http://classics.mit.edu/Plutarch/numa_pom.html The Life of Numa Pompilius]
- [http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/4/0/3/14033/14033-h/14033-h.htm#LIFE_OF_NUMA Numa Pompilius' life] according to Plutarch on the Project Gutenberg website.
Category:673 BC deaths Category:Ancient Romans Category:Classical oracles

February

February is the second month of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. It is the shortest Gregorian month and the only month with the length of 28 or 29 days. The month has 29 days in leap years, when the year number is divisible by four (except for years that are divisible by 100 and not by 400). In other years the month has 28 days. February begins, astronomically speaking, with the sun in the constellation of Capricornus and ends with the sun in the constellation of Aquarius. Astrologically speaking, February begins with the sun in the sign of Aquarius and ends in the sign of Pisces. February was named for the Roman god Februus, the god of purification. January and February were the last two months to be added to the Roman calendar, since the Romans originally considered winter a monthless period. This change was made by Numa Pompilius about 700 BC in order to bring the calendar in line with a standard lunar year. Numa's Februarius contained 29 days (30 in a leap year). Augustus is alleged to have removed one day from February and added it to August, (renamed from Sextilis to honor himself), so that Julius Caesar's July would not contain more days. However there is little historical evidence to support this claim. July February was nominally the last month of the Roman calendar, as the year originally began in March. At certain intervals Roman priests inserted an intercalary month, Mercedonius, after February to realign the year with the seasons. Historical names for February include the Anglo-Saxon terms Solmoneth (mud month) and Kale-monath (named for cabbage) as well as Charlemagne's designation Hornung. In old Japanese calendar, the month is called Kisaragi (如月, 絹更月 or 衣更月). It is sometimes also called Mumetsuki (梅見月) or Konometsuki (木目月). In Finnish, the month is called helmikuu, meaning "month of the pearl". "February" is pronounced without the first r, as "Febuary", by many speakers. This is probably dissimilation, or an analogical change influenced by "January".

External links

- [http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a2_160.html The Straight Dope: How come February has only 28 days?] Category:Months ko:2월 ms:Februari ja:2月 simple:February th:กุมภาพันธ์

March

---- March is the third month of the year in the Gregorian Calendar and one of seven Gregorian months with the length of 31 days. March begins (astrologically, non-sidereal) with the sun in the sign of Pisces and ends in the sign of Aries. Astronomically speaking, the sun begins in the constellation of Aquarius and ends in the constellation of Pisces. In ancient Rome, March was called Martius, so named after the Roman god of war and was considered a lucky time to begin a war. March was originally the first month of the Roman calendar because the winter months of January and February were unsuited for warfare, the essence of any Italic state. Julius Caesar's calendar reform in 45 BCE began the year on January 1. The tradition of starting the year in March continued in some countries for a long time. January 1 was only instituted as New Year's Day in France in 1564. Great Britain and her colonies continued to use March 25 until 1752, the same year they finally adopted the Gregorian calendar. In ancient Hellenic civilization, March was called Anthesterion. In old Japanese calendar, the month is called Yayoi (弥生). In Finnish, the month is called maaliskuu, of obscure origin. Historical names for March include the Saxon term Lenctmonat, named for the equinox and eventual lengthening of days and the eventual namesake of Lent. The Saxons also called March Rhed-monat (for their goddess Rhedam); ancient Britons called it hyld-monath (meaning loud or stormy). Britons

Events in March

- The equinox named the vernal or spring equinox in the northern hemisphere and the autumnal equinox in the southern hemisphere occurs on dates varying from 19 March to 21 March (in UTC).

External links

- [http://www.astro.uu.nl/~strous/AA/en/antwoorden/seizoenen.html Astronomy Answers article on the seasons] Category:Months ko:3월 ms:Mac ja:3月 simple:March th:มีนาคม

Consul

:For modern diplomatic consuls, see Consulate general. Consul (abbrev. cos.) was the highest elected office of the Roman Republic and an appointive office under the Empire. After the expulsion of Tarquinius Superbus and the ending of the Roman Kingdom, all the powers and authority of the King were given to the newly instituted Consuls. The office of Consul was believed to date back to the traditional establishment of the Republic in 509 BC, although the early history is partly legendary, and the succession of Consuls is not continuous in the 5th century. Consuls executed both religious and military duties; the reading of the auguries was an essential step before leading armies into the field. Under the Republic, the minimum age of election to consul for patricians was 40 years of age, for plebeians 42. Two consuls were elected each year, serving together with veto power over each other's actions. The year of their service was known by their names: for instance, the year commonly called 59 BC was called by the Romans "the consulship of Caesar and Bibulus", since the two colleagues in the consulship were Julius Caesar and Marcus Calpurnius Bibulus (but Caesar dominated the consulship so thoroughly that year that it was jokingly referred to as "the consulship of Julius and Caesar"). In Latin, consules means "those who walk together". If a consul died during his term (not uncommon when consuls were in the forefront of battle), another would be elected, and be known as a suffect consul (cos. suff.). According to tradition, the consulship was initially reserved for patricians; not until 367 BC did the plebeians win the right to stand for office, when the lex Licinia Sextia provided that at least one consul each year should be plebeian. The first plebeian consul, Lucius Sextius, was thereby elected the following year. Modern historians, however, have questioned the traditional account of plebeian emancipation during the Early Republic (see Conflict of the Orders), noting for instance that about thirty per cent of the consuls prior to Sextius had plebeian, not patrician, names. During times of war, the primary criterion for consul was military skill and reputation, but at all times the selection was politically charged. With the passage of time, the consulship became the normal endpoint of the cursus honorum, the sequence of offices pursued by the ambitious Roman. Beginning in the late Republic, after finishing a consular year, a former consul would serve as a Proconsul and become the governor of one of Rome's provinces. When Augustus established the Empire, he changed the nature of the office, stripping it of most of its powers. While still a great honor and a requirement for other offices, many consuls would resign part way through the year to allow other men to finish their term as suffects. Those who held the office on January 1, known as the consules ordinarii, had the honor of associating their names with that year. As a result, about half of the men who held the rank of praetor could also reach the consulship. Sometimes these suffect consuls would in turn resign, and another suffect would be appointed. This reached its extreme under Commodus, when in AD 190 twenty-five men held the consulship. Under the Empire, Emperors frequently appointed themselves, protégés, or relatives without regard to the age requirements. For example, Emperor Honorius was given the consulship at birth. Holding the consulship was apparently such an honor that the break-away Gallic Empire had its own pairs of consuls during its existence (260–274). The list of consuls for this state is incomplete, drawn from inscriptions and coins. One of the reforms of Constantine I was to assign one of the consuls to the city of Rome, and the other to Constantinople. Therefore, when the Roman Empire was divided into two halves on the death of Theodosius I, the emperor of each half acquired the right of appointing one of the consuls— although one emperor did allow his colleague to appoint both consuls for various reasons. As a result, after the formal end of the Roman Empire in the West, many years would be named for only a single consul. This rank was finally allowed to lapse in the reign of Justinian I: first with the consul of Rome in 534, Decius Paulinus, then the consul of Constantinople in 541, Flavius Basilius Junior. For a complete list of Roman consuls, see:
- List of Republican Roman Consuls (before 33 BC)
- List of early imperial Roman consuls (33 BC‑AD 192)
- List of late imperial Roman consuls (after AD 192)

French consuls

In 1799, revolutionary France enacted a constitution that conferred supreme executive powers upon three officials that bore the title "consul". In reality, however, the state was de facto under control of the First Consul, Napoleon Bonaparte. Originally the consuls were to hold office for a period of ten years, although in 1802 Bonaparte was declared First Consul for life (lifetime consulate was introduced for Second and Third Consuls as well). The French consulate ceased to exist when Bonaparte was declared Emperor of the French in 1804.

New Year's Day

:This article is about January 1 in the Gregorian calendar. For all other New Year celebrations, see New Year. :For information on the movie, "New Year's Day", see New Year's Day (film). New Year's Day is the first day of the year, in the Gregorian calendar. In modern times, it is January 1. In most countries, it is a holiday. It is still celebrated as a holy day on January 14 by those who still follow the Julian calendar such as followers of some of the Eastern Orthodox churches known as Old Calendarists.

Modern practices

January 1 marks the end of a period of remembrance of the passing year, especially on radio, television, and in newspapers, which usually starts right after Christmas Day. Publications often have year-end articles that review the changes during the past year. Common topics include politics, natural disasters, music and the arts, and the listing of significant individuals who died during the past year. Often there are also articles on planned or expected changes in the coming year, such as the description of new laws that often take effect on January 1. This day is traditionally a religious feast, but since the 1900s, has become an occasion for celebration on the night between December 31 and January 1, called New Year's Eve. There are often fireworks at midnight. Depending on the country, individuals may be allowed to burn fireworks, even if it is forbidden the rest of the year. It is also an occasion to make New Year res