Note 8 — INTRODUCTION

Or, according to Mommsen, in alternate years after the 23rd and 24th, i. e. in the year of 378 days 23 days were inserted after the Terminalia; in the year of 377 days 22 days were inserted after the 24th (Regifugium). Thus February would in the one case have 23, and in the other 24 days; the remaining 5 and 4 being added to the intercalated period. The object of the Decemvirs (if it was they who made this change) in this curious arrangement was, in part at least, to keep the festival of the god Terminus on its original day (Mommsen, Chron. 38). Terminus would budge neither from his seat on the Capitol (Liv. 1. 55) nor from his place in the calendar.