The Julian Calendar

The Julian Calendar was introduced by Julius Caesar in 45 BCE to replace the Roman lunar calendar. It consists of 12 months and a year lasting 365 days, with an extra day added every four years to account for the leap year, totaling 366 days. This system aimed to align the calendar with the seasons. However, it miscalculated the solar year by about 11 minutes, leading to a gradual drift over centuries. The Julian Calendar was used widely until it was replaced by the more accurate Gregorian Calendar in 1582, which corrected this drift by modifying the leap year rules.