I. A “day” is the lapse of time spanning sunrise to the next consecutive sunrise.
II. A “day” is the lapse of time spanning sunset to the next consecutive sunset.
III. In the years after the fall of Sumer[i], Babylonian astronomers recorded on clay tablets their observations of the planet Venus.
IV. The sexagesimal system of measurement for degrees, minutes, seconds, etc. was invented by the Babylonians.
V. The “zodiac” is the imaginary band in the heavens that marks the path of the movement of the five planets, the sun and the moon.
VI. Anaximander of Miletus[ii] taught that the earth had the form of a short cylinder whose depth was one-third of its breadth.
VII. Pythagoras of Samos is said to have taught that the earth had a spherical form.
VIII. The city of Athens condemned Anaxagoras of Clazomenae[iii] for teaching that the sun and the stars were hot fiery stones.
IX. In the days of the promulgation of the Law of the Twelve Tables[iv], the Roman year counted 10 months totalling 304 days.
X. Heraclides of Pontus, a pupil of Plato, taught that the planets Mercury and Venus revolved around the sun.
XI. Callisthenes, Aristotle’s nephew, discovered that the duration of the cycle of lunar eclipses is 299 lunar months.
XII. At the time of the conquest of Alexander, Egypt was using a solar year counting twelve months and 355 days.
XIII. Julius Caesar’s reform of the Roman calendar was based on the work of the Egyptian astronomer Sosigenes.
XIV. Julius Caesar reformed the Roman calendar the year before his death by adding the months of January and February for a total of 12 months counting 361 days in the year.
XV. In the days of Antony and Cleopatra, the month of February in the Roman calendar counted 29 days in ordinary years, 30 days in leap years.
[i] Circa 1950 B.C.
[ii] Circa 611 – 546 B.C.
[iii] Circa 500 - 430 B.C.
[iv] Circa 450 B.C.
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