The Calendar and the Heavens

This chapter surveys the structure of the republican calendar and the ways that it was tied to actions. It also seeks to establish its relationship with various celestial phenomena, which has often been contested; this link will prove to be highly abstract, which was sometimes the case with other ancient calendars. The lack of an obvious tie between the calendar and the heavens has also obscured the degree to which Roman practice sought to link public and cultic activities to a range of abstract models of the celestial order, each of which was attached to a different priestly college.