Annals are a history of events in chronological order, each event being recorded under the year in which it occurred. The name is derived from the first annual records of the Romans, which were called annales pontificum or annales maximi, drawn up by the pontifex maximus (chief pontiff). The practice of keeping such annals was afterwards adopted also by various private individuals, as by Fabius Pictor, Calpurnius Piso, and others. The name hence came to be applied in later times to historical works in which the matter was treated with special reference to chronological arrangement, as to the Annals of Tacitus. Research Annals
A calendar (named from the Latin calendarium, from calendce, the first day of the month), is a record or marking out of time as systematically divided into years, months, weeks, and days.
The periodical occurrence of certain natural phenomena gave rise to the first division of time, the division into weeks being the only purely arbitrary partition. The year of the ancient Egyptians was based on the changes of the seasons alone, without reference to the lunar month, and contained 365 days divided into twelve months of thirty days each, with five supplementary days at the end of the year.
The Jewish year consisted of lunar months of which they reckoned twelve in the year, intercalating a thirteenth when necessary to maintain the correspondence of the particular months with the regular recurrence of the seasons.
The Greeks in the earliest period also reckoned by lunar and intercalary months, but after one or two changes adopted the plan of Meton and Euctemon, who took account of the fact that in a period of nineteen years, the new moons return upon the same days of the year as before. This period of nineteen years was found, however, to be about six hours too long, and subsequent calculators still failed to make the beginning of the seasons return on the same fixed day of the year. Each month was divided into three decads.
The Romans at first divided the year into ten months, but they early adopted the Greek method of lunar and intercalary months, making the lunar year consist of 354, and afterwards of 355 days, leaving ten or eleven days and a fraction to be supplied by the intercalary division. This arrangement continued until the time of Julius Caesar. The first day of the month was called the calends. In March, May, July, and October the 15th, in other months the 13th, was called the ides. The ninth day before the ides (reckoning inclusive) was called the nones, being therefore either the 7th or the 5th of the month. From the inaccuracy of the Roman method of reckoning the calendar came to represent the vernalequinox nearly two months after the event, and at the request of Julius Caesar, the Greek astronomer Sosigenes with the assistance of Marcus Fabius, contrived the so-called Julian calendar. The chief improvement consisted in restoring the equinox to its proper place by inserting two months between November and December, so that the year 707 (46 BC), called the year of confusion, contained fourteen months.
In the number of days the Greek computation was adopted, which made it 365.25. To dispose of the quarter of a day it was determined to intercalate a day every fourth year between the 23rd and 24th of February. This calendar continued in use among the Romans until the fall of the empire, and throughout Christendom until 1582.
By this time, owing to the cumulative error of eleven minutes, the vernalequinox really took place ten days earlier than its date in the calendar, and accordingly PopeGregory XIII issued a brief abolishing the Julian calendar in all Catholic countries, and introducing in its stead the one now in use, the Gregorian or reformed calendar. In this way began the new style, as opposed to the other or old style. Ten days were to be dropped; every hundredth year, which by the old style was to have been a leap year, was now to be a common year, the fourth excepted; and the length of the solar year was taken to be 365 days, five hours, forty-nine minutes, and twelve seconds, the difference between which and subsequent observations is immaterial. The new calendar was adopted in Spain, Portugal, and France in 1582; in Catholic Switzerland, Germany and the Netherlands in 1583; in Poland in 1586; in Hungary in 1587; in ProtestantGermany, Holland, and Denmark in 1700; in Switzerland in 1701; in England in 1752; and in Sweden, 1753.
In the English calendar of 1752, also, the 1st of January was now adopted as the beginning of the legal year, and it was customary for some time to give two dates for the period intervening between 1st January and 25th March, that of the old and that of the new year, as January 1752/3. Russia alone retained the old style, which by 1906 differed twelve days from the new.
In France, during the revolution, a new calendar was introduced by a decree of the rational Convention, on November the 24th, 1793. The time from which the new reckoning was to commence was the autumnal equinox of 1792, which fell upon the 22nd of September, when the first decree of the new republic had been promulgated. The year was made to consist of twelve months of three decades each, and, to complete the full number, five fete days, or sansculotides (in leap years six) were added to the end of the year. The seasons and months were as follows: Autumn; 22nd September to 22nd December Vendimiaire, vintage month; Brumaire, foggy month; Frimaire, sleet month. Winter; 22nd December to 22nd March: Nivose, snowy month; Plumose, rainy month; Ventose, windy month. Spring; 22nd March to 22nd June: Germinal, budmonth; Floreal, flowermonth; Prairial, meadowmonth. Summer; 22nd June to 22nd Sept.: Messidor, harvest month; Thermidor, hot month; Fructidor, fruit month. The common Christian or Gregorian calendar was re-established in France on the 1st of January, 1806, by Napoleon. Research Calendar
The Fabian Society is a socialist association founded in London in 1883 which aims at the reorganisation of society by the emancipation of land and capital from individual and class ownership, and the vesting of them in the community for the general benefit. This result to be attained, not by any violent upheaval, but by the slow process of educating the minds of the masses (hence the name, from the famous ancient Roman, Q. Fabius Cunctator, 'slow but sure'). The society has branches in Great Britain, the colonies, and America, and has issued a number of publications. Research Fabian Society
Albrecht von Haller was a Swiss physician and physiologist. He was born in 1708 at Bern and died in 1777. He studied medicine at Tubingen, and afterwards at Leyden under the famous Boerhaave. He became a public lecturer on anatomy at Bern, and afterwards physician to the hospital and principal librarian. In 1736 he was made professor of anatomy and surgery in the University of Gottingen. In 1747 his Primae Lineae Physiologiae appeared, and in 1757 his Elementa Physiologiae Corporis Humani. Amongst his other works are: Icones Anatomicae (1743), Bibliotheca Botanica (1771), Bibliotheca Anatomica (1774), .Bibliotheca Chirurgica (1774), Bibliotheca Medicinae Practicae (1776). He was ennobled by the Emperor Francis I, and became chief magistrate of Bern, to which he had retired in 1753. Albrecht von Haller had a considerable reputation as a poet. He also wrote three philosophical romances, Usong, Alfred the Great, and Fabius and Cato. Research Albrecht von Haller
Hannibal or Annibal was a Carthaginian leader. He was born in 247 BC and died in 183 BC after taking poison to avoid capture by the Romans. He was the son of Hamilcar Barca, also a general and leader of the popular party amongst the Carthaginians. He was just nine years old when his father made him swear at the altar eternal hatred to the Romans. He grew up in hia father's camp in Spain, but returned to Carthage when his father fell in battle, in 229 BC.
At the age of twenty-two he returned to the army in Spain, then commanded by his brother-in-law Hasdrubal, and three years after, on the murder of Hasdrubal, received the chief command by acclamation. Hannibal now prepared to carry out his great designs against Rome.
His siege and capture of Saguntum, a city in alliance with Rome, led to a declaration of war from the Romans, who made preparations to carry on the war in Spain. But Hannibal, judging that Rome could be overthrown only in Italy, undertook his great march on Rome across the Pyrenees, the Rhone, and the Alps. He set out with 90,000 foot-soldiers, 40 elephants, and 12,000 horsemen. When he readied the northern foot of the Alps he still had 50,000 foot-soldiers, 9000 horse, and 37 elephants. When he arrived at the southern foot, after 15 days of incredible toils, his force had diminished to 20,000 foot-soldiers and 6000 horse. The point at which he crossed is generally believed to have been the Little St Bernard.
On the banks of the Ticino he first encountered a Roman army under Publius Scipio, and defeated it mainly by the superiority of his Numidian cavalry, 218 BC. Shortly after another Roman army, under Sempronius, was totally routed on the Trebia. After wintering in Cisalpine Gaul, Hannibal opened next year's campaign in 217 by defeating the Roman general Flaminius, whom he enticed into an ambush at Lake Thrasymenus. In this battle half the Roman army died, and the rest were taken prisoner.
Hannibal now marched into Apulia, spreading terror wherever he approached. Rome, in consternation, proclaimed Fabius Maximus dictator, who sagaciously resolved to hazard no more open battles, but exhaust the strength of the Carthaginians by delay. But for some time the wisdom of this policy was not understood by his countrymen, who, dissatisfied with his inactivity, appointed Minutius Felix his colleague. The result was that the latter was drawn into a battle by Hannibal, and would have died but for the aid of Fabius. After this the Roman generals avoided engagements, and Hannibal at this critical period saw his army wasting away in inactivity.
Next year, 216, however, the rashness of the new consul Terentius Varro gave Hannibal the last of his great victories. The battle was fought at Cannae, the Romans under Aemilius Paulus and Terentius Varro numbering more than 80,000 men, the Carthaginians about 50,000, and ended in a total defeat of the Romans, 40,000 or 50,000 of whom were killed and the rest scattered. Instead of marching on Rome, Hannibal now sought quarters in Capua, where luxurious living undermined the discipline and health of his troops.
The campaigns of 215, 214, and 213 were comparatively unimportant. While Hannibal was seizingTarentum in 212, Capua was invested by two Roman armies. To relieve Capua Hannibal marched on Rome, and actually appeared before its gates in 211, but the diversion remained fruitless, and Capua fell. In 207 a reinforcement tardily sent by the Carthaginians to Hannibal, under command of his brother Hasdrubal, was intercepted by the Romans and destroyed at the Metaurus. Hannibal now retired to Bruttium (the toe of Italy), where he still maintained the contest against overwhelming odds, until, in 203, he was recalled to defend his country, invaded by Scipio.
In Africa he was defeated by the Romans at Zama in 202 BC and the second Punic war ended, after a bloody contest of eighteen years, in Carthage having to accept the most humiliating conditions of peace. Hannibal now devoted himself as civil magistrate to restoring the resources of Carthage, and was working at reforms of administration and finance when the jealous Romans sent ambassadors to demand his surrender. He fled to the court of Antiochus of Syria, and offered his services for the war then commencing against the Romans. They were accepted, but Hannibal's advice for the conduct of the war was not followed, and he himself as commander of the Syrian fleet failed in an expedition against the Rhodians. In 190 BC Antiochus was forced to conclude a disgraceful peace with the Romans, one of the terms of which was that Hannibal should be delivered up. Hannibal, again obliged to flee, took refuge with Prusias, king of Bithynia, and is said to have gained several victories for Prusias against Eumenes, king of Pergamus, an ally of the Romans. But the Roman senate once more sent to demand the surrender of their inveterate enemy, and Hannibal, finding that Prusias could not protect him, took poison rather than fall into the hands of the Romans. Research Hannibal
Marcus Porcius Cato (Cato the Censor) was a Roman soldier. He was born in 234 BC at Tusculum and died in 149 BC. He inherited from his father, a plebeian, a small estate in the territory of the Sabines, which he cultivated with his own hands. He served his first campaign, at the age of seventeen, under Fabius Maximus, was present at the siege of Capua in 214 BC; and five years after fought under the same commander at the siege of Tarentum.
After the war was ended he returned to his farm, but by the advice of Valerius Flaccus removed to Rome, where his forensic abilities had free scope. He rose rapidly, accompanied Scipio to Sicily as quaestor in 204 BC, became an aedile in 199, and in 198 was chosen praetor, and appointed to the province of Sardinia. Three years later he gained the consulship, and in 194 for his brilliant campaign in Spain obtained the honour of a triumph. In 191 he served as military tribune against Antiochus, and then, having abundantly proved his soldierly qualities, returned to Rome.
For some years he exercised a practical censorship, scrutinizing the characters of candidates for office, and denouncing false claims, peculations, etc. His election to the censorship in 184 set an official seal to his efforts, the unsparing severity of which has made his name proverbial. From that year until his death, in 149, he held no public office, though zealously continuing his unofficial labours for the state. His hostility to Carthage, the destruction of which he advocated in every speech made by him in the forum, was the most striking feature of his closing years. His incessant Delenda est Carthago (Carthage must be destroyed) did much to further the third Punic war. Of his works his De Re Rusfcica (On Rural Economy) alone survives, though there exist in quotation fragments of his history and speeches.
Marrcus Porcius Cato (Cato of Utica) was a Roman reformer. He was born in 95 BC and died in 46 BC. He formed an intimacy with the StoicAntipater of Tyre, and ever remained true to the principles of the Stoic philosophy. He distinguished himself as a volunteer in the war against Spartacus, served as military tribune in Macedonia in 67 BC, was made quaestor in 65 BC.
His rigorous reforms won him general respect, and in 63 BC he was chosen tribune of the people. During the troubles with CatilineCato gave Marcus Cicero important aid both by his eloquence and sagacity, and at the same time set himself to thwart the ambitious projects of Pompey, Caesar, and Marcus Crassus. Such success as he had, however, was only temporary, and he failed to prevent the formation of the triumvirate. To get rid of him they sent him to take possession of Cyprus, but, having successfully accomplished his mission, he returned, opposed the Tribonian law for conferring extraordinary powers on the triumvirs, and in 54 BC enforced, as praetor, an obnoxious law against bribery.
On the breach between Pompey and Caesar he threw in his lot with Pompey, and guarded the stores at Dyrrhachium, while Pompey pushed on to Pharsalia. After receiving news of Pompey's defeat he sailed to Cyrene and effected a junction with Metellus Scipio at TJtica, in 47 BC. He took command of that city, but its defence appearing hopeless after the defeat of Scipio at Thapsus, he determined on suicide, and after spending some time in the perusal of the Phaedo of Plato, stabbed himself with his sword. His wounds were bound up by his attendants, but he tore off the bandages and died. Research Marcus Cato
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