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Anniversaries of Pompey's birth day and death day were a little over a month ago. Since then there has been a lackadaisical discussion of how likely it was that they would coincide and whether the death day was one day earlier than the birthday.
The discussion has been on Twitter and in the Ancient/Classical History Forum. Somebody has probably done a definitive study, but so far it has been more interesting to theorize and quote from English translations of Velleius Paterculus or Plutarch. The English public domain translation of the Roman historian says Pompey died on the eve of his birthday. This made me wonder if the Greek would have seen it the same way or whether the Romans started their days roughly the way we do, so the evening comes after the afternoon rather than being at the beginning of the new day.
If by evening is meant the start of the new day then for us (but not necessarily for Pompey's biographers) the birthday and death day probably don't coincide, but if Velleius Paterculus was saying that Pompey was killed on the evening of his birthday and evening is the end part of the day, then birth and death coincided. That is, of course, leaving aside the question of whether Paterculus knew. As I said, I imagine this has been done to tears by scholars who are spinning in their All Hallows Eve(ning) graves right now furious that I haven't even tried to JSTOR them. Similarly, they would be outraged that I am now wondering whether New Year's Eve was always the day before New Year's day and whether the birth of Jesus always happened the night before his birthday.
This weekend hosts another example of the problem we have with calendars. I wonder whether my DS and DH know which bus schedule to follow tonight. (Why is only half of tonight part of today?) Presumably they'll be catching one of the latest buses, but since Daylight Savings Time either begins or ends tonight (really, tomorrow morning at 1 a.m.), there is an extra hour. If they figure they'll catch the 1:30 a.m. bus, will it be there?
Pompey photo CC Flickr User Jens Vermeersch
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2 comments:
I think the debate rages on a little even with scholars. There's some consensus for the day before his birthday, but it can always be questioned.
I thought it was a tad more than lackadaisical in the forum though. Such contempt for those that post on your forum!? ;-)
As one of the active participants in the forum discussion, I feel lazy not searching or at least verifying the original language; hence, lackadaisical.
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