DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.9804#0248
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APPENDIX A
In 1460 full solar years—that is, in 1461 of its own
reckoning—it had gone back a complete cycle, and
coincided once more with the rising of Sirius.
The " first of Thoth," then, of any given year tells us
little by itself. What sort of " first of Thoth " was it ?
One that fell in our November, or our April ? The only
hope of identifying it is to find out in what year the
calendar is supposed to begin, and to calculate from that
basis. Here fortunately we have information. Cen-
sorinus, a Latin writer of the third century a.d., among
the curiosities of the calendar that he dedicated to his
patron Cerellius on his birthday,1 gives us the theory of
the Egyptian year, and bases his calculations on the day
of the Roman calendar on which the first of Thoth fell
in the consul-dated year in which he is himself writing.
By his help we can establish the beginning of the Egyptian
cycle. To take Meyer's dates, for simplicity, we sec that
by a.d. 140 the Calendar had come round full circle,
and New Year's Day coincided once more with the
rising of Sirius. Similar cycles had therefore begun at
intervals of 1460 years before a.d. 140—that is, at 1321
b.C., 2781 b.C., 4241 b.C. Meyer makes the latter date the
beginning of the Calendar, the first fixed date in history.
In that year, he calculates,2 Sirius rose on the 15th of
June of the true seasonal Gregorian year. Its rising must
have thus exactly coincided with the traditional beginning
of the inundation. The Festival of " The Night of the
Drop," is at the present time observed in Egypt on the
17th of June.' As will be seen later, the Sothic year is
practically equivalent to the Julian year, but longer than
the Gregorian. In the immediately earlier or later cycles,
therefore, Sirius rose at the beginning or the end of the
1 De die natali liber (cd. Cholodniak, 1889), chap. xxi. 6 and
10, and xviii. 10.
2 A.P.A. 1904, p. 43.
3 Budge, The Nile (Cook, 1901), p. 01 : Baedeker's Egypt
(Eng. ed. 1902), p. lxxvii; Murray's Egypt (1900), p. 39.
APPENDIX A
In 1460 full solar years—that is, in 1461 of its own
reckoning—it had gone back a complete cycle, and
coincided once more with the rising of Sirius.
The " first of Thoth," then, of any given year tells us
little by itself. What sort of " first of Thoth " was it ?
One that fell in our November, or our April ? The only
hope of identifying it is to find out in what year the
calendar is supposed to begin, and to calculate from that
basis. Here fortunately we have information. Cen-
sorinus, a Latin writer of the third century a.d., among
the curiosities of the calendar that he dedicated to his
patron Cerellius on his birthday,1 gives us the theory of
the Egyptian year, and bases his calculations on the day
of the Roman calendar on which the first of Thoth fell
in the consul-dated year in which he is himself writing.
By his help we can establish the beginning of the Egyptian
cycle. To take Meyer's dates, for simplicity, we sec that
by a.d. 140 the Calendar had come round full circle,
and New Year's Day coincided once more with the
rising of Sirius. Similar cycles had therefore begun at
intervals of 1460 years before a.d. 140—that is, at 1321
b.C., 2781 b.C., 4241 b.C. Meyer makes the latter date the
beginning of the Calendar, the first fixed date in history.
In that year, he calculates,2 Sirius rose on the 15th of
June of the true seasonal Gregorian year. Its rising must
have thus exactly coincided with the traditional beginning
of the inundation. The Festival of " The Night of the
Drop," is at the present time observed in Egypt on the
17th of June.' As will be seen later, the Sothic year is
practically equivalent to the Julian year, but longer than
the Gregorian. In the immediately earlier or later cycles,
therefore, Sirius rose at the beginning or the end of the
1 De die natali liber (cd. Cholodniak, 1889), chap. xxi. 6 and
10, and xviii. 10.
2 A.P.A. 1904, p. 43.
3 Budge, The Nile (Cook, 1901), p. 01 : Baedeker's Egypt
(Eng. ed. 1902), p. lxxvii; Murray's Egypt (1900), p. 39.