Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition/August

AUGUST, originally Sextilis, as being the sixth month in the pre-Julian Roman year, received its present name from the Emperor Augustus. The preceding month, Quintilis, had been called July after the great Julius Cæsar, and the senate thought to propitiate the emperor by conferring a similar honour upon him. August was selected, not as being the natal month of Augustus, but because in it his greatest good fortune had happened to him. In that month he had been admitted to the consulate, had thrice celebrated a triumph, had received the allegiance of the soldiers stationed on the Janiculum, had concluded the civil wars, and had subdued Egypt. As July contained thirty-one days, and August only thirty, it was thought necessary to add another day to the latter month, in order that Augustus might not be in any respect inferior to Julius.