~ 34 ~
Another doubtful item belongs to a considerably earlier date. This is the fragment of a calendar which experts consider to belong to a few years before or after our era[1]. I have already stated that Roman calendars marked the periodical recurrence of the nundinae or market days on every eighth day by the letters a to h. This calendar is an exception or rather a partial exception, for the days are marked from a to h in one column, but a to g in another. Here undoubtedly we have a seven-day week and it may quite possibly be the planetary week, though no planetary names are attached. But there are other possibilities. I do not think we can altogether rule out the suggestion that since this fragment was found in Sabine territory, the second column marks a local variety of the 'nundinatio' by which these market-days were held every seventh instead of every eighth day[2]. That local needs might make such a variation desirable is prima facie possible enough. Again it is possible that it was intended for Jews. For the presence and influence of the Jews in Italy in the time of Augustus is certainly quite as marked as the influence of the astrologers[3].
- ↑ V. Schürer, p. 26.
- ↑ This view is adopted by Marquardt, loc. cit. (v. p. 3).
- ↑ Another probable employment of the seven-day week for calendar purposes, in the first century A.D. (this time with almost certainly the planetary names in week-order), appears in a fragment, which seems intended to mark the market-days in various towns of central Italy. A representation and
