Who moved New Year's Day?

Sources

Sources

• Livy, Periochae 47; the Fasti Praenestini (1 January); Censorinus, De die natali 20-22; Macrobius, Saturnalia 1.12-14; Suetonius, Julius 40; Pliny, Natural History 18.211; Cicero, Letters to Atticus 5.9 and 5.21; Ovid, Fasti 1; Plutarch, Numa 18-19; the Canopus Decree (238 BC); Pope Gregory XIII's bull Inter gravissimas (1582) and Christopher Clavius's edition of the Gregorian calendar (1603); the Calendar (New Style) Act 1750; the London Gazette no. 9198 (September 1752); Robert Poole, "Give us our eleven days!", Past & Present 149 (1995), and Time's Alteration (1998); John Jeffrey-Cook, "Year beginning 6 April", Taxation (2001).

Pictures

• Roman calendars in paint and stone (the Fasti Antiates, Praenestini, Capitolini, Maffeiani and Amiternini, the Menologium Rusticum), coins, reliefs, mosaics and the Ara Pacis; the Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry; manuscripts of Ovid, Macrobius, Cicero and Sacrobosco; paintings by Rubens, Ingres, Giani, Maccari, Mantegna, Gérôme, Botticelli, Carpaccio, Piero della Francesca, Bellini, Fra Angelico, Van Eyck, Lavinia Fontana, Clouet, Ramsay, Hudson, Canaletto and Sandby; prints by Winslow Homer, Piranesi, Cellarius, Trouvelot, Apian, Cassini, Hollar, Pine, Maurer, Raimbach and Hogarth (An Election Entertainment); the Siena Biccherna panel of the calendar commission; the Pragmática de los diez días (1584); the London Gazette (1752); Lintott's sketch of the Winter Palace (1917) and the Soviet calendar decree (1918).

Credits (via Wikimedia Commons)

• Caesar's denarius by The Other 95% (CC BY-SA 4.0); Roman sundials by Zde (CC BY-SA 4.0) and Kergeo (CC BY-SA 2.0); the Canopus Decree by DiverDave (CC BY-SA 4.0); the Menologium Rusticum by Accurimbono (CC BY-SA 4.0); the Fasti Antiates replica in Zaragoza by Bauglir (CC BY-SA 4.0); the Fasti Antiates and Praenestini and the Ara Pacis by Amphipolis (CC BY-SA 2.0); the Ara Pacis south frieze by Lucas, ancientartpodcast (CC BY 2.0); the Augustus of Prima Porta by Pablordas (CC BY-SA 4.0); the Divus Iulius coin by James St. John (CC BY 2.0); Sacrobosco and the de Laune deeds, Wellcome Collection (CC BY 4.0); Botticelli's Augustine by Armin Kleiner (CC BY-SA 4.0); the Pompeii banquet by Tyler Bell (CC BY 2.0); the Bardo banquet mosaic by Sinda BF (CC BY-SA 4.0); the Celtiberian blade by Dorieo (CC BY-SA 4.0); the Capitoline Mars by Jean-Pol Grandmont (CC BY 3.0); Janus and Brutus coins by Johny SYSEL (CC BY 4.0); the Janus as by cgb.fr (CC BY-SA 3.0); Nero's sestertius, the New Year lamp, the Togatus Barberini, the Ara Pacis procession and the grape harvest mosaic by Carole Raddato (CC BY-SA 2.0); the Ovid manuscript and the Biccherna panel by Sailko (CC BY 3.0); the Fasti Capitolini and Cicero by José Luiz (CC BY-SA 4.0); Numantia by Wamba Wambez (CC BY-SA 3.0); the Celtiberian shield by Luis García (CC BY-SA 3.0); the helmet from Spain by Artistosteles (CC BY-SA 4.0); the lictors relief by Following Hadrian (CC BY-SA 2.0); the Neumagen relief by shakko (CC BY-SA 4.0); the Metz stele by Fab5669 (CC BY-SA 3.0); the Santa Costanza mosaics by bradhostetler (CC BY-SA 2.0); the San Petronio meridian by CEphoto, Uwe Aranas (CC BY-SA 3.0); the Ravenna Easter calendar by Apatak (CC BY-SA 4.0); the Anastasius diptych by Marie-Lan Nguyen (CC BY 2.5).