“March was not the third month. It was the first. For most of Roman history, the year began when the war god's month thawed the ground enough to march an army.”
Mars was the Roman god of war, and Mārtius was his month. In the oldest Roman calendar — the one attributed to Romulus — the year had ten months and began on March 1. The logic was agricultural and military: winter was useless for farming and fighting, so the year started when both could resume. March was when the legions mobilized.
The connection between Mars and March was not abstract. The Salii, Mars's dancing priests, performed rituals every March 1, carrying sacred shields through Rome and chanting war hymns so old that by Cicero's time no one could fully translate them. March was when new consuls originally took office, when campaigns were planned, and when the sacred fire in the Temple of Vesta was rekindled.
In 153 BCE, Rome moved the start of the consular year to January 1. The shift was pragmatic — a military emergency in Spain required earlier deployment. But March lost its status as the first month permanently. The downstream effect still haunts us: September through December carry numerical prefixes meaning seven through ten, even though they are now months nine through twelve.
English took March from Old French marche, which came directly from Latin. The month that once meant 'the year begins, the armies march' now means 'winter is almost over.' The war god would be disappointed.
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Today
In the Northern Hemisphere, March is still the month when things start. School sports seasons, spring cleaning, daylight saving time, the fiscal year in many countries. The instinct the Romans codified — that the year really begins when the ground softens — has never fully gone away.
The war god's name is on every calendar in the Western world. Nobody thinks of him when they flip the page. Mars has been demoted from deity to label, his month from first to third. But the off-by-two error he left behind in September, October, November, and December is his permanent mark on how we count time.
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