Discussing the Roman calendar and learning how to express
the date in Classical Latin is a whole topic in itself! It will be covered
later, but in the next couple of posts we will look at the Latin equivalent of
the way the date would be expressed now. That’s useful when, for example,
you’re describing your routine so you can say on what day(s) you do certain
activities. Furthermore, in the post-Classical period, one way of expressing
the date is similar to our own.
After the legalisation of Christianity by Emperor
Constantine, the seven days of the week were given official Latin names.
diēs Sōlis = the day of the Sun = Sunday
diēs Lūnae = the day of the Moon = Monday
diēs Mārtis = the day of Mars = Tuesday
diēs Mercuriī = the day of Mercury = Wednesday
diēs Iovis = the day of Jupiter = Thursday
diēs Veneris = the day of Venus = Friday
diēs Saturnī = the day of Saturn = Saturday
What you have there is diēs (day) + the
gentitive singular of the following noun:
Mārs, Mārtis [3/m] > diēs ¦ Mārtis i.e. the day ¦ of Mars
= Tuesday
Mārs, Mārtis [3/m]: Mars
Mercurius, -ī [2/m]: Mercury
Iuppiter, Iovis [3/m]: Jupiter [note the
unusual genitive]
Venus, Veneris [3/f]: Venus
Sāturnus, -ī [2/m]: Saturn
In Late Latin from the time of Christianity, diēs
Sāturnī and diēs Sōlis were replaced:
diēs Sāturnī > diēs Sabbatī: ‘the day of the Sabbath’
i.e. Saturday
diēs Sōlis > diēs Dominicus or diēs Dominica: ‘the day of
the Lord’ i.e. Sunday; diēs may be masculine or feminine, hence the use of
either Dominicus or Dominica because, unlike all the
other words expressing the days of the week, dominicus is an
adjective.
To say on a certain day, the ablative of
time when is used:
diēs (day) > diē; note: diēs is
from a declension that we’ve not looked at yet and so just be able to use the
word in this context and recognise it elsewhere:
diēs: day
> Quō diē? On what day?
> Quibus diēbus? On what days?
diēs Sāturnī: Saturday
> diē Sāturnī: on the day
¦ of Saturn = on Saturday
diēs Veneris: Friday
> diē Veneris: on Friday
Note: diēs Dominicus [adjective] / Dominica [adjective] >
diē Dominicō or diē Dominicā [adjective
agreeing with diē]: on Sunday
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