Learn the Italian Calendar Months

Learn the Italian Calendar Months You want to tell your language partner when you’re going to Italy for a vacation, and that’s when you realize you’re not sure how to say you’re arriving in May and leaving in July. What were the vocabulary words for those months again? In case you need a quick review or are learning these months for the first time, here is a list of the months to help you use them in daily conversation along with example sentences and cocktail party facts. I Mesi - The Months January - gennaioFebruary - febbraioMarch - marzoApril - aprileMay - maggioJune - giugnoJuly - luglioAugust - agostoSeptember - settembreOctober - ottobreNovember - novembreDecember - dicembre Cocktail party fact: Notice that the first letter of the month isn’t capitalized in Italian. In case you were wondering, the days of the week  and the seasons aren’t capitalized either. Some Examples Vado in Italia a maggio per tre mesi. - I’m going to Italy in May for three months.Parto per l’Italia a luglio. - I’m leaving for Italy in July.L’anno scorso sono stato in Italia da settembre a dicembre. - Last year I was in Italy from September to December.Il mio migliore amico abita in Italia sei mesi all’anno da gennaio a giugno. - My best friend lives in Italy for six months of the year from January to June.Il mio compleanno à ¨ il diciotto di aprile, quindi il mio segno zodiacale à ¨ l’ariete. - My birthday is April 18, so my zodiac sign is Aries.La festa sar a marzo. - The party will be in March.Vorrei andare in Danimarca a settembre, ma devo frequentare le lezioni. - I would like to go to Denmark in September, but I have to go to my classes.Ogni febbraio c’à ¨ una celebrazione dell’amore si chiama Il Giorno di San Valentino. - Each February there is a celebration of love called Valentine’s Day.Siamo ad ottobre! - We’re in October!/It’s October! Which Prepositions to UseWith Months Typically when you talk about an activity happening in a certain month, you use the preposition â€Å"a† before it to mean the English definition of â€Å"in†. In the examples above, you may have also seen the use of â€Å"da†, which mirrors the English definition of â€Å"from† when separating a distance of months. Finally, you also saw â€Å"di† precede a month, and that was used to indicate possession since it was a birthday. Why Was September the 7th Month Instead of the 9th Month? During the Roman empire, September was considered the 7th month, October the 8th, November the 9th, and so on. Why is that? According to the University of Chicago, after around 753 BCE, the Roman calendar began in March instead of January and only consisted of ten months instead of twelve. This structure was created by King Romulus and was based on a combination of the lunar cycles and the agricultural seasons. However, structuring the calendar in this way wasn’t as effective because the lunar cycles didn’t match up with the earth’s rotation around the sun and therefore didn’t accurately pair with the seasons.

The Roman Republic and Its Government

The Roman Republic and Its Government The Roman Republic began in  509 B.C. when the Romans expelled the Etruscan kings and set up their own government. Having witnessed the problems of the monarchy on their own land, and aristocracy and democracy among the Greeks, they opted for a mixed form of government, with three branches. This innovation became known as a republican system. The strength of the republic is the system of checks and balances, which aims to find a consensus between the desires of the various branches of government. The Roman Constitution outlined these checks and balances, but in an informal way. Most of the constitution was unwritten and laws were upheld by precedent. The Republic lasted 450 years until the territorial gains of the Roman civilization stretched its governance to the limit. A series of strong rulers called Emperors emerged with Julius Caesar in 44 B.C., and their reorganization of the Roman form of government ushered in the Imperial period. Branches of Roman Republican Government Consuls: Two consuls with supreme civil and military authority held the highest office in Republican Rome. Their power, which was shared equally and which lasted only one year, was reminiscent of the monarchial power of the king. Each consul could veto the other, they led the army, served as judges, and had religious duties. At first, the consuls were patricians, from famous families. Later laws encouraged plebeians to campaign for the consulship; eventually one of the consuls had to be a plebeian. After a term as consul, a Roman man joined the Senate for life. After 10 years, he could campaign for consulship again. The Senate: While the consuls had executive authority, it was expected that they would follow the advice of Rome’s elders. The Senate (senatus council of elders) predated the Republic, having been founded in the Eighth Century B.C. It was an advisory branch, initially composed of about 300 patricians who served for life. The ranks of the Senate were drawn from ex-consuls and other officers, who also had to be landowners. Plebeians were eventually admitted to the Senate as well. The primary focus of the Senate was Rome’s foreign policy, but they had great jurisdiction in civil affairs as well, as the Senate controlled the treasury. The Assemblies: The most democratic branch of the Roman Republican form of government were the assemblies. These large bodies - there were four of them - made some voting power available to many Roman citizens (but not all, as those who lived in the outreaches of the provinces still lacked meaningful representation). The Assembly of Centuries (comitia centuriata), was composed of all members of the army, and it elected consuls annually. The Assembly of Tribes (comitia tributa), which contained all citizens, approved or rejected laws and decided issues of war and peace.The Comitia Curiata was composed of 30 local groups, and was elected by the Centuriata, and served mostly a symbolic purpose for Rome’s founding families. The Concilium Plebis represented the plebeians.