Ancient Macedonian calendar

The Ancient Macedonian calendar is a lunisolar calendar that was in use in ancient Macedon in the It consisted of 12 synodic lunar months, which needed intercalary months to stay in step with the seasons. By the time the calendar was being used across the Hellenistic world, seven total embolimoi were being added in each 19 year Metonic cycle. The names of the ancient Macedonian Calendar remained in use in Syria even into the Christian era.

Names

The names of the Macedonian months, just like most of the names of Greek months, are derived from feasts and related celebrations in honor of various Greek gods. Most of them combine a Macedonian dialectal form with a clear Greek etymology ; Ξανδικός / Ξανθικός from Xanthos, "the blond" with the possible exception of one, which is also attested in other Greek calendars.

Description

The Macedonian calendar was in essence the Babylonian calendar with the substitution of Macedonian names for the Babylonian ones, and as such it paralleled the Hebrew calendar which is also lunisolar, and was used during the Parthian Empire too. An example of inscriptions from Decapolis, Jordan, bearing the Solar Macedonian calendar, starts from the month Audynaeus. The solar type was merged later with the Julian calendar. In Roman Macedonia, both calendars were used. The Roman one is attested in inscriptions with the name Kalandôn gen. καλανδῶν calendae and the Macedonian Hellenikei dat. Ἑλληνικῇ Hellenic. Finally an inscription from Kassandreia of about bearing a month Ἀθηναιῶν Athenaion suggests that some cities may have used their own months even after the Macedonian expansion.

Order	Greek name	Transliteration	Approximate modern month	Remarks
1	Δίος	Dios	October
2		Apellaios	November	Also a Dorian month – Apellaiōn was a Tenian month
3		Audunaios or Audnaios	December	Also a Cretan month
4		Peritios	January	And festival of the month; Peritia
5		Dystros	February
6		Xandikos or Xanthikos	March	And festival of the month; Xanthika, purifying the army, Hesych
‡	Ξανδικός Ἐμβόλιμος	Xandikos Embolimos	‡	intercalated 6 times over a 19 year cycle
7		Artemisios or Artamitios	April	Also a Spartan, Rhodian, and Epidaurian month – Artemisiōn was an Ionic month
8		Daisios	May
9		Panēmos or Panamos	June	Also an Epidaurian, Miletian, Samian, and Corinthian month
10		Lōios	July	Ὀμολώιος was an Aetolian, Boeotian, and Thessalian month
11		Gorpiaios	August
12		Hyperberetaios	September	Hyperberetos was a Cretan month
‡	Ὑπερβερεταῖος Ἑμβόλιμος	Hyperberetaios Embolimos	‡	Intercalated only once over a 19 year cycle

Year numbering

Years were usually counted from the re-conquest of Seleucus I Nicator of Babylon, which became "year 1". This is equivalent to 312 BCE / 311 BCE in the Anno Domini year count of the modern Gregorian calendar. This practice spread outside the Seleucid Empire and found use in Antigonid Macedonia, Ptolemaic Egypt, and other major Hellenistic states descended from Alexander's conquests as well. Years can be abbreviated SE, S.E., or occasionally AG.