October (Roman month) October (Roman month) October (from Latin "octo", "eight") or mensis October was the eighth of ten months on the oldest Roman calendar. It had 31 days. October followed September (from "septem", "seven") and preceded November ("novem", "nine"). After the calendar reform that resulted in a 12-month year, October became the tenth month, but retained its numerical name, as did the other months from September through December. Some of the observances in October marked the close of the season for military campaigning and farming, which commenced in March ("Martius", "Mars' month"). October was under the guardianship "(tutela)" of Mars. The Romans
Latin word order nuances of meaning and emphasis. As the authors of "Latin Word Order", Devine and Stephens, put it: "Word order is not a subject which anyone reading Latin can afford to ignore. ... Reading a paragraph of Latin without attention to word order entails losing access to a whole dimension of meaning." One important advantage of studying word order in Latin is that it helps the reader to understand the author's meaning more clearly. Thus for example "complosit Trimalchio manus" doesn't merely mean "Trimalchio clapped his hands", but the initial verb implies a sudden action: "Trimalchio suddenly clapped his hands". In