46 BC 46 BC Year 46 BC was the last year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Caesar and Lepidus (or, less frequently, year 708 "Ab urbe condita"). The denomination 46 BC for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years. This year marks the change from the pre-Julian Roman calendar to the Julian calendar. The Romans had to periodically add a leap month every few years to keep the calendar year in
Thirty Days Hath September Meton in the 5thcentury. Rather than adopt a new system like the Egyptian calendar, which had 12 months of 30 days each and a set, annual intercalary month of 5 days, Caesar aimed for his 46 reform to maintain as much continuity as possible with the old calendar. Ultimately, Mercedonius was removed, the four existing 31-day months were maintained, February was left unchanged apart from leap years, and the needful additional ten days of the year were added to the 29-day months to make them either 30 or 31 days long. By the Renaissance, the irregularity of the resulting system