Proleptic Julian calendar (AUC or by reference to consuls). The year 46 BC itself is a special case, because of the historical introduction of the Julian calendar in that year, it was allotted 445 days. Before then, the Roman Republican calendar used a system of intercalary months rather than leap days, but the Julian system of leap days had already been in use since 238 BC in Ptolemaic Egypt, since the Decree of Canopus reforming the Egyptian calendar. Proleptic Julian calendar The proleptic Julian calendar is produced by extending the Julian calendar backwards to dates preceding AD 4 when the quadrennial leap year
Julian calendar the old Roman months, the fixed length of the Egyptian calendar, and the days of the Greek astronomy. According to Macrobius, Caesar was assisted in this by a certain Marcus Flavius. The first step of the reform was to realign the start of the calendar year (1 January) to the tropical year by making 46 BC (708 AUC) 445 days long, compensating for the intercalations which had been missed during Caesar's pontificate. This year had already been extended from 355 to 378 days by the insertion of a regular intercalary month in February. When Caesar decreed the reform, probably shortly