阳木狗年 (male Wood-Dog) 81 or −300 or −1072 — to — 阴木猪年 (female Wood-Pig) 82 or −299 or −1071
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 Dominicalendar 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 sync with the solar year but had missed a few with the chaos of the civil wars of the late republic. Julius Caesar added Mercedonius (23 days) and two other intercalary months (33 and 34 days respectively) to the 355-day lunar year, to recalibrate the calendar in preparation for his calendar reform, which went into effect in 45 BC.[1][2][3] This year therefore had 445 days, and was nicknamed the annus confusionis ("year of confusion") and serves as the longest recorded calendar year in human history.[4] The actual planetary orbit-year remained the same.
April 20 – Cicero, in Rome, writes to Varro "If our voices are no longer heard in the Senate and in the Forum, let us follow the example of the ancient sages and serve our country through our writings, concentrating on questions of ethics and constitutional law."
Caesar's erstwhile mistress, Queen Cleopatra VIIofEgypt, and his son by her, Caesarion, take up residence in one of the dictator's estates on the Tiber.
November – Caesar leaves for Hispania to deal with a fresh outbreak of resistance.
Caesar reforms the Roman calendar to create the Julian calendar. The transitional year is extended to 445 days to synchronize the new calendar and the seasonal cycle. The Julian Calendar would remain the standard in the western world for over 1600 years, until superseded by the Gregorian Calendar in 1582.
^Stambaugh, John E. (1988). The Ancient Roman City. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. p. 275. ISBN0-8018-3574-7.
^LeGlay, Marcel; Voisin, Jean-Louis; Le Bohec, Yann (2001). A History of Rome (Second ed.). Malden, Massachusetts: Blackwell. p. 129. ISBN0-631-21858-0.
