The words “September, October, November, and December” contain the latin roots for the numbers 7, 8, 9, and 10. So why do those months hold different positions in the calendar?
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Romulus’ original Roman calendar^[1] had 10 months, 4 with 31 days, for a 304 day calendar.
Numa Pompilius added the months of January at the beginning and February at the end.
The calendar had complex legal effects and so it was frequently modified slightly for political maneuvering.
It wasn’t until about 50 BCE Julius Caesar had enough of the bullshit and instituted solid reforms, fixing things into the well-known Julian Calendar.
[Roman Calendar on Wikipedia ](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_calendar) isn’t my source and I haven’t even bothered to read the article but it’ll probably confirm and have sources.
^[1] there is some debate if this calendar was ever a real thing. Most scholars agree that the 10 month calendar likely existed, but that the ancient Roman records on the details of it are very likely ret-conned to make later Roman’s look better.
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