Hi, everyone back to one thousand one heroes, legends, histories, and histories

podcast.

This is your host, John Haggardorn.

Ever wonder how much the ancient civilization of Rome affects our lives today?

Quite a bit, actually, from the way we speak to the ghosts in our calendar, especially the months

of the year, and even how we live. Think about your morning so far.

You woke up in a room likely heated by a descendant of a hypocaust system,

a Roman heat system that generated heat below the ground floor.

You used indoor plumbing today, a concept perfected by the engineers of the tiber.

You might have checked your smartphone to see that today is Sunday, February 8th.

But have you ever stopped to ask where all these things come from?

Why is this month called February, and why does it have fewer days than its neighbors?

The Roman Empire officially fell over 1,500 years ago, yet its ghosts are everywhere.

They're in the words of our language, the concrete of our bridges, the arches of our stadiums,

the structure of our government, and the very laws that govern our courtrooms.

But perhaps their most intimate legacy is how they captured time itself

in the very days and months of our lives. That's something that we take for granted, and a story that I

think is fascinating. Today, we dive into the names of our days of the week and the mystery of our

months, and how they got their names. With the days of the week, the mystery of our months and how they got their names.

With the days of the week, the Roman connection is a little less obvious, but with the months,

it's Roman godified all the way. And each God was given a specific place in the calendar for a reason.

We'll meet the two-faced God who guards your front door, and discover why our calendar is a 2,000-year-old masterpiece of political maneuvering and celestial observation.

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