Editing Augustus (section)

=== Month of August ===
The month of August (Latin: {{lang|la|Augustus}}) is named after Augustus; until his time it was called [[Sextilis]] (named so because it had been the sixth month of the original [[Roman calendar]], with the Latin word for 'six' being {{lang|la|sex}}). Commonly repeated lore has it that August has 31 days because Augustus wanted his month to match the length of Julius Caesar's July, but this is an invention of the 13th-century scholar [[Johannes de Sacrobosco]]. Sextilis in fact had 31 days before it was renamed, and it was not chosen for its length (see [[Julian calendar]]).

According to a {{lang|la|senatus consultum}} quoted by [[Macrobius]], Sextilis was renamed to honour Augustus because several of the most significant events in his rise to power, culminating in the fall of Alexandria, fell in that month.<ref>Macrobius, ''Saturnalia'' [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/L/Roman/Texts/Macrobius/Saturnalia/1*.html#12.35 1.12.35].</ref>