Table of Contents

List of Tables
Introduction
Part I: From city states to great empires: the rise of the fixed calendars
1: Calendars of ancient Greece
2: The Babylonian calendar
3: The Egyptian calendar
4: The rise of the fixed calendars: Persian, Ptolemaic, and Julian calendars
Part II: The empires challenged and dissolved: calendar diversity and fragmentation
5: Fragmentation: Babylonian and Julian calendars in the Near East, 3rd century BCE 7th century CE
6: Dissidence and subversion: Gallic, Jewish, and other lunar calendars in the Roman Empire
7: Sectarianism and heresy: from Qumran calendars to Christian Easter controversies
Conclusion
References
Index

About the Author

Sacha Stern is Professor of Jewish Studies at University College London. His research and publications are centred on ancient and medieval time and calendars, as well as on other aspects of Jewish history in Antiquity.

Reviews

Stern's detailed and carefully argued description of the genesis and diffusion of the Julian calendar exhibits all the features we might hope top find in such a study. ... represents a tremendous moment of synthesis within calendrical studies and is an essential purchase for both research libraries and specialists in calendrics.
*J. Cale Johnson, Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies*

No doubt calendar specialists will want to debate some of Stern's interpretations, but this is a well-argued book with an extensive bibliography. It is the place to begin for anyone interested in any of the ancient Near Eastern or eastern Mediterranean calendars.
*Lester L. Grabbe, Journal of Jewish Studies*

This brilliantly conceived and magisterially executed book deserves to attract a readership from well beyond the relatively small circles of calendar specialists and aficionados,
*Alden A. Mosshammer, The Journal of Theological Studies,*