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　　JUNE

　　This name is probably form Junius , the name of Latin family to which the murderers of Julius Caesar belonged . Some scholars believe , however , that the name June came form the goddess Juno who was the protectress of women since June has been the favorite month for marriages all the way down form earliest Rome . It can be that the ancient taboos against May marriages are responsible for our modern June rush to the altar . The English name for June was Sere-Monath . or “dry-month .”

　　JULY

　　The name of this month was proposed by Mark Antony , the Roman general and famous lover of Cleopatra . Antony suggested that this birthday month of Caius Julius Casesar be named Julius in his honor , and the name came into use the year of Caesar’s assassination . In English , the spelling became first Julie , then July . But before the English adopted the Latin name , they had called the month Mad-Monath , or “meadow-month ,” since the meadows were in bloom and the cattle were in pasture .

　　AUGUST

　　Octavian ,the first Roman emperor ,was the nephew of Julius Caesar , and longed to gain the fame and power of his uncle . He wanted , among other things , to have a month named after him . His birthday was in September , but he selected what is now known as August , for this particular month had been a fortunate one in his career . The Senate had given Octavian the official title of Augustus in honor of his distinguished sercices to the state , so the month he had chosen became Augistus , which we have shortened to August . The prosy and downright English had called this the Weod-Monath , or “weed-month ,” although , in fairness , the word “weed” yhen applied to greenery in general .

　　SEPTEMBER

　　Inasmush as the Roman year originally started in March ,September was their seventh month , and the name is taken from the Latin word septem which meant “seven .”When the calendar was changed and September became the ninth month , the name was not altered . Charlemagne , who was Emperor of the West at the beginning of the 9th century , refused to accept the Roman name and called September the “harvest-month .”England followed suit , and for a long time September was konwen as Harfest-Monath .The harvest then was largely barley , which the thirsty English promptly converted into ale .

　　OCTOBER

　　This is the season when the smoke of burning leaves is apt to be in the air . Even the Roman poet Martial called October “fumosus ,” or “smoky ,” because the time for lighting fires was at hand . Officially though , the name remained October from the Latin octo , “eight ,” for this month was the eighth on the list before the calendar was altered . The Roman general Germanicus Caesar wanted the month named after him , but he never got very far with his wish . The English first gave the name Win-Monath , or “wine-month ,” to October , and probably a little elderberry wine and such were concocted , but the real preoccupation was the “Brown October Ale “ that we still sing about today .

　　NOVEMBER

　　Since the Emperor Augustus had his month and Julius Caesar his , the polite and politic Romans thought it only proper to propose that November be renamed for the Emperor Tiberius . But Tiberius objected and said rather wittily , “What will you do if you have eleven Caesars?” So the name remained Novernber , from the Latin novem ,”nine .” To the forthright English November was the Blot-Monath , or “sacrifice-month” as it was the time when the heathen Anglo-Saxons sacrificed cattle to their gods . Sometimes they also called it the Wind-Monath , for obvious reasons .

　　DECEMBER

　　Lucius Aelius Aurelius Commodus , Emperor of Rome toward the end of the 2nd century , once asked his mistress how she would like to see her name on the calendar . “Amazonius ,” was the name the emperor had in mind ,since the lady had once been painted as an Amazon , but the Senate was not sympathetic and apparently told him to gao watch the gladiators and lions instead . So December went on being called by its old name from decem , “ten,” since December was originally the tenth month . The common name among the English for December was Mid-Winter-Monath , although the Christians of the day called it Haligh-Monath , or “Holy-Month ,”because of birth of Christ .