Eclogue XV. — A Computation of the Days in the Course of the Year

Ninety days and four and half a day the Sun wears out while he passes from tropic to tropic star, journeying from Phrixus' Ram to the eight-clawed Crab. In this period lie the course and finish of the summer days. Ten times nine days and two and half a day when hours of light and night are even, the golden Sun passes through in his second race from the Crab to the claws of the Scorpion mingling the bounds of autumn and of summer. Then, traversing the autumn months in turn, he passes on to the tropic star of chill Capricorn, adding further to his tale eight days and ten times eight with a fourth part of the day, which in each fourth year stands at the close of Numa's month and takes the name of "intercalary." Then, hastening toward the horns of Agenor's Bull, the golden Sun climbs up to the tropic star of the fleecy Ram, confining ninety days within ordained bounds. Here, then, you have the full round of the ever-circling years: three hundred and three score days and five.