Augustus did not steal a day from February to make his month as long as July.

8 BC

Sextilis was renamed for him in 8 BC and already had 31 days. The stolen-day story was invented by the 13th-century scholar Johannes de Sacrobosco.

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The event

• Octavian becomes Augustus27 BC · Rome. The Senate granted Octavian the honorific name Augustus. Keeping republican forms while holding real power, he created the Principate; the year is conventionally taken as the start of the Roman Empire and the Pax Romana.

1st century BC

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