Twice only since the reign of Numa hath this temple been shut; once when T.Manlius was consul, at the end of the first Punic war; and a second time, which the gods granted our age to see, by the emperor Augustus Caesar, after the battle of Actium, peace being established by sea and land.

This being shut, after he had secured the friendship of the neighbouring states around by alliance and treaties, all anxiety regarding dangers from abroad being removed, lest their minds, which the fear of enemies and military discipline had kept in cheek, should become licentious by tranquillity, he considered, that, first of all, an awe of the gods should be instilled into them, a principle of the greatest efficacy with a multitude ignorant and uncivilized as in those times.

But as it could not sink deeply into their minds without some fiction of a miracle, he pretends that he holds nightly interviews with the goddess Egeria; that by her direction he instituted the sacred rites which would be most acceptable to the gods, and appointed proper priests for each of the deities.

And, first of all, he divides the year into twelve months, according to the course of the moon; and because the moon does not make up thirty days in each month, and some days are wanting to the complete year as constituted by the solstitial revolution, he so portioned it out by inserting intercalary months, that every twenty-fourth year, the lengths of all the intermediate years being completed, the days should correspond to the same place of the sun (in the heavens) whence they had set out.[24] He likewise made a distinction of the days[25] into profane and sacred, because on some it was likely to be expedient that no business should be transacted with the people.
[Footnote 24: Romulus had made his year to consist of ten months, the first month being March, and the number of days in the year being only 304, which corresponded neither with the course of the sun or moon.
Numa, who added the two months of January and February, divided the year into twelve months, according to the course of the moon.

This was the lunar Greek year, and consisted of 354 days.