Book of Indian Eras, with Tables for Calculating Indian Dates c13.14

c13.14

As the Syro-Macedonian months were lunar, there must have been seven intercalary months inserted at certain periods in each cycle of 19 years. According to the Greek cycle of Meton, these insertions took place in the 3rd, 5th, 8th, 11th, 13th, 16th, 19th years of the cycle. "The name of the old Macedonian intercalary month is inferred from 2 Maccabees, XI, 21, where the date of a manifesto issued by Lysias, General of Antiochus Eupator, is given as 24th Διοσκορινθιου, but in the Vulgate 24 Dioscori; and from the Etymolᵐ Magᵐ we learn, that Διόσκορος was the name of a month. A missive of Antiochus, evidently written not much later, is dated 15th Xanthikos. Hence it is inferred that the place of this intercalary month Διόσκορος was the same as that of the Jewish month, i.e., before Nisan."†