Lastly it orders the decree to be incised in stone or bronze in both hieroglyphs and Greek, and to be publicly displayed in the temples. The Decree of Canopus attested the existence of the ancient city of Heracleion, which is now submerged, and has only recently been excavated. The Decree informed us, in its Greek version, that a synod of priests was held in the city of Heracleion during the reign of King Ptolemy I. Calendar reform The civil Egyptian calendar had 365 days: twelve months of thirty days each and an additional five epagomenal days. According to the reform, the five-day "Opening of the Year" ceremonies would include an additional sixth day every fourth year. The reason given was that the rise of Sothis advances to another day in every 4 years, so that attaching the beginning of the year to the heliacal rising of the star Sirius would keep the calendar synchronized with the seasons. This Ptolemaic calendar reform failed, but was finally officially implemented in Egypt by Augustus in 26 or 25 BC, now called the Alexandrian calendar, with a sixth epagomenal day occurring for the first time on 29 August 22 BC. Julius Caesar had earlier implemented a day year in Rome in 45 BC as part of the Julian calendar. See also Ptolemaic Decrees Decree of Memphis, or Raphia Decree, for Ptolemy IV Great Mendes Stela, for Ptolemy II Rosetta Stone decree, for Ptolemy V References Sources Budge. The Rosetta Stone, E.A.Wallace Budge, (Dover Publications), c 1929, Dover edition(unabridged), 1989. (softcover, ) Pfeiffer, Stefan. Das Dekret von Kanopos (238 v. CHR). Munich: K. G. Sauer, 2004. External links The Canopus Decree, Hieroglyphic version: full translation by E.A. Wallis Budge (about 1800 words; copied at attalus.org ) The Canopus Decree, Greek version: full translation at attalus.org ) Stele of Canopus and the Rosetta Stone 3rd-century BC steles 1866 archaeological discoveries Multilingual texts Ancient Egyptian stelas Decree Of Canopus Canopus Egyptian calendar Nile Delta Canopus Tanis