Encyclopedia
Anno Domini , abbreviated as
AD, defines an epoch based on the traditionally-reckoned year of the birth of
Jesus of Nazareth. Similarly,
Before Christ , abbreviated as
BC, is used in the
English language to denote years before the start of this epoch. Some non-Christians use the abbreviations AD and BC without intending to acknowledge the
Christian connotation. Some people prefer the alternatives 'CE' and 'BCE', arguing that they are more neutral terms .
The designation is used to number years in the
Christian Era, conventionally used with the
Julian and
Gregorian calendars. More descriptively, years may be also specified as 'Anno Domini Nostri Iesu Christi' . 'Anno Domini' dating was first adopted in
Western Europe, during the
eighth century.
The numbering of years per the Christian era is currently dominant in many places around the world, in both commercial and scientific use. For decades, it has been the global standard, recognized by international institutions such as the
United Nations and the
Universal Postal Union. This is due to the prevalence of
Christianity in the
Western world, the great influence of the Western world on science, technology and commerce, as well as the fact that the solar
Gregorian calendar has, for a long time, been considered to be astronomically correct.
English copies Latin usage by placing the abbreviation 'before' the year number for AD, but after the year number for BC; for example: 64 BC, but AD 2006.
History of Anno Domini
Early Christians designated the year via a combination of consular dating, imperial regnal year dating, and Creation dating. Use of consular dating ended when the emperor
Justinian I discontinued appointing consuls in the mid sixth century, requiring the use of imperial regnal dating shortly thereafter. The last consul nominated was Anicius Faustus Albinus Basilius in 541. The
papacy was in regular contact throughout the
Middle Ages with envoys of the
Byzantine world, and had a clear idea — sudden deaths and deposals notwithstanding — of who was the
Byzantine emperor at any one time.
The
Anno Domini system was developed by a monk named
Dionysius Exiguus in Rome in 525, as an outcome of his work on calculating the
date of Easter. Dionysius, in his Easter table, equates the year AD 532 with the regnal year 248 of Emperor Diocletian; in his cover letter he equates the year AD 525 with the consulate of Probus Junior. "However, nowhere in his exposition of his table does Dionysius relate
his epoch to any other dating system, whether consulate, Olympiad, year of the world, or regnal year of Augustus; much less does he explain or justify the underlying date" [emphasis added] . Blackburn & Holford-Strevens briefly present arguments for 2 BC, 1 BC, or AD 1 as the year Dionysius intended for the Nativity or Incarnation.
Among the sources of confusion mentioned by Blackburn & Holford-Strevens are:
- In modern times Incarnation is synonymous with conception, but some ancient writers, such as Bede, considered Incarnation to be synonymous with the Nativity
- The civil, or consular year began on 1 January but the Diocletian year began on 1 September
- There were inaccuracies in the list of consuls
- There were confused summations of emperors' regnal years
Another calculation had been developed by the
Alexandrian monk Annianus around the year AD 400, placing the Annunciation on March 25, AD 9 — eight to ten years after the date that Dionysius later calculated. This
Era of Incarnation was dominant in the East during the early centuries of the Byzantine Empire, and is still used today in
Ethiopia, accounting for the 8 or 7-year discrepancy between the Gregorian and the Ethiopian calendar.
Byzantine chroniclers like Theophanes continued to date each year in their world chronicles on a different Judaeo-Christian basis — from the notional creation of the World as calculated by Christian scholars in the first five centuries of the Christian era. These eras, sometimes called
Anno Mundi, "year of the world" , by modern scholars, had their own disagreements. No single
Anno Mundi epoch was dominant. One popular formulation was that established by
Eusebius of Caesarea, a historian at the time of
Constantine I. The
Latin translator
Jerome helped popularize Eusebius's AM count in the West.
Accuracy
"Although scholars generally believe that Christ was born some years before A.D. 1, the historical evidence is too sketchy to allow a definitive dating" . According to the Gospel of Matthew
Herod the Great was alive when
Jesus was born, and ordered the
Massacre of the Innocents in response to his birth. Blackburn & Holford-Strevens fix Herod's death shortly before Passover in 4 BC , and say that those who accept the story of the Massacre of the Innocents sometimes associate the star that led the
Biblical Magi with the planetary conjunction of 15 September 7 BC or
Halley's comet of 12 BC; even historians who do not accept the Massacre accept birth under Herod as a tradition older than the written gospels .
The Gospel of Luke states that
John the Baptist was at least conceived, if not born, under Herod, and that Christ was conceived while John's mother was in the sixth month of her pregnancy . Luke's Gospel also states that Christ was born during the reign of Augustus and while Quirinius was the governor of
Syria , . Blackburn and Holford-Strevens indicate Quirinius' governorship of Syria began in AD 6, which is incompatible with conception in 4 BC, and say that "St. Luke raises greater difficulty....Most critics therefore discard Luke" . Some scholars rely on John's Gospel to place Christ's birth in c.18 BC .
Popularization
The first historian or chronicler to use Anno Domini as his primary dating mechanism was Victor of Tonnenna, an African chronicler of the seventh century. A few generations later, the
Anglo-Saxon historian
Bede, who was familiar with the work of Dionysius, also used Anno Domini dating in his
Ecclesiastical History of the English People, finished in 731. In this same history, he was the first to use the Latin equivalent of
before Christ and established the standard for historians of no year zero, even though he used zero in his
computus. Both Dionysius and Bede regarded Anno Domini as beginning at the incarnation, or conception, of Jesus, not his birth approximately nine months later .
On the continent of
Europe, Anno Domini was introduced as the era of choice of the
Carolingian Renaissance by
Alcuin. This endorsement by
Charlemagne and his successors popularizing the usage of the epoch and spreading it throughout the
Carolingian Empire ultimately lies at the core of the system's prevalence until present times.
Outside the Carolingian Empire, Spain continued to date by the Era of the Caesars, or Spanish Era, well into the Middle Ages, which counted beginning with 38 BC. The Era of Martyrs, which numbered years from the accession of
Diocletian in 284, who launched the last yet most severe persecution of Christians, prevailed in the East and is still used officially by the
Coptic and used to be used by the Ethiopian church. Another system was to date from the
crucifixion of Jesus Christ, which as early as Hippolytus and Tertullian was believed to have occurred in the consulate of the Gemini , which appears in the occasional medieval manuscript.
Even though Anno Domini was in widespread use by the ninth century, Before Christ did not become widespread until the late fifteenth century.
Other eras in official use
Some other eras were in official use in modern times or are still in use in several countries alongside the current international Anno Domini era.
Asian national eras
- The official Japanese system numbers years from the accession of the current emperor, regarding the calendar year during which the accession occurred as the first year. The current emperor is Heisei Akihito, whose reign began in 1989. Thus that year corresponds to Heisei 1 .
- It is still very common in Taiwan to date events via the Republic of China era, whose first year is 1912.
- North Korea uses a system that starts in 1912 , the year of the birth of their founder Kim Il-Sung. The year 2004 was "Juche 93". Juche means "autarchy, self-reliance".
- In Thailand in 1888 King Chulalongkorn
...
decreed a National Thai Era since founding of
Bangkok on 1782, April 6. In 1912 the New Year's Day was shifted to April 1. In 1941, the Prime Minister Phibunsongkhram decided to count the years since 543 BC. This is the so-called Thai solar calendar or Thailand Buddhist Era clearly relied on the western solar calendar. This is one of the versions of the Buddhist calendar.
- In India, the traditional Saka era, using an epoch of 78 AD is the official calendar. However, the Gregorian calendar is the de-facto calendar and is commonly used. Government documents usually display a dual-date.
Religious eras
- In Israel, the traditional Hebrew calendar, using an era dating from Creation, is the official calendar. However, the Gregorian calendar is the de-facto calendar and is commonly used. Government documents usually display a dual-date.
- In the Islamic world, traditional Islamic dating according to the Anno Hegirć or AH era remains in use to a varying extent, especially for religious purposes. The official Iranian calendar also dates from the hijra, but as it is a solar calendar its year numbering does not coincide with the religious calendar.
- In Hinduism
...
, the traditional
Hindu calendar, using an epoch of 23rd January 3102 BC is the official calendar. it is also referred to as kali era.
European attempts
- The French Revolution attempted to displace the Anno Domini system by instead dating from 22 September 1792 = 1 vendémiaire an I of the First French Republic. . Napoléon finally abolished the calendar effective 1 January 1806, the day after 10 nivôse an XIV.
- Similarly, Czechoslovakia attempted to use a revolutionary calendar, but kept only the months in the end, accepting the use of the AD years.
- The Italian Fascists used the standard system along with Roman numerals to denote the number of years since the establishment of the Fascist government in 1922. Therefore, 1934, for example, was Year XII. This era was abolished with the fall of fascism in Italy on July 25, 1943.
Synonyms
Common Era
Anno Domini is sometimes referred to as the Common Era . This term is often preferred by those who desire a religiously-neutral term or wish to adhere to a level of political correctness. For example, Cunningham and Starr write that "B.C.E./C.E. ... do not presuppose faith in Christ and hence are more appropriate for interfaith dialog than the conventional B.C./A.D." The
People's Republic of China, founded in 1949, adopted Western years, calling that era
gongyuán, ??, which literally means Common Era. The
Republic of China uses the Year of the Republic to count their years "mínguó" ?? which counts the anniversaries of the Ruling of Nationalists over China. The year 2006 is the 95th Year of the Republic, or ??????.
Anno Salutis
Anno Salutis is a
dating style used up until the eighteenth century, which like Anno Domini dates years from the birth of Jesus. It can be explained in the context of Christian belief, where the birth of Jesus saved mankind from eternal damnation. It is often used in a more elaborate form such as Anno Nostrae Salutis , Anno Salutis Humanae , Anno Reparatae Salutis .
Numbering of years
Historians do not use a year zero — AD 1 is the first year or epoch of the Anno Domini era, and 1 BC immediately precedes it as the first year before the epoch. This is a problem with some calculations; so in astronomical year numbering a zero is added, and the 'AD' and 'BC' are dropped. In keeping with 'standard decimal numbering', a negative sign '-' is added for earlier years, so counting down from year 2 would give 2, 1, 0, -1, -2, and so on. This results in a one-year shift between the two systems . However, civil usage still omits the idea of a year zero.
Earlier calendar epochs
Anno Domini dating was not adopted in Western Europe until the eighth century. Like the other inhabitants of the
Roman Empire, early Christians used one of several methods to indicate a specific year — and it was not uncommon for more than one to be used in the same document. This redundancy allows historians to construct parallel regnal lists for many kingdoms and polities by comparing chronicles from different regions, which include the same rulers.
Consular dating
The earliest and most common practice was Roman and Greek 'consular' dating. This involved naming both
consules ordinarii who had been appointed to this office on January 2 of the civil year. Sometimes one or both consuls might not be appointed until November or December of the previous year, and news of the appointment may not have reached parts of the Roman empire for several months into the current year; thus we find the occasional inscription where the year is defined as "after the consulate" of a pair of consuls.
Dating from the founding of Rome
Another method of dating, rarely used, was to indicate the year
anno urbis conditae is Latin [i] for "from the founding [i] of the City ", traditional ...
, or "in the year of the founded city" , where "the City" meant
Rome. Several epochs were in use by Roman historians. Modern historians usually adopt the epoch of Varro, which we place in 753 BC.
About AD 400, the Iberian historian Orosius used the
ab urbe condita era. Pope
Boniface IV may have been the first to use both the
ab urbe condita era and the
Anno Domini era .
Regnal years of Roman emperors
Another system that is less commonly found than thought was to use the regnal year of the
Roman emperor. At first, Augustus would indicate the year of his rule by counting how many times he had held the office of consul, and how many times the
Roman Senate had granted him Tribunican powers, carefully observing the fiction that his powers came from these offices granted to him, rather than from his own person or the many
legions under his control. His successors followed his practice until the memory of the
Roman Republic faded , when they openly began to use their regnal year.
Indiction cycles
Another common system was to use the indiction cycle . Documents and events began to be dated by the year of the cycle in the fourth century, and was used long after the tax was no longer collected. This system was used in
Gaul, in
Egypt, and in most parts of
Greece until the
Islamic conquest, and in the
Eastern Roman Empire until its conquest in 1453.
Other dating systems
A great many local systems or eras were also important, for example the year from the foundation of one particular city, the regnal year of the neighboring
Persian emperor, and eventually even the year of the reigning
Caliph. The beginning of the numbered year also varied from place to place, and was not largely standardized in
Europe as January 1 until the sixteenth century. The most important of these include the
Seleucid era , and the Spanish era .
See also
References
- ———. "Dionysius Exiguus and the Introduction of the Christian Era". Sacris Erudiri 41 : 165–246. An annotated version of part of Anno Domini.
- Doggett. . "Calendars" , in P. Kenneth Seidelmann Explanatory supplement to the astronomical almanac. Sausalito, CA: University Science Books. ISBN 0-935702-68-7.
Note
External links
