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'''Anno Domini''' (
Latin : "In the year of (Our) Lord"
[1]), abbreviated as 'AD' or 'A.D.', defines an
epoch based on the traditionally reckoned year of the conception or birth of
Jesus of Nazareth. AD is also an abbreviation for 'Christian Era'.
[2] Similarly, 'Before Christ' (from the
Ancient Greek "
Christos" or "Anointed One", referring to
Jesus), abbreviated as 'BC' or 'B.C.', is used in the
English language to denote years before the start of this epoch.
The designation is used to number years in the Christian Era, conventionally used with the
Julian and
Gregorian calendars. More fully, years may be also specified as ''Anno Domini Nostri Iesu (Jesu) Christi'' ("In the Year of Our Lord Jesus Christ"). 'Anno Domini' dating was first calculated in
525 and began to be adopted in
Western Europe during the
8th 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.
[3]
Traditionally
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 . However, the placing of the AD after the year number (as in AD) is now also common, while, analogous to the use of BC, the abbreviation is also widely used after the number of a
century or
millennium, as in 4th century AD or 2nd millennium AD, despite the inappropriate literal combination in this case ("in the 4th century in the year of Our Lord").
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 6th 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 (born in
Scythia Minor) in Rome in 525, as an outcome of his work on calculating the
date of Easter. In his
Easter table Dionysius equates the year AD 532 with the
regnal year 284 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
[Blackburn & Holford-Strevens 2003, 778.]" [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 are:
[Blackburn & Holford-Strevens 2003, 778–9.]
★ 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
29 August
★ 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 (Julian) — 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" (abbreviated AM), 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".
[4] According to the
Gospel of Matthew (2:1,16)
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,
[5] 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.
[6]
The
Gospel of Luke (1:5) 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 (1:26). Luke's Gospel also states that Christ was born during the reign of
Augustus and while
Cyrenius (or
Quirinius) was the governor of
Syria (2:1–2), . Blackburn and Holford-Strevens
[5] indicate Cyrenius/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".
[6] Some scholars rely on
John's Gospel to place Christ's birth in c.18 BC.
[9]
Popularization
The first historian or chronicler to use Anno Domini as his primary dating mechanism was
Victor of Tonnenna, an African chronicler of the 6th 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 of Jesus, but "the distinction between Incarnation and Nativity was not drawn until the late 9th century, when in some places the Incarnation epoch was identified with Christ's conception, i.e. the
Annunciation on
25 March" (''Annunciation style'').
[Blackburn & Holford-Strevens 881.]
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 (AD 29), which appears in the occasional medieval manuscript.
Most Syriac manuscripts written at the end of the 19th century still gave the date in the end-note using the "year of the Greeks" (Anno Graecorum =
Seleucid era).
Even though Anno Domini was in widespread use by the 9th century, Before Christ (or its equivalent) did not become widespread until the late 15th century.
Alternative naming: Common Era
Main articles: Common Era
Anno Domini is sometimes referred to as the
Common Era (''C.E.'' or ''CE''). CE is often preferred by those who desire a term unrelated to religious conceptions of time. For example, Cunningham and Starr (1998) 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 ''gōngyuán'' (公元) which literally means Common Era. Critics of this alternate dating system believe that the only possible motivation for using it is for the sake of
political correctness; it differs only nominally from the conventional method, and is still based on the approximate birthdate of
Jesus of Nazareth.
Synonyms
Anno Salutis
Anno Salutis (often translated from
Latin as ''in the year of salvation'') is a
dating style used up until the 18th 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 (''in the year of our salvation''), Anno Salutis Humanae (''in the year of the salvation of men''), Anno Reparatae Salutis (''in the year of accomplished salvation'').
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 (eg −1 equals 2 BC). However, civil usage still omits year zero.
Earlier calendar epochs
''Anno Domini'' dating was not adopted in Western Europe until the 8th 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.
Olympiad dating
Among the ancient Greeks, a common method for indicating the passage of years was based on the order of Olympic games, first held in 776 BC. The pan-Hellenic nature games provided the various independent city-states a mutually recognizeable system of dates. The first Olympiad also marks the traditional beginning of Greek historical civilization and record-keeping, and it continues to be regarded as the end of Western prehistory and the beginning of its historical epoch.
Consular dating
An early and common practice was Roman '
consular' dating. This involved naming both ''consules ordinarii'' who had taken up 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'', or "in the year of the founded city" (abbreviated AUC), where "city" meant
Rome. (It is often incorrectly given that AUC stands for ''
ab urbe condita'', which is the title of T. Livy's history of 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 (about AD 600) may have been the first to use both the ''ab urbe condita'' era and the ''Anno Domini'' era (he put AD 607 = AUC 1360).
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 (late in the 2nd century or early in the 3rd century), when they openly began to use their regnal year.
Indiction cycles
Another common system was to use the
indiction cycle (15 indictions made up an agricultural tax cycle, an indiction being a year in duration). Documents and events began to be dated by the year of the cycle (e.g., "fifth indiction", "tenth indiction") in the 4th 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; when, in 1600, Scotland adopted January 1 as the date the year number changes, this was already normal in continental
Europe. England adopted this practice in 1752.
[10] The most important of these include the
Seleucid era (in use until the 8th century), and the
Spanish era (in use in official documents in
Aragon,
Valencia, and in
Castile, into the 14th century. In 1422,
Portugal became the last
Western European country to adopt the ''Anno Domini'' era).
See also
★
After Zero
★
Calendar era
★
Calendar
★
Chronology
References
★
Oxford Pocket Dictionary and Thesaurus, Frank R. Abate (ed.), , , Oxford University Press, 1997, ISBN 0-19-513097-9
★ (reprinted & corrected, originally published 1999)
★
Note
1. Blackburn & Holford-Strevens p. 782
2. Abate, ''Oxford Pocket Dictionary and Thesaurus'', s.v. "A.D."
3. The mean year of the Gregorian calendar is 365.2425 days. This approximated the mean tropical year, more than five millennia ago. The real (mean) tropical year is now very close to 365.2421875 days i.e. 27s/year shorter. However, relative to the vernal equinox year, important for the determination of the date of Christian Easter, the older Lilius definition of the year is and will be a very good value. The ''vernal equinox year'' and the ''mean tropical year'' have falsely been seen as identical, even by many erudite persons of the 20th century.
4. Doggett 1992, 579
5. Blackburn & Holford-Strevens 2003, 770
6. Blackburn & Holford-Strevens 2003, 776
7. Blackburn & Holford-Strevens 2003, 770
8. Blackburn & Holford-Strevens 2003, 776
9. Blackburn and Holford-Strevens 2003, 776
10. Blackburn & Holford-Strevens p. 7
★ The approximation of the year in the old
Persian calendar attributed to
Omar Khayyám is 365.24
24 days, which is very close to the vernal equinox year, but requires a 33-year cycle.
★ The definition of
Milutin Milanković, used in the "
revised Julian calendar", is 365.24
22 days, which is very close to the mean tropical year, but uses unequal long-period cycles.
★ May also be spelled "Anno Domine".
External links
★
''The Catholic Encyclopedia,'' s.v. "General Chronology"
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