:''For the first-century bishop, see
Anianus of Alexandria.''
'Annianus of Alexandria' or 'Annianos' was a monk who flourished in
Alexandria during the
bishopric of
Theophilus of Alexandria around the beginning of the
fifth century. He criticized the world history of his contemporary monk
Panodorus of Alexandria for relying too much on secular sources rather than biblical sources for his dates.
As a result, Annianus developed his own
chronology which placed
Creation on
25 March,
5492 BC. This created the Alexandrian Era whose first day was the first day of the
proleptic Alexandrian civil year in progress,
29 August,
5493 BC. This year was eleven Paschal cycles of 532 years each before the Alexandrian year beginning
29 August 360, which itself was four
19-year cycles after the
epoch of the Diocletian Era on
29 August 284. The former is known as the Era of Grace in the
Coptic Church, whereas the latter is known as the
Era of Martyrs. He was the first
computist to recognize the 532-year cycle of
Easters in the
Julian calendar. This cycle is often attributed to
Victorius of Aquitaine in
457, the first to recognize such a cycle in the West (
Aquitaine is a region in southwest
France).
None of Annianus' writings has survived; he is known only from the discussion of his works by
George Syncellus during the
ninth century.
References
★ William Adler. ''Time immemorial: archaic history and its sources in Christian chronography from Julius Africanus to George Syncellus''. Washington, D.C.: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, c1989.
★ William Adler, Paul Tuffin, translators. ''The chronography of George Synkellos: a Byzantine chronicle of universal history from the creation''. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002. Synkellos copied large blocks of text written by Annianus.