Bc, Ad, Wtf?

[whitetho]

@silenus

“Anno Domini” = “In the year of our Lord”

See Wiki for details.

Unfortunately, answers like this make Uncle Cecil jealous, because you should always refer to his comprehensive column first: Why is BC an English abbreviation while AD is a Latin one?

[Polycarp]

@Malacandra

Ab is the preposition you want. Ad would be “to the building of the city”, which would be either anachronistic or suggestive of unusual prescience.

That must have been how the Romans dated things before 753 BC!!

Apropos this question, wasn’t there a throwaway line in one of Cecil’s columns about a coin bearing a date like 28 BC, thrown in as a joke of sorts?

[Sunspace]

@IvoryTowerDenizen

Small nitpik on the idea that using CE and BCE are becoming “politically correct” and that it is a recent event to switch to that usuage-

I was taught CE and BCE over 30 years ago in Hebrew School, since it seemed odd to discuss history of the Jewish people, while in synagogue, using direct references to the centrality of Christianity in every day life.

So it’s not recent and not just “PC” but represents a fundemental way of viewing the world from a non-Christian point of view.

OK then, carry on.

We Neo-pagans tend to use it as well. Though I first encountered it at university, long before I knew that Neo-pagans existed.

:: makes mental note to ask Zoroastrian friend to find out what he uses. ::

Re: dating from the accession of the current king/emperor/etc:

One of the largest pagan nations, Japan, traditionally dates years from the accession of the current Emperor, and I believe this is still widely used in everyday affairs in Japanese, but they use the common era to interface with the rest of the world.

Interestingly, the custom of dating years from the start of the reign of the current monarch is also used in formal legal contexts in Canada. Laws have dates like “52 Elizabeth II”.

[Buckwheat]

Alrightee then. Well I know more now than when I started this thread! Reason I opened this can of worms is because I am reading “A Visual History of the World” put out by National Geographic, which has a timeline running along the bottom of each page. It is a hefty tome, and full of good information. However, after going through it, it seems all that man has done since the beginniing of time is kill his fellow man. A bit depressing, that.

[silenus]

@whitetho

Unfortunately, answers like this make Uncle Cecil jealous, because you should always refer to his comprehensive column first: Why is BC an English abbreviation while AD is a Latin one?

What’s he gonna do, come back from the grave and haunt me?

[CurtC]

@Polycarp

Apropos this question, wasn’t there a throwaway line in one of Cecil’s columns about a coin bearing a date like 28 BC, thrown in as a joke of sorts?

There’s an old riddle or joke or something, where someone claims to have found an old Roman coin dated 57 BC, and you get to see whether the person hearing the story figures out why this is impossible.

I don’t think Cecil started it - I think I probably heard it pre-1973, but if it was after it wasn’t much after.

[Chronos]

However, after going through it, it seems all that man has done since the beginniing of time is kill his fellow man. A bit depressing, that.

Well, that’s not all he’s done. Sometimes he kills his fellow woman, instead. Or maybe rapes her.

This isn’t helping, is it?

[Canadjun]

@CurtC

There’s an old riddle or joke or something, where someone claims to have found an old Roman coin dated 57 BC, and you get to see whether the person hearing the story figures out why this is impossible.

I don’t think Cecil started it - I think I probably heard it pre-1973, but if it was after it wasn’t much after.

The joke’s been around since I was a kid (well before 1973 ).

[CalMeacham]

Pseudolus(Looking at an offered jug of wine): Is One a Good Year?

–from the script of the movie A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Form

(I think screenwriter, playwright, and future Dr. Who Jon Pertwee was responsible for that line. I don’t think it’s in the Larry Gelbart Stage Script, but it’s been a few years.

[Scuba_Ben]

@CalMeacham

Interesting detail: There Is No Year Zero.

The reason people get this wrong is that they forget that BCE/BC is year n Before, and CE/AD is year n of. Or for us tech types, it’s one-based indexing; a reference to year zero will crash the calendar application.

[Keeve]

@Captain Amazing

For instance, in the Jewish calendar, today is the 27th day of Shevat in the year 5767. That’s because the Jewish calendar dates from the creation of the world, which, traditionally, Jews believe was 5767 years ago.

@FatBaldGuy

Did the Jews actually use this calendar in ancient times, or is it a fairly modern invention? I don’t think that this method of referring to years is ever referenced in the Old Testament.

Yes, you’re basically correct.

All over the Jewish Bible, the years were numbered by the reign of the current king. At some point Jews switched to numbering years counting from the destruction of the Temple in 70 CE. At some point (I think around 500-700 years ago) we switched to counting from Creation, and that’s what is still used currently.

[Alive_At_Both_Ends]

@Sunspace

One of the largest pagan nations, Japan, traditionally dates years from the accession of the current Emperor

Depends what you mean by “traditionally”. Although the Japanese system of year-periods dates from the Taika Reform in 645, the periods have only coincided with imperial reigns since the Meiji Restoration in 1868. Before then there could be several year-periods per reign, though it’s true that a new one was invariably proclaimed at the start of each reign.

[Buckwheat]

Wait a minute. You mean that box of gold coins I dug up in the desert, that were all stamped 53 BC are fake?!?!?!?!
(Can I still sell them on E-Bay?)

[Buckwheat]

@FatBaldGuy

Of course, the problem with having BC stand for Before Christ and AD for After Death, is that it leaves about 33 years unaccounted for (the years between the birth and death of Christ).

Now it is becoming politically correct to use the terms CE and BCE (Common Era and Before Common Era) to avoid any reference to religion when referring to dates.

P.S. On preview, it looks like I need to type faster.

OK, now this answer and explanation did a lot to fight my ignorance. It makes perfect sense that 33 years would be lost in my calculation, something that I totally overlooked.
Thanks FatBaldGuy!