# If you were alive in the year 326 B.C.... **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 3, 2012, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-were-alive-in-the-year-326-b-c/633514 "2012-09-03T04:04:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2012, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-were-alive-in-the-year-326-b-c/633514/21 "2012-09-03T19:34:27Z")
> [@AK84](#): > > Elizabeth II succeeded to the throne in Feb 1952. Her 50th year was from Feb 2001 to Feb 2002. Chirac became President in May 1995, his seventh year was from May 2001 to May 2002. So it proves that 9/11 was CIA. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2012, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-were-alive-in-the-year-326-b-c/633514/22 "2012-09-03T19:50:03Z")
In the traditional Hindu calendars (“Samvats”), you’d say it was 2776 or 2777 depending on what time of the year it was (it begins with the last epoch, or in 3102 BC). There are also names for the years which repeat every 60 years, but I don’t know the names of the years off the top of my head. The various puranas in which descriptions of the calendar appear are dated between 500 BC and 500 AD, so it’s hard to say exactly how the numbering system worked in 326 BC. There’s also a sort of priestly calendar which runs about 4.5 billion years (the natural lifespan of a god), and an even longer one based on the reckoning of the creator god, Brahma, which runs for trillions of years. ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2012, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-were-alive-in-the-year-326-b-c/633514/23 "2012-09-03T20:21:39Z")
> [@Leo\_Bloom](#): > > So it proves that 9/11 was CIA. More like that it was an Anglo-French plot. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![lisiate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f05b48/32.png) [@lisiate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lisiate)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2012, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-were-alive-in-the-year-326-b-c/633514/24 "2012-09-03T22:25:56Z")
> [@Wendell\_Wagner](#): > > Becky2844 writes: > > \> How incredibly complicated for historians, tho, trying to encompass all > \> structures into a viable timeline. > > In fact, fitting together all the various histories of the many different past civilizations was quite a difficult job. It took many historians many attempts over many years to fit everything together into a consistent chronology. One of those attempts was Bishop Ussher’s chronology: > > [Ussher chronology - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ussher_chronology) > > This is usually trivialized by saying that Ussher was the one that claimed that the world was created in 4004 B.C. on a specific day at a specific time, but that was only a part of his chronology (and that approximate year was nothing new). He was trying to fit together the histories of all the civilizations mentioned in the Bible to get a consistent and accurate timeline. Reconciling all the histories recorded in all the manuscripts (and other ways by which years can be established) was a huge job for many people. Or for a more modern controversy -[Immanuel Velikovsky](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ages_in_Chaos)argued that the accepted chronology for the Ancient Near East was out by some 400 years, and proposed a new chronology that elides the Greek Dark Ages from around 1200-800 BC and brings the Egyptian chronology more into line with Biblical chronology. Essentially he said that all other historians of the period had made a mistake and double counted several Egyptian dynasties. Mainstreams historians dismmissed his claims as crackpottery. ---
**Author:** ![Becky2844](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/91b2a8/32.png) [@Becky2844](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Becky2844)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2012, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-were-alive-in-the-year-326-b-c/633514/25 "2012-09-03T22:38:08Z")
Thanks all for your input; it’s very much appreciated. Thank you **Thudlow Boink** for answering “my” guestion I didn’t think to ask. Thanks **Wendell Wagner** and **lisiate** for the informative links. I learned something today. ---
**Author:** ![Becky2844](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/91b2a8/32.png) [@Becky2844](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Becky2844)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2012, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-were-alive-in-the-year-326-b-c/633514/26 "2012-09-03T22:59:34Z")
> [@Martian Bigfoot](#): > > Ancient Greek and Roman historians would sometimes use the dates and names of winners in the [Olympic games](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olympiad#Historians) as a common reference frame, which can be one trick for syncing up events, especially when years of reigns of various rulers etc. are also mentioned. > > (Btw, concerning dating by referring to rulers or administrators - note that we sometimes still do this, like when we say that something happened back in, say, the Carter administration.) So…referencing 1600 B.C. to the Middle Kingdom would be pinpointing time _and_ place by stating rulers, is that right? (I’m not pulling this out of thin air, it’s in a book I’m currently reading—_The Alexander Cipher_ by Will Adams. It’s what prompted my question in the first place.) ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2012, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-were-alive-in-the-year-326-b-c/633514/27 "2012-09-03T23:00:39Z")
> [@](#): > > Quoth **jovan** : > > And, if anyone is wondering, this system [Japanese with very short eras] is very much still in use. So, what’s the current Japanese calendar era? What event started it, and how far along are we in it? And another very useful technique for synching up different calendars is astronomical observations. The ancient Babylonians kept records of their observations of Venus and the other planets, and from those observations and our modern knowledge of astronomy, we’re able to convert their calendar down to the day. The same can be done for any other civilization that recorded the planets, and records of less-predictable events like supernovae can serve to match up calendars to each other. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2012, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-were-alive-in-the-year-326-b-c/633514/28 "2012-09-03T23:13:57Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > We don’t know exactly when Christ was born but, as **Colibri** mentions, the best guesses have him born in one of the years traditionally referred to as “B.C.” As you note, we don’t know exactly when Jesus was born, but Matthew 2:1 says he was born “during the time of King Herod”. And we know from historical records that Herod died in 4 BC. The problem is that Luke 2:1 says that Quirinius conducted a census while Mary was pregnant with Jesus. And we have historical records of Quirinius’ term as Governor and the census he conducted - and Quirinius became Governor in 6 AD and conducted the census during his first year in office. So there’s a ten year gap between Herod’s death and Quirinius’ census. One possible explanation is that Luke screwed up when he mentioned Quirinius. There had been another census conducted by a previous governor, Saturninus, in 8 BC. So if Mary was pregnant during that census, she would have given birth during Herod’s reign. I’d be willing to let Luke and Matthew slide on getting some minor details wrong. They were, after all, writing the story down around sixty years later and didn’t have Wikipedia access. But it’s a blow to the idea of biblical inerrancy. And to be fair, the historical records are not unequivocal. It’s possible that Luke and Matthew got their facts right and other writers of the period screwed up their dates. Or historians may have misinterpreted the historical references. So Herod might have been King later than we think or Quirinius might have become governor earlier than we think. ---
**Author:** ![TonySinclair](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/49beb7/32.png) [@TonySinclair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TonySinclair)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2012, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-were-alive-in-the-year-326-b-c/633514/29 "2012-09-03T23:14:33Z")
Wait a minute. So you guys are saying that my genuine Roman gold coin that is stamped “200 B.C.” is not genuine? Shit, then that guy on Ebay cheated me out of five bucks. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2012, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-were-alive-in-the-year-326-b-c/633514/30 "2012-09-03T23:48:03Z")
> [@TonySinclair](#): > > Wait a minute. So you guys are saying that my genuine Roman gold coin that is stamped “200 B.C.” is not genuine? > > Shit, then that guy on Ebay cheated me out of five bucks. I was suspicious when he told me gold used to be brown in color and there was a Roman Emperor named Abrahamus Lincolnius. ---
**Author:** ![Mangosteen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Mangosteen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangosteen)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2012, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-were-alive-in-the-year-326-b-c/633514/31 "2012-09-04T00:19:23Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > So, what’s the current Japanese calendar era? What event started it, and how far along are we in it? > And another very useful technique for synching up different calendars is astronomical observations. The ancient Babylonians kept records of their observations of Venus and the other planets, and from those observations and our modern knowledge of astronomy, we’re able to convert their calendar down to the day. The same can be done for any other civilization that recorded the planets, and records of less-predictable events like supernovae can serve to match up calendars to each other. Reminds me of the story called “The Morning of two Dawns” in ancient China. There was a legend that said one morning dawn broke as usual, but then it faded to dark night again for several minutes. Then there came a “second” dawn and the day proceeded as normal. It was thought to be just a story without any merit. In modern times someone that was examining the story said that it sounded like a total solar eclipse had happened just below the horizon. Sure enough, scientists were able to retrace all the total solar eclipses that had happened around that time in China and they found one that lined up perfectly with the story. This gave them the exact time of the event and helped them to date other historical occurrences that happened around that time with unprecedented accuracy. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2012, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-were-alive-in-the-year-326-b-c/633514/32 "2012-09-04T01:16:04Z")
> [@](#): > > I was suspicious when he told me gold used to be brown in color and there was a Roman Emperor named Abrahamus Lincolnius. Don’t be silly; that was a _Centauri_ emperor. ---
**Author:** ![coremelt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4491bb/32.png) [@coremelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/coremelt)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2012, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-were-alive-in-the-year-326-b-c/633514/33 "2012-09-04T01:45:00Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > So, what’s the current Japanese calendar era? What event started it, and how far along are we in it? Its Heisei 24 > **[Heisei era](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heisei)** > > The Heisei era (平成, Japanese: \[heːseː\] ⓘ) was the period of Japanese history corresponding to the reign of Emperor Akihito from 8 January 1989 until his abdication on 30 April 2019. The Heisei era started on 8 January 1989, the day after the death of the Emperor Hirohito, when his son, Akihito, acceded to the throne as the 125th Emperor. In accordance with Japanese customs, Hirohito was posthumously renamed "Emperor Shōwa" on 31 January 1989. > Thus, 1989 corresponds to Shōwa 64 up until 7 Janu... The Heisei era started on 8 January 1989, the first day after the death of the reigning Emperor, Hirohito. His son, Akihito, succeeded to the throne. Both dates are commonly used in Japan, my Gas and Electricity bills say 24/8 (8th month of Heisei 24) on them, while my phone bill says 12/8 ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2012, 4:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-were-alive-in-the-year-326-b-c/633514/34 "2012-09-04T04:22:02Z")
Not exhaustive, (although it can be exhausting), but there is a lot of calendar info at: > **[The Calendar Zone -- Bringing Order to Calendrical Chaos!](http://www.calendarzone.com/)** > > Comprehensive categorized calendar catalog currently > containing countless correlating connections & calzone recipes. Dates in Calendar are Closer > Than They Appear! (Formerly CalendarLand) ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2012, 5:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-were-alive-in-the-year-326-b-c/633514/35 "2012-09-04T05:25:39Z")
[Here’s an automatic calendar converter in JavaScript.](http://www.fourmilab.ch/documents/calendar/) It handles a lot of them, including the Mayan calendar, the Indian Civil calendar (somavara, Bhadra 12, 1934), the French Republican calendar (Année 220 de la République, Mois de Fructidor, Décade II Jour du Septidi), time\_t (1346630400), and the Excel Serial Day Number in both PC (41155) and Macintosh (39693) flavors. ---
**Author:** ![jovan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/0ea827/32.png) [@jovan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jovan)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2012, 6:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-were-alive-in-the-year-326-b-c/633514/36 "2012-09-04T06:14:41Z")
> [@coremelt](#): > > Both dates are commonly used in Japan, my Gas and Electricity bills say 24/8 (8th month of Heisei 24) on them, while my phone bill says 12/8 Also, in order to avoid confusion for things like birth dates, sometimes a letter is added to the year. H12 -\> Heisei 12 (2000) S12 -\> Showa 12 (1937) T12 -\> Taisho 12 (1923) M12 -\> Meiji 12 (1879) ---
**Author:** ![Freakenstein](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b782af/32.png) [@Freakenstein](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freakenstein)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2012, 8:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-were-alive-in-the-year-326-b-c/633514/37 "2012-09-04T08:09:16Z")
> [@thelurkinghorror](#): > > Romans Those Romans were crazy… Roman calendar was a horrible mess. At first they had only ten months ( [column](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/442/how-come-february-has-only-28-days) ). Romans counted the days from three points in a month, _Kalendae_ being the first day, _Nonae_ was the 5th and _Idus_ was the 14th ( in some months the 15th ). And they counted backwards 'cause they were aiming to that future date. So the second day wasn’t one after Kalendae, it was _quarta ante Nonas_ ( fourth before Nonae ). After Idus You could have something like _undevicesimus ante kalendas_ ( 19th before Kalendae ). Also 'cause they didn’t have zero, from Monday to Tuesday was two days. Lacking zero also caused that at first the leap years were every third year. Before leap years there were leap days and leap months. And of course _Pontifex Maximus_, who did the calculations, omitted or added leap months depending on what he liked the present consuls. By the 50 B.C. calendar was about 80 days ahead, so it caused trouble for example in religious ceremonies where one needed grapes that weren’t ripe until three months to the future. And finally to mess everything up they divided a day into 24 hours, day ( _dies_ ) having 12 hours ( _hora_ ) and night ( _nox_ ) other 12. But since day started at sunrise and night started at sunset, the length of hours changed every day throughout the year! No wonder that common folk didn’t care much what time it was… > [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > But it’s a blow to the idea of biblical inerrancy. No such luck, You can’t beat them. I have been solemnly told that when Luke mentions Quirinus, it’s his second term ( the first being somewhere in Herod’s time, but the Roman records of that have been lost… ) ---
**Author:** ![jovan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/0ea827/32.png) [@jovan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jovan)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2012, 8:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-were-alive-in-the-year-326-b-c/633514/38 "2012-09-04T08:44:44Z")
> [@Freakenstein](#): > > But since day started at sunrise and night started at sunset, the length of hours changed every day throughout the year! > No wonder that common folk didn’t care much what time it was… Up until the late 19th century, the same thing was true in Japan. This didn’t keep some talented inventors from making mechanical clocks that could [keep time accurately](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wadokei) even with varying hour lengths. That said, until fairly recently, I doubt many people in the west needed much more precision than “sunrise”, “sundown” and “noon”. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2012, 9:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-were-alive-in-the-year-326-b-c/633514/39 "2012-09-04T09:58:25Z")
The way I hear it told, people didn’t really move from the “first light, sunrise, midmorning, noon\*, afternoon, sundown” model until the Industrial Revolution and specifically until trains. Previously, only scientists cared about smaller divisions; with trains, being five minutes late suddenly became a huge deal. I’ve heard people of my grandparents’ generation (born 1900-1920), some of which didn’t even know the origin of the words, refer to certain parts of the day as “tertia” or “nona”, the Roman names which survive in Christian liturgy. - often indicated by the bells of a local church ---
**Author:** ![Becky2844](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/91b2a8/32.png) [@Becky2844](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Becky2844)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2012, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-were-alive-in-the-year-326-b-c/633514/40 "2012-09-04T16:17:17Z")
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