How Did People Count Years Before BC and AD?
Everyone used to count their years differently
What year is it? Asking for the year is a question often posed to people who have recently suffered a concussion or one that comes out of the mouth of unwilling time travelers in science fiction literature. That is because, in the current era, years are universally known and universally tracked. The world primarily uses the Anno Domini system, which is Latin for “the Year of the Lord,” and that year is based on the Gregorian calendar. It has been like this for hundreds of years.
But how did people keep track of the years before the acceptance of Anno Domini? If you asked a Roman for the year after the assassination of Julius Cesar, what would they say?
It turns out, before the fusion of the Gregorian calendar and the Anno Domini calendar era, there were many different ways to count the time.
The age of kings
The most common way to count the years was to tie the date to the current ruler, king, or emperor. This is readily apparent in many ancient texts, including the Bible. Passages will begin with the phrase “in x year of the reign of y ruler,” giving the reader the place in time. The reign of kings and emperors was carefully tracked and charted. For the learned of the…
