Era of This is used by some Greek historians, dating from his death 325 n.c.
Era of This begins 19 Oct. 126 B.C. To reduce it to our era, subtract it from 126 if sc., subtract 125 from it if A.D. This date is used only on medals and in the acts• of • some councils.
Era of Rome.-- The date of the foundation of Rome, as related to the Olympian-epoch, is differently assigned by different authors: by Fabius Pictor at 01. viii 1, autumn (747 sc.); by Polybius at 01. vii, 2 (750) ; by M. Porcius Cato at 01. vii, 1 (791); by Verrius Flaccus at 01. vi, 4 (752) ; by Terentius•Varre at 01. vi, (753). As all the dates were figments, each Roman writer followed which he chose, and sometimes varied from one to another. Livy generally follows Cato, sometimes Fabius Pictor; Cicero follows Varro, as does Pliny, in general; Dionysius of Halicarnassus follows Cato. The modern writers usually follow Varro, supported by Censorinus, who specifically says the festival of the Palilia in April was the anniversary of the foundation. The Romans had two kinds of year: one for business, public or private; and the consular year, which their annalists follow. The former began with the calends of January. The latter had no fixed time of beginning, but commenced with the installation of the consuls, which happened as chance and politics dictated; it is the one generally used by the Latin and Greek historians down to the 6th century A.D., however. But in the computations of the Roman era the year begins with 21 April. After Caesar's regulation of the calendar, the year began with January, much to the disgust of the Roman poets, who thought the spring was the real beginning, as, of course, it is.
Cesarean Several attempts were made to establish time eras from actions of Caesar and Augustus, one of them very success ful. The Cesarean Era of Antioch commem orated Caesar's victory at 48 sc.; it was usedEvagrius in his 'Ecclesiastical History.' The he Syrians and Greeks, however, placed its beginning 11 months apart. The Julian era began 1 45 ac., and commemo rated the reformation of the calendar by Caesar. The Era of Spain or of the commemo rated the completion 'of the conquest of Spain by Augustus, and began 1 Jan. 40 LC. ;, for many centuries it was the one era of Spain and Portu gal, and generally of the Roman provinces sub dued by the Visigoths, not only in 'the Iberian Peninsula, but in southern France and in Africa.
Several of the councils of Carthage, and that of Arles, also dated from this, though after the 9th century the year of the Incarnation was usually joined with it. It was not disused in Castile till 1382, and in Portugal not altogether till 1422 or later. The calendar being Julian, all its dates are reduced to ours by merely sub tracting 38. There was an Era of Actium, com memorating that battle, fought 3 Sept. 31 ex. The Romans began it 1 Jan. 16 Julian (30 sc.); the Egyptians, 29. August; the Eastern Greeks who used it till the 9th century), 2 September. The latter called it the Era of Antioch (not the one mentioned later), and that city struck medals with it. There was also an Augustan Era, beginning 27 sc., the year in which Augus tus received that title.
Jewish The Jews (vine under for eign rule before they had invented an epoch, or even developed periodic inagiStrates;. and their annals, except for synchronisms, are nearly as baffling as the Egyptian. Their; first internal chronology is after the Macedonian era was forced on them by the Seleucid officials; their religious matters, however, were regulated by their own calendar, in which the civil and sab batical year began as now) about the autumnal equinox, the ecclesiastical and legal year about the spring equinox. They also •made computa tions of the time from the Creation (see para graph below), but their dates do not depend on it till modern times. After the Dispersion they were obliged to conform to the periods of other nations, in order to have their festivals cele brated uniformly; and they adopted a cycle of 84 years (a transformed Greek cycle). The time of its beginning is not certain, one author placing it at 162, and another at 291 B.C. In 46 ac. the Christians adopted it, and used it par tially till the Council of Nice; they then, and the Jews in 360 A.D., substituted the metonic cycle of 19 years, which the latter still employ. Till the 15th century they continued to date from the Macedonian era; since then they have adopted a Creation era, which they date 3,760 years 3 months B.C. Their dates cannot be re duced to ours without expert knowledge of their involved calendar.