What's the historical fact concerning B.C. and A.D.?

Question

Can someone enlighten me concerning historical fact of how our calendaring system came about? Particularly on B.C. (before Christ) and A.D. (can't remember what acronym stands for). Who came up with this and how was it adopted? During Julias Caesar's time, was it really known as 50 B.C. in Rome or did they have another calendaring system?

Answer 1

It took awhile, but I think I found it. The system was created by a monk named Dionysius Exiguus in Rome in 525. Read the origins in the link below. It can tell about better than me.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anno_Domini

Answer 2

A.D. stands for Anno Domini; in Latin the literal translation is "The Year of Our Lord". A.D. and B.C. are used in the Gregorian calendar system and during the time of the Romans, the Julian calendar was used. The Gregorian calendar is a modified version of the Julian calendar. A Calabrian doctor, Aloysisu Lilius, proposed the calendar which was decreed by Pope Gregory XIII for whom the Gregorian calendar is named on February 24, 1582 during the Papal Bull Inter Gravissimas. It was proposed because the mean year in the Julian calendar is too long and was affecting the actual computation date of the vernal equinox and Easter; it dropped some days and brought the calendar back into synch.

Answer 3

Hi,

kepjr100 and others I believe are correct about BC and AD. BC means Before Christ and Anno Domini is Latin for "In the year of the Lord.

The other question you hav asked has not been really answered.

During Julius Caesar's time, 50BC was not known as 50BC. The way a Roman would have usually dated a year was by the Consuls.

OK, Consuls were the normal heads of the Roman government. There were two of them and they were elected every year. How did it work? Ok, let's say Julius Caesar and Marcus Brutus were elected for the year "50BC." Instead of saying this is 50BC or whatever, they would say this is the year of the Consuls Julius Caesar and Marcus Brutus. Next year, (51BC) let's say that Lucius Sulla and Gaius Marius became Consuls. That year would be known as the year of the Consuls Lucius Sulla and gaius Marius. This was the main way of keeping tabs on the years during Caesar's time.

I hope that answers your other question.

Demociticus

Answer 4

www.history.com
Julius Caesar changed the calendar while he was in power but he did not know anything about Jesus. But after this time Jesus was born and during the time of Augustus, was the crucifiction of Christ, Christos(Greek), All translations came through Greece of the Christian Bible. Translated from Aramaic, Hebrew and Latin. BC meaning before Christ and AD meaning After Descention. These dates you must look up, I believe that you will find that our scientists proved that Jesus was born on April 7th two thousand and six years ago. And the exact day of his death was somewhere around the same time, but a little sketchy. For the biblical knowledge of his rising differs and no one really knows exactly.

Answer 5

Dionysius Exiguus
(Dennis the Little, meaning humble)
(c. 470 – c. 540)
He was a 6th century Dacian monk born in Scythia Minor, in what is now the territory of Dobruja, Romania.

Dionysius Exiguus
die-uh-nish-e-us _ egg-zig-u-us

Inventor of BC and AD.
His invention of BC and AD came about while he was trying to establish the exact day of Easter.

Exiguss began his calculation at
753 AUC (ab urbe condita)
the years passed since the foundation of the city of Rome, which he believed to be the year of the birth of Jesus Christ from the accounts in the New Testament.

BC = Before Christ
(Before Jesus Christ’s birth)
(Latin = ante Christum)

AD = Anno Domini
(The year of our Lord)

CE = Common Era
BCE = Before Common Era


The abbreviation CE is a standard way of denoting dates in scholarly literature. The year 1 CE is the same as the year 1 AD and BCE is the same as the year BC


The use of BC and AD didnot come into use at the time of Exiguus' invention. It was not until the 10 century that it became in common use.

Answer 6

well, I know for a fact that AD doesn't mean "after death" because Jesus died in like 34 AD or something... not sure of the number. So yeah that wouldn't make sense.

It stands for something Latin. I think it's Anyo Diminio and it translates to something like The Years of the Lord, which makes mucho sense.

And, haha, think about this:

In the BC times, how would the people then know that Christ would exist in the future? How could they say that their time was "Before Christ" if Christ wasn't there yet? :P

So, it would be impossible to say back then that they lived in BC. They would've had another calendar system, of course... but I don't know what it consisted of.

Answer 7

B C means before Christ and A D means Anno Domini = the year of the lord (Cristian term coming out of the Latin language).

To answer the rest of your question and if you really want to get much more confused than what you are about our calendar just go to Yahoo search and type Calendars. But please don't blame me about the mess that you are going to discover.

Happy reading,

NDS.

Answer 8

Dear hope this will help you, i don't know the historical fact but i know that A.D means anno domini.

Answer 9

before christ
anni/anno domine