How Did They Keep Track of Dates Before Christ?

This is still used in Japan, where 2012 is called Heisei 24 (H24) for the 24th year of the Heisei emperor (AKA emperor Akihito).

This dating system caused me problems earlier this month, when I was trying to locate a Japanese patent application filed in 1991, but which was actually listed as being filed in H03.

Wow, I didn't know that. A similar system was used in China, too. Until Pu Yi was forced to step down...
 
Something I'm just wondering. We all know that anytime before Jesus was born was listed as B.C. and anytime after that is A.D. which goes forward. Before Christ was born however, how did they keep track of these things. I really would like to know, thanks.
The Romans used AUC. Which essentially started around 750 BC when they believe Rome was founded. The Greeks if I am not mistaken used the olympic games.
 
The real controversy was the conversion to BCE from BP, that was a slow controversial process that ended around 2000 BCE I believe.
 
The Romans used AUC. Which essentially started around 750 BC when they believe Rome was founded. The Greeks if I am not mistaken used the olympic games.

As others have said, the Romans actually very rarely used AUC- I've certainly never seen AUC used in any Roman document. They'd usually say instead "in the consulship of x and y".
 
This is still used in Japan, where 2012 is called Heisei 24 (H24) for the 24th year of the Heisei emperor (AKA emperor Akihito).

This dating system caused me problems earlier this month, when I was trying to locate a Japanese patent application filed in 1991, but which was actually listed as being filed in H03.

This is essentially what I stated earlier about the era/reign names, and is in use along with the (sexagenary cycle and) Gregorian calendar.
 
It really depends on what you are trying to achieve, and of course what country you're in. And you need to bear in mind that the idea of a universal calendar is fairly new as these things go. Most dating systems were quite insular.

Rome was not alone is designating years by consuls, it was common practice in many ancient city states to designate them by officeholders. As long as you have a good idea of provenance, you can produce viable chronologues. But papyrologists hate stray "the year of archonts X and Y" dates.

Kings frequently used regnal years, and given that the last regnal year was always unfinished (except if he managed to die exactly on its 365th day), these were often confusing in a way consular/archontal ones were not. Interestingly, regnal years never caught on in the Roman Empire where they had eponymous consuls long after the post had become purely symbolic.

Larger areas often agreed on eras such as the Olympic one, AUC, or the Sullan Era (which continued in use in the Eastern parts of the Roman Empire for a surprisingly long time). These things rearely were used widely, though. In practical terms, official or regnal years were what was used.
 
The Greeks if I am not mistaken used the olympic games.

The Greeks didn't really use anything, when it came to dating. If they dated previous years from anything, it was from the tenures of local priests or magistrates; there was no universally accepted calendar. Only later Hellenistic scholars started dating things off well-known events, like the Olympic Games or the Trojan War (yes, they had a precise date for that) Most people had no use for precise calendars, at least until Astrology got really big around about the 1st century BC.
 
Sometimes the Greeks needed to be quite certain when something happened. For example, here is a quote from a translation of “The History of the Peloponnesian War” by Thucydides, book 2, Chapter VI

“The thirty years' truce which was entered into after the conquest
of Euboea lasted fourteen years. In the fifteenth, in the forty-eighth
year of the priestess-ship of Chrysis at Argos, in the ephorate of
Aenesias at Sparta, in the last month but two of the archonship of
Pythodorus at Athens, and six months after the battle of Potidaea,
just at the beginning of spring, a Theban force a little over three
hundred strong, under the command of their Boeotarchs, Pythangelus,
son of Phyleides, and Diemporus, son of Onetorides, about the first
watch of the night, made an armed entry into Plataea, a town of Boeotia
in alliance with Athens.”
 
The Seleucids and Ptolemies each counted from the foundation of the dynasty. Not sure how they phrased it when they wrote about earlier periods.
 
I'll join the chorus of people listing pre-Christian date-tracking systems!

The ancient Egyptians measured time in the regnal years of kings. Every time a new king came to the throne, their calendar would revert to Year 1. The dates one finds on Egyptian documents/monuments tend to be formulated as "Day # of Month # of [season] of Regnal Year # under His Majesty X"... etc.
 

Wolfpaw

Banned
If you search any given date or year on Wikipedia, it will give you its version in a ton of different calendars.
 

Alkahest

Banned
In general, it depended on the region. For example, Hindus and Jews kept track from when they believed that the earth was created,
See, I think modern atheists should use that kind of dating system, one based on the age of the universe. The current year would be 13750000000 ± 110000000. Easy to remember and precise, clearly!
 
Oh, also, Roman Emperors would date their reigns by the anniversary of their assumption of Tribunician power, which always formally took place on December 10th, following Augustus' taking of that power on December 10th 23BC. Augustus' inscriptions in the provinces therefore have him beginning his reign late in 23BC, rather than early in 27BC as is modern convention.

Of course, to provincials, the Roman Emperor was always Basileus from Augustus onward, so it made sense to date by regnal year, not consular years. Dating by assumption of tribunician power was one way of cloaking imperial rule in a Republican disguise.
 

Abhakhazia

Banned
As others have said, the Romans actually very rarely used AUC- I've certainly never seen AUC used in any Roman document. They'd usually say instead "in the consulship of x and y".

Yes, during the Republic. Augustus actually restarted the calendar from the day he became Imperator, which was common during the Empire.
 
See, I think modern atheists should use that kind of dating system, one based on the age of the universe. The current year would be 13750000000 ± 110000000. Easy to remember and precise, clearly!

I think you're trying to be sarcastic here, but that could also be represented as 13.75 billion ± 110 million, and resembles the "myr" currently used in geology.

Also, based on the previous posts, it seems that era/reign names used to be common across the world, which makes sense, as rulers were generally the most important.
 
I have occasionally thought that, since it now appears that the current interglacial started very suddenly (if I recall correctly, it took less than ten years to "flip" from an ice-age climate to an interglacial climate), it could be possible to set a specific year as "year zero" of the current interglacial (CIG), presumably around 9400 BCE.

So the very early Gobekli Tepe temple complex in modern-day Turkey would have been founded sometime in the 3rd century CIG, the Black Sea Deluge would have happened in the 38th century CIG, the start of the Egyptian 1st Dynasty would be in the 65th century CIG, the so-called "Axial Age" would have been around the 88th century CIG, the reign of Charlemagne would be in the 103rd century CIG, and we would currently be in the 115th century CIG.
 
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Yes, during the Republic. Augustus actually restarted the calendar from the day he became Imperator, which was common during the Empire.

No, the consular years remained in use for a long time. You still find documents dated by consular year as late as the fifth century. Regnal years are used in privincial contexts - especially where they were customary before - but not in any official function.

It is really impossible to overstate this because Every Single School History Book I Read Gets It Wrong: There was no end of the Republic and Founding of the Empire. Augustus took a bunch of traditional powers and built himself a structure in which he was able to dominate the areas under Rome's military control while exercising enormous informal power through the Roman state's traditional institutions. He scrupulously observed the niceties of tradition (not "Republican" tradition, Rome was only thinkable as Republic and as far as he was concerned, remained it) and as late as the mid-third century, Rome considered itself res publica. This is not an antonym to imperium, it is not even in the same sphere. Imperium is something a person has. Res publica is a state. The antonym, inasmuch as there is any, to res publica is regnum, and there never was one in Rome.

What we culturally consider "The Roman Empire" was created, largely powered by its own inertia, in the two hundred years after Augustus. It took a long time, and some of its traditions are very strange indeed.
 
In many ancient countries regnal years of the kings were used for counting years. Many ancient civilizations had devised their own calendar systems. The ancient Egyptians, the Persians, the Chinese, the Indians, the Mayans etc. had their own calendars. The Muslims had developed a Lunar calendar based on the movements of the moon alone which has 354 days in a year. The Jewish calendar is a Luni-solar calendar with provision to tally the lunar months with solar years. The Buddhist calendar is also a Luni-solar calendar. Both solar and luni-solar calendars were used in India. The Egyptians and the Persians had developed advanced solar calendars. Japan, Vietnam, Thailand, Burma, Srilanka all have their own calendars.
 
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