How did the Greeks and Romans count Years?

The AD/CE system we use to date the year was introduced - more or less by accident - during the Middle Ages. Before its invention, the classical world used a wide range of dating systems.
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Chapters:
0:00 Introduction
0:51 Ancient Greek Calendars
1:42 Counting by Olympiads
2:22 The Seleucid Era
2:56 Consular Dating
3:26 Ab Urbe Condita
4:28 Indictions
4:56 Christian Chronology
5:40 Anno Domini
7:00 Conclusion

[@SteinGauslaaStrindhaug]

If you lived in a society where only historians bothered with counting years, it must be quite common to lose count and not know how old you are

[@mrfester42]

I'm sure you meant to say"... it must have been quite common....

[@mrfester42]

Maybe and maybe not! Your assumption that the only way to keep count of your years is to rely on an outside system of dating seems reasonable but maybe people used some other way... which wouldn't be difficult at all. You only need to count the full change of seasons to know that a year has elapsed. Then again, maybe the fact that it wasn't so important for humankind in general to keep some sort of objective track of passing years is also indicative of the attitude of individual people in general. In other words, maybe people didn't think that way and keeping track of the exact number of passing years wasn't important to people.

[@SteinGauslaaStrindhaug]

@@mrfester42 sure, in lots of historical fiction people refer to their age as a number of summers or winters rather than years; which I'm sure is based on reality. But unless you know how many winters you have than someone else, who would you ask if you forget your count some time after 30 and your peers don't have a running count of years since some event? Especially if it's not really important how old you are.

[@AverageAlien]

people could count how many winters/summers they've been through

[@SteinGauslaaStrindhaug]

@@AverageAlien obviously, but what if they forget? I often forget my age and what year it is, but since I know I was born 1982 I can just check the year and date on a computer and just calculate it. But if I had to keep my own count without any external help I would definitely lost count by now. Heck I'm not even sure how many summers and winters this pandemic has lasted so far without calculating...

[@khakiolivedrape5446]

I have been wondering this for literal years. Whenever I asked someone they never knew either. Thank you, so much.

[@burnedbread4691]

This

[@hawaiisidecar]

No one was speaking figuratively.

[@TrvisXXIII]

Wish I payed attention in global history during high school

[@sentientflower7891]

Literal years as opposed to symbolic years?

[@khakiolivedrape5446]

@@sentientflower7891 literal

[@sotony7483]

I'm reading the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle at the moment and most of the early dates (e.g. Claudian invasion of Britain 43AD) and the regnal dates of Emperors (Western and Byzantine) seem to be two years later than historical reality. It's almost as though the news of major world events took a couple of years to arrive in Britain.

[@elfarlaur]

These dates were entered into the chronicle much much later. Much of the early dates for the AS chronicle are derived from Bede and some other sources. Chances are those sources were likely just off by a few years. They were more likely Roman sources than British ones.

[@jairoukagiri2488]

@@elfarlaur It doesn't help it seems some years, they'd change things to meet a demand, or purpose, like changing months or holidays.

[@Kabbaler]

@@jairoukagiri2488 this is exactly what makes it so hard to pinpoint an exact date especially for antiquity, I really hope someone can formulate this difference in a way to where we can be more accurate as humans

[@jovanweismiller7114]

I'm reading Bede's 'Ecclesiastical History of the English People'. Now, I'm wondering how accurate Bede is.

[@annwilliams6438]

Lol!

[@marshalleubanks2454]

The best surviving ancient chronology was that collated by the Greek-Egyptian astronomy Ptolemy, continued by his successors, and known today as Ptolemy's Canon. It is basically a King list, with Babylonian Kings to 539 BC, Persian kings from 538 to 332 BC, Macedonian kings from 331 to 305 BC, the Ptolemies from 304 BC to 30 BC, and the Roman and Byzantine Emperors afterwards. With a few exceptions due to astronomical dating, I think that if an ancient date is known precisely, it's because it can be referenced to the Canon of Ptolemy.

[@jmjk1396]

Wth

[@Texasmade74]

@Miles Doyle The only record of Nero supposedly persecuting Christians on wide scale is in Tacitus' Annals (Book XV, Sec. 44), which he wrote around 109 CE and gives no source for in his material. "Nero looked around for a scapegoat, and inflicted the most fiendish tortures on a group of persons already hated for their crimes. This was the sect known as Christians. Their founder, one Christus had been put to death by the procurator, Pontius Pilate in the reign of Tiberius. This checked the abominable superstition for a while, but it broke out again and spread, not merely through Judea, where it originated, but even to Rome itself, the great reservoir and collecting ground for every kind of depravity and filth. Those who confessed to being Christians were at once arrested, but on their testimony a great crowd of people were convicted, not so much on the charge of arson, but of hatred of the entire human race."

[@Texasmade74]

@Miles Doyle Ok Christian listen up.You can sqwauk about there being heaps of evidence for Jesus all you want but in reality there indisputably isn't at all.Firstly Josephus wrote his "Testimonum Flavium" in 71 CE and supposedly Jesus died in 33 CE so we're talking 38 years post death(not a very good source seeing as how he never met Jesus nor claimed to have met him and was a Jew).Also there no surviving works of his that date before the 11th century CE and they are all copies done by Christian monks.Then we can move on to Tacitus a pagan Roman historian(born in 56 CE) who made a brief mention of Jesus but we have to remember that he was writing at a time when many records in Rome had been destroyed by two fires so the likelihood he was writing from a document and not an urban Christian legend is slim to none.Lastly there are no other historical records of Nero killing Christians for the burning of Rome outside of Tacitus' "Annals".

[@Texasmade74]

@Miles Doyle there's absolutely nothing from Pontius Pilate that backs him being at any crucifixion of any man named Jesus and proof of a person's existence doesn't prove an event that literally no one that was supposedly there ever documented

[@Psy0psAgent]

@@Texasmade74 nice. Brutal. I think you would like the stuff I’ve found. Seems like we are on a similar path looking for evidence or collecting it on such things. I’m watching this video as part of my research and was just reading comments. Don’t know who this miles is and I don’t see any of his messages but I’m copying yours to add the info to my research. Thanks. Maybe have a look at things I’ve found, if you can find your way thru the mess. Peace.

[@The0Diddler]

i found it interesting that when the Gregorian calendar was first used the calendar was so out of wack that with the "Julian Thursday, 4 October 1582, would be followed by Gregorian Friday, 15 October 1582 (for the Spanish) " and that greece didnt change to this calendar until 1923.

[@karldubhe8619]

I laughed when I heard that people demanded their 11 days back after the change. :)

[@EdMcF1]

The Greek change meant that the Queen of England's late husband, Prince Phillip, who was born in Greece, was born in May in 1921, but later in life found his birthday had moved to June when Greece switched to the Gregorian calendar.

[@myamdane6895]

@@EdMcF1 wow that's actually really interesting

[@Lucius1958]

@@karldubhe8619 Well, they were still being charged (rent, etc.) for the full month.

[@aka99]

the gregorian calendar would make a great video topic. It was introduced within the catholics. the protestants refused a calendar introduced by the pope. with the result in the holy roman empire of german nation, catholic regions lived in other years than protestan regions. that would be if some federal states of USA would live in a certain year, while the rest of the states would live in other year.

[@bobbeckman3735]

Cool. Thanks. Happy saturnalia

[@craigkdillon]

The elephant on the Seleucus coin is interesting. It has a sloping back, rising to the front. Neither the Asian nor the African elephants have backs like that. They are level, with the Asian elephants back being arched a little. BUT -- the Wooly Mammoth had a sloping back, rising to the front. Its back legs were shorter than the forelegs. Were the elephants around at that time related to the Mammoth, and not the Indian Elephant? The Mammoth also had small ears, in reconstructions I have seen. The elephant on the coin, however, does not have long hair, but is naked like modern elephants. Was there a species or variety of elephant that had a sloping back??

[@aka99]

maybe syrian elephant. in youtube is a video called animals romans saw, but we not. or something similar titeld.

[@dr_schneeplstein2637]

unfortunately it is also possibly a minting error, you only have to look at other depictions of animals in antiquity, they aren't exactly photorealistic

[@Mockingbird_Taloa]

Could easily be a minting error/artistic license. Could also be a depiction of one of the (many) now extinct varieties of elephant that were still extant at that time (the North African elephants beloved by Carthaginians and Romans for war purposes comes to mind).

[@scott6828]

This is one of those things that's so common yet have no clue how or why we do it; Absolutely fascinating. And to explain it clearly in less than 8 minutes is an incredible talent.

[@aka99]

yes. we just accepte this. touches everyday life of everyone and we do not think about the origin. especially the gregorian calendar is interesting topic, in my opinion.

[@danjthemanj]

Now go search up leap years and why the calendar is 365 days, or why days 24 hours or why a month is a thing haha… it just keeps goin lol

[@aka99]

@@danjthemanj true, but i already searched up.

[@watchm4ker]

@@danjthemanj Year and Month are easy: Solar and Lunar cycles. Splitting the day and night into 12 parts is... A bit more obscure, since it seems like it was a "magic number" pulled from the approximate number of lunar cycles in a solar cycle. It helps that 12 is a convenient number to divvy up.

[@emilianozamora399]

​@@watchm4ker it was originally based on the lunar cycles but that didn't line up with the year, so the Julian calendar designed by Julius Caesar took the Egyptian calender, which set every month as 30 days long and had an awkward 13th month consisting of 5 days and split those days among the months, also adding leap years to automatically set the calender

[@patstokes7040]

Mr. Garrett Ryan, When I went to college in AD 1970, studying Art History, AD was still the convention in all the text books and lectures and not reserve for your plebeian class of You Tubers. We are grateful for you, and too you.

[@TristanGougeon]

Always a pleasure to hear these lectures, it's the answers we've never dreamed of to questions we've never thought of

[@thedoctor9309]

@Miles Doyle quit your bullshit spam

[@mbvoelker8448]

Fascinating. Answered questions I'd never thought to ask.

[@suecox2308]

"Ecclesiastical bile" . This is another of those things which brings me up short because I've never thought of it before. but now I know. Happy new year!

[@dshock85]

I like the idea of ...."The Holocene calendar, also known as the Holocene Era or Human Era (HE), is a year numbering system that adds exactly 10,000 years to the currently dominant (AD/BC or CE/BCE) numbering scheme, placing its first year near the beginning of the Holocene geological epoch and the Neolithic Revolution, when humans shifted from a hunter-gatherer lifestyle to agriculture and fixed settlements." -wiki......... So this year would be 12,022.....

[@slappy8941]

I think the date of the Younger Dryas Event would be the best starting point, so we could call everything YD+ or YD-

[@DevinDTV]

HE is arbitrary as fuck. no thanks. if we set a start year, it should probably be based on an event that we can confirm actually occurred specifically on that year, such as a comet passing by. there's no specific year when "humans" shifted to agriculture, as that was a centuries long process for any particular group of humans, which started at a completely different time depending on which group of humans you want to look at younger dryas is better for sure but still a long period of time so the actual start date is arbitrary and we will no doubt find evidence later which indicates a better, different start date. honestly the best start date is probably the first atomic bomb test, or something akin to that. it's an indisputable date which is completely unambiguous in significance

[@josephpostma1787]

@@DevinDTV Nice big bang idea.

[@sakakaka4064]

@@DevinDTV There are tons of discoveries and inventions that could be "the beginning" of our times. Atomic bombs, the internet, steam machine... We can even think about further events that changed the world like discovering the Americas, gunpowder or the Black Death epidemic. Choosing the the first nuclear bomb would be very arbitrary.

[@wms72]

What the hell for?

[@TheJELvlogs]

I was wondering this yesterday and considered messaging you to see if you could cover it. Incredible!

[@number3545]

This has always been a question of mine. Thank you so much for posting this!

[@vickyleather1147]

That was so interesting and “timely.” Thank you.

[@kpbattlesword6062]

Happy New year! So glad I found your channel this year. Great stuff! I was just thinking about the history of our dating system. 😊

[@mandarth9951]

Been subscribed to classic/antiquity channels for decades and not once I stopped to think this Thank You!

[@Stand_By_For_Mind_Control]

I guess I never thought about it but yeah, you wouldn't really need a 'year 0' to count upward from and a 'this event happened X years ago and this plan will happen X years from now' system would work.

[@Yezpahr]

Imagine you chiseled "3 years from now" in a rock, but nobody knows when you wrote it. Was it 2 years ago? 2 hours ago? Maybe the now could be underlined to express the now-ness of the situation at that time? Yea, a date-stamp would definitely matter.

[@tomlindsay4629]

Thanks for the education and Happy New Year!

[@andrew3448]

Great channel, I love it. Fits a sort of hole in historical KZbin videos for me with the style, brevity, and obscurity you bring with each video and topic.

[@automaticmattywhack1470]

Another fun and interesting video! Thanks for all your hard work!

[@barnettmcgowan8978]

I've always wondered about this. It was very helpful. Happy New Year!

[@americalatinastory6022]

A Happy New Year to you, dear Dr Ryan !

[@francismceachern2406]

Hey, I just wanted to say that I adore your channel and loved your book. I attribute much of my interest in Roman history to you and your content. Happy New Years!

[@je-freenorman7787]

You live in the Holy Roman Empire, fyi Al govt today is Roman

[@je-freenorman7787]

USA is a Roman corporation

[@annielam9914]

I have found my favorite KZbin channel! Thank you for the videos I found them very interesting.

[@susanhepburn6040]

Thank you very much - most interesting! Sending very best wishes for a healthy and much happier New Year for all of us!

[@playme129]

Informative and fascinating. A happy and healthy new year to one and all.

[@zacharyfindlay-maddox171]

Wow, thanks for explaining that I always wondered. I'm going to buy your book, Happy New Year!

[@oromandias]

Thanks Garrett. I look forward to your videos.

[@tensaibr]

Another great video! What a good start into the new year :)

[@nozrep]

happy new year toldinstone!

[@sherylcrowe3255]

Happy New Year 2022 🍾 Thank you for another excellent video

[@rayferrer1709]

Great channel. Happy New Yr.

[@nickkuiper32]

A toast! Up to that Told in Stone may please us with more topnotch productions👍. Happy new years

[@hankwilliams150]

An excellent video and a great way to start 2022. Thanks!

[@aka99]

agreed!

[@rickb3078]

Loving that many of the recent videos are themed to the time of the year. .

[@chocothemagnificent1019]

I look forward to your tutorials! Always interesting and informative. They're like mini master classes.

[@paulhill3187]

Most informative, as always !

[@richardglady3009]

As always, a fun and informative video. Thank you.

[@TheHerugrim]

I'm late to the party, but Happy New Year! Your channel always brightens my day.

[@Mozkonauta]

Great video! Happy new year!

[@here_we_go_again2571]

Happy New Year! Nice video :)

[@frankduff18]

Happy New Year to you Dr G and all my fellow viewers I wish you all a happy and healthy New Year

[@jovanweismiller7114]

Happy New Year, Dr Ryan!

[@lairdhaynes1986]

Thanks. Rather recently, I've been wondering about this question of when and how we got AD/BC as a dating convention. Now I know!

[@robbabcock_]

Wonderful video! It's fascinating how much our own daily lives can bias and color our perception of history. The modern world (at least in the West) is used to an almost bland uniformity to things that had a lot of variation in the past. A fitting video for NYE!

[@jayneneewing2369]

I’ve always wondered about this. Thank you very much.

[@markgrunzweig6377]

So nice, again, pefect narration!

[@daveandgena3166]

Happy New Year, Sir!!

[@zvidanyatvetski8081]

Great video, thank you so much!

[@catherion]

I love your content. Love it. So much.

[@robbieevans6536]

Very informative and entertaining.

[@pollywanda]

I must compliment you on your excellent teaching voice --- clear, well paced, and pleasant.

[@cerberus6654]

Well Dr. G, I wish you a happy new year as well. I can't thank you enough for all the thought-provoking and informative work you've presented, it's been a complete pleasure. I look forward every week to whatever you've got coming up, from the sublime to the - well, not the ridiculous but certainly sometimes the picayune, but always delightful. In modern Italian, I wish you tanti auguri.

[@aka99]

same here. should be 52 intereting themes in 2022. i bet, will feel faster reaching end of 2022, than the previours yesr(s)

[@JasonMullavey]

Happy New Year to you as well!

[@alessiorenzoni5586]

🇮🇹LUNAR CALENDAR BY NUMA POMPILIO Numa Pompilius, the II king of Rome, modified the calendar in 713 BC, adding the months January and February, that is, he added 51 days to the 304 of Romulus' calendar, to make the lunar year more closely coincide with the solar one. In January, 29 days were assigned and February 28. Of the eleven months with an odd number of days, four had 31 and seven had 29. To keep the calendar year aligned with the solar year, an intercalary month was added every now and then , Mercedonio or Mensis Intercalaris , between the first and second part of February. In fact, the mercedonio absorbed the five days of the second part of February, leaving dates and holidays unchanged. The intercalary year, with the addition of mercedonium, was 377 or 378 days, depending on whether it began the day after or two days after the Terminalia. Mercedonio was 27 days old: the ninths fell on the 5th day and the ides on the 13th day. The decision to insert the intercalary month was up to the Pontiff Maximus and generally it was inserted every other year.

[@Checobeep]

Peace to you and yours in the new year, learned one.

[@yccmzimmy]

Happy and healthy new year to you as well! :)

[@benjalucian1515]

Fascinating. Good video.

[@bread8646]

I was just thinking about this last night. Its interesting that this just came out today

[@petersurdo4984]

Well done. As usual. Happy New Year no matter how you count it.

[@jimlaguardia8185]

Love your work!

[@a.m.blackfig638]

Great content!

[@Jay_in_Japan]

I just wanted to drop by again and remind you that you have a lovely voice 😊 I fell asleep to this video yesterday for my siesta

[@akk-nd3vj]

so many systems. happy new year which ever u use.

[@madiantin]

Happy New Year! Hope it's a really good one for you.

[@guyarrol582]

Happy New Year!

[@moonriseproductions]

I'm watching this on January 1st 2022 and the info is still valid. Good luck this year y'all!

[@aka99]

same here.

[@coffeeNTrees]

happy new year!

[@katariinavainio4828]

Thankyou so much for these videos! Have you any idea why The Olympiade is four years? We have been pondering this in my latin group. Felicem bonum annum exoptans!

[@toldinstone]

You're very welcome. The Olympiad was just the four-year interval between one Olympic Games and the next. As for why that four-year interval was chosen in the first place - I'm really not sure. I think scholars assume that it had a sacred significance.

[@TheDuc069]

First, thank you so so much for covering this 😃. I might have to watch it a few times before really understanding. Second, thank you for making this year slightly bearable with your awesome videos. Third, to you and your family have a Happy and a Healthy New Year.

[@saltymcsaltface]

I second that

[@cherylsmith4826]

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU TOO

[@synicyst9925]

A happy and healthy new year to you too.

[@Jesse_Dawg]

Another great video

[@urielmartinez6279]

Happy New Year fellow toldinstone fans!

[@aka99]

happy new year too!

[@sanpedrosilver]

Happy New Year 🎊

[@secretagent86]

i learned a lot. great video

[@michelbuchsenmann4355]

Hey Toldinstone! Another great video

[@toldinstone]

Glad to hear it! I haven't done any videos on Roman law yet, but I hope to make at least one in the relatively near future.

[@DoubleCracker]

Great stuff, great channle, great guy, great community, great everything

[@m136dalie]

Great video, not too long and covers some interesting things

[@aka99]

his video How a horseshoe led to rome most distant bsttlefield, is aldo great. it is about a battle romans won against german tribes in the year 235.

[@dersitzpinkler2027]

Thank you for all the wonderful videos! Glad to have found you in 2021 and I’m looking forward to what the new year holds for your channel

[@aka99]

same

[@apollion888]

KZbin recommended this, glad it did. Now subscribed :-)

[@njm3211]

Fascinating. Thanks

[@izzzzzz6]

Finally. A decent explanation. I was wondering what the year was before AD or if people were even keeping count. What was going on in Asia regarding counting years and how did the entire world eventually adopt AD? I'm assuming this took place over many centuries.

[@morgunlenghiem1786]

Happy New Years to you too good sir! Recently found your channel and in love with contents

[@jonathanmedina3825]

Finally someone answers this question for me!

[@haroldwing3960]

favorite content creator on youtube

[@randyjones3050]

Another aspect to consider is that ancient people likely didn't need a universal dating system since they lived in pre-industrial agrarian economies. The world of pre-industrial humans changed little from one year to the next compared to modern times. Having precise systems for dating became much more important as economies grew much more advanced and technology developed. Modern society literally could not function without a common dating system. Our current dating system may have unusual origins, but it works which is really all that matters.

[@klapsigaarenbasgitaar1931]

What an excellent item, as usual.

[@WelcomeToDERPLAND]

I've thought about this question SO MUCH! Thanks for finally answering the question for me; my laziness to actually research it myself kept me putting off over and over.

[@petersumerauer]

Have a happy new year! Look out for further questions about history that we all can appreciate your answers. Best wishes!

[@dharmapersona2084]

Men calculate in Years Legends calculate in Yugas and Kalpas

[@sophiaperkins7617]

The best new years gift

[@sevelofficial2696]

I love your videos! This is something I thought about in my two classes about Rome but never asked and thank you for this. Happy New Year to you!!

[@dj-jn7qs]

Happy new year to all!

[@menaseven9093]

Nice video

[@rayoflight62]

This is a very interesting sector of history that deserves more attention and study. Not like the group of "Cancel History" that attempt revisionism with the excuse of Universality, like those wanting to cancel "Before Christ" and "After Christ" and replace with "Common Era"... What that even means? History is a delicate and important subject of study, as it informs all the decisions and policies of the future. For this reason, every form of revisionism is potentially very dangerous. Thank you for the excellent video, that I were late to watch. Greetings, Anthony

[@ivatarek]

Often times I assume treatments for illnessess in the ancient world only made them worse, could you make a video on genuinely effective treatments for various illnessess invented by the ancient greeks and romans?

[@Sara3346]

@Miles Doyle Use paragraph breaks and stay on topic or be ignored.

[@jrpeet]

Really interesting