SYLVA CRITICA CANADENSIUM. 85 
modo precipue.’ Another explanation of this distinction may be given by sup- 
posing that these badges or certificates were issued in Rome on any day of the 
month on which they were applied for, especially the Calends, Nones and Ides, 
being those on which the services of the spectatores would be most required ; 
whilst in the country parts they were issued only once in the month, the day 
for such issue not being fixed, but left to the discretion of the issuing officers. 
‘Still another view may be taken, that these fessere indicated the time, not 
from which the persons holding them might act as spectatores, but for or during 
which they were empowered to discharge that duty—in the city for a specified 
day—in the country for a specified month.” 
6. About a year ago I was asked to explain an inscription that was 
stated to have been found ona stone in Syria. It was ““ANN -: 
XII:P-:C.” I suggested that there was a letter left out between 
P-C., and that the letter was V., 7.e., I read the inscription “ Ann(o) 
Duodecimo post urbem conditam,” and gave as instances Gruter, 113, 2, 
and Orelli, 3694, 3697. It appears, however, that the reading, Anno 
duodecimo post Christwm, was preferred. In this article I propose 
examining the subject, so that there may be no reason for doubt. If 
the reading which was preferred be correct, I am compelled to infer 
that the inscription was spurious, for the era—A.D., anno Domini, 
P.C., post Christum, or A.C., ante Christum—was introduced by the 
monk, Dionysius Hxiguus, in the sixth century after the birth of 
our Lord—some say in 525, others in 527, and others again in 532. 
Dionysius placed the Nativity in A. V.C. 753, and recommended the 
substitution of this mode of computation for the others that were then 
used, specially for the era of Diocletian. The following extract from 
“‘ Hales’ Chronology” may be useful : 
“Unfortunately for ancient chronology, there was ne one fixed or nniversally 
established era. Different countries reckoned by different eras, whose number 
is embarrassing, and their commencements not always easily to be adjusted or 
reconciled to each other; and it was not until A.D. 532 that the Christian Era 
was invented by Dionysius Exiguus, a Scythian by birth, and a Roman abbot, 
who flourished in the reign of Justinian. 
**The motive which led him to introduce it, and the time of its introduction, 
are best explained by himself, in a letter to Petronius, a bishop: 
*** Because St. Cyril began the first year of his eycle [of 95 years] from the 
153rd of Diocletian, and ended the last in the 247th; we, beginning from the 
next year, the 248th, of that same tyrant, rather than prince, were unwilling 
to connect with our cycles the memory of an impious [prince] and persecutor ; 
but chose rather te antedate the times of the years, from the incarnation of 
our Lord Jesus Christ, to the end that the commencement of our hope might 
be better known to us, and that the cause of man’s restoration, namely, our 
Bedeemer’s passion, might appear with clearer evidence,’ 
