86 SYLVA CRITICA CANADENSIUM. 
“‘The era of Diocletian, which was chiefly used at that time, began with his 
reign, A.D. 284; and therefore the new era of the incarnation, A.D. 284+ 248 
=A.D. 532. Strauchius, and other chronologers, I know not upon what 
grounds, date it A.D. 527, five years earlier. 
‘‘How justly Dionysius abhorred Diocletian’s memory, may appear from 
Eusebius, who relates, that in the first year of his reign, when Diodorus the 
bishop was celebrating the holy communion with many other Christians in a 
cave, they were all immured in the earth, and buried alive! Hence, his era 
was otherwise called the Era of the Martyrs; and not from the tenth, last and 
bloodiest of the Christian persecutions by the Roman emperors, in the 19th 
year of his reign. 
“‘ Dionysius began his era with the year of our Lord’s incarnation and nativity, 
in U.C. 753, of the Varronian Computation, or the 45th of the Julian Era. And 
at an earlier period, Panodorus, an Egyptian monk, who flourished under the 
Emperor Arcadius, A.D. 395, had dated the incarnation in the same year. 
‘‘But by some mistake, or misconception of his meaning, Bede, who lived 
in the next century after Dionysius, adopted his year of. the Nativity, U.C. 753, 
yet began the Vulgar Era, which he first introduced, the year after, and made 
it commence Jan. 1, U.C. 754, which was an alteration for the worse, as making 
the Christian Era recede a year further from the true year of the Nativity.” 
As the foregoing extract sufficiently explains the motive that m- 
fluenced Dionysius, and the manner in which he introduced the new 
mode of computation, it remains for me to discuss the date of the 
Nativity, so as to indicate the errors of the date of the Vulgar 
Christian Era. 
The date of our Lord’s birth includes the year, the month, and the 
day. We shall first consider the year, and then proceed to the 
month and the day. First, it is evident that our Lord’s birth-day 
must have preceded the death of Herod, for we are told by St. 
Matthew that the return from Egypt took place “when Herod was 
dead.” If, then, we can find out the year of Herod’s death, we may 
be sure that, as “Jesus was born in the days of Herod the King,” 
the year of the birth of Jesus Christ must have been before that. 
From Josephus, Anfig. xvii. 8, § 1, it, appears that Herod died, 
having reigned thirty-four years from the murder of Antigonus, 
and thirty-seven years from the date of his appointment as king. 
The latter event (on the same authority, Avtig. xiv. 14, § 5,) was in 
the consulship of Domitius Calvinus and Asinius Pollio. Now we 
know that they were consuls in A.U.C. 714. But we also know 
(Josephus, Antig. xiv. 16, § 4,) that the death of Antigonus took place 
in the consulship of Vipsanius Agrippa and Caninius Gallus, ¢.e., im 
A.U.Q. 717; and further, there is evidence that proves that in the 
