CHRONOLOGY. 



It was appointed merely for the regulation of 

 certain payments by the subjects of the empire ; 

 but it came to be observed by the Greek Church 

 and the Venetian senate, as well as the court of 

 Rome. 



The Julian Period is a combination of the 

 solar and lunar cycles with the Indiction ; the 

 respective periods of 28, 19, and 15 years are 

 multiplied by each other, and the product, 7980 

 years, is what is called the Julian period, during 

 which there cannot be two years having the same 

 numbers for the three cycles ; but at the termina- 

 tion of this period they return in the former order. 



The year 1872 is the 65851!! of the Julian period; 

 hence it began about 700 years previous to the 

 date vulgarly assigned to the creation of the 

 world, and has been used instead of that era, to 

 obviate the disputes of chronologers, and to re- 

 concile their systems ; for all agree as to the 

 year in which the Julian period began. 



EPOCHS AND ERAS. 



In early times, when there was little mutual 

 intercourse between different countries, it was 

 natural for each nation to take as a starting-point 

 in their annals some event of signal importance 

 in their eyes. This event would form an epoch, 

 so named from a Greek word signifying to stop. 

 The enumeration and series of years computed 

 from an epoch is called an era; and accordingly 

 of epochs and eras there have been almost as 

 many as there have been of nations. As the eras 

 of ancient nations, however, have become obsolete, 

 it would be useless, as it is here impossible, to 

 enumerate all that we know of, or even any great 

 number of them. But we shall notice a few of the 

 most important in the meantime, reserving the 

 names of all the other principal eras to be after- 

 wards presented together in a tabular form. 



The Era of the Olympiads is the first on record, 

 and it also became the most celebrated of the 

 ancient methods of computing lengthened periods 

 of time. It took its rise amongst the Greeks 776 

 years before the birth of Christ. Public games 

 had been instituted at Olympia, a city in Elis, 

 which took place every fourth year, at the recur- 

 rence of the full moon after the summer solstice 

 namely, about the beginning of our July. As this 

 festival made a great impression on the public 

 mind, the people began to reckon by Olympiads, 

 or recurrences of the Olympic games an Olym- 

 piad comprising four years. The computation by 

 Olympiads ceased after the 364th Olympiad, in 

 the 44Oth year after the birth of Christ, as usually 

 computed. The Greeks latterly adopted a new 

 era, called 



The Era of Seleucus, or the Seleucidce, some- 

 times also called the era of Alexandria. This era 

 commenced twelve years after the death of Alex- 

 ander the Great, at the first conquest (312 B.C.), 

 by Seleucus Nicator, of that part of the east 

 which afterwards formed the immense empire of 

 Syria. This era has also prevailed, and still 

 exists, amongst the people inhabiting the Levant. 

 The Jews reckoned by it till the fifteenth century 

 of the Christian era, when they substituted the 

 supposed era of the Creation, to be afterwards 

 noticed ; and they still begin their year according 

 to it, in the month of September or October. 



The Roman Era was reckoned by the Romans 



from the epoch of the foundation of their famous 

 city Rome, an epoch taken to correspond to the 

 753d year before the birth of Christ. The compu- 

 tation of time by the Roman era ceased in the 

 sixth century of the Christian era. 



The Christian Era, of which we now live in the 

 i872d year, was not adopted as a mode of time- 

 reckoning immediately after the commencement 

 of Christianity. The era of the Olympiads, 

 the Roman era, the era of Seleucus, and the 

 dates of ecclesiastical councils, and other events 

 then considered of importance, were the common 

 modes of reckoning, and continued partially to 

 be so till a period less remote than many 

 people suppose. Even in Italy, and its cele- 

 brated capital, Rome, which became the chief 

 seat of Christianity at a very early period, this 

 era was not used till the sixth century. It 

 was introduced into France in the seventh, but 

 not fully established till the eighth century. In 

 Spain, though occasionally adopted in the eleventh, 

 it was not uniformly used in public instruments 

 till after the middle of the fourteenth century, nor 

 in Portugal till about the year 1415. Now, how- 

 ever, all nations professing Christianity have 

 abandoned other eras, and confined themselves to 

 this ; using the Latin words Anno Domini, ' the 

 year of our Lord,' or their initial letters A.D. to 

 distinguish it ; while, for all dates previous to the 

 generally received epoch of the era, the words 

 Anno ante Christum, 'the year before Christ,' 

 their abbreviation A.A.C. or more usually the 

 letters B.c. signifying 'before Christ,' are used. 

 The birth of Christ is now believed to have actu- 

 ally taken place four years earlier than the date 

 fixed for it when this mode of reckoning was intro- 

 duced. 



The Era of the Hegira commences at the epoch 

 of the flight of Mohammed from Mecca to Medina, 

 which took place on the i6th day of July 622 A.D. 

 The Mohammedan year is regulated by this event ; 

 hence it is used by the Turks, Arabs, and other 

 Mohammedans, comprising a large portion of the 

 modern population of the world. 



The Mundane Era, or era of the creation of the 

 world, has been the subject of much controversy. 

 As many as 300 different opinions, according to 

 Kennedy, in his Scriptural Chronology, have been 

 entertained regarding the period which elapsed 

 between the creation and the incarnation. Some 

 have made it 3616 years ; others 6484. From the 

 creation to the deluge, the computation of the 

 Hebrew text makes a lapse of 1656 years ; the 

 Samaritan version only 1307 ; the Septuagint 

 2262. No ancient chronologist attempted to fix 

 the epoch of the creation : some conceived it 

 impious to do so. In modern times, the impiety 

 has been supposed to lie all the other way. But 

 some enlightened commentators have been bold 

 enough to return to the ancient orthodox idea, so 

 far at least as to maintain that the Scriptural 

 epoch of the creation is indefinite, being merely 

 cursorily alluded to in the words, ' In the begin- 

 ning God created the heavens and the earth.' 

 Geologists, in general, also adopt this wide inter- 

 pretation. In the authorised version of the Bible, 

 however, the chronology usually given places the 

 epoch of the creation in the year 4004 B.c Thus, 

 i A.D. is 4004 A.M. ; the letters A.M. being used as 

 an abbreviation of Anno Mundi, 'year of the 

 world.' 



