The well-known Greek era of the Olympiads is reckoned 
from B.C. 776 ; the still better-known Latin era A.U.C. — i.e. 
the building of the city of Rome — is computed, according to 
Varro, as B.C. 753 ; or, according to Fabius Pictor, as 
B.C. 747, — the very year on which the Babylonian era of 
Nabonassar, according to the canon of Ptolemy, commenced. 
The era of the Seleucidse is dated from B.C. 312; and our own 
era, which was invented by the Roman abbot Dionysius 
Exiguus, who flourished towards the close of the sixth cen- 
tury, is computed, as is well known, from January 1, A.D. 1, 
though, probably, a few years after the true date of the birth 
of Christ. 
9. Notwithstanding the existence of the eras already men- 
tioned, and that the ancient dates (from the time of the 
Olympiads, i.e. 77 6 before to the year 238 after the received 
Christian era) have been accurately adjusted, according to the 
computation of Censorinus, who wrote during the last-named 
year, there are still differences amongst chronologers, not 
merely on such minor points as the true date of the conquest of 
Jerusalem by Titus, possibly owing to the idea of a suppressed 
consulship during the time of the Antonines, which necessarily 
affects all the intervening dates for about a century ; but such 
important and well-established events as the birth and death of 
Christ have been the subject of endless differences and contro- 
versies amongst chronologers in the present day. 
10. As the true date of the crucifixion is one of those points 
on which recent discoveries in Egypt have thrown considerable 
light, I shall take the opportunity of examining this matter in 
detail. Let me introduce this subject by expressing my full 
concurrence in the opinion expressed by Dr. Farmer in his 
valuable “ Chronological Introduction to the History of the 
Church,” in which the learned American writer seeks to prove 
“ That our Lord’s ministry began in the fifteenth year of the 
associate government of Tiberius, and the twelfth year of his 
sole reign, and was ended by His crucifixion in the nineteenth 
year of that associate government. That the year of our Lord’s 
birth preceded the common Christian era six years, having 
taken place in the 747th of Rome, the year silently adopted by 
the French Benedictines in their learned work on the ‘Art of 
Verifying Dates.’ ” (Preface, vii.) 
11. The date of the birth of Christ was very fully considered 
by Nicholas Mann about 140 years ago, in his “ Treatise ” on 
that subject ; and the conclusion at which he then arrived has 
been confirmed in a still more learned treatise published at 
Leipzig in 1869, by A. W. Zumpt, entitled “ Das Geburtsjahr 
