Anno Domini Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! ==Other Christian and European eras== {{further|Calendar era}} During the first six centuries of what would come to be known as the Christian era, European countries used various systems to count years. Systems in use included [[List of Roman consuls|consular dating]], imperial [[regnal year]] dating, and [[Anno Mundi|Creation dating]]. Although the last non-imperial consul, [[Anicius Faustus Albinus Basilius|Basilius]], was appointed in 541 by Emperor [[Justinian I]], later emperors through to [[Constans II]] (641β668) were appointed consuls on the first of January after their accession. All of these emperors, except Justinian, used imperial post-consular years for the years of their reign, along with their regnal years.<ref>Roger S. Bagnall and [[Klaas Worp|Klaas A. Worp]], ''[https://openaccess.leidenuniv.nl/handle/1887/11125 Chronological Systems of Byzantine Egypt] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110717092648/https://openaccess.leidenuniv.nl/handle/1887/11125 |date=17 July 2011 }}'', Leiden, Brill, 2004.{{page needed|date=November 2023}}</ref> Long unused, this practice was not formally abolished until Novell XCIV of the law code of [[Leo VI the Wise|Leo VI]] did so in 888. Another calculation had been developed by the [[Alexandria]]n monk [[Annianus of Alexandria|Annianus]] around the year AD 400, placing the Annunciation on 25 March AD 9 (Julian)βeight to ten years after the date that Dionysius was to imply. Although this incarnation was popular during the early centuries of the [[Byzantine Empire]], years numbered from it, an ''Era of Incarnation'', were exclusively used and are still used in [[Ethiopia]]. This accounts for the seven- or eight-year discrepancy between the [[Gregorian calendar|Gregorian]] and [[Ethiopian calendar]]s. Byzantine chroniclers like [[Maximus the Confessor]], [[George Syncellus]], and [[Theophanes the Confessor|Theophanes]] dated their years from Annianus' [[Genesis creation narrative|creation]] of the world. This era, called ''[[Anno Mundi]]'', "year of the world" (abbreviated AM), by modern scholars, began its first year on 25 March 5492 BC. Later Byzantine chroniclers used ''Anno Mundi'' years from 1 September 5509 BC, the [[Byzantine calendar|Byzantine Era]]. No single ''Anno Mundi'' epoch was dominant throughout the [[Christian world]]. [[Eusebius of Caesarea]] in his ''[[Chronicon (Eusebius)|Chronicle]]'' used an era beginning with the birth of [[Abraham]], dated in 2016 BC (AD 1 = 2017 Anno Abrahami).<ref>Alfred von Gutschmid, ''Kleine Schriften'', F. Ruehl, Leipzig, 1889, p. 433.</ref> Spain and Portugal continued to date by the [[Spanish Era]] (also called [[Era of the Caesars]]), which began counting from 38 BC, well into the Middle Ages. In 1422, [[Portugal]] became the last Catholic country to adopt the ''Anno Domini'' system.<ref name=CathEncy/> The [[Era of Martyrs]], which numbered years from the accession of [[Diocletian]] in 284, who launched the most severe [[persecution of Christians]], was used by the [[Coptic Orthodox Church|Church of Alexandria]] and is still used, officially, by the Coptic Orthodox and [[Coptic Catholic Church|Coptic Catholic]] churches. It was also used by the [[Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church|Ethiopian]] and [[Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church|Eritrean]] churches. Another system was to date from the [[crucifixion of Jesus]], which as early as [[Hippolytus (writer)|Hippolytus]] and [[Tertullian]] was believed to have occurred in the consulate of the Gemini (AD 29), which appears in some [[Middle Ages|medieval]] manuscripts. Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see Christianpedia:Copyrights for details). Do not submit copyrighted work without permission! Cancel Editing help (opens in new window) Discuss this page