METHOD OF REDUCING OTHER EPOCHS TO THAT OF THE BIRTH OF CHRIST. SINCE the plan of establishing a fixed epoch has been generally adopted, different nations have employed different points of time from which to begin their chronological reckonings. The Greeks reckoned principally by Olympiads, or cycles of four years; the time which elapsed between each celebration of the Olympic games. These began to be regularly observed 776 B.C. The Romans dated their year from the founding of their city, 753 B.C. The Jews, since the year of our Lord 1040, have dated from the creation of the world, 4004 B.C. Before that time, they dated from the taking of Babylon by Seleucus, 312 B.C., which they called the Era of contracts. Christians have dated from the birth of Christ since the year 527, when Dionysius Exiguus, a Roman abbot, fixed the vulgar era of that event. Before that period, they reckoned first from the foundation of Rome, and afterwards, on account of the persecution by Dioclesian, by the Dioclesian era, A.D.284. The Mahometans reckon from the Hegira, or flight of Mahomet from Mecca to Medina, which took place A.D. 622. The Persians reckon from the death of Yesdegird, the last Persian monarch of the Magian religion, A. D. 632. The Julian period is an imaginary era in chronology, used principally for reckoning the year before Christ. It consists of 7980 years, and is found by multiplying the solar cycle of twenty-eight years by the lunar cycle of nineteen years, and the Roman indiction of fifteen years. This period is supposed to begin seven hundred and ten years before the vulgar epoch of the creation, or 4714 " B.C., and is not yet completed. It was invented by Joseph Scaliger, for the purpose of reconciling the various opinions of chronologers, and is called Julian, because its years are of the length which was fixed by Julius Cæsar. To reduce Olympiads to the year before Christ, subtract one Olympiad from the Olympiads, and one year from the years, if there be any, then multiply the Olympiads by four, and add in the years; the product will be the year from the commencement of the Olym * The necessity of this will appear if we consider that it is always the current year of the current Olympiad which is mentioned, and that, for reducing it into another era, we must calculate only by the number of Olympiads and years already actually passed. piads, which subtract from 776, and the remainder will be the answer. Thus the Peloponnesian war began in the second year of the eighty-seventh Olympiad, in what year before Christ? To reduce the year B.C. to Olympiads, the process must be reversed; the given year must be subtracted from 776, the result must be divided by 4, and one added to it for the current Olympiad, and one for the current year. Thus : Socrates was put to death in the year 400 B.C. In what Olympiad? 776 400 4) 376 94 1:1 Ans. Ol. 95: 1 To reduce the year of Rome to the year before Christ, take one from the date, and subtract the quotient from 753; the remainder will be the answer. Thus : The first Punic war began in the 490th year of Rome; in what year before Christ? To reduce the year B.C. to the Julian period, or the Julian period to the year B.C., take one from 4714, the supposed date of its commencement before Christ, then subtract the given date from 4713; the remainder will be the answer. Thus : The first captivity of the Jews happened 606 B.C., in what year of the Julian period? To find the year of the Julian period of any date since Christ, the date must be added to 4713. Thus: The Reformation began in the year 1517, in what year of the Julian period? 4713 Ans. 6230 A CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE OF THE PRINCIPAL EVENTS RECORDED IN ANCIENT HISTORY. CHRONOLOGY OF THE WORLD FROM THE CREATION TO THE TENTH CENTURY BEFORE CHRIST. 2469 2442 2349 God informs Noah of the deluge, and commissions him to warn mankind. Shem, the second son of Noah born. Methuselah dies, and the world is destroyed by a flood*. * Several authors, who have formed calculations on the subject, suppose that upon a moderate computation, the population of the world, at the time of the Flood, amounted to at least two millions of millions: a number very far exceeding that of its present inhabitants, which is probably about eight hundred millions. See Shuckford's Sacred and Profane History Connected, vol. i. |