This article is about the year numbering system. For the book, see Ab urbe condita (Livy).
Ab urbe condita (Latin:[abˈʊrbɛˈkɔndɪtaː]; 'from the founding of the City'), or anno urbis conditae (Latin:[ˈannoːˈʊrbɪsˈkɔndɪtae̯]; 'in the year since the city's founding'), abbreviated as AUC or AVC, expresses a date in years since 753BC, the traditional founding of Rome.[1][2] It is an expression used in antiquity and by classical historians to refer to a given year in Ancient Rome. In reference to the traditional year of the foundation of Rome, the year 1BC would be written AUC753, whereas AD1 would be AUC754. The foundation of the Roman Empire in 27BC would be AUC727. The current year AD2024 would be AUC2777.
Usage of the term was more common during the Renaissance, when editors sometimes added AUC to Roman manuscripts they published, giving the false impression that the convention was commonly used in antiquity. In reality, the dominant method of identifying years in Roman times was to name the two consuls who held office that year.[3] In late antiquity, regnal years were also in use, as in Roman Egypt during the Diocletian era after AD 293, and in the Byzantine Empire from AD 537, following a decree by Justinian.
Significance
Prior to the Roman state's adoption of the Varronian chronology – created by Titus Pomponius Atticus and Marcus Terentius Varro – there were many different dates posited for when the city was founded. This state of confusion required, for one to use an AUC date, one to pick a date as canonical. The Varronian chronology, constructed from fragmentary sources and demonstrably about four years off of absolute events c.340BC,[4] placed the founding of the city on 21 April 753BC. This date, likely arrived at by mechanical calculation but accepted by the Augustan-era fasti Capitolini, has become the traditional date.[5]
From the time of Claudius (r.AD41–51) onward, this calculation superseded other contemporary calculations. Celebrating the anniversary of the city became part of imperial propaganda. Claudius was the first to hold magnificent celebrations in honor of the anniversary of the city, in AD 47,[6][7] the eight hundredth year from the founding of the city.[8]Hadrian, in AD 121, and Antoninus Pius, in AD 147 and AD 148, held similar celebrations respectively.
In AD 248, Philip the Arab celebrated Rome's first millennium, together with Ludi saeculares for Rome's alleged tenth saeculum. Coins from his reign commemorate the celebrations. A coin by a contender for the imperial throne, Pacatianus, explicitly states "[y]ear one thousand and first," which is an indication that the citizens of the empire had a sense of the beginning of a new era, a Sæculum Novum.
The Anno Domini (AD) year numbering was developed by a monk named Dionysius Exiguus in Rome in AD525(AUC1278), as a result of his work on calculating the date of Easter. Dionysius did not use the AUC convention, but instead based his calculations on the Diocletian era. This convention had been in use since AD 293, the year of the tetrarchy, as it became impractical to use regnal years of the current emperor.[9] In his Easter table, the year AD532(AUC1285) was equated with the 248th regnal year of Diocletian. The table counted the years starting from the presumed birth of Christ, rather than the accession of the emperor Diocletian on 20 November AD 284 or, as stated by Dionysius: "sed magis elegimus ab incarnatione Domini nostri Jesu Christi annorum tempora praenotare" ("but rather we choose to name the times of the years from the incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ").[10] Blackburn and Holford-Strevens review interpretations of Dionysius which place the Incarnation in 2 BC, 1 BC, or AD 1.[11]
The year AD 1 corresponds to AUC 754, based on the epoch of Varro. Thus:
Cornell, Tim (1995). The beginnings of Rome. London: Routledge. p.73. ISBN0-415-01596-0. OCLC31515793. Varro likely arrived at 753BC by counting seven generations of 35 years from his date for the founding of the republic in 509BC.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: postscript (link)
Tacitus, Cornelius. Furneaux, Henry (ed.). Annals XI (in Latin) (1907ed.). Oxford: Clarendon Press. p.17. ludi saeculares octingentesimo post Romam conditam
Hobler, Francis (1860). Records of Roman history, from Cnaeus Pompeius to Tiberius Constantinus, as exhibited on the Roman coins. London: John Bowyer Nichols. p.222.
Blackburn, B. & Holford-Strevens, L, The Oxford Companion to the Year (Oxford University Press, 2003 corrected reprinting, originally 1999), pp. 778–780.
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