Dating the years in Ancient Rome

[guy]

Here's a short video on how the Ancient Romans dated the year. Although simplified, it's very informative. It seems consular dating was the preferred method most of the time.

 

The Romano-Egyptians preferred regnal years (based on the year of an emperor’s reign), however. You can see this on the Romano-Egyptian coins from that period. Below is a Roman coin from Egypt dated to year two of Domitian’s reign (L = year, B = 2).

The Romano-Egyptians probably preferred dating in regnal years (instead of the consular years mentioned in the video above) because of a long-standing tradition of using regnal years in Egypt, especially favored by the Ptolemaic Dynasty, which predates the Romans' arrival in Egypt.

 

 

https://coinweek.com/coins-of-roman-egypt/

 

Here is an explanation of dating Romano-Egyptian coins.

https://www.forumancientcoins.com/numiswiki/view.asp?key=greek dates

 

There was also a system of dating based on the “ab urbe condita” (AUC), which counts the years since the city’s founding. This method was not used in daily life but for commemorative purposes, such as celebrating 1000 years since Rome’s founding. You can see this dating on a coin of Philip the Arab, which bears the inscription “SAECVLARES AVGG” or “Secular Games of the Emperors.” This coin commemorates the 1000th anniversary of Rome’s founding in 1001 AUC (AD 248).

 

 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ab_urbe_condita

Edited August 31, 2025 by guy

[guidoLaMoto]

It must have been a real PITA for Roman schoolboys taking history class, having to memorize long lists of consuls' names for the years, particularly when a consul often served multiple terms, sometimes paired with the same guy as before, sometimes not....It was probably tough enough figuring out the day of the month, what with the Kalends and the Ides falling on different days in different months, and they had no names for days of the week.....and then there's that problem of Roman numerals.....Many people don't realize it, but the reason Michaelangelo took four whole years to paint that one lousy ceiling was because it was actually a Paint by Numbers Kit but it was in Roman numerals and he kept getting confused: "Let's see now. IX. Is that 11, burnt sienna, or 9, cerulian blue?"

As long as we're at it about confusing things in ancient Rome- Latin is one of many languages for which there is no word for yes or no. They had to say "Ita est" (So it is) or "Non est verus" (It is not true)