Took me a second
They wouldn't call the year 59 bc in 59 bc
this post was submitted on 21 May 2024
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They would probably not speak Modern English either.
Okay, honest question: what did they call it then, if anything?
Because it's not like they planned on counting down to the future "messiah's" birthday.
You have to look at non-Christian calendars.
It was 2275 in Korea.
It was 265 of the 33rd dynasty in Egypt.
It was 2 of the 180th Olympiad in Greece.
More here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/59_BC
I like the Chinese version best
辛酉年 (Metal Rooster) 2639 or 2432
Damn, so Korea went back in time? Or what are they on now? Did they hit 40K yet? Do they count in dog years? Do they inflate their numbers so it sounds cooler? Have the halfed it, when they split the country in half? I demand answers Korea!
I now realise that I know absolutely nothing of Korean history
North Korea is at 113; they use their own calendar.
The Romans named their years after who was elected Consul that year. There were two Consuls, so you'd say "in the consulship of Jones and Smith". 59BC was Julius Caesar and some other guy. The other guy was so unimportant that Romans joked by calling it the consulship of "Julius and Caesar".
Humour like that makes ancient people so much more relatable.
"Three men, a greek, a roman and a celt each get an island.
The greek writes a book about flora and fauna of his island.
The roman, realising that the island does not need to be conquered, builds a house, a road to the shore and a statue to himself.
The celt starts a fight."
Some humour transcends lifetimes, we were carving dicks into walls before the first century.
So, what would somebody say the year was if they were asked at that point?
A universal calendar hasn't been established yet so it would depend on where you are.
For example today in 59 BC under the Athenian calendar would be 17 of Thargelion, Ol.180.1
But that's a conversion that everyone knows anyways.
Consulship of Caesar and Bibulus - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/59_BC lists some options of how it would be called in various places
In Egypt they would say the 8th year of Cleopatra VII Thea Philopator
No they wouldn’t. They would say something similar BUT IN OLDE WORLDY EGYPTIAN.
How do we know they mean BC as in "Before Christ" and not BC as in "Before Cambrian?"
"Before" implies something hasn't happened yet, therefore if they know it's before "something" they must be a time traveller from some after C, whatever the C might be.