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!
North Korea is at 113; they use their own calendar.
I now realise that I know absolutely nothing of Korean history
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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.
Some humour transcends lifetimes, we were carving dicks into walls before the first century.
"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."
In more official settings they would also use the year "ab Urbe condita", meaning "since the City's founding" (city being Rome).
59BC should be around 694 aUc if my numbers are right.
Depends on where in the world, but most dating systems were reginal, that is what year of what monarch/pharaoh/emperor's reign.
Depends on who's calendar... haha
Same.. took me a moment. Then I realized in 59 B.C. it was like year 700 to them at that time (not literally 700.. just throwing a random number).
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.
Probably a celebrating Zeusdays
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.
59 BC is actually pretty close to coptic I'd bet for spoken language (though officially it wouldn't be called coptic with consistent Greek script until the third century). At least in the sense that vulgar Latin was close to Italian.
Yeah but Mrmule was talking at us in English, see?
Wikipedia says 695 Ab urbe condita.
In the Roman empire it was also common to identify years by the names of the two consuls, because the consuls served one year terms.
Consuls continued to be elected through most of the empire period.
The system would also work in the UK the past few years.
Pretty sure they would respond, "Get away from me, demon! Stop talking in tongues!"
I'm pretty sure the concept of somebody speaking another language from you existed back then.
Get away from me, demon! Stop talking in tongues!
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How do we know they mean BC as in "Before Christ" and not BC as in "Before Cambrian?"
Because they're speaking modern English.
Except that person is a time traveler, so they would be speaking modern English regardless
Before Cosby
Before he was famous or before he was infamous? 🤔
Jelly
Lol
"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.
Or else, you didn't travel anywhere (anywhen?) and the first guy you bumped into is a wise-ass.