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Science Memes @mander.xyz

Toes♀ @ani.social

11mo ago

What year is it?

51 comments

Took me a second
They wouldn't call the year 59 bc in 59 bc
- 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
  
  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".
  
  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.
- Consulship of Caesar and Bibulus - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/59_BC lists some options of how it would be called in various places
  
  I wasn't aware that every year had a wikipedia page...but I tried some others and it kinda seems like it does.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- Shenjue 3 in China
- They probably woukdn't even know their own age

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? 🤔
- "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.

If he gave you the year 113 would you know that was our current year?
- Only if they gave you the full date, otherwise it could potentially be a lot of things still.
  
  As in saying “Juche 113”?
  I don’t think common people announce it that way

51 comments