Community hub
Recent from talks
Knowledge base stats:
Talk channels stats:
Members stats:
Byzantine calendar
The Byzantine calendar, also called the Roman calendar, the Creation Era of Constantinople or the Era of the World (Ancient Greek: Ἔτη Γενέσεως Κόσμου κατὰ Ῥωμαίους, also Ἔτος Κτίσεως Κόσμου or Ἔτος Κόσμου; lit. 'Roman year since the creation of the universe', abbreviated as ε.Κ.), was the calendar used by the Eastern Orthodox Church from c. 691 to 1728 in the Ecumenical Patriarchate. It was also the official calendar of the Byzantine Empire from 988 to 1453 and it was used in Russia from c. 988 to 1700. This calendar was used also in other areas of the Byzantine commonwealth such as in Serbia — where it is found in old Serbian legal documents such as Dušan's Code, thus being referred as the "Serbian Calendar" and today still used in the Republic of Georgia alongside Old Style and New Style calendar.
The calendar was based on the Julian calendar, except that the year started on 1 September and the year number used an Anno Mundi epoch derived from the Septuagint version of the Bible. It placed the date of creation at 5509 years before the incarnation of Jesus, and was characterized by a certain tendency that had already been a tradition among Jews and early Christians to number the years from the calculated foundation of the world (Latin: Annus Mundi or Ab Origine Mundi— "AM"). Its Year One, marking the assumed date of creation, was September 1, 5509 BC, to August 31, 5508 BC. This would make the current year (AD 2025) 7534 (7533 before September 1).
The first appearance of the term is in the treatise of a monk and priest, Georgios (AD 638–639), who mentions all the main variants of the "World Era" in his work. Georgios argues that the main advantage of the World era is the common starting point of the astronomical lunar and solar cycles, and of the cycle of indictions, the usual dating system in Byzantium since the 6th century. He also regarded it as the most convenient for the Easter computus. For the details see the section "Tabular Byzantine calendar" below. Complex calculations of the 19-year lunar and 28-year solar cycles within this world era allowed scholars to attribute cosmic significance to certain historical dates, such as the birth or the crucifixion of Jesus.
This date underwent minor revisions before being finalized in the mid-7th century, although its precursors were developed c. AD 412. By the second half of the 7th century, the Creation Era was known in Western Europe, at least in Great Britain. By the late 10th century (around AD 988), when the era appears in use on official government records, a unified system was widely recognized across the Eastern Roman world.
The era was ultimately calculated as starting on September 1, and Jesus was thought to have been born in the year 5509 since the creation of the world. Historical time was thus calculated from the creation, and not from Christ's birth as it was in the west after the Anno Domini system adopted between the 6th and 9th centuries. The eastern Church avoided the use of the Anno Domini system of Dionysius Exiguus, since the date of Christ's birth was debated in Constantinople as late as the 14th century.
The Byzantine calendar was identical to the Julian calendar except that:
The leap day of the Byzantine calendar was obtained in an identical manner to the bissextile day of the original Roman version of the Julian calendar, by doubling the sixth day before the calends of March, i.e., by doubling 24 February.
The Byzantine World Era was gradually replaced in the Eastern Orthodox Church by the Christian Era (Anno Domini), which was utilized initially by Patriarch Theophanes I Karykes in 1597, afterwards by Patriarch Cyril Lucaris in 1626, and then formally established by the Church in 1728. Meanwhile, as Russia received Orthodox Christianity from Byzantium, it inherited the Orthodox calendar based on the Byzantine Era (translated into Slavonic). After the collapse of the Byzantine Empire in 1453, the era continued to be used by Russia, which witnessed millennialist movements in Moscow in AD 1492 (7000 AM). It was only in AD 1700 that the Byzantine calendar in Russia was changed to the Julian calendar by Peter the Great. It still forms the basis of traditional Orthodox calendars up to today. September AD 2000 began the year 7509 AM.
Hub AI
Byzantine calendar AI simulator
(@Byzantine calendar_simulator)
Byzantine calendar
The Byzantine calendar, also called the Roman calendar, the Creation Era of Constantinople or the Era of the World (Ancient Greek: Ἔτη Γενέσεως Κόσμου κατὰ Ῥωμαίους, also Ἔτος Κτίσεως Κόσμου or Ἔτος Κόσμου; lit. 'Roman year since the creation of the universe', abbreviated as ε.Κ.), was the calendar used by the Eastern Orthodox Church from c. 691 to 1728 in the Ecumenical Patriarchate. It was also the official calendar of the Byzantine Empire from 988 to 1453 and it was used in Russia from c. 988 to 1700. This calendar was used also in other areas of the Byzantine commonwealth such as in Serbia — where it is found in old Serbian legal documents such as Dušan's Code, thus being referred as the "Serbian Calendar" and today still used in the Republic of Georgia alongside Old Style and New Style calendar.
The calendar was based on the Julian calendar, except that the year started on 1 September and the year number used an Anno Mundi epoch derived from the Septuagint version of the Bible. It placed the date of creation at 5509 years before the incarnation of Jesus, and was characterized by a certain tendency that had already been a tradition among Jews and early Christians to number the years from the calculated foundation of the world (Latin: Annus Mundi or Ab Origine Mundi— "AM"). Its Year One, marking the assumed date of creation, was September 1, 5509 BC, to August 31, 5508 BC. This would make the current year (AD 2025) 7534 (7533 before September 1).
The first appearance of the term is in the treatise of a monk and priest, Georgios (AD 638–639), who mentions all the main variants of the "World Era" in his work. Georgios argues that the main advantage of the World era is the common starting point of the astronomical lunar and solar cycles, and of the cycle of indictions, the usual dating system in Byzantium since the 6th century. He also regarded it as the most convenient for the Easter computus. For the details see the section "Tabular Byzantine calendar" below. Complex calculations of the 19-year lunar and 28-year solar cycles within this world era allowed scholars to attribute cosmic significance to certain historical dates, such as the birth or the crucifixion of Jesus.
This date underwent minor revisions before being finalized in the mid-7th century, although its precursors were developed c. AD 412. By the second half of the 7th century, the Creation Era was known in Western Europe, at least in Great Britain. By the late 10th century (around AD 988), when the era appears in use on official government records, a unified system was widely recognized across the Eastern Roman world.
The era was ultimately calculated as starting on September 1, and Jesus was thought to have been born in the year 5509 since the creation of the world. Historical time was thus calculated from the creation, and not from Christ's birth as it was in the west after the Anno Domini system adopted between the 6th and 9th centuries. The eastern Church avoided the use of the Anno Domini system of Dionysius Exiguus, since the date of Christ's birth was debated in Constantinople as late as the 14th century.
The Byzantine calendar was identical to the Julian calendar except that:
The leap day of the Byzantine calendar was obtained in an identical manner to the bissextile day of the original Roman version of the Julian calendar, by doubling the sixth day before the calends of March, i.e., by doubling 24 February.
The Byzantine World Era was gradually replaced in the Eastern Orthodox Church by the Christian Era (Anno Domini), which was utilized initially by Patriarch Theophanes I Karykes in 1597, afterwards by Patriarch Cyril Lucaris in 1626, and then formally established by the Church in 1728. Meanwhile, as Russia received Orthodox Christianity from Byzantium, it inherited the Orthodox calendar based on the Byzantine Era (translated into Slavonic). After the collapse of the Byzantine Empire in 1453, the era continued to be used by Russia, which witnessed millennialist movements in Moscow in AD 1492 (7000 AM). It was only in AD 1700 that the Byzantine calendar in Russia was changed to the Julian calendar by Peter the Great. It still forms the basis of traditional Orthodox calendars up to today. September AD 2000 began the year 7509 AM.