Ab urbe condita

Ab urbe condita (; 'from the founding of the City'), or (; 'in the year since the city's founding'), abbreviated as AUC or AVC in Classical Latin inscriptions, expresses a date in years since 753 BC, the traditional founding of Rome. It is an expression used in antiquity and by classical historians to refer to a given year in Ancient Rome. In reference to the traditional year of the foundation of Rome, the year 1 BC would be written AUC 753, whereas AD 1 would be AUC 754. The foundation of the Roman Empire in 27 BC would be AUC 727. The current year AD would be AUC .

Usage of the term was more common during the Renaissance, when editors sometimes added AUC to Roman manuscripts they published, giving the false impression that the convention was commonly used in antiquity. In reality, the dominant method of identifying years in Roman times was to name the two consuls who held office that year. In late antiquity, regnal years were also in use, as in Roman Egypt during the Diocletian era after AD 293, and in the Byzantine Empire from AD 537, following a decree by Justinian.

Use

Prior to the Roman state's adoption of the Varronian chronology – created by Titus Pomponius Atticus and Marcus Terentius Varro – there were many different dates posited for when the city was founded. This state of confusion required picking a canonical founding date for one to use an AUC date. The Varronian chronology, constructed from fragmentary sources and demonstrably about four years off of absolute events , placed the founding of the city on 21 April 753 BC. This date, likely arrived at by mechanical calculation but accepted with a variance of one year by the Augustan-era , has become the traditional date. Varro likely arrived at 753 BC by counting seven generations of 35 years from his date for the founding of the republic in 509 BC.

From the time of Claudius () onward, this calculation superseded other contemporary calculations. Celebrating the anniversary of the city became part of imperial propaganda. Claudius was the first to hold magnificent celebrations in honour of the anniversary of the city, in AD 47, the eight hundredth year from the founding of the city. Hadrian, in AD 121, and Antoninus Pius, in AD 147 and AD 148, held similar celebrations respectively.

In AD 248, Philip the Arab celebrated Rome's first millennium, together with Ludi saeculares for Rome's alleged tenth saeculum. Coins from his reign commemorate the celebrations. A coin by a contender for the imperial throne, Pacatianus, explicitly states "[y]ear one thousand and first", which is an indication that the citizens of the empire had a sense of the beginning of a new era, a Sæculum Novum.

Calendar era

The Anno Domini (AD) year numbering was developed by a monk named Dionysius Exiguus in Rome in , as a result of his work on calculating the date of Easter. Dionysius did not use the AUC convention, but instead based his calculations on the Diocletian era. This convention had been in use since AD 293, the year of the tetrarchy, as it became impractical to use regnal years of the current emperor. In his Easter table, the year was equated with the 248th regnal year of Diocletian. The table counted the years starting from the presumed birth of Christ, rather than the accession of the emperor Diocletian on 20 November AD 284 or, as stated by Dionysius: ("but rather we choose to name the times of the years from the incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ").Migne, Jacques-Paul. 1865. Liber de Paschate (Patrologia Latina 67), p. 481, § XX, note f Blackburn and Holford-Strevens review interpretations of Dionysius which place the Incarnation in 2 BC, 1 BC, or AD 1.Blackburn, B. & Holford-Strevens, L, The Oxford Companion to the Year (Oxford University Press, 2003 corrected reprinting, originally 1999), pp. 778–780.

The year AD 1 corresponds to AUC 754, based on the epoch of Varro. Thus:

Year Event AUC BC/AD 1 753 BC Founding of Rome 244 510 BC Overthrow of the Roman monarchy 259 495 BC Death in exile of King Lucius Tarquinius Superbus 490 264 BC Punic Wars 709 45 BC First year of the Julian calendar 710 44 BC The assassination of Julius Caesar 727 27 BC Augustus became the first Roman emperor, starting the Principate 753 1 BC Astronomical Year 0 754 AD 1 Approximate birth date of Jesus, approximated by Dionysius Exiguus in AD 525 (AUC 1278) 832 AD 79 Eruption of Mt. Vesuvius, and destruction of Pompeii and Herculaneum 901 AD 148 The emperor Antoninus Pius presided over the celebrations of the 900th anniversary of the founding of Rome. 1000 AD 247 999th Anniversary of the City of Rome 1001 AD 248 In April 248 AD (April 1001 AUC), the emperor Philip had the honour of leading the celebrations of the 1,000th anniversary of Rome. 1037 AD 284 Diocletian became Roman emperor, starting the Dominate 1229 AD 476 Fall of the Western Roman Empire to the armies of Odoacer 1246 AD 493 Establishment of the Ostrogothic Kingdom 1306 AD 553 Italy under Eastern Roman control 1507 AD 754 Foundation of the Papal States 1553 AD 800 Creation of the Holy Roman Empire 1824 AD 1071 Defeat of the Eastern Romans at the Battle of Manzikert 1930 AD 1177 Papal States became independent from the Holy Roman Empire 1957 AD 1204 Sack of Constantinople by the Crusaders 2001 AD 1248 2,000th Anniversary of the City of Rome 2014 AD 1261 Recovery of Constantinople by the Eastern Romans 2206 AD 1453 Fall of the Eastern Roman Empire. Ottoman sultan Mehmed II claimed the title caesar of Rome (Ottoman Turkish: قیصر روم, romanized: qayṣar-i rūm) 2335 AD 1582 First year of the Gregorian calendar 2247–2312 AD 1494–1559 Italian Wars 2545–2554 AD 1792–1801 Italian campaigns of the French Revolutionary Wars 2556–2568 AD 1803–1815 Napoleonic Wars 2574–2583 AD 1820–1829 Greek War of Independence. The dominant self-identity of the Greeks was still Rhōmaîoi or Romioi.Makrygiannis, Strategus (1849). Memoirs (book 1). Athens. p. 117 2576 AD 1822 Proclamation of the First Hellenic Republic 2585 AD 1832 Foundation of the Kingdom of Greece 2601–2624 AD 1848–1871 Italian unification, also known as the Risorgimento (Italian: 'Resurgence') 2614 AD 1861 Foundation of the Kingdom of Italy 2667–2671 AD 1914–1918 World War I 2672-2675 AD 1919–1922 Greco-Turkish War 2675 AD 1922 Abolition of the Ottoman sultanate 2676 AD 1923 Population exchange between Greece and Turkey 2677 AD 1924 Proclamation of the Second Hellenic Republic 2682 AD 1929 Creation of the Sovereign City-State of the Vatican 2688 AD 1936 Restoration of the Kingdom of Greece 2692–2698 AD 1939–1945 World War II 2699 AD 1946 Proclamation of the Italian Republic 2711 AD 1958 Italy joined the European Union. 2727 AD 1974 Proclamation of the Third Hellenic Republic. 2734 AD 1981 Greece joined the European Union. AD Last year AD Current year AD Next year

Ab urbe condita

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