Dionysius Exiguus (Dennis the Little, meaning humble) (c. 470 – c. 540) was a 6th century Dacian monk born in Scythia Minor, in what is now the territory of Dobruja, Romania. Events Euric, king of the Visigoths, defeats an attempted invasion of Gaul by the Celtic magnate Riothamus. ... Events Byzantine general Belisarius conquers Milan and the Ostrogoth capital Ravenna. ... This Buddhist stela from China, Northern Wei period, was built in the early 6th century. ... Dacia, in ancient geography the land of the Daci, a subtribe of the Getae, was a large district of Central Europe, bounded on the north by the Carpathians, on the south by the Danube, on the west by the Tisa (Tisza river, in Hungary), on the east by the Tyras... Schythia Minor was in ancient times the region sorrounded by Danube at north and west and the Black Sea at east, corresponding to todays Dobruja (a part in Romania and a smaller part in Bulgaria). ... Dobruja, or sometimes Dobrudja (Dobrogea in Romanian, Добруджа—transliterated Dobrudzha—in Bulgarian, Dobruca in Turkish), is the territory between the lower Danube river and the Black Sea, including the Danube Delta and the Romanian coast. ...

Since 500 he lived in Rome, where, as a learned member of the Vatican's Curia, he translated from Greek into Latin 401 ecclesiastical canons, including the apostolical canons and the decrees of the councils of Nicaea, Constantinople, Chalcedon and Sardis, and also a collection of the decretals of the popes from Siricius to Anastasius II. These collections had great authority in the West and still guide church administrations. Dionysius also wrote a treatise on elementary mathematics. Bede and 'Felix' elevated him to an abbot (a leader of monks) even though Dionysius' friend Cassiodorus stated in Institutiones that he was still only a monk late in life. Events Possible date for the Battle of Mons Badonicus: Romano-British and Celts defeat an Anglo-Saxon army that may have been led by the bretwalda Aelle of Sussex (approximate date; suggested dates range from 490 to 510) Note: This battle may have influenced the legend of King Arthur. ... City motto: Senatus Populusque Romanus – SPQR (The Senate and the People of Rome) Founded 21 April 753 BC mythical, 1st millennium BC Region Latium Mayor Walter Veltroni (Left-Wing Democrats) Area  - City Proper  1290 km² Population  - City (2004)  - Metropolitan  - Density (city proper) 2,823,807 almost 4,000,000 1... Latin is an ancient Indo-European language originally spoken in the region around Rome called Latium. ... Iznik (formerly Nicaea) is a city in Anatolia (now part of Turkey) which is known primarily as the site of two major meetings (or Ecumenical councils) in the early history of the Christian church. ... The First Council of Constantinople (second ecumenical council) was called by Theodosius I in 381 to confirm the Nicene Creed and deal with other matters of the Arian controversy . ... The Council of Chalcedon was an ecumenical council that took place from October 8–November 1, 451 at Chalcedon, a city of Bithynia in Asia Minor. ... Decretals (Epistolae decretales) is the name that is given in Canon Law to those letters of the pope which formulate decisions in ecclesiastical law. ... St. ... Anastasius II (died November 16, 498) was pope from November 24, 496 to his death. ... Bede depicted in an early medieval manuscript Depiction of Bede from the Nuremberg Chronicle, 1493 Bede (Latin Beda), also known as Saint Bede or, more commonly, the Venerable Bede (ca. ... Flavius Magnus Aurelius Cassiodorus Senator (ca 484/490 - ca585), commonly known as Cassiodorus, was a Roman statesman and writer, serving in the administration of Theodoric the Great, king of the Ostrogoths. ...

In 525, Dionysius prepared a table of the future dates of Easter and a set of "arguments" explaining their calculation on his own initiative. Note well that only the first nine arguments are by Dionysius — arguments 10 to 16 as well as the second paragraphs of 3 and 4 and the third paragraph of 9 are later interpolations. Arguments 11 and 12 imply that these were interpolated in the year 675, shortly before Bede. He introduced his tables and arguments via a letter to a bishop Petronius (also written in 525) and added another explanatory letter (written in 526). These works in volume 67 of the 217 volume Patrologia Latina also include a letter from Bishop Proterius of Alexandria to Pope Leo (written before 457). Though not named by Dionysius, this collection was recently called his Liber de Paschate (Book on Easter) by Audette. Events Bernicia settled by the Angles Ethiopia conquers Yemen The Daisan river, a tributary of the Euphrates, floods Edessa and within a couple of hours fills the entire city except for the highest parts. ... Easter is the most important religious holiday of the Christian liturgical year, observed in March, April, or May to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus, which Christians believe occurred after his death by crucifixion in AD 30-33 (see Good Friday). ... Events The abbey of Abingdon, England is founded Aldhelm made abbot Aethelred succeeds his brother Wulfhere as king of Mercia Births Deaths Wulfhere, king of Japan - Temmu Emperor of Japan (672-686) Categories: 675 ... Events May 20 - Syria and Antioch. ... The Patrologia Latina is an enormous work published by Jacques-Paul Migne between 1844 and 1855, with indices published between 1862 and 1865. ... Proterius of Alexandria (d. ... Pope Saint Leo I, or Leo the Great, was a Roman aristocrat who was Pope from 440 to 461. ... Events February 7 - Leo I becomes East Roman emperor. ...

He ignored the existing tables used by the Church of Rome, which were prepared in 457 by Victorius of Aquitaine, complaining that they did not obey Alexandrian principles, without actually acknowledging their existence. To be sure that his own tables were correct, he simply extended a set of tables prepared in Alexandria that had circulated in the West in Latin, but were never used in the West to determine the date of Easter (however, they were used in the Byzantine Empire, in Greek). The Latin tables were prepared by a subordinate of Bishop Cyril of Alexandria shortly before Cyril's death in 444. They covered a period of 95 years or five decennovenal (19-year) cycles with years dated in the Diocletian Era, whose first year was 285 (the modern historical year in progress at Easter). Diocletian years were advantageous because their division by 19 yielded a remainder equal to the year of the decennovenal cycle (1–19). Antiquity and modernity stand cheek-by-jowl in Egypts chief Mediterranean seaport Located on the Mediterranean Sea coast, Alexandria Αλεξάνδρεια (in Arabic, الإسكندرية, transliterated al-ʼIskandariyyah) is the chief seaport in Egypt, and that countrys second largest city, and the capital of the Al Iskandariyah governate. ... The Byzantine Empire is the term conventionally used to describe the Greek-speaking Roman Empire during the Middle Ages, centered at its capital in Constantinople. ... Cyril I (376 – June 27, 444), surnamed The Pillar of Faith, was Pope of Alexandria. ... Events Pope Leo I extinguishes the Gallican vicariate Armagh founded by St. ... Emperor Diocletian Gaius Aurelius Valerius Diocletianus (245?–312?), born Diocles, was Roman Emperor as Diocletian from November 20, 284 to May 1, 305. ... This article is about the year. ...

The epact (the age of the moon on 22 March) of all first decennovenal years was zero, making Dionysius the first known Latin medieval writer to use the number zero. The Latin word nulla meaning nothing was used because no Roman numeral for zero existed. Zero can probably be found in earlier Latin mathematical treatises, provided one looks for the word, not a symbol. To determine the decennovenal year, the Dionysian year plus one was divided by 19. If the result was zero (to be replaced by 19), it was represented by the Latin word nihil, also meaning nothing. Both uses of zero continued to be used by all later medieval computists (calculators of Easter), rendering false the common assumption that the number zero was unknown in Western Europe until its symbol (0) was obtained from Muslims during the twelfth century. The epact (from Greek: epaktai hèmerai = added days) is, as the second Canon of the Gregorian Calendar reform puts it, nothing else than the number of days which the common solar year of 365 days surpasses the common lunar year of 354 days (Latin: Epacta nihil aliud est quam... March 22 is the 81st day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (82nd in Leap years). ... 0 (zero), alternatively called naught, nil, ought, or nought, is both a number and a numeral. ... The system of Roman numerals is a numeral system originating in ancient Rome, and was adapted from Etruscan numerals. ... A Muslim (Arabic: مسلم) (sometimes also spelled Moslem) is an adherent of Islam. ... (11th century - 12th century - 13th century - other centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 12th century was that century which lasted from 1101 to 1200. ...

Dionysius copied the last decennovenal cycle of the Cyrillian table ending with Diocletion 247, and then added a new 95-year table with numbered Anni Domini Nostri Jesu Christi (Years of our Lord Jesus Christ) because, as he explained to Petronius, he did not wish to continue the memory of a tyrant who persecuted Christians. The only reason he gave for beginning his new 95-year table with the year 532 was that six years were still left in the Cyrillian table after the year during which he wrote. For the latter year he only stated that it was 525 years after the Incarnation of Christ, without stating when the latter event occurred in any other calendar. He did not realize that the dates of the Alexandrian Easter repeated after 532 years, despite his apparent knowledge of the Victorian 532-year 'cycle', indicating only that Easter did not repeat after 95 years. He knew that Victorian Easters did not agree with Alexandrian Easters, thus he no doubt assumed that they had no bearing on any Alexandrian cycle. Furthermore, he obviously did not realize that simply multiplying 19 (the decennovenal cycle) by 4 (the cycle of leap years) by 7 (the week) fixed the Alexandrian cycle at 532 years, otherwise he would have stated such a simple fact. The years of Dionysius were used by Bede in his Ecclesiastical History of the English People (731), and due to Bede's great influence their use spread rapidly during the Middle Ages, and are still used by the modern Gregorian calendar. Jesus, also known as Jesus of Nazareth or Jesus the Nazarene, is the central figure of Christianity, in which context he is known as Jesus Christ (from Greek Ιησούς Χριστός) with Christ being a title meaning Anointed One or Messiah. According to traditional Christian faith, Jesus is both the Son of God... The Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum (in English: Ecclesiastical History of the English People) is a work in Latin by the Venerable Bede on the history of the Christian church in England, and of England generally. ... Events Bede completes his Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum February 11 - Pope Gregory III succeeds Gregory II Deaths February 11 - Pope Gregory II See also Unit 731 Categories: 731 ... The Gregorian calendar is the calendar that is used nearly everywhere in the world. ...

No evidence exists that the Church of Rome accepted the Dionysian tables until the tenth century, although it is possible that they were accepted sometime during the sixth century. Most of the British Church accepted them after the Synod of Whitby in 664, although quite a few individual churches and monasteries refused to accept them, the last holdout finally accepting them during the early tenth century. The Church of the Franks (France) accepted them during the late ninth century under the tutelage of Alcuin, after he arrived from Britain. ( 9th century - 10th century - 11th century - other centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 10th century was that century which lasted from 901 to 1000. ... (5th century — 6th century — 7th century — other centuries) Events The first academy of the east the Academy of Gundeshapur founded in Persia by the Persian Shah Khosrau I. Irish colonists and invaders, the Scots, began migrating to Caledonia (later known as Scotland) Glendalough monastery, Wicklow Ireland founded by St. ... The Synod of Whitby was an important synod which eventually led to the unification of the church in Britain. ... Events September, Synod of Whitby Births Deaths Xuanzang, famous Chinese Buddhist monk. ... (8th century - 9th century - 10th century - other centuries) Events Beowulf might have been written down in this century, though it could also have been in the 8th century Viking attacks on Europe begin Oseberg ship burial The Magyars arrive in what is now Hungary, forcing the Serbs and Bulgars south... Rabanus Maurus (left), supported by Alcuin (middle), presents his work to Otgar of Mainz Flaccus Albinus Alcuinus or Ealhwine (about 735-May 19, 804) was a monk from York, England. ...

Ever since the 2nd century, some bishoprics in the Eastern Roman Empire had counted years from the birth of Christ, but there was no agreement on the correct epoch — Clement of Alexandria (c. 190) and Eusebius of Caesarea (c. 320) wrote about these attempts. Because Dionysius did not place the Incarnation in an explicit year, competent scholars have deduced both AD 1 and 1 BC — most have selected 1 BC. (Historians do not use a year zero.) In either case, he ignored his predecessors, who usually placed the Nativity in the year we now label 2 BC. Kepler was the first to note that Christ was born during the reign of King Herod the Great (Matthew 2:1-18), whose death he placed in 4 BC. Kepler chose this year because Josephus stated that a lunar eclipse occurred shortly before Herod's death. Other eclipses have been proposed in "Yet another eclipse for Herod". Josephus himself stated that Herod died in the year we now label 1 BC. The beginning of Dionysius' year was probably 25 March, the anniversary of the Incarnation ever since 25 December, nine months later, was chosen as the Nativity in the fourth century. // Events Roman Empire governed by the Five Good Emperors (96–180) – Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian, Antoninus Pius, Marcus Aurelius. ... Clement of Alexandria (Titus Flavius Clemens), was the first member of the Church of Alexandria to be more than a name, and one of its most distinguished teachers. ... Events A part of Rome burns, and emperor Commodus orders the city to be rebuilt under the name Colonia Commodiana First year of Chuping era of Chinese Han Dynasty Births 190 is a number Deaths Athenagoras of Athens, Christian apologist Categories: 190 ... Eusebius of Caesarea (~275 – May 30, 339) (often called Eusebius Pamphili, Eusebius [the friend] of Pamphilus) was a bishop of Caesarea in Palestine and is often referred to as the father of church history because of his work in recording the history of the early Christian church. ... This article is about the year 320 AD. For the aircraft, see Airbus A320. ... // Events The first full year in the life of Jesus as assigned by Dionysius Exiguus in his Anno Domini era. ... Centuries: 2nd century BC - 1st century BC - 1st century Decades: 50s BC 40s BC 30s BC 20s BC 10s BC - 0s BC - 0s 10s 20s 30s 40s 6 BC 5 BC 4 BC 3 BC 2 BC 1 BC 1 2 3 4 // Events Births December 25 - Jesus (died about... Centuries: 2nd century BC - 1st century BC - 1st century Decades: 50s BC 40s BC 30s BC 20s BC 10s BC - 0s BC - 0s 10s 20s 30s 40s 6 BC 5 BC 4 BC 3 BC 2 BC 1 BC 1 2 3 4 // Events Births December 25 - Jesus (died about... A year zero does not exist in the Christian Era and thus also does not exist in our current calculation of times. ... Centuries: 2nd century BC - 1st century BC - 1st century Decades: 50s BC 40s BC 30s BC 20s BC 10s BC - 0s BC - 0s 10s 20s 30s 40s 7 BC 6 BC 5 BC 4 BC 3 BC 2 BC 1 BC 1 2 3 4 Events Births Deaths Gaius and... Johannes Kepler Johannes Kepler (December 27, 1571 – November 15, 1630), a key figure in the scientific revolution, was a German astronomer, mathematician and astrologer. ... Herod I, also known as Herod the Great, was a Roman client-king of Judaea (c. ... Centuries: 2nd century BC - 1st century BC - 1st century Decades: 50s BC 40s BC 30s BC 20s BC 10s BC - 0s BC - 0s 10s 20s 30s 40s 9 BC 8 BC 7 BC 6 BC 5 BC 4 BC 3 BC 2 BC 1 BC 1 2 Events Archelaus becomes... Josephus (c. ... An eclipse occurs whenever the Sun, Earth and Moon line up exactly. ... Centuries: 2nd century BC - 1st century BC - 1st century Decades: 50s BC 40s BC 30s BC 20s BC 10s BC - 0s BC - 0s 10s 20s 30s 40s 6 BC 5 BC 4 BC 3 BC 2 BC 1 BC 1 2 3 4 // Events Births December 25 - Jesus (died about... March 25 is the 84th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (85th in leap years). ... December 25 is the 359th day of the year (360th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 6 days remaining. ... (3rd century - 4th century - 5th century - other centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 4th century was that century which lasted from 301 to 400. ...

Although Dionysius stated that the First Council of Nicaea in 325 sanctioned his method of dating Easter, the surviving documents are ambiguous. A canon of the council implied that the Roman and Alexandrian methods were the same even though they were not, whereas a delegate from Alexandria stated in a letter to his brethren that their method was supported by the council. In either case, Dionysius' method had actually been used by the Church of Alexandria at least as early as 311, and probably began during the first decade of the fourth century, its dates naturally being given in the Alexandrian calendar. Thus Dionysius did not develop a new method of dating Easter. The most that he may have done was convert its arguments from the Alexandrian calendar into the Julian calendar. The resulting Julian date for Easter was the Sunday following the first Luna XIV (the 14th day of the moon) that occurred on or after the XII Kalendas Aprilis (21 March) (12 days before the first of April, inclusive). Nisan 14 was the date that Paschal lambs were slain (in late afternoon) until the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 prevented their continuing sacrifice, as well as the day when all leavened bread crumbs had to be collected and burned, hence Nisan 14 was the day of preparation for Passover. Alexandria may have chosen it because it was the day that Christ was crucified according to the Gospel of John (18:28, 19:14), in direct contradiction to the Synoptic Gospels (Matthew 26:17, Mark 14:12, and Luke 22:7), who state that he was crucified after he ate the Seder, his Last Supper. Then and now, the Seder was eaten after sundown at the beginning of Nisan 15. Because Dionysius's method of computing Easter used dates in the Julian calendar, it is also called the Julian Easter. This Easter is still used by almost all Orthodox churches. The Gregorian Easter still uses the same definition, but relative to its own solar and lunar dates. The First Council of Nicaea, convoked by the Roman Emperor Constantine the Great in AD 325, was the first ecumenical (from Greek oikumene, worldwide) conference of bishops of the Christian Church. ... Events May 20 - First Council of Nicaea - first Ecumenical Council of the Christian Church: The Nicene Creed is formulated, the date of Easter is discussed. ... For the band, see 311 (band), for the number see 311 (number) Events June 15 - Licinius issues his own Edict of Toleration, ending persecution of Christians in his own part of the Roman Empire. ... The Coptic calendar, also called the Alexandrian Calendar, is used by the Coptic Orthodox Church. ... The Julian calendar was introduced in 46 BC by Julius Caesar and took force in 45 BC (709 ab urbe condita). ... March 21 is the 80th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (81st in leap years). ... Quartodecimanism (fourteenism) was the practice of fixing the date of Easter (in the Bible called Pesach) to the 14th day of Nisan in the Bibles Hebrew Calendar which, according to the Gospels, was the time Jesus was crucified in Jerusalem. ... Drawing of the Second Temple in Jerusalem during the time of Herod the Great A stone (2. ... Centuries: 1st century BC - 1st century - 2nd century Decades: 20s 30s 40s 50s 60s - 70s - 80s 90s 100s 110s 120s Years: 65 66 67 68 69 - 70 - 71 72 73 74 75 Events The building of the Colosseum starts (approximate date). ... Passover, also known as Pesach or Pesah (פסח pesaḥ), is a Jewish holiday, beginning on the evening of the 14th day of Nisan, that commemorates The Exodus and freedom of the Children of Israel from Ancient Egypt. ... The Gospel of John is the fourth gospel in the sequence of the canon as printed in the New Testament, and scholars agree it was the fourth to be written. ... The Synoptic Gospels is a term used by modern New Testament scholars for the Gospels according to Matthew, Mark, and Luke of the New Testament in the Bible. ... The Seder (pronounced say-der, meaning order in Hebrew) is a special Jewish ceremonial dinner revolving around the story of Exodus. ... This article relates the event related in the New Testament of the Bible, see The Last Supper (disambiguation) for other uses, including a list of famous works of art with this name. ... Separate articles treat Eastern Orthodox Christianity and Orthodox Judaism. ...

A significant outcome of the work of Dionysius Exiguus of calculating the date of Easter was the development of the Anno Domini system of dating events from the time of Jesus Christ. Until the time of Dionysius, the years were numbered based on the Roman rule of Emperors. He based his new calendar on the birth of Christ, but in order to do so, he had to calculated that date by working backwards through the reigns of Roman emperors. Dionysius arrived at a figure of 753 years after the founding of Rome. He then set Jesus' birth as being 1 ACN (for "Ante Christum Natum", or "before the birth of Christ"), and assigned AD 1 to the following year—thereby establishing the system of numbering years from the birth of Jesus: Anno Domini (which translates as "in the year of the Lord"). This system made the then current year 532, and almost two centuries later it won acceptance and became the established calendar in Western civilization due to its championing by the Venerable Bede. Anno Domini Nostri Iesu Christi (In the Year of Our Lord Jesus Christ), commonly shortened to Anno Domini (In the Year of the Lord), abbreviated as AD or A.D., is the designation used to number years in the Christian Era, conventionally used with the Julian and Gregorian calendars. ... Bede depicted in an early medieval manuscript Depiction of Bede from the Nuremberg Chronicle, 1493 Bede (Latin Beda), also known as Saint Bede or, more commonly, the Venerable Bede (ca. ...

References

• Bonnie Blackburn, Leofranc Holford-Strevens, "Calendars and chronology", The Oxford companion to the year (Oxford, 1999), 659-937.
• Georges Declercq, Anno Domini: The origins of the Christian era (Turnhout, 2000); idem, "Dionysius Exiguus and the introduction of the Christian era", Sacris Erudiri 41 (2002): 165-246.
• Dionysius Exiguus, Patrologia Latina 67 (works).
• Charles W. Jones, "Development of the Latin ecclesiastical calendar", in Bedae opera de temporibus (Cambridge, Mass., 1943), 1-122.
• Otto Neugebauer, Ethiopic astronomy and computus, Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften, philosophisch-historische klasse, sitzungsberichte, 347 (Vienna, 1979).
• Gustav Teres, "Time computations and Dionysius Exiguus", Journal for the history of astronomy, 15 (1984): 177-188.

See also

• Anno Domini
• Computus
• Lunisolar calendar

Anno Domini Nostri Iesu Christi (In the Year of Our Lord Jesus Christ), commonly shortened to Anno Domini (In the Year of the Lord), abbreviated as AD or A.D., is the designation used to number years in the Christian Era, conventionally used with the Julian and Gregorian calendars. ... Computus (Latin for computation) is the calculation of the date of Easter in the Christian calendar. ... A lunisolar calendar is a calendar whose date indicates both the moon phase and the time of the solar year. ...

External links

• Latin text of Dionysius's Liber de Paschate
• Latin-English text of the Nineteen year cycle of Dionysius
• Catholic Encyclopedia: Dionysius Exiguus