Christian calendar

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The system of dating by the years of the Christian era was introduced in the mid-sixth century by Dionysius Exiguus, a Scythian monk living at Rome. It is he who is credited with having dated Jesus' birth as 753 A.u.c. in the Roman calendar and made it year one. Years after the birth of Jesus are labelled A.D. (Latin Anno Domini 'in the year of [Our] Lord'); years before then are labelled B.C., 'Before Christ'. Bede adopted his dating, and thereby helped its acceptance as standard throughout the Christian world - and now, in the form of BC and BCE, throughout the world.

Year 0 does not exist: 1 BC is followed by AD1, so the interval between a date in 5 BC and the same date in AD5, for example, is nine years not ten.

This (and other articles in AWE's pages on dates and numbers) owes much to the article on 'calendars' in Howatson 1997.