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And the year 1 or 0 A.D. as the end of B.C. doesn't count.

I want to know the actual B.C. or B.C.E. numbers. Beginning and end.

How can there be a year one? That would imply 1 A.D. Shouldn't the year of his birth be O.

There is no such thing as year zero. It goes from 1 BC to 1 AD.

Infinity is the answer to the thread question.

No. It's simply, "what year did B.C. start". And it ended at B.C. 1.. How prohetic.

What year did before christ start? Haha.

So, what year did the universe start?

Couple of billion years ago.

The current opinion I've heard is as follows. It is the year 2007. year 0 was the year that Christ was born. When the monks of the dark ages began to circulate their version of calenders, the monk responsible was off by between 4 and 6 years in his positioning of the year 0. So, it's 2007 plus any number between 4 and 6. So that's between 2011 and 2013 years ago.

1 BCE to 1 CE

Ok. We know that B.C. Era ended at B.C.e 1. But at what year did it begin? What was it's starting number. (and why)

Originally posted by FistOfThe North
Ok. We know that B.C. Era ended at B.C.e 1. But at what year did it begin? What was it's starting number. (and why)

BC didn't exist until far into AD.

Originally posted by Shakyamunison
BC didn't exist until far into AD.

hu???????????? ??? ??????

Surely there were numbered years before (0) 1 A.D.

Originally posted by FistOfThe North
hu???????????? ??? ??????

Surely there were numbered years before (0) 1 A.D.

Yes, be it was not BC. It was the year of a certain emperor. AD and BC where invented around 300 AD. However, I'm not sure about that date, so don't quote me on it.

Originally posted by Capt_Fantastic
The current opinion I've heard is as follows. It is the year 2007. year 0 was the year that Christ was born. When the monks of the dark ages began to circulate their version of calenders, the monk responsible was off by between 4 and 6 years in his positioning of the year 0. So, it's 2007 plus any number between 4 and 6. So that's between 2011 and 2013 years ago.

Then you heard wrong.

There never was a year 0. It started at 1.

Before the advent of the Gregorian calendar, dates were measured with respect to other kings or major events.

So you'd get the 4th year of the reign of so and so, or 25 years since such and such took place.

In order to extrapolate the current year notation from the ancient records we have to know when the king reigned (what order various kings reigned in) or when whatever event happened.

Modern examples are the Islamic calendar, which dates things since the hijra - the flight from Mecca, or the Chinese calendar which measures things by various regnal years.

The Hebrew calendar supposedly marks time since the fall of Adam.

Originally posted by FistOfThe North
hu???????????? ??? ??????

Surely there were numbered years before (0) 1 A.D.

The years were marked by who was emperor, consul, etc. in the Roman/Greek world. I actually have no idea hoe other cultures ran a calendar, but there was no continuous date system.

Thats often why, especially when looking at ancient Greek sources, dates often look like 307/6 BCE...because the calendars don't coincide with the Gregorian calendar and the rule of whoever was in charge for the year overlapped our new year.

Originally posted by Ushgarak
Then you heard wrong.

There never was a year 0. It started at 1.

Well, haven't you schooled me!

The year zero doesn't exist in several systems. But it does exist, none the less. In many calender systems it would be considered year 1. There is no way to exclude the year in actual time calculations.