Quizzes & Puzzles2 mins ago
Birth And Death Date Confusion
There's something that is baffling me about birth and death dates. I am most likely being very stupid, but here's what I'm not understanding:
Someone born in 1960 and lives for thirty years has the dates 1960 - 1990
No problem with that!
But in reading about philosophers, it seems to me that they are dying before they are born! E.g,
Socrates 470 - 399 BCE
Plato 427 - 349
Aristotle 384 - 322
What is happening here? Why is 399 BCE later than 470 BCE etc?
Someone born in 1960 and lives for thirty years has the dates 1960 - 1990
No problem with that!
But in reading about philosophers, it seems to me that they are dying before they are born! E.g,
Socrates 470 - 399 BCE
Plato 427 - 349
Aristotle 384 - 322
What is happening here? Why is 399 BCE later than 470 BCE etc?
Answers
The reason is that bce dates go backwards - for example 470bce is 470 years before christian era while 399 bce is only 399 years before christian era
15:55 Wed 12th Aug 2015
BCE (Before the Common Era) is the politically correct way to refer to what is commonly known here as BC. Because not everyone believes in Christ and his importance. And someone may get offended.
I have always maintained they missed a trick: they could have inserted a year 0 to correct the present system and thus have the numbers for BC and BCE 1 different. But they didn't have the "common" sense to do that.
I have always maintained they missed a trick: they could have inserted a year 0 to correct the present system and thus have the numbers for BC and BCE 1 different. But they didn't have the "common" sense to do that.
and .... Dionysius Exiguus counted wrong
wh is why I shied away from the dates of the Ministry and entry in Jerusalem let alone the crucifixion as they are not agreed
Best guess for the Star of Bethlehem is a conjunction of two stars whose annniversary was noted in the Times a few days ago
so how did they date ( if they wanted ) things before that ?
Oxyrhynch Papyri - etous ab' kaisaros
( in the ( twelve) of the Emperor ) but then you have to work out which one it was as they all shared Augustus for a start
wh is why I shied away from the dates of the Ministry and entry in Jerusalem let alone the crucifixion as they are not agreed
Best guess for the Star of Bethlehem is a conjunction of two stars whose annniversary was noted in the Times a few days ago
so how did they date ( if they wanted ) things before that ?
Oxyrhynch Papyri - etous ab' kaisaros
( in the ( twelve) of the Emperor ) but then you have to work out which one it was as they all shared Augustus for a start
// I read somewhere that even dates from around 1000 a years ago are disputed //
yup - in 2000 a tree-hugging Beeb researcher earnestly asked a historian what Anglo-Saxons ( or whatevr they were in England then ) how they celebrated the first millenium, and he answered:
Nothing - No one really knew it was.
At that time it was possible that there was only one contemporary record being compiled in England ( = only one original of the Anglo Saxon chronicle and the rest of them were copied afterwards )
865 - the entry is 'nothing' and 864 was "poor harvests"
The Dark ages - they were Dark, they were
yup - in 2000 a tree-hugging Beeb researcher earnestly asked a historian what Anglo-Saxons ( or whatevr they were in England then ) how they celebrated the first millenium, and he answered:
Nothing - No one really knew it was.
At that time it was possible that there was only one contemporary record being compiled in England ( = only one original of the Anglo Saxon chronicle and the rest of them were copied afterwards )
865 - the entry is 'nothing' and 864 was "poor harvests"
The Dark ages - they were Dark, they were
@Peter_Pedant
//( in the ( twelve) of the Emperor ) but then you have to work out which one it was as they all shared Augustus for a start//
By analogy, I gather there is controversy regarding whether upper, middle and lower ancient Egypt each had their own pharoah, running concurrently, overlapping unenvenly and occasionally transitioning to a unified Egypt, under a single Pharoah, later splitting again and generally pickling any attempt by an outsider, in Bishop Usher's time period to piece it all together again from fragmented written records, bearing only regnal date symptoms.
I cannot remember whether this threatens to telescope the notorious 6000 years of earth's existence to an even shorter period or if it lengthens it, after all the errors are sorted out.
//( in the ( twelve) of the Emperor ) but then you have to work out which one it was as they all shared Augustus for a start//
By analogy, I gather there is controversy regarding whether upper, middle and lower ancient Egypt each had their own pharoah, running concurrently, overlapping unenvenly and occasionally transitioning to a unified Egypt, under a single Pharoah, later splitting again and generally pickling any attempt by an outsider, in Bishop Usher's time period to piece it all together again from fragmented written records, bearing only regnal date symptoms.
I cannot remember whether this threatens to telescope the notorious 6000 years of earth's existence to an even shorter period or if it lengthens it, after all the errors are sorted out.
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