this post was submitted on 29 Sep 2024
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[–] Successful_Try543@feddit.org 6 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (8 children)

In their defense, birth order rarely correlated with their name - Decimus could just as easily be a firstborn child, or the fifth son.

This is something, I find more weird than defending. Or, in other words, TIL Romans were bad at counting.

[–] PugJesus@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (5 children)

Well, at least you don't have a Primus in every family that way!

Or, in other words, TIL Romans were bad at counting.

lmao, there are other examples of Roman weirdness with numbers. For most of the Republic period, the year was expressed not by a number, but by which two consuls were elected that year. Ab Urbe Condita (AUC, 'From the founding of the city') was much more rare. "Draw 25 or use numbers like normal human beings."

[–] Successful_Try543@feddit.org 3 points 1 year ago (4 children)

I know about the way Romans counted time. Isn't also in the Bible, the year Jesus was born given as the year x of the reign of Augustus? Later, the pope who established the AD counting had lots of struggle summing up all the years of the emperors without counting some years twice.

[–] wanderer@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Isn’t also in the Bible, the year Jesus was born given as the year x of the reign of Augustus?

No, it isn't. Descriptions of when he was born are vague and contradictory.

[–] Successful_Try543@feddit.org 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Indeed, e.g. the text of the Lukas Evangelium isn't that precise as I've thought I remember it.

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