this post was submitted on 29 Sep 2024
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Funny enough, Decimus means something similar - 'Tenth'. A lot of Roman praenomina (first names) were like that. Primus, Secundus, Tertius, Quartus, Quintus, Sextus, Septimus, Octavius, Nonus, Decimus. First through tenth! Not the most creative fellows, the Romans.
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.
Well, at least you don't have a Primus in every family that way!
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."
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.
No, it isn't. Descriptions of when he was born are vague and contradictory.
Indeed, e.g. the text of the Lukas Evangelium isn't that precise as I've thought I remember it.
Yep! In the Empire, there were often numerous consuls in a year instead of just two (being rotated out as a kind of 'gift' from the Emperor) so the norm for counting the year changed to how many years since the ruling Emperor came into power.
Funny how some things we take for granted, like an unborked date system, are actually innovations, and far from timeless (ha).
TY, I didn't know, there were still consules in the Roman Empire.
Yes, a continuous calendar system makes things a lot easier.
Of course they were. I give you proof they're even worse at math. Tell me quick, how much is
CMDIV + CCDDVIII
You actually needed to be 'very good' at math to fluently calculate with Roman numbers. However, I can't make sense of your examples.
Wait till Biggus Dickus hears of this