Knowra Ab Urbe Condita Ab Urbe Condita Ab Urbe Condita is a Roman system of dating years from the foundation of Rome, conventionally dated to 753 BCE. Its year numbers count from that epoch rather than from a ruler’s reign.
Varro’s chronology : Marcus Terentius Varro’s reconstruction placed Rome’s foundation in 753 BCE. This calculation supplied the foundation date conventionally used as the era’s starting point.
Foundation of Rome : The legendary founding of Rome by Romulus, traditionally dated to 753 BCE. This event provides the epoch from which Ab Urbe Condita counts.
Livy : A Roman historian whose surviving work narrates Rome’s history from its legendary beginnings to the first century BCE. His account is titled Ab Urbe Condita, though that title does not mean he consistently dated events AUC.
Olympiad : A four-year period used by ancient Greeks to date events from the Olympic Games. Like AUC, it anchors chronology to a traditional historical epoch, but uses recurring four-year cycles.
Roman calendar : The calendar system used in ancient Rome, changing substantially between the Republic and Empire. Roman year reckoning depended on the calendar’s year boundaries and intercalations.
Romulus : The legendary founder and first king of Rome, often described as the son of Mars. Roman tradition attributed the city’s foundation to Romulus.
Censorinus : A Roman grammarian and antiquarian of the third century CE, known for the work De Die Natali. He used the foundation-era chronology when calculating Rome’s age.
Seleucid era : A year-counting system beginning with the Seleucid conquest of Babylon, conventionally dated to 312 BCE. It offers a contemporary ancient example of an era based on a political turning point.
Consular dating : A Roman dating practice that identified a year by the names of its serving consuls. Romans commonly dated events by consuls rather than by years counted from the city’s foundation.
Roman foundation myth : The body of stories explaining Rome’s origins, including the legends of Romulus and Remus. The era’s starting point is attached to a legendary foundation, not a securely documented event.
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