Dionysius Exiguus

Dionysius Exiguus was a sixth-century monk and scholar who produced Latin translations of Greek ecclesiastical texts and introduced the Anno Domini era in Easter tables.

Easter computus: The methods used to calculate the date of Easter and related movable feasts. Dionysius’s Easter tables belong to this broader tradition of calendar calculation.
Scythia Minor: A late Roman province on the western Black Sea coast, corresponding largely to modern Dobruja. Dionysius’s name identifies him with this region, although his precise birthplace is unknown.
Anno Domini dating: The practice of numbering years from the traditionally calculated birth of Jesus Christ. His era became a widespread way to date documents and historical events.
Diocletian era: A system of year numbering that began with the reign of Roman emperor Diocletian in 284 CE. Dionysius rejected this era’s association with a persecutor of Christians when numbering his tables.
Easter tables: Calendrical tables listing Easter dates across a cycle of years. He introduced the Anno Domini numbering in tables extending the Easter calculation.
Cassiodorus: A Roman statesman and scholar who founded the monastery of Vivarium in southern Italy. Cassiodorus later praised Dionysius’s learning and translations.
Bede: An English monk and historian whose writings shaped early medieval Christian scholarship. Bede helped popularize Dionysius’s era in historical writing.
Ab urbe condita: A Roman year-numbering system reckoning from the legendary founding of Rome. It was another established chronology that Dionysius’s Christian era could displace.
Paschal cycle: A recurring sequence used to determine the date of Easter in successive years. The tables Dionysius compiled relied on recurring cycles to project Easter dates.
Vivarium: A monastery and center of learning founded by Cassiodorus in sixth-century Italy. Dionysius was associated with the Latin scholarly world connected to this monastery.

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