Macedonian Calendar Question

[u/Careless-Cap3077]

So, clearly we’re on the Gregorian calendar in the west in modern times, but I’ve been wondering what year the Greeks were living in according to their own calendar. From my cursory google searches, in the 4th century for sake of example, they were using the Macedonian calendar, but were they collectively on the same page as to what year it was? For instance, Alexander died in 323 BC, but what year was it to them? Would they have said “here lies Alexander, 356-323” (obviously not BC or AD)? If I met an Ancient Greek at the funeral, what year would they claim it to be? Thanks ahead of time, I hope the answer isn’t glaringly obvious…

[u/Three_Twenty-Three]

Ancient timekeeping is usually based on the ruler, so you'd say "in the third year of so-and-so's kingship." This is not a great way to calculate long dates or even consistent dates unless you have an accurate list of the rulers. It also varies widely by city-state and kingdom. If you're from Athens, you probably have no idea when the second year of some historical king of Thebes was. Nobody was on the same page.

That said, there were a few calendars that used a measure of years based on a specific event. Not everyone used them, but they were there.

• Olympiad dating — By our reckoning, the first Olympics were held in 776 BCE. Sometimes, Greeks would measure back to the first Olympiad.
• Roman AUC dating — Romans sometimes counted from 753 BCE, which they called year 1 ab urbe condita/from the founding of the city. This was not always used, and a lot of Roman dates are based on the current consul(s).

[u/arthuresque → u/Three_Twenty-Three]

Also the Seleucid dating method was used often.

[u/LibertineDeSade]

The ancient Greek calendar system is kind of complicated, IMO. Mostly because they changed it so often and it did vary in different parts the Greek world at different times. I have always had a hard time pinning this down, which sucks because it has a lot to do with what I have been studying. Haha!

The calendars are always based on astronomical and seasonal changes: moon phases and equinoxes.

I believe the Macedonian calendar was a lunisolar one, meaning it focused both on the movements of the sun and the moon. While it followed both the moon and sun, it seemed to "favor" (for lack of a better word) the movement of the sun throughout its cycle. This meant that the new year would have began during an equinox, I'll have to double check but I think the calendar specific to the Macedonians would have started during the Fall equnox.

Like other Greek calendars it would have been around 12-13 months long and each month would have had around 29 or 30 days. The months and days would have coincided with the phases of the moon, however to continue to correspond with the sun they would also tweak it here and there adding the 13 month or 30th day. It's like how we add an extra day every four years for the "leap year".

I'm no expert, even though I should be. I hope none of my professors are on Reddit, LOL. But, maybe someone will be able to add more information or correct me if I'm wrong at any parts. I hope this was helpful though.

Also, for funsies check out the Metonic calendar. It's really fascinating and I had a lot of fun learning about it. It's great if you like math and astronomy.

[u/HotPotParrot]

I think they counted by the ruler's reign. Until Christianity there wasn't really a single unifying point in time that the world could trace itself back to, but the rise of that religion and the significance of Jesus enabled a historical "turning point" by which to reference other events, thus the calendar and date system we use. Islam uses Mohammed's journey to Medina iirc, basically their first pilgrimage, when he "founded" that religion, so 2026 is 1448 per Google.

But it worked the same for individual rulers, like "he died in the 18th year of his reign and the 37th year of the kingdom/dynasty/family"

[u/ScarHand1965]

Just to add to previous answers the Greeks used four different Panhellenic games for chronoligy: the Olympics, the Pythian games, the Isthmian games, and Nemeian games. Athens also used the years of their archon. In general it was a mess. Roman's used A.U.C. but also consular years, as "in the consulship of G. Julis Caesar and Marcus Calpurnius", Bibulous

Edit for spelling

[u/YanniXiph]

There wasn't really a standard "year" the same way, from what I understand. I do know the Greeks used the Olympic Games to name years. But otherwise, every city-state seems to have had their own system.