Dionysius Exiguus and the Introduction of the Christian Era

Abstract

The Christian era was created in AD 525, when Dionysius Exiguus replaced in his Easter table the years of Diocletian, traditionally used in Alexandrian Easter tables, with an enumeration of years starting at the incarnation of Christ. He equated more in particular the year 248 of Diocletian with the year 532 since the incarnation. This article examines in greater detail Dionysius's Easter table and especially the manner in which he came to fix the incarnation of Christ in AD 1. In this respect, attention is drawn to a hitherto neglected sixth-century document, the so-called Preface of Felix abbot of Gillitanus, which allowed us to propose a new hypothesis, namely thath Dionysius arrived at his date for the incarnation by a conversion of the olympiads in the well-known chronicle of Eusebius/Jerome. It can also be shown thath Dionysius, whose main concern it was to advocate the Alexandrian method of Easter reckoning in the West, was guided first en foremost by practical considerations related to the calculation of Easter rather than by a desire for historical accuracy.