Spyke
RGB3x3reply
lemmy.world

Okay, honest question: what did they call it then, if anything?

Because it's not like they planned on counting down to the future "messiah's" birthday.

17
Holzkohlenreply
feddit.de

Damn, so Korea went back in time? Or what are they on now? Did they hit 40K yet? Do they count in dog years? Do they inflate their numbers so it sounds cooler? Have the halfed it, when they split the country in half? I demand answers Korea!

8

I now realise that I know absolutely nothing of Korean history

7
Melllvarreply
startrek.website

The Romans named their years after who was elected Consul that year. There were two Consuls, so you'd say "in the consulship of Jones and Smith". 59BC was Julius Caesar and some other guy. The other guy was so unimportant that Romans joked by calling it the consulship of "Julius and Caesar".

32

Some humour transcends lifetimes, we were carving dicks into walls before the first century.

13

"Three men, a greek, a roman and a celt each get an island.

The greek writes a book about flora and fauna of his island.

The roman, realising that the island does not need to be conquered, builds a house, a road to the shore and a statue to himself.

The celt starts a fight."

11

In more official settings they would also use the year "ab Urbe condita", meaning "since the City's founding" (city being Rome).

59BC should be around 694 aUc if my numbers are right.

2

Depends on where in the world, but most dating systems were reginal, that is what year of what monarch/pharaoh/emperor's reign.

8

Same.. took me a moment. Then I realized in 59 B.C. it was like year 700 to them at that time (not literally 700.. just throwing a random number).

1
lemmy.zip

So, what would somebody say the year was if they were asked at that point?

40
Toes♀reply
ani.social

A universal calendar hasn't been established yet so it would depend on where you are.

For example today in 59 BC under the Athenian calendar would be 17 of Thargelion, Ol.180.1

94

You can search for any number between 1 and 2024 and your first result will likely be a Wikipedia article on the year

3
mrmulereply
lemmy.world

In Egypt they would say the 8th year of Cleopatra VII Thea Philopator

18
maculatareply
aussie.zone

No they wouldn’t. They would say something similar BUT IN OLDE WORLDY EGYPTIAN.

2
lemmy.world

59 BC is actually pretty close to coptic I'd bet for spoken language (though officially it wouldn't be called coptic with consistent Greek script until the third century). At least in the sense that vulgar Latin was close to Italian.

2
mkwtreply
lemmy.world

In the Roman empire it was also common to identify years by the names of the two consuls, because the consuls served one year terms.

Consuls continued to be elected through most of the empire period.

22
runekoreply
programming.dev

Pretty sure they would respond, "Get away from me, demon! Stop talking in tongues!"

10
Jolteonreply
lemmy.zip

I'm pretty sure the concept of somebody speaking another language from you existed back then.

7
gigachadreply
feddit.de

They probably woukdn't even know their own age

-5

"Before" implies something hasn't happened yet, therefore if they know it's before "something" they must be a time traveller from some after C, whatever the C might be.

5

Or else, you didn't travel anywhere (anywhen?) and the first guy you bumped into is a wise-ass.

5
lemmy.ca

If he gave you the year 113 would you know that was our current year?

1
Toes♀reply
ani.social

Only if they gave you the full date, otherwise it could potentially be a lot of things still.

1
lemmy.ca

As in saying “Juche 113”?

I don’t think common people announce it that way

1
Toes♀reply
ani.social

Yeah, I'm not too familiar with the intricacies of that. I just did anthropology as an elective.

1

North Korea counts years since the birth of Kim il Sung (their first leader/the revolutionary who stood up against Japanese occupation)

1