Editing Dionysius Exiguus (section)

==Anno Domini==
{{Further|Ante Christum natum}}
Dionysius is best known as the inventor of [[Anno Domini]] dating, which is used to number the years of both the [[Gregorian calendar]] and the [[Julian calendar]]. He used it to identify the several Easters in his [[Dionysius Exiguus' Easter table|Easter table]], but did not use it to date any historical event. When he devised his table, Julian calendar years were identified by naming the [[consul]]s who held office that year; he himself stated that the "present year" was "the consulship of [[Anicius Probus Iunior|Probus Junior]]", which he also stated was 525 years "since the incarnation of our Lord [[Jesus Christ]]". How he arrived at that number is unknown, but there is evidence of the system he applied. He invented a new system of numbering years to replace the [[Era of Martyrs|Diocletian years]] that had been used in an old Easter table because he did not wish to continue the memory of a tyrant who persecuted Christians.{{sfnp|Blackburn|Holford-Strevens|2003|p=767}} It has been suggested that he arranged the numbers so that leap years would be exactly divisible by four, and that his new table would begin one "Victorian cycle" (see below), i.e. 532 years, after his new epoch.

Evidence exists that Dionysius' desire to replace Diocletian years with a calendar based on the incarnation of Christ was to prevent people from believing the imminent end of the world.  At the time, some believed that the [[Second Coming]] and end of the world would occur 500 years after the birth of Jesus.  The current [[Anno Mundi]] calendar commenced with the creation of the world based on information in the Greek [[Septuagint]].  It was believed that, based on the Anno Mundi calendar, Jesus was born in the year 5500 (or 5500 years after the world was created) with the year 6000 of the Anno Mundi calendar marking the end of the world.<ref>Wallraff, Martin: Julius Africanus und die Christliche Weltchronik. Walter de Gruyter, 2006.</ref>{{sfnp|Mosshammer|2008|pp=254, 270, 328}} Anno Mundi 6000 (c. 500) was thus equated with the second coming of Christ and the end of the world.{{sfnp|Declercq|2000}}