Is it really 2018?

Marianus’ chronicle was circulated throughout Christian Europe, and although his revised annusdomini was well received, the whole of Western Europe did not suddenly change their numbering of the year. It seems that the accuracy of this dating system was less important than the fact that it existed, and worked as a means of locating dates of past and future events in an intelligible framework. To overhaul thousands of years’ worth of recorded history and centuries of legal and administrative documentation, just does not seem to have been deemed worth the effort for Marianus’ contemporaries.

So, how do we know what year we are in? Clearly, we are in whatever year we say we are, according to whatever dating system we choose to use. While 2018AD/CE dominates current dating measures, we might just as well choose to use the measures provided by other religions, beliefs or cultures. And who knows what measures may be deemed more applicable to future generations.

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 Charles C. Rozier is a Lecturer in Medieval History, Swansea University