Jewish tradition has long preserved a record of dates and time sequences of important historical events related to the Jewish nation including, but not limited to, the dates fixed for the building and destruction of the Second Temple. The same fixed points in time (henceforth: chronological dates) are well-documented and supported by ancient works, although when compared to the synchronistic chronological tables of modern-day chroniclers and western scholars of history, they are often at variance with their modern dating system.First (1997), p. 96 Discrepancies between the two systems may be as much as 2 years, or well-over 100 years, depending on the event.First (1997), pp. 95–96 Prior to the adoption of the BC / AD era of computation and its synchronization with the regnal years of kings and Caesars recorded in historical records, Jews made use of the earlier Seleucid era counting (also known as the Year of Alexander), or, in Hebrew, minyan li-šṭarōth ("era of contracts"), by which historical dates were marked from the time of Alexander the Great.
In ordinary time-keeping, a single major event was often used as a datum point for reckoning time. Historians would note how much time had passed since one important event in relation to some later event, as is the case in Jewish chronology.
Brief history of chronology The Greek historian Timaeus of Tauromenium (c. 365 BCE–260 BCE) introduced the system of reckoning by Olympiads. Nepos is generally acclaimed to have been the first Roman writer of chronography. He marks the birth of Alexander the Great in the 385th year after the foundation of Rome, giving also the names of the consuls for that year. Rome's founding, or what is known as "A.U.C.," ab urbe condita, "from the foundation of the city [of Rome]," is fixed by Nepos, as also by Polybius, as falling in "the second year of the seventh Olympiad," a year corresponding roughly with 751/0 BCE.Based on the Olympiads used by Josephus, the foundation of Rome would have been in anno 754 BCE, or thereabouts. Josephus's Olympiads seem to be confirmed by E. J. Bickerman's 'Chronology of the Ancient World.' In Bickerman's momentous work, he includes a table to convert Rome's AUC dates to BCE/CE dates. AUC, or what is ab urbe condita = "from the foundation of the city" = i.e. when Rome was first founded in the days of Romulus and Remus, is put by Bickerman at 753 BCE. These figures are in nearly complete harmony with those of Josephus. Like ancient Hebrew writers of history, their delineations of imperial chronology were centered mostly around provincial, or local, history.
Josephus, when bringing down the regnal years of the Babylonian kings who feature highly in Israel's history, cites the third book of Berossus.Josephus, Contra Apionem (Against Apion 1:19–20), and which regnal years agree, more or less, with the research conducted by Richard A. Parker and Waldo H. Dubberstein in their momentous work, Babylonian Chronology 626 BC – AD 75 (Providence 1956).
Manetho, who was a high priest and scribe of Egypt, copied down from the ancient Egyptian inscriptions a chronological list of eight early Persian kings for Ptolemy Philadelphus (266–228 BCE), beginning with Cambyses, the son of Cyrus the Great, and omitting only the magi's interim rule.On the Magi, see Herodotus's Histories, which has the Magian ruling Persia for 7 months after the death of Cambyses. Josephus, on the other hand, says they obtained the government of the Persians for a year.
Suetonius's De vita Caesarum (Lives of the Caesars), Josephus's The Jewish War, and Epiphanius's On Weights and Measures (Syriac version), all have attempted to accurately portray the regnal years of the Roman emperors, and, despite their good efforts, there are still discrepancies between them.Josephus (1980), p. 130 (note 1), where it is pointed out that, according to Josephus, Caesar Augustus's reign lasted 57 years, 6 months and 2 days, but in Suetonius's Lives of the Caesars, he puts down for Augustus's reign 57 years, 5 months and 4 days. Epiphanius' Syriac version of his treatise On Weights and Measures puts Augustus's reign at 56 years and 6 months, which agrees with Josephus's statement in his Antiquities (18.2.2.), where Josephus (unlike his statement in The Jewish War) puts Augustus Caesar's reign as spanning 57 years, abating 6 months and 2 days. These variants will invariably lead to discrepancies in the accepted chronologies. In Jerome's Chronici Canones (Chronicle) which he completed in 381 CE, the first regnal year of Julius Caesar, the first Roman emperor: Romanorum primus Caius Iulius Caesar, is marked as 48 BCE, but which Jerome in his original document had written in Roman numerals and given only the number of the Olympiad for events, and no more. Indeed, the corresponding BCE dates which are now present in this work are only the additions of the modern editor, Rudolf Helm.
"For modern scholarship the problem," in E. J. Bickerman's words, "is 'how we know Caesar was assassinated on March 15, 44 BC[E].' Before 480 BC[E], no date can be precise in terms of the Julian calendar unless confirmed by astronomical phenomena." There is also considerable disagreement among scholarship as to when to reckon the beginning of Augustus Caesar's imperium.
Echoing these great difficulties in chronological notations, D. MacNaughton wrote: "Systems of ancient chronology, propounded even since the days of George Smith, have been many and various, and while in one year one date is assigned with an air of finality to a certain king, a few years later the date is abandoned as erroneous. These changes are natural." In fact, it has taken many hundreds of years for scholars to arrive at the dates that are now assumed to be accurate, as purported by Grafton in his book on "Joseph Scaliger," and where he shows how long it took for Roman consular dates (and archon dates, etc.) to be converted into BC/AD. All the ancient dating systems had to be aligned and converted into the modern system, and cross-referenced, and where others were not easily translatable.
For the chronologies of Babylonian kings up to the fall of Babylon, as well as the chronologies of Persian kings, beginning with Cyrus the Great, modern-day historians rely principally upon the work Ptolemy's canon.E. J. Bickerman, Chronology of the Ancient World (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1968), pp. 81f
Cornerstones in Jewish tradition Amongst Jews, the era known as the Seleucid era has been used in antiquity to mark chronological events. It was used extensively by Sherira Gaon in the writing of his Iggeret. The practice of reckoning years by this system is mentioned in the Babylonian Talmud (Avodah Zarah 10a): "Said Rav Nahman: In the Diaspora, it is not permissible to count [the date in years] except only by the kings of the Grecians." Its usage was common throughout the Jewish world until the sixteenth century,Sar-Shalom (1984), p. 164 (Seleucid era counting). This change in Israel's use of this dating system is said to have been initiated by Rabbi David ibn Zimra. and has been used by Yemenite Diaspora Jews as late as the 1940s, until their immigration to the Land of Israel. By their recollection of the current calendar year, it is shown to have started in the Fall (Tishri) of 312 BCE, which agrees with modern scholarship (312/311).Sar-Shalom (1984), p. 164 (The beginning of the Seleucid era counting), where its first year is said to have commenced in the Fall of 312 BCE and ending in the Fall of 311 BCE.Parker & Dubberstein (1956), p. 37
It is disputed, however, how Alexander the Great fits-in with this Hellenistic dating era. Talmudic exegete, Rabbeinu Chananel, following Seder Olam, alleged that the Seleucid era commenced in the 6th-year of the reign of Alexander the Great,Babylonian Talmud (Avodah Zarah 9b–10a, Commentary of Rabbeinu Chananel, s.v. ) and that there were 40 years from the building of the Second Temple (during the reign of the Persian king Darius the Great) until the 6th year of the reign of Alexander the Great, namely, in 312 BCE. According to Rabbeinu Chananel, this 40-year period marked the building of the Second Temple under Darius the Great in 352 BCE and the beginning of Grecian hegemony over Israel in 312 BCE. Modern-day chroniclers assign different dates for Alexander's reign. Modern-day chroniclers also contend that from Darius the Great who laid the foundation of the Second Temple to Alexander the Great there was a span of 190 years, rather than a mere 40 years.
According to Josephus, Alexander the Great died in the 114th Olympiad, after reigning 12 years.Josephus, Against Apion 1.22. Cf. Heckel and Yardley, Alexander the Great, pp. 279-80, quoting Diodorus Siculus, Alexander the Great's reign lasted 12 years and 7 months. If so, the 114th Olympiad would have corresponded with about 326 BCE, or what was then 15 years before they began to make use of the Seleucid era counting. Others put his death in 323 BCE, 12 years before the start of the Seleucid era.Sar-Shalom (1984), p. 164 (Seleucid era counting) It is said that the Jews started this system of reckoning the years, in recognition of Alexander the Great who passed through their country and who received warmly the Jewish High Priest who came out to greet him.So is it written in the Sefer ha-Qabbalah of Rabbi Abraham ibn Daud, and so writes Rabbi David, the grandson of Rabbi Moses b. Maimon, in his commentary Midrash David, on Mishna Tractate Avoth (Ethics of the Fathers, 1:6). Others say that the introduction of this new era was in commemoration of the year in which Seleucus I reconquered Babylon and got the dominion over Syria, which last opinion seems to be that of Josephus as well (cf. Antiquities 13.6.7.).
The advantage of the Seleucid era counting system is that historical dates marked in this era do not require later synchronization with the BC / AD era configurations based on kings' reigns, configurations added later by modern chroniclers when trying to fixate the regnal years of various kings. Rather, all that was required of the Seleucid era counting was to simply convert it into the date used in the Common Era, without consideration for the rest. While the Seleucid Era counting has been abandoned in the writing of legal deeds, promissory notes, court attestations, etc., it is still relied upon by all observant Jews when determining the 2nd Temple's destruction.The Radbaz Commentary (compiled in c. 1561 CE) states on Maimonides' H. Shemita veyovel: "On this calculation have all the people of the land of Israel relied… The opinion of our Master (Maimonides) it is the correct one, and is that which is practised in all our borders" (End Quote). It is also considered very reliable when seeking to determine dates of events in relation to the Common Era, making for a more precise fixation of an event.