calculations founded thereon point to the year 747, B.C. (February 24th) as the year and month in which Nabonassar ascended the throne. It was the style adopted by the Alexandrian Greeks and also by some otber peoples. It was a great public fact, and hence became a convenient terminus from which to start computations for events.
63. Palmyra. A recent traveller has mentioned facts regarding inscriptions in this famous ruined city which, in my opinion, indicate that the era of Seleucidae was current to the latter part of the third century A.D.[1] He discovered a statue, erected by certain generals, that bore the inscription, which he translates as follows: 'To their sovereign, in the month of Ab, the year 582.' This, in the anno domini reckoning, is August, 271. Half a decade later the Romans conquered the district.
64. Russian Style. This era (the era of Constantinople) was, Nicolas states, adopted in Constantinople 'before the middle of the seventh century.' It begins as from the year 5508 B.C. This year is the date of the creation according to the Greek Church, whence the Russians adopted the reckoning, and followed the same till the reign of Peter the Great. Writing in 1727, Voltaire has some delicate raillery about the Russians' inability to give reasons for their Mundane era. Pointing out that they (believing that the creation occurred in autumn had begun their year then) he ridicules the idea for 'autumn in Russia, he says, 'was spring in countries at the Antipodes.'[2] But Peter the Great, as Brockmann points out, 'ordained that the year should begin with 1st January.'
