The
anno Diocletiani era was not the only one used by early Christians. Western Christians were aware of it but did not use it. Most Roman Christians, like the pagan Romans before them, designated their years by naming the two consuls who held office that year. The Romans also used the
ab urbe condita (AUC) era. Its name is Latin for "from the founding of the City (Rome)". However, the AUC era was hardly ever used outside historical treatises. Eras that began at Creation, called
anno Mundi eras, became the dominant method of numbering years in the East until modern times, such as in the
Byzantine calendar.
Annianus of Alexandria, a monk who
flourished at the beginning of the 5th century, placed the epoch of his world era on 25 March 5492BC by counting back eleven 532-year
paschal cycles from
anno Diocletiani 77, itself four 19-year
lunar cycles after
anno Diocletiani 1. Regarded as a civil rather than a religious era, it began on the first day of the Alexandrian year, 29 August 5493BC. This Alexandrian era was the preferred era used by
Byzantine Christians such as
Maximus the Confessor, until the 10th century when the Byzantine era, which had an epoch of 1 September 5509BC, became dominant. Both eras used a version of
dating Creation based on the
Septuagint. ==Transition to Anno Domini==