egnal dates were calculated. Successive
regnal years might begin (1) on the anniversary of the king's accession,
or (2) on the calendrical beginning in each year (normally on the first
day of the nominal First month of inundation, i.e. 1st Thoth in the
later calendar). In the latter case there would be a further
consideration: was the portion of a calendar year following the
accession of the new king counted to the last year of the outgoing king,
or to the first year of the new king? In Dynasties I., IV.-V., XVIII.
there are instances of the first mode (1), in Dynasties II., VI. (?),
XII., XXVI. and onwards they follow the second (2). It may be that the
practice was not uniform in all documents even of the same age. In
Ptolemaic times not only were Macedonian dates sometimes given in Greek
documents, but there were certainly two native modes of dating current;
down to the reign of Euergetes there was a "fiscal" dating in papyri,
according to which the year began in Paophi, besides a civil dating
probably from Thoth; later, all the dates in papyri start from Thoth.

The Macedonian year is found in early Ptolemaic documents. The fixed
year of the Canopic decree under Euergetes (with 1st Thoth on Oct. 22)
was never adopted. Augustus established an "Alexandrian" era with the
fixed Julian year, retaining the Egyptian months, with a sixth
epagomenal day every fourth year. The capture of Alexandria having taken
place on the 1st of August 30 B.C., the era began nominally in 30 B.C.,
but it was not actually introduced till some years later, from which
time the 1st Thoth corresponded with the 29th of August in the Julian
year. The vague "Egyptian" year, however, continued in use in native
documents for some centuries along with the Alexandrian "Ionian" year.
The era of Diocletian dates from the 29th of August 284, the year of his
reforms; later, however, the Christians called it the era of the Martyrs
(though the persecution was not until 302), and it survived the Arab
conquest. The dating by indictions, i.e. Roman tax-censuses, taking
place every fifteenth year, probably originated in Egypt, in A.D. 312,
the year of the defeat of Maxentius. The indictions began in Payni of
the fixed year, when the harvest had been secured.

See F. K. Ginzel, _Handbuch der mathematischen und technischen
Chronologie_, Bd. i. (Leipzig, 1906), and the bibliography in the
following section.

2. _Historical._[18]--As to absolute chronology, th