sion of dates according to the era of Nabonassar into years before
Christ is attended with considerable trouble. The surest way is to
follow a comparative table. Frequently the year cannot be fixed with
certainty, unless we know also the month and the day.

The Greeks of Alexandria formerly employed the era of Nabonassar, with a
year of 365 days; but soon after the reformation of the calendar of
Julius Caesar, they adopted, like other Roman provincials, the Julian
intercalation. At this time the first of Thoth had receded to the 29th
of August. In the year 136 of our era, the first of Thoth in the ancient
Egyptian year corresponded with the 20th of July, between which and the
29th of August there are forty days. The adoption of the Julian year
must therefore have taken place about 160 years before the year 136 of
our era (the difference between the Egyptian and Julian years being one
day in four years), that is to say, about the year 25 B.C. In fact, the
first of Thoth corresponded with the 29th of August in the Julian
calendar, in the years 25, 24, 23 and 22 B.C.

_Era of the Seleucidae, or Macedonian Era._--The era of the Seleucidae
dates from the time of the occupation of Babylon by Seleucus Nicator,
311 years before Christ, in the year of Rome 442, and twelve years after
the death of Alexander the Great. It was adopted not only in the
monarchy of the Seleucidae but in general in all the Greek countries
bordering on the Levant, was followed by the Jews till the 15th century,
and is said to be used by some Arabians even at the present day. By the
Jews it was called the _Era of Contracts_, because the Syrian governors
compelled them to make use of it in civil contracts; the writers of the
books of Maccabees call it the _Era of Kings_. But notwithstanding its
general prevalence in the East for many centuries, authors using it
differ much with regard to their manner of expressing dates, in
consequence of the different epochs adopted for the beginning of the
year. Among the Syrian Greeks the year began with the month Elul, which
corresponds to our September. The Nestorians and Jacobites at the
present day suppose it to begin with the following month, or October.
The author of the first book of Maccabees makes the era commence with
the month Nisan, or April; and the author of the second book with the
first Tishrin, or October. Albategni, a celebrated Arabian astronomer,
dates from the 1st of October. Some of the Arabian wr