How do romans write the date

You were right the first time I think! There used to be a custom, which my mother born The official way of writing dates in parts of Eastern Europe the parts I know of were Bulgaria and the Soviet Union was very similar - the month was in Roman numerals. Today's date would be written as All official documentation both hand-written and typed hadthe dates in that format. That's the only way I ever remember writing dates, and there was a curious trick for hand-writing the roman portion too.

You'd be crazy to e-mail me with the crazy. But leave the div alone. I've never seen that, but I sometimes use lower-case Roman Seconding SJuan If you just want to write a date on or after 15 October in Latin, using the same wording as in ancient Rome, all well and good.

But Gregorian dates are seldom used before that calendar was first instituted on 15 October , and before about AD 9, it's impossible to convert exactly between modern or medieval calendars and the calendar as it was observed in Rome due to sketchy records. Add a comment. Active Oldest Votes. Improve this answer. Sign up or log in Sign up using Google. Sign up using Facebook. Sign up using Email and Password. Post as a guest Name. Email Required, but never shown.

Featured on Meta. Now live: A fully responsive profile. But describing a date as Before Christ or Anno Domini is based on a Christian tradition that began in the 6 th century. So what did the Roman use before then? Instead, most Romans preferred a more immediate system, one which suited their taste for honouring individuals: they described the year by saying which two men were consuls that year.

The consulship was the highest elected position that a Roman man could achieve, and the top spot in the cursus honorum the ideal career path for Roman politicians. The system was devised when Rome was a Republic, and the consuls were elected in pairs and changed annually to avoid either becoming too powerful.

But, as time went on, the rules were gradually bent. When Rome became an Empire, and the Emperor was now the highest official, consuls lost much of their political power. Often the Emperor himself was one of the consuls, and effectively nominated the others, and some people held the position more than once. This golden coin aureus was minted in AD , in the joint reign of the Emperors Caracalla and Geta.

This was not a good year for Geta.