ory obtained by Julius Caesar on the plains of Pharsalia, on the 9th
of August in the year 48 B.C., and the 706th of Rome. The Syrians
computed it from their month Tishrin I.; but the Greeks threw it back to
the month Gorpiaeus of the preceding year. Hence there is a difference
of eleven months between the epochs assumed by the Syrians and the
Greeks. According to the computation of the Greeks, the 49th year of the
Caesarean era began in the autumn of the year preceding the commencement
of the Christian era; and, according to the Syrians, the 49th year began
in the autumn of the first year of the Incarnation. It is followed by
Evagrius in his _Ecclesiastical History_.

_Julian Era._--The Julian era begins with the 1st of January, forty-five
years B.C. It was designed to commemorate the reformation of the Roman
calendar by Julius Caesar.

_Era of Spain, or of the Caesars._--The conquest of Spain by Augustus,
which was completed in the thirty-ninth year B.C., gave rise to this
era, which began with the first day of the following year, and was long
used in Spain and Portugal, and generally in all the Roman provinces
subdued by the Visigoths, both in Africa and the South of France.
Several of the councils of Carthage, and also that of Arles, are dated
according to this era. After the 9th century it became usual to join
with it in public acts the year of the Incarnation. It was followed in
Catalonia till the year 1180, in the kingdom of Aragon till 1350, in
Valencia till 1358, and in Castile till 1382. In Portugal it is said to
have been in use so late as the year 1415, or 1422, though it would seem
that after the establishment of the Portuguese monarchy, no other era
was used in the public acts of that country than that of the
Incarnation. As the era of Spain began with the 1st of January, and the
months and days of the year are those of the Julian calendar, any date
is reduced to the common era by subtracting thirty-eight from the number
of the year.

_Era of Actium, and Era of Augustus._--This era was established to
commemorate the battle of Actium, which was fought on the 3rd of
September, in the year 31 B.C., and in the 15th of the Julian era. By
the Romans the era of Actium was considered as beginning on the 1st of
January of the 16th of the Julian era, which is the 30th B.C. The
Egyptians, who used this era till the time of Diocletian, dated its
commencement from the beginning of their month Thoth, or the 29th of
A