# How to write a date



## Casquilho

It's a very simple question: _exempli gratia_, let's say I want to write about the Normandy landing in the World War II: "6 June 1944 Operation". How could I say this in Latin?


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## Scholiast

a.d. xiii Id. Iun.


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## Scholiast

Oops!

That should have been "a.d. *viii* Id. Iun.". Apologies all round.


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## djmc

There is a little rhyme "March, July, October, May Nones the ninth, Ides the fifteenth day (otherwise the Nones are the seventh and the Ides the thirteenth). Thus in June the Nones would be the 7th. The sixth would be Pridie nonas Junio. As far as years go the Romans either dated by the Consuls for example Quinto Claudio Marco Flavio consulibus, or by the number of years since the traditional founding of Rome which was 753BC.


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## bibax

> There is a little rhyme "March, July, October, May ...


I remember *MARMAIULO*.


> As far as years go the Romans either dated by the Consuls for example Quinto Claudio Marco Flavio consulibus, ...


Which is quite inapplicable for the non-ancient dates.

Examples of the non-ancient dates (Tuesday 6-6-1944):

Datum die Martis, die VIo (sexto) mensis Iunii, anno Domini MCMXLIV
die 6o Iunii A.D. 1944
die 6 Iunii 1944
...


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## Casquilho

I'm not getting it well... does "a. d. viii Id. Iun." mean _anno domini_, 8 days before the Ides of June? There's no alternative in modern Latin? When a modern book was written in Latin, _e. g_. Copernicus' De Revolutionibus or Newton's Principia, how are the place and date of its printing spelled? And about my first example, how can I write the year, just MCMXLIV, without any preposition, is correct?


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## bibax

> I'm not getting it well... does "a. d. viii Id. Iun." mean anno domini, 8 days before the Ides of June?


No, a.d. means ante diem, pridie (abl.) means 'preceding day'.

For the "modern" Latin dates see my post #5. The A.D. or AD (anno Domini) is not necessary. In Latin the time is usually expressed by the ablative case without any preposition: anno MCMXLIV (millesimo ... quarto) = in the year 1944, die VIo (sexto) (mensis) Decembris = on the 6th day of (the month) December, die Martis = on Tuesday.
Domini, Martis, mensis, Decembris are genitive, of course.


> When a modern book was written in Latin, e. g. Copernicus' De Revolutionibus or Newton's Principia, how are the place and date of its printing spelled?


In my copy of Comenii Orbis Pictus is: Leutschoviae, Anno 1685.
Leutschoviae (in Leutschau, Levoča, now in Slovakia) is locative.


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## ~ceLine~

I read what you've written but I still didn't really understand.

Would _"A.D. III NON. MART. MCMXCII"_ be a good translation for _5 March 1992_? Should I also write _A.U.C. (Ab Urbe Condita)_ to the end?
I'm confused if it's gregorian or julian calender. Which one is it?

Thank you in advance.


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## Scholiast

Greetings to all: I am addressing myself here to the Original Poster's latest, #8



> I read what you've written but I still didn't really understand.
> 
> Would _"A.D. III NON. MART. MCMXCII"_ be a good translation for _5 March 1992_? Should I also write _A.U.C. (Ab Urbe Condita)_ to the end?
> I'm confused if it's gregorian or julian calender. Which one is it?
> 
> Thank you in advance. 				​



Greetings.

Your "A.D. III Non. Mart. MCMXCII" looks perfect to me for "5th March 1992", and there would not be, in normal current usage, a need to refer this to an _a.u.c. _date. But, may I ask, why is it a matter of relating to Julian or Gregorian calculations?

If you would care to tell us for what purpose this calendrical calculation is to be made, some of us may be able to give you further help (and, of course, would be glad to do so).

Looking forward to hearing more,


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## ~ceLine~

Thank you for your fast reply!
It was just my curiosity. Last year I had some latin classes at the university but this year I couldn't keep them for some reason so I am studying by myself and in every book, every website it is written something else and I got confused about which one we are using. While I was studying the dates in latin I tried to translate my birthday and then I couldn't be sure about the calender, if should I also write "a.u.c" at the end of a modern date, if it would be wrong or not. The datails are really confusing. So we write the years (1992 = MCMXCII) like in our calenders, I wasn't mistaken, was I?


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## djmc

The traditional date of the founding of Rome was 753 BC. Thus if you are trying to use a date AUC (ab urbe condita) you need to add 753 to whatever the date is. The Julian calendar was introduced in 45 BC, the Gregorian calendar in 1582 AD both to establish a system of tying the solstices of the solar year to a fixed number of days. The Mohammedan year is lunar (a fixed number of 28 day months) and is not related.


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## ~ceLine~

Thank you very much!! 
So _A.D. MCMXCII_ and _MMDCCXLV A.U.C_ are the same date 1992, aren't they?


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## djmc

Yes, looks allright to me.


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## ~ceLine~

I finally got it so, thank you again!


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