The computation of the date by Olympiads is very uncommon, in early
printed books: it is however the most ancient classical method. Each
Olympiad is a period of four years, and the first is computed to have
commenced in July, B. C. 776: so that July A. D. 1 corresponded with the
beginning of Olympiad 195. The computation ceased for practical purposes
in A. D. 395, and the present revival is of an artificial kind, in which
the expression “every fifth year,” which by a Greek could be applied to
an Olympiad (Πενταετηρίς), was taken in its ordinary sense and used for
computation. Thus “in the 297th Olympiad from the birth of Christ” was
in the present book taken to represent (297 × 5 =) A. D. 1485. A similar
use is found in the 1472 (Venice) edition of the Epigrams of
Ausonius[13]. But the 1494 (Parma) edition of the Declamations of
Quintilian contains a futile attempt to use the ancient method, for it
was printed “Olympiade quingentesima sexagesima octaua qui est annus a
salute christiana M.cccc.xciiii quinto non. Iul.”, whereas it would
properly have been 1493. And M. A. Giry (©Manuel de Diplomatique©, 1894,
p. 96) records an unintelligible attempt to use this computation in a
deed of 1102.
_Copies known._
1. Oxford, Corpus Christi College. Perfect. Owned by John Lacy, and
Herbert Randolph (1724). Marked Χ P. 3. 12, then Δ. 1. 14.