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Annianus of Alexandria ( grc-gre, italic=yes, Annianos) was a monk who flourished in
Alexandria Alexandria ( or ; ar, ٱلْإِسْكَنْدَرِيَّةُ ; grc-gre, Αλεξάνδρεια, Alexándria) is the second largest city in Egypt, and the largest city on the Mediterranean coast. Founded in by Alexander the Great, Alexandri ...
during the
bishop A bishop is an ordained clergy member who is entrusted with a position of Episcopal polity, authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance of dioceses. The role or offic ...
ric of Theophilus of Alexandria around the beginning of the 5thcentury. He criticized the world history of his contemporary monk Panodorus of Alexandria for relying too much on secular sources rather than biblical sources for his dates. As a result, Annianus developed his own
chronology Chronology (from Latin ''chronologia'', from Ancient Greek , ''chrónos'', "time"; and , ''-logia'') is the science of arranging events in their order of occurrence in time. Consider, for example, the use of a timeline or sequence of events. I ...
which placed
Creation Creation may refer to: Religion *''Creatio ex nihilo'', the concept that matter was created by God out of nothing *Creation myth, a religious story of the origin of the world and how people first came to inhabit it *Creationism, the belief that ...
on . This created the Alexandrian Era whose first day was the first day of the
proleptic Proleptic may refer to: * Prolepsis, several meanings related to foreshadowing * Proleptic calendar, a calendar that is applied to dates before its introduction * Proleptic syllogism, a class of syllogism in logic {{disambiguation ...
Alexandrian civil year in progress, . This year was eleven Paschal cycles of 532 years each before the Alexandrian year beginning , which itself was four 19-year cycles after the
epoch In chronology and periodization, an epoch or reference epoch is an instant in time chosen as the origin of a particular calendar era. The "epoch" serves as a reference point from which time is measured. The moment of epoch is usually decided by ...
of the Diocletian Era on . The former is known as the Era of Grace in the
Coptic Church The Coptic Orthodox Church ( cop, Ϯⲉⲕ̀ⲕⲗⲏⲥⲓⲁ ⲛ̀ⲣⲉⲙⲛ̀ⲭⲏⲙⲓ ⲛ̀ⲟⲣⲑⲟⲇⲟⲝⲟⲥ, translit=Ti.eklyseya en.remenkimi en.orthodoxos, lit=the Egyptian Orthodox Church; ar, الكنيسة القبطي� ...
, whereas the latter is known as the
Era of Martyrs The Era of the Martyrs ( la, anno martyrum), also known as the ''Diocletian era'' ( la, anno Diocletiani), is a method of numbering years used by the Church of Alexandria beginning in the 4th century AD/CE and by the Coptic Orthodox Church of ...
. He was the first computist to recognize the 532-year cycle of
Easter Easter,Traditional names for the feast in English are "Easter Day", as in the ''Book of Common Prayer''; "Easter Sunday", used by James Ussher''The Whole Works of the Most Rev. James Ussher, Volume 4'') and Samuel Pepys''The Diary of Samuel ...
s in the
Julian calendar The Julian calendar, proposed by Roman consul Julius Caesar in 46 BC, was a reform of the Roman calendar. It took effect on , by edict. It was designed with the aid of Greek mathematicians and astronomers such as Sosigenes of Alexandr ...
. This cycle is often attributed to
Victorius of Aquitaine Victorius of Aquitaine, a countryman of Prosper of Aquitaine and also working in Rome, produced in AD 457 an Easter Cycle, which was based on the consular list provided by Prosper's Chronicle. This dependency caused scholars to think that Prosper ...
in 457, the first to recognize such a cycle in the West. None of Annianus's writings have survived. He is principally known from the discussion of his works by
George Syncellus George Syncellus ( el, Γεώργιος Σύγκελλος, ''Georgios Synkellos''; died after 810) was a Byzantine chronicler and ecclesiastic. He had lived many years in Palestine (probably in the Old Lavra of Saint Chariton or Souka, near Tekoa) ...
during the 9th century, though lesser fragments appear elsewhere.
Elijah of Nisibis , native_name_lang = Syriac , church = Church of the East , archdiocese = Nisibis , province = Metropolitanate of Nisibis , metropolis = , diocese = , see = , appointed = 26 Dec ...
cites him in his 11th-century ''Chronography''. However, Annianus’ Paschal table of 532 years, containing a 532-year Paschal cycle based on a Metonic 19-year lunar cycle, has survived. Its Metonic 19-year lunar cycle was adopted by bishop
Cyril of Alexandria Cyril of Alexandria ( grc, Κύριλλος Ἀλεξανδρείας; cop, Ⲡⲁⲡⲁ Ⲕⲩⲣⲓⲗⲗⲟⲩ ⲁ̅ also ⲡⲓ̀ⲁⲅⲓⲟⲥ Ⲕⲓⲣⲓⲗⲗⲟⲥ;  376 – 444) was the Patriarch of Alexandria from 412 to 444 ...
, who used it in his own (Greek language and Alexandrian calendar) Paschal table of 114 years. Shortly before Cyril's death (AD444), a beginning was made with a Latin language and Julian calendar Paschal table probably intended for use in the Latin part of Europe; this resulted in a similar Paschal table of 95 years, referred to as ‘the Paschal table attributed to Cyril’, which covered time interval . A century later this Paschal table was continued by
Dionysius Exiguus Dionysius Exiguus (Latin for "Dionysius the Humble", Greek: Διονύσιος; – ) was a 6th-century Eastern Roman monk born in Scythia Minor. He was a member of a community of Scythian monks concentrated in Tomis (present day Constanța ...
to a Paschal table covering time interval , two centuries hereafter his Paschal table was extended to
Bede Bede ( ; ang, Bǣda , ; 672/326 May 735), also known as Saint Bede, The Venerable Bede, and Bede the Venerable ( la, Beda Venerabilis), was an English monk at the monastery of St Peter and its companion monastery of St Paul in the Kingdom ...
’s Easter table covering time interval and containing a 532-year Paschal cycle. We conclude that it is precisely Annianus’ variant of the Metonic 19-year lunar cycle (invented by
Anatolius Anatolius is both a given name and a surname. Notable people with the name include: Given name * Anatolius of Laodicea (died 283), Bishop of Laodicea in Syria, also known as Anatolius of Alexandria * Anatolius, Vicarius of the Diocese of Asia in 3 ...
) which from the sixth to the sixteenth century has been the core of the computus paschalis in the Latin Christian world, because it was not earlier than in the year 1582 that the
Julian calendar The Julian calendar, proposed by Roman consul Julius Caesar in 46 BC, was a reform of the Roman calendar. It took effect on , by edict. It was designed with the aid of Greek mathematicians and astronomers such as Sosigenes of Alexandr ...
was replaced with the
Gregorian calendar The Gregorian calendar is the calendar used in most parts of the world. It was introduced in October 1582 by Pope Gregory XIII as a modification of, and replacement for, the Julian calendar. The principal change was to space leap years diff ...
. As far as
Victorius of Aquitaine Victorius of Aquitaine, a countryman of Prosper of Aquitaine and also working in Rome, produced in AD 457 an Easter Cycle, which was based on the consular list provided by Prosper's Chronicle. This dependency caused scholars to think that Prosper ...
is concerned, Jan Zuidhoek, pretending to mention explicitly all relevant Metonic 19-year lunar cycles, has missed an opportunity to mention Victorius’ one. However, Alden Mosshammer has mentioned it explicitly. In principle, each date of the 532-year Paschal cycle of Victorius’ Paschal table can be calculated by applying the old Roman rule “Paschal Sunday is the first Sunday after the first day after the Paschal full moon” to the corresponding date of the Paschal full moon of its lunar cycle (if desired with the help of the number indicating the weekday of ).Declercq (2000) 86−87


References


Bibliography

* William Adler. ''Time immemorial: archaic history and its sources in Christian chronography from Julius Africanus to George Syncellus''. Washington, D.C.: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, 1989 (). * William Adler, Paul Tuffin, translators. ''The chronography of George Synkellos: a Byzantine chronicle of universal history from the creation''. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002, (). Synkellos copied large blocks of text written by Annianus. * Georges Declercq (2000) ''Anno Domini (The Origins of the Christian Era)'': Turnhout () * * Otto Neugebauer (1979) ''Ethiopic Astronomy and Computus'': Wien () * Jan Zuidhoek (2019) ''Reconstructing Metonic 19-year Lunar Cycles (on the basis of NASA’s Six Millennium Catalog of Phases of the Moon)'': Zwolle ()


External links


Five Metonic 19-year lunar cycles
{{Authority control Byzantine theologians 5th-century Byzantine historians 5th-century Byzantine monks Egyptian Christian monks Egyptian historians of religion 5th-century Byzantine writers 5th-century Christian theologians Chronologists 5th-century Egyptian people Historians of Christianity