Took me a second
They wouldn’t call the year 59 bc in 59 bc
They would probably not speak Modern English either.
Okay, honest question: what did they call it then, if anything?
Because it’s not like they planned on counting down to the future “messiah’s” birthday.
The Romans named their years after who was elected Consul that year. There were two Consuls, so you’d say “in the consulship of Jones and Smith”. 59BC was Julius Caesar and some other guy. The other guy was so unimportant that Romans joked by calling it the consulship of “Julius and Caesar”.
You have to look at non-Christian calendars.
It was 2275 in Korea.
It was 265 of the 33rd dynasty in Egypt.
It was 2 of the 180th Olympiad in Greece.
More here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/59_BC
So, what would somebody say the year was if they were asked at that point?
A universal calendar hasn’t been established yet so it would depend on where you are.
For example today in 59 BC under the Athenian calendar would be 17 of Thargelion, Ol.180.1
In Egypt they would say the 8th year of Cleopatra VII Thea Philopator
No they wouldn’t. They would say something similar BUT IN OLDE WORLDY EGYPTIAN.
