When time became regular and universal, it changed history

For from earliest recorded history right up to the years after Alexander the Great’s conquests in the late 4th century BCE, historical time – the public and annual marking of the passage of years – could be measured only in three ways: by unique events, by annual offices, or by royal lifecycles. In whatever script the Seleucid Era number was recorded – and, given the vast expanse of the Seleucid empire, we have it attested in the Greek, Akkadian, Phoenician and Aramaic counting systems – the year’s numerical value was universally stable. These historical apocalypses are textual compositions that run through a full and extended account of world history, from the deep reaches of the past, through a succession of kingdoms or historical periods, into the Seleucid empire, and then to the predicted end of time itself.

Source: aeon.co