before Christ
Ancient calendar designation
Before Christ, abbreviated BC, designates years counted backward from the estimated birth of Jesus.
The year 500 BC came five hundred years before that reference point.
BC follows the year number: Julius Caesar was assassinated in 44 BC.
The secular alternative BCE (Before Common Era) is increasingly used in academic and interfaith contexts.
- BCPre-Christian year marker
- ancientVery old indeed
- ancient historyStudy of earliest civilizations
- anno DominiIn the Lord's year
- eraDistinct historical period
calendar · Jesus · biblical · antiquity · Roman · Roman Empire · Greek · ancient Greece · centuries · historical · dating · timeline · year zero · archaeology · prehistoric · Bronze Age · Iron Age · Old Testament
- historical dating termsBC, AD, BCE, CE, carbon dating
- yearscalendar year, fiscal year, leap year, common year, school year
before ChristAnno Domini
Years since Christ's birth
AD · Common Era · CE · BCE · modern era
before, Christ, Christian, Christianity, Christianize, Christendom, Christlike, christen, christening