Eli5 How was time marked BCE?

Question

Since those that lived BCE didn’t know that the years were descending, how did they mark time during that time period?

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Answer 1

The most common way of counting the years was to use the name of the king or emperor at the time. We still do this in terms such as the “Nixon era” or the “Thatcher period”. To get the individual year you number them sequentially. “Second year of the Clinton administration” for example.