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==Background==
While the measure of a day and year have been labeled, and changed over the years, for time immemorial, the tagging of a period of years has varied throughout history. Eras or epochs of years have been measured from various starting points have been based on various events. These measures have included counts based upon the cycle of Olympiads, epochs starting from the founding of Rome, on the reigns of monarchs such as used today in Japan (the Meiji or Showa eras), from the formation of earth, and so on. In much of the world today the enumeration of years is based on the birth of [[Christ]], although this practice, or epoch, did not become common for centuries after Dionyius Dionysius Exiguus, a Scythian [[monk]], established this starting point in 527.
In the third century in the Roman Empire an epoch measurement became popular called the Indiction. When indictions began to be used about 287, it originated as a cycle of five years. By 314 an indiction cycle of fifteen years appeared which became the common measure at the same time that the Emperor [[Constantine the Great]] recognized [[Christianity]]. The use of indictions for dating documents not related to taxes began in the mid-fourth century.
