Saeculum

Asaeculumis a length of time roughly equal to the potential lifetime of a person or, equivalently, the complete renewal of a human population.^[1]

Background

Originally it meant the time from the moment that something happened (for example the founding of a city) until the point in time that all people who had lived at the first moment had died. At that point a newsaeculumwould start. According tolegend,the gods had allotted a certain number ofsaeculato every people or civilization; theEtruscans,for example, had been given ten saecula.^[2]

By the 2nd century BC, Roman historians were using thesaeculumto periodize their chronicles and track wars.^[3]At the time of the reign of emperorAugustus,theRomansdecided that asaeculumwas 110 years. In 17 BC, Caesar Augustus organizedLudi saeculares( "saecular games" ) for the first time to celebrate the "fifth saeculum of Rome".^[4]Augustus aimed to link thesaeculumwith imperial authority.^[5]

Emperors such asClaudiusandSeptimius Severuscelebrated the passing ofsaeculawith games at irregular intervals. In 248,Philip the Arabcombined Ludi saeculares with the1,000th anniversaryof thefounding of Rome.The newmillenniumthat Rome entered was called thesaeculum novum,^[6]a term that received ametaphysicalconnotation inChristianity,referring to the worldly age (hence "secular").^[7]

Roman emperors legitimised their political authority by referring to thesaeculumin various media, linked to a golden age of imperial glory. In response, Christian writers began to define thesaeculumas referring to 'this present world', as opposed to the expectation of eternal life in the 'world to come'.^[5]This results in the modern sense of 'secular' as 'belonging to the world and its affairs'.^[8]

The English wordsecular,an adjective meaning something happening once in an eon, is derived from the Latinsaeculum.^[9]The descendants of Latinsaeculumin the Romance languages generally mean "century" (i.e., 100 years): Frenchsiècle,^[10]Spanishsiglo,^[11]Portugueseséculo,^[12]Italiansecolo,^[13]etc.

References

^Dunning, Susan Bilynskyj (November 2017)."Saeculum".Oxford Classical Dictionary.Vol. 1.doi:10.1093/acrefore/9780199381135.013.8233.ISBN 978-0-19-938113-5.
^Feeney, Denis (2007).Caesar's calendar: ancient time and the beginnings of history.Berkeley: University of California Press.doi:10.1525/california/9780520251199.001.0001.ISBN 978-0-520-25119-9.
^Diehl, Ernst (1934). "Das saeculum, seine Riten und Gebete: Teil I. Bedeutung und Quellen des saeculum. Die älteren saecula".Rheinisches Museum für Philologie.n.s.83(3): 255–272.ISSN 0035-449X.JSTOR 23078470.
^Barker, Duncan (1996). "'The Golden Age Is Proclaimed'? The Carmen Saeculare and the Renascence of the Golden Race ".The Classical Quarterly.n.s.46(2): 434–446.doi:10.1093/cq/46.2.434.ISSN 0009-8388.JSTOR 639800.
^^a ^bDunning, Susan Bilynskyj (2022-06-06). "The transformation of thesaeculumand its rhetoric in the construction and rejection of Roman imperial power ". In Faure, Richard; Valli, Simon-Pierre; Zucker, Arnaud (eds.).Conceptions of time in Greek and Roman antiquity.Berlin: De Gruyter.doi:10.1515/9783110736076-008.ISBN 978-3-11-073607-6.
^Hall, John. F. III (1986). "The Saeculum Novum of Augustus and its Etruscan Antecedents". In Haase, Wolfgang (ed.).TheSaeculum novumof Augustus and its Etruscan Antecedents.Vol. 2. pp. 2564–2589.doi:10.1515/9783110841671-016.ISBN 978-3-11-084167-1.{{cite book}}:|journal=ignored (help)
^Diehl, Ernst (1934). "Das ʻsaeculumʼ, seine Riten und Gebete: Teil II. Die ʻsaeculaʼ der Kaiserzeit. Ritual und Gebet der Feiern der Jahre 17 v. Chr., 88 und 204 n. Chr".Rheinisches Museum für Philologie.n.s.83(4): 348–372.ISSN 0035-449X.JSTOR 23079245.
^"secular".Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary.Merriam-Webster.
^"secular".Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary.Merriam-Webster.
^"siècle",Wiktionary, the free dictionary,2023-08-29,retrieved2023-09-05
^"siglo",Wiktionary, the free dictionary,2023-08-19,retrieved2023-09-05
^"século",Wiktionary, the free dictionary,2023-03-17,retrieved2023-09-05
^"secolo",Wiktionary, the free dictionary,2023-08-11,retrieved2023-09-05

[1] Dunning, Susan Bilynskyj (November 2017)."Saeculum".Oxford Classical Dictionary.Vol. 1.doi:10.1093/acrefore/9780199381135.013.8233.ISBN 978-0-19-938113-5.

[2] Feeney, Denis (2007).Caesar's calendar: ancient time and the beginnings of history.Berkeley: University of California Press.doi:10.1525/california/9780520251199.001.0001.ISBN 978-0-520-25119-9.

[3] Diehl, Ernst (1934). "Das saeculum, seine Riten und Gebete: Teil I. Bedeutung und Quellen des saeculum. Die älteren saecula".Rheinisches Museum für Philologie.n.s.83(3): 255–272.ISSN 0035-449X.JSTOR 23078470.

[4] Barker, Duncan (1996). "'The Golden Age Is Proclaimed'? The Carmen Saeculare and the Renascence of the Golden Race ".The Classical Quarterly.n.s.46(2): 434–446.doi:10.1093/cq/46.2.434.ISSN 0009-8388.JSTOR 639800.

[Bilynskyj2022-5] Dunning, Susan Bilynskyj (2022-06-06). "The transformation of thesaeculumand its rhetoric in the construction and rejection of Roman imperial power ". In Faure, Richard; Valli, Simon-Pierre; Zucker, Arnaud (eds.).Conceptions of time in Greek and Roman antiquity.Berlin: De Gruyter.doi:10.1515/9783110736076-008.ISBN 978-3-11-073607-6.

[6] Hall, John. F. III (1986). "The Saeculum Novum of Augustus and its Etruscan Antecedents". In Haase, Wolfgang (ed.).TheSaeculum novumof Augustus and its Etruscan Antecedents.Vol. 2. pp. 2564–2589.doi:10.1515/9783110841671-016.ISBN 978-3-11-084167-1.{{cite book}}:|journal=ignored (help)

[7] Diehl, Ernst (1934). "Das ʻsaeculumʼ, seine Riten und Gebete: Teil II. Die ʻsaeculaʼ der Kaiserzeit. Ritual und Gebet der Feiern der Jahre 17 v. Chr., 88 und 204 n. Chr".Rheinisches Museum für Philologie.n.s.83(4): 348–372.ISSN 0035-449X.JSTOR 23079245.

[8] "secular".Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary.Merriam-Webster.

[9] "secular".Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary.Merriam-Webster.

[10] "siècle",Wiktionary, the free dictionary,2023-08-29,retrieved2023-09-05

[11] "siglo",Wiktionary, the free dictionary,2023-08-19,retrieved2023-09-05

[12] "século",Wiktionary, the free dictionary,2023-03-17,retrieved2023-09-05

[13] "secolo",Wiktionary, the free dictionary,2023-08-11,retrieved2023-09-05

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Background

See also

References