ERA

(A word of doubtful derivation.) In Chronology, the term rera, as now understood, is Ihe period that lias elapsed from some fixed point of time, or ailed the commencement of the sera.' — Thus the Christian fflra began at the birth of Christ, the Mohammedan a?ra at the flight of Mohammed from Mecca to Medina, the ana of Diocletian at the coronation of thai i <Scc.; and the period of the occurrence of any event is ascertained by reckoning from one or other of these epochs. When,cd the for throne example,of Great it'is said Britain that in Que1837,enttVictoriameans lhal this event took place in the 1537th year of the < of that a?ra which began with the birth of Christ. It is plain from the above statement that the period ol time selected for an ajra, or point whence to begin the computation of time, is nece arily arbitrary; and differen have adopted different periods coincident with some important event in their civil or religious history. Some have [s. 30]