What do BCE and CE mean in relation to dates?
BCE and CE are abbreviations for Before Common Era and Common Era. BCE corresponds to what was formally called BC (Before Christ) and CE to AD (Anno Domini). Though the Gregorian Calendar, the conventional standard for counting years and centuries, is Christian in origin, most historians prefer to use BCE/CE over BC/AD in the interests of inclusiveness for the world’s non-Christian peoples, who are, after all, in the majority. Some say the BCE/CE system also makes it possible to account for the year Zero. Thus, the 2nd Century CE (or 2nd Century for short) is the same as the 2nd Century AD, meaning the years from 100 to 199. Hard-core adherents of BC/AD shouldn’t be too put off by the system: a Christian-event-based calendar is the globally recognized convention (as opposed to the plethora of other religion-based calendars) and scholars have pointed out that it was, in fact, Christian theologians who developed the BCE/CE system in the first place. In the end, zealots can still read the
