Who many yeaes between 100 BCE and 500 CE?

Answer 1

Excluding 100BC and 500AD, there are:

In BC: 99BC to 1BC = 99 years

In AD: 1AD to 499AD = 499 years

In total 99 + 499 = 598 years.

Including 100BC and 500AD, there are:

In BC: 100BC to 1BC = 100 years

In AD: 1AD to 500AD = 500 years

In total 100 + 500 = 600 years.

You may be wondering about the lack of year 0.

The BC/AD system of calendar was devised by an abbot called Dionysius Exiguus in the year designated as 247 anno Diocletiani (year of Diocletian). However, as Diocletian was a notorious persecutor of Christians, and so Dionysius decided to use anno Domini (year of the Lord) to describe the year; he worked out Christ had been born some 531 years earlier; in his time zero did not exist (as a concept) and so his first year, the year of Christ's birth, became 1AD (with the previous year now being known as 1BC). Thus 247 anno Diocletian became 531 anno Domini in the calendar system we now use.