Saeculum

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A saeculum is a length of time roughly equal to the potential lifetime of a person or the equivalent of the complete renewal of a human population. The term was first used by the Etruscans. Originally it meant the period of 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 new saeculum would start. According to legend, the gods had allotted a certain number of saecula to every people or civilization; the Etruscans themselves, for example, had been given ten saecula.

By the 2nd century BC, Roman historians were using the saeculum to periodize their chronicles and track wars. At the time of the reign of emperor Augustus, the Romans decided that a saeculum was 110 years. In 17 BC Caesar Augustus organised Ludi saeculares ('century-games') for the first time to celebrate the 'fifth saeculum of Rome'. Later emperors like Claudius and Septimius Severus have celebrated the passing of saecula with games at irregular intervals. In 248, Philip the Arab combined Ludi saeculares with the 1000th anniversary of the founding of Rome 'ab urbe condita'. The new millennium that Rome entered was called the Saeculum Novum, a term that got a metaphysical connotation in Christianity, referring to the worldly age (hence 'secular').

A saeculum is not normally used for a fixed amount of time, in common usage it stands for about 90 years. It can be divided into four "seasons" of approximately 22 years each; these seasons represent youth, rising adulthood, midlife, and old age.

The word has evolved within Romance languages (and Swedish) to mean "century":

Asturian	sieglu
Aragonese	sieglo
Catalan	segle
French	siècle
Galician	século
Italian	secolo
Occitan	sègle
Portuguese	século
Spanish	siglo
Romanian	secol

Time measurement and standards

Chronometry Orders of magnitude Metrology

International standards	UTC UTC offset UT ΔT DUT1 IERS ISO 31-1 ISO 8601 TAI 12-hour clock 24-hour clock Barycentric Coordinate Time Barycentric Dynamical Time Civil time Daylight saving time Geocentric Coordinate Time International Date Line Leap second Solar time Terrestrial Time Time zone

Obsolete standards	Ephemeris time Greenwich Mean Time Prime meridian

Time in physics	Absolute time and space Spacetime Chronon Continuous time Coordinate time Cosmological decade Discrete time Planck epoch Planck time Proper time Theory of relativity Time dilation Gravitational time dilation Time domain T-symmetry

Horology	Clock Astrarium Atomic clock Complication History of timekeeping devices Hourglass Marine chronometer Marine sandglass Radio clock Watch Water clock Sundial Dialing scales Equation of time History of sundials Sundial markup schema

Calendar	Astronomical Dominical letter Epact Equinox Gregorian Hebrew Hindu Intercalation Islamic Julian Leap year Lunar Lunisolar Solar Solstice Tropical year Weekday determination Weekday names

Archaeology and geology	Dating methodologies Geologic time scale International Commission on Stratigraphy

Astronomical chronology	Galactic year Nuclear timescale Precession Sidereal time

Units of time	Century Day Decade Fortnight Hour Jiffy Lustrum Millennium Minute Moment Month Paksha Saeculum Second Shake Tide Week Year

Related topics	Chronology Duration Mental chronometry Metric time System time Time value of money Timekeeper

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Saeculum

Further reading

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