Posted by UltraW on January 04, 2000 at 17:24
In Reply to: Re: Millennium Clarification posted by Frodo on January 04, 2000 at 12:08
There wasn't a year 1 either. This particular numbering system wasn't implemented until many years later.
A millennium is simply 1000 consecutive years. Any 1000 years starting at any time. The general populace has shown little interest in the details of year zero or one or whatever. They have chosen - quite reasonably - to define this melleniium as the 1000 years that share the number 2 in the first position of the year.
That also happens to be quite consistant with other common conventions. For example, all the old hippies among us recall the '60's - the decade of years with the number 6 in the 10's position. That would be 1960 through 1969. Nobody gives a hoot that "technically" that was the 197th decade and began on 1/1/1961. That's not how we think of decades. Why should centuries or milleniums be different?
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