section_path: Ancient dating systems/Ancient Rome/Consular dating
section_name: Consular dating
paragraph_text: Consular dating
  
  An early and common practice was Roman ' consular ' dating. This involved naming both consules ordinarii who had taken up this office on 1 January (since 153 BC) of the relevant civil year.: 6 Sometimes one or both consuls might not be appointed until November or December of the previous year, and news of the appointment may not have reached parts of the Roman empire for several months into the current year; thus we find the occasional inscription where the year is defined as "after the consulate" of a pair of consuls.
  
  The use of consular dating ended in AD 541 when the emperor Justinian I discontinued appointing consuls. The last consul nominated was Anicius Faustus Albinus Basilius. Soon afterwards, imperial regnal dating was adopted in its place.