section_path: Ancient dating systems/Ancient Rome/Dating from the Roman conquest
section_name: Dating from the Roman conquest
paragraph_text: Dating from the Roman conquest
  
  Some regions of the Roman Empire dated their calendars from the date of Roman conquest, or the establishment of Roman rule.
  
  The Spanish era, or the Era of Caesar, counted the years from 38 BC and, although the exact reasons for this are unknown, it is usually attributed to either the levy of a general tax from the known world by Octavian or the end of the roman conquest of the peninsula during the civil war of the Second Triumvirate. Either way the date traditionally marks the establishment of Roman rule in Spain and was used in official documents by the Suebian and Visigothic kingdoms and later in Portugal, Aragon, Valencia, Castile, and southern France. This system of calibrating years fell to disuse in the Early Modern Age and was replaced by today's Anno Domini. The months and years are the same as the Julian Calendar.
  
  Throughout the Roman and Byzantine periods, the Decapolis and other Hellenized cities of Syria and Palestine used the Pompeian era, counting dates from the Roman general Pompey 's conquest of the region in 63 BC.