837

 At that time in history there was no distinction given between meteors and comets. A reference to comets, 

plural, seen on only one occasion would mean a meteor shower; a reference to a comet or star seen over the 

course of several days would mean a comet. 

838

 Pliny, Natural History, 2.9. 

839

 Suetonius, Lives of the Caesars, Loeb Classical Library, 2.100.1. 

840

 Dio, Roman History, Volume VII, Loeb Classical Library, 56.30.5. 

841

 Josephus, The Antiquities of the Jews, 18.32. 

842

 The ages at death for various other emperors were probably not always from records, but often from 

calculations the ancient historians made based on assumptions about the lengths of each emperors reign. For 

example, Suetonius states that Vespasian was born five years before Augustus' death, and that Vespasian died 

at the age of 69 years. Suetonius, Lives of the Caesars, Loeb Classical Library, 8.2.1, 8.24.1. But in my revised 

chronology, the age of Vespasian at his death would be calculated as 61 years (this difference is mainly due to 

the antedating of Tiberius' reign). It is unlikely that Suetonius had a record of the age of each emperor at his 

death, but rather, in many cases, he was merely calculating the emperor's age based on his understanding of 

the lengths of the reigns of previous emperors. 

843

 Suetonius, The Twelve Caesars, trans. Robert Graves, (London, England: Penguin Books, 1989), 2.8.1. 

844

 The New Encyclopedia Britannica, (Chicago, Illinois: Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc., 1997), Vol. 15, p. 405a. 

845

 Suetonius, Lives of the Caesars, Loeb Classical Library, 2.26.1. The text reads, literally,  in the twentieth year 

of his age,  meaning the year of his life ending with his 20th birthday. A person's 20th birthday marks the end, 

not the start, of their 20th year of life. This is the usual understanding of this text. Cf. Suetonius, The Twelve 

Caesars, Penguin Books, 2.26.1, p. 67. 

846

 Dio, Roman History, Volume VII, Loeb Classical Library, 56.30.5. 

847

 Finegan, Handbook of Biblical Chronology, revised edition, no. 570 578, p. 330 338. 

848

 Vardaman,  Jesus' Life: A New Chronology,  Chronos, Kairos, Christos, p. 58 59. Although Jerry Vardaman 

first advanced this theory that the reign of Tiberius should be counted from the death of Gaius in 

A.D.

 4, he 

later abandoned this view in favor of an alternative theory. 

849

 Dio, Roman History, Volume VI, Loeb Classical Library, 55.13.1a. 

850

 Finegan, Handbook of Biblical Chronology, revised edition, no. 570, p. 330. 

851

 Finegan, Handbook of Biblical Chronology, revised edition, table 42, p. 89. 

852

 Finegan, Handbook of Biblical Chronology, revised edition, no. 580, p. 338 339. Finegan calls the method of 

counting the years of an emperor's reign as the  accession year  system, because the first partial year of an 

emperor's reign is not given a number, but is instead referred to as his year of accession. 

853

 Dio, Roman History, Volume VIII, Loeb Classical Library, 66.17.5. 

854

 Finegan, Handbook of Biblical Chronology, revised edition, no. 570 578, p. 330 338. 

855

 Josephus, The Antiquities of the Jews. Each book begins with a brief statement as to the period of time covered 

by that book. The verse numbers were not original with Josephus, but were added at a later date. 

856

 Josephus, The Life of Flavius Josephus, from The Works of Josephus: New Updated Edition, ed. William Whiston, 

(Peabody, Massachusetts: Hendrickson Publishers, Inc., 1995), verse 414, 423. 

857

 Josephus, The Antiquities of the Jews, 18.33 35. 

858

 Finegan, Handbook of Biblical Chronology, revised edition, no. 570, p. 330. 

859

 Dio, Roman History, Volume VII, Loeb Classical Library, 56.25.4. See also: Suetonius, The Twelve Caesars, 

Penguin Books, Genealogical Tables, p. 316. 

860

 Finegan, Handbook of Biblical Chronology, revised edition, table 42, p. 89. 

861

 Tacitus,  The Annals of Imperial Rome, trans. Michael Grant, (London, England: Penguin Books, 1996), 

chapter 8,  The Reign of Terror,  p. 198 227. 

862

 Finegan, Handbook of Biblical Chronology, revised edition, no. 517, p. 300 301. 

863

 Tacitus, The Annals of Tacitus, ed. G. P. Goold, trans. John Jackson, Tacitus, Volume III, Loeb Classical 

Library, (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1998), 1.81. 

864

 Suetonius, Lives of the Caesars, Loeb Classical Library, 3.26.2. 

865

 Finegan, Handbook of Biblical Chronology, revised edition, no. 174, p. 82. 

866

 Josephus, The Antiquities of the Jews, 14.487. 

322