AD 44 (year)

Calendar and naming

The year 44 was a leap year in the Julian calendar, which inserted an extra day every four years. The traditional reconstruction places it as a leap year beginning on Wednesday. Romans commonly identified years by the two serving consuls rather than by sequential numbers; thus official documents and inscriptions refer to the consulship of Crispus and Taurus. The system of numbering years as "AD" (Anno Domini) was applied much later, in the early medieval period, and is the convention used by modern historians.

• Julian calendar: leap every four years; instituted in 45 BC. See Julian calendar.
• Consular dating: the chief civic year-naming method in Rome; see Roman consuls and fasti.
• Historical sources: inscriptions, coins and chronicles provide the principal evidence; see primary sources on Roman chronology.

In the Roman provinces the year continued processes begun earlier in Claudius's reign. The large-scale invasion of Britain had started in AD 43; AD 44 therefore belonged to the early phase of Roman occupation and administrative reorganization there. In Rome itself, imperial government and the senatorial class recorded affairs by reference to consular years.

Beyond the Roman world, other contemporary states and cultures—such as the Han dynasty in East Asia and various kingdoms in the Near East—continued their own chronologies and political developments. Because communication was slow, events in different regions were tracked independently and later synchronized by historians.

Modern study of AD 44 relies on cross-referencing literary texts, archaeological findings and epigraphic records. For general background on the era and its calendar practices, consult surveys of the first century and resources that explain Roman administrative dating; see chronological methods and studies of early imperial Rome.