11. A Seleucid Era Diary

The other Diary examined closely was No. -197 (198 BC). The date inscribed on the tablet is Seleucus 114, i.e., the observations on the tablet are from year 114 of the Seleucid Era. Diaries from the era (inaugurated -311/310) are numbered according to their Seleucid Era year. Hence, the data of these later tablets - thousands of observations - act as a single unit to validate that their dates are consistent with modern computations.