Reading and Creating Timelines

Timelines are used to show when events happened. Timelines go from left to right.

Events on the left happened earlier than events on the right.

On some timelines, dates are divided into two categories based on their relation to the year 1 CE.

• • Dates that occurred before 1 CE are labeled BCE, or Before the Common Era. BCE dates count backward from 1 CE, so larger BCE dates happened longer ago.

  • Dates that occurred in 1 CE or later are labeled CE, or Common Era. CE dates count forward from 1 CE, so larger CE dates happened more recently.

What does "ca." mean?

The abbreviation ca. stands for circa, which means "around." When ca. comes before a date, it means the date is estimated.

BCE dates are similar to negative numbers on a number line. The larger the BCE date, the farther to the left it appears on the timeline.

CE dates are similar to positive numbers on a number line. The larger the CE date, the farther to the right it appears on the timeline.