A is a length of time roughly equal to the potential lifetime of a person or, equivalently, the complete renewal of a human population.
Background
Originally it meant the time from the moment that something happened (for example the founding of a city) until the point in time that all people who had lived at the first moment had died. At that point a new would start. According to
legend
A legend is a genre of folklore that consists of a narrative featuring human actions, believed or perceived to have taken place in human history. Narratives in this genre may demonstrate human values, and possess certain qualities that give the ...
, the gods had allotted a certain number of to every people or civilization; the
Etruscans
The Etruscan civilization ( ) was an ancient civilization created by the Etruscans, a people who inhabited Etruria in List of ancient peoples of Italy, ancient Italy, with a common language and culture, and formed a federation of city-states. Af ...
, for example, had been given ten saecula.
By the 2nd century BC, Roman historians were using the to periodize their chronicles and track wars. At the time of the reign of emperor
Augustus
Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus (born Gaius Octavius; 23 September 63 BC – 19 August AD 14), also known as Octavian (), was the founder of the Roman Empire, who reigned as the first Roman emperor from 27 BC until his death in A ...
, the
Romans decided that a was 110 years. In 17 BC, Caesar Augustus organized ''
Ludi saeculares'' ("saecular games") for the first time to celebrate the "fifth saeculum of Rome". Augustus aimed to link the with imperial authority.
Emperors such as
Claudius
Tiberius Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus ( ; ; 1 August 10 BC – 13 October AD 54), or Claudius, was a Roman emperor, ruling from AD 41 to 54. A member of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, Claudius was born to Nero Claudius Drusus, Drusus and Ant ...
and
Septimius Severus
Lucius Septimius Severus (; ; 11 April 145 – 4 February 211) was Roman emperor from 193 to 211. He was born in Leptis Magna (present-day Al-Khums, Libya) in the Roman province of Africa. As a young man he advanced through cursus honorum, the ...
celebrated the passing of with games at irregular intervals. In 248,
Philip the Arab
Philip I (; – September 249), commonly known as Philip the Arab, was Roman emperor from 244 to 249. After the death of Gordian III in February 244, Philip, who had been Praetorian prefect, rose to power. He quickly negotiated peace with the S ...
combined Ludi saeculares with the
1,000th anniversary of the
founding of Rome
The founding of Rome was a prehistoric event or process later greatly embellished by Roman historians and poets. Archaeological evidence indicates that Rome developed from the gradual union of several hillfort, hilltop villages during the Prehi ...
. The new
millennium
A millennium () is a period of one thousand years, one hundred decades, or ten centuries, sometimes called a kiloannum (ka), or kiloyear (ky). Normally, the word is used specifically for periods of a thousand years that begin at the starting ...
that Rome entered was called the ''saeculum novum'', a term that received a
metaphysical
Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy that examines the basic structure of reality. It is traditionally seen as the study of mind-independent features of the world, but some theorists view it as an inquiry into the conceptual framework of h ...
connotation in
Christianity
Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion, which states that Jesus in Christianity, Jesus is the Son of God (Christianity), Son of God and Resurrection of Jesus, rose from the dead after his Crucifixion of Jesus, crucifixion, whose ...
, referring to the worldly age (hence "
secular
Secularity, also the secular or secularness (from Latin , or or ), is the state of being unrelated or neutral in regards to religion. The origins of secularity can be traced to the Bible itself. The concept was fleshed out through Christian hi ...
").
Roman emperors legitimised their political authority by referring to the in various media, linked to a golden age of imperial glory. In response, Christian writers began to define the as referring to 'this present world', as opposed to the expectation of eternal life in the 'world to come'.
This results in the modern sense of 'secular' as 'belonging to the world and its affairs'.
The English word ''secular'', an adjective meaning something happening once in an eon, is derived from the Latin ''saeculum''. The descendants of Latin ''saeculum'' in the Romance languages generally mean "century" (i.e., 100 years): French ''siècle'', Spanish ''siglo'', Portuguese ''século'', Italian ''secolo'',
etc.
See also
*
Aeon
The word aeon , also spelled eon (in American and Australian English), originally meant "life", "vital force" or "being", "generation" or "a period of time", though it tended to be translated as "age" in the sense of "ages", "forever", "timele ...
, comparable Greek concept
*
Century
A century is a period of 100 years or 10 decades. Centuries are numbered ordinally in English and many other languages. The word ''century'' comes from the Latin ''centum'', meaning ''one hundred''. ''Century'' is sometimes abbreviated as c.
...
*
Generation
A generation is all of the people born and living at about the same time, regarded collectively. It also is "the average period, generally considered to be about 20–30 years, during which children are born and grow up, become adults, and b ...
*''
In saecula saeculorum''
*
New world order (politics)
The term "new world order" refers to a new period of history evidencing dramatic change in world political thought and the balance of power in international relations. Despite varied interpretations of this term, it is commonly associated with th ...
*
Social cycle theory
Social cycle theories are among the earliest social theories in sociology. Unlike the theory of social evolutionism, which views the evolution of society and human history as progressing in some new, unique direction(s), sociological cycle th ...
*
Strauss–Howe generational theory
*''
Saeculum obscurum
(, "the dark age/century"), also known as the Rule of the Harlots or the Pornocracy, was a period in the history of the papacy during the first two thirds of the 10th century, following the chaos after the death of Pope Formosus in 896, which ...
''
References
{{Time measurement and standards
Units of time
Ageing
Latin words and phrases