The Romans and the Latins - A History of Rome

The romans dated the past by reference to the consuls for a given year, rather than an arbitrary numbering system. So that last week's battles with the samnites were to have taken place in the consulship of corvis and causus instead of one 67 dating from the founding of the republic. Down the road, this system of reference would lead to the roman joke that events occurring in the year of julius caesar's consulship, 59 b c, took place not  consulship of caesar and bibolus, but in the consalship of jilius and caesar. Get it? The romans could be a