Editing Indiction (section)

===Principate===
The ''[[Chronicon Paschale]]'' (c. 630 AD) claims that the 15-year cycle was instituted by [[Julius Caesar]] in 49 BC, which was also the first year of the Antiochene era, but there is no other evidence for this and, if the cycle were the same one known from later periods, the start date ought to be 48 BC.<ref>Duncan-Jones 1994 p 59 n. 66.</ref> The earliest known event associated with the 15-year cycle is the establishment of a special board of three [[praetor]]s to pursue arrears for the cycle ending in 42 AD, under [[Claudius]].<ref>[[Cassius Dio]], ''Roman History'' 60.10.4</ref><ref name="DJ60">Duncan-Jones 1994 p. 60</ref> The beginning of the cycle in 58 AD coincides with a set of tax reforms and remissions instituted by [[Nero]].<ref>[[Tacitus]], ''Annales'' 13.31, 50-51</ref><ref name="DJ60"/> [[Vespasian]] carried out a census of Italy at the start of the next indiction in 73 AD<ref>''[[Prosopographia Imperii Romani|PIR]]''<sup>2</sup> 3, p. 182</ref><ref name="DJ60"/> The indiction starting in 103 AD may coincide with the tax remission by [[Trajan]] depicted on the [[Plutei of Trajan]].<ref name="DJ60"/> At the start of the next indiction in 118 AD, [[Hadrian]] wrote off 900,000,000 [[sesterces]] of tax arrears, which he refers to in an inscription as the largest remission ever granted.<ref>''[[Inscriptiones Latinae Selectae|ILS]]'' 309; Cassius Dio 69.8.1; ''[[Historia Augusta]] Hadriani'' 7.6</ref><ref name="DJ60"/> He again remitted arrears at the start of the next indiction in AD 133,<ref>Cassius Dio 71.32.2</ref><ref name="DJ60"/> as did [[Antoninus Pius]] at the start of the next indiction in 148 AD.<ref>''Chronicon Paschale'' (''Chron. Min.'' I, p. 224)</ref><ref name="DJ60"/> [[Marcus Aurelius]] and [[Commodus]] carried out another remission at the start of the indiction beginning in 178 AD.<ref>Cassius Dio 71.32.2; [[Chronograph of 354]] (''Chron. Min.'' I, p. 147)</ref><ref name="DJ60"/> 

The 14-year cycle used in Egypt derived from the fact that liability for the Egyptian [[poll tax]] began at the age of fourteen, necessitating a new survey of the population every fourteen years. Tax reforms and remissions recorded in [[papyrus]] sources indicate that it was also in existence in the first century AD.<ref name=DJ61>Duncan-Jones 1994 p. 61.</ref> The first evidence is an edict by [[Marcus Mettius Rufus]], the [[Prefect of Egypt]] in AD 89, requiring property and loans to be registered.<ref>[[Papyrus Oxyrhynchus]] 237, col. 8 lines 27-43. English translation in [[A. S. Hunt]] and C.C. Edgar, ''Select Papyri, II. Non-literary Papyri. Public Documents'' (London: Loeb, 1932), pp.&nbsp;104-109 no.&nbsp;219</ref><ref name=DJ61/> The next cycle in 103 AD coincides with reforms to record-keeping.<ref>''SB'' 7378; English translation in Hunt and Edgar, ''Select Papyri, II'', pp. 574-577</ref><ref name=DJ61/> The beginning of the cycle in 117 AD coincided with the 15-year cycle and was the occasion of Hadrian's large tax remission.<ref name=DJ61/> This 14-year cycle is last attested in 257 AD.<ref>Duncan-Jones 1994 p. 62 n. 84.</ref> From 287 AD, at the latest, Roman Egypt used a system of 5-year cycles, then a non-cyclic series which reached number 26 by 318 AD.<ref>Duncan-Jones 1994 pp. 62-63.</ref>