Indiction
Webster's Dictionary [1]
(1): ( n.) Declaration; proclamation; public notice or appointment.
(2): ( n.) A cycle of fifteen years.
Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature [2]
(Latin indictio, a declaring) is a term which designates "a chronological system, including a circle of fifteen years:
(1) the Caesarean, used long in France and Germany, beginning on Sept. 24;
(2) the Constantinopolitan, used in the East from the time of Anastasius, and beginning Sept. 1; and
(3) the Papal, reckoned from Jan. 1,313. The Council of Antioch, 341, first gives a documentary date, the 14th indiction. The computation prevailed in Syria in the fifth century, and is mentioned by Ambrose as existing at Rome. It is, however, asserted that in the West, the East, and Egypt, with the exception of Africa, the indictions, until the 16th century, were reckoned from Sept. 1, 312, and that they commenced in Egypt in the time of Constantine." — Walcott, Sacred Archaeology, p. 327; see also Gibbon, Decline And Fall Of The Roman Empire, 2, 141. (See Cycle).
The Nuttall Encyclopedia [3]
A cycle of 15 years instituted by Constantine the Great, and which began on the 24th September 812, the day of his victory over Maxentius; to find the indiction of any year add 1 and divide by 15.
