Letter: Getting the measure of the millennia

Sir: Professor Feeney (Letters, 5 August) has fallen into his own trap, confusing ordinal and cardinal numbers. If the year 8BC was the first in which this month was called August, then 1992 is the 2,000th - just as the year AD2000 will be the last (2,000th) of the second millennium, and the new millennium will begin on 1 January 2001. The 2,000th anniversary of the renaming will mark the 2,001st occurrence of the renamed month; so Nicholas Purcell is right, after all, and we are indeed enjoying the world's 2,000th August.

Yours faithfully,

IAN M. BARTON

Department of Classics

University of Wales

Lampeter, Dyfed

6 August