saeculum

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Latin saeculum.

Noun

saeculum (plural saeculums or saecula)

1. (historical, Roman) A cyclical period of time, roughly equal to the time needed for the complete renewal of a human population:
   1. (originally) Any of a sequence of ages (periods of time) such that each age ends with the death of the last person remaining alive since its beginning, and the end of an age marks the beginning of the next.

      According to legend, the gods had allotted a certain number of saecula to every people or civilization; the Etruscans, for example, had been given ten saecula.

   2. (later usage) Any of a sequence of ages of set length, used to periodise chronicles and track wars.

      At the time of the reign of emperor Augustus, the Romans decided that a saeculum was 110 years.

   • 1996, Hillel Schwartz, Century's End, Currency Doubleday, page 16:

     Because new ages are retrodictive as well as prospective, Augustus had his hierarchs discover (post hoc) that his were the fifth Secular Games since the founding of Rome, and that a saeculum was historically a period of 110 years.

2. An approximately 85-year cycle in Strauss-Howe generational theory, a highly controversial sociological theory that postulates that zeitgeist and popular cultural values exist along recurring cycles.
   • 1997, The Bulletin of Historical Research in Music Education, Volume 19, University of Kansas, page 203:

     Despite skepticism regarding the degree of forecasting, the authors' presentation of historical events is comprehensive and arguments for their organization into a cyclical method of four era saeculums convincing.

See also

• generation

Further reading

• Saecular Games on Wikipedia.Wikipedia