A year zero is a date where the current year for a given calendar system is zero. In systems which include a year zero, this year would be the epoch. Year zero does not exist in the Anno Domini (AD) calendar year system commonly used to number years in the Gregorian calendar and Julian calendar. Instead, AD 1 is treated as the epoch, so that the year 1 BC is followed directly by year AD 1.
The Anno Domini era was introduced in 525 by Scythian monk Dionysius Exiguus (c. 470 – c. 544), who used it to identify the years on his Easter table. He introduced the new era to avoid using the Diocletian era, based on the accession of Roman emperor Diocletian, as he did not wish to continue the memory of a persecutor of Christians. In the preface to his Easter table, Dionysius stated that the "present year" was "the consulship of Probus Junior" which was also 525 years "since the incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ". How he arrived at that number is unknown.
In astronomy, for the year AD 1 and later it is common to assign the same numbers as the Anno Domini notation, which in turn is numerically equivalent to the Common Era notation. But the discontinuity between 1 AD and 1 BC makes it cumbersome to compare ancient and modern dates. So the year before 1 AD is designated 0, the year before 0 is −1, and so on.
The letters "AD", "BC", "CE", or "BCE" are omitted. So 1 BC in historical notation is equivalent to 0 in astronomical notation, 2 BC is equivalent to −1, etc. Sometimes positive years are preceded by the + sign. This year numbering notation was introduced by the astronomer Jacques Cassini in 1740.