[Avodah] How do Chazal calculate a king's reign?

[Daniel M. Israel]

Quoting Zev Sero <zev at sero.name>:
> On 1/04/2011 4:48 PM, Micha Berger wrote:
>> On Fri, Apr 01, 2011 at 02:17:30PM -0400, Zev Sero wrote:
>> : Is it possible that Bavli kings counted their years from Tishri and
>> : Persian ones from Nissan, or vice versa?
>>
>> RH 1:1 tells us to go with RZS's "visa versa": Rosh Chodesh Nissan is RH
>> for our kings, Tishrei is for theirs.
>
> Bavlim and Persians are both "theirs".  I'm suggesting that they didn't
> have the same custom.

But if I understood correctly, the original question was based on  
understanding the chronology as presented in Nach.  So it should be  
counted according to our custom for how to count their kings, which as  
per RH 1:1 is from Tishrei, regardless of what they did themselves.   
OTOH, I'm puzzled by RMB's comment, because as you say, both Bavli and  
Persian kings are non-Jewish kings.

-- 
Daniel M. Israel
daniel at cornell.edu