Message from: Rome
January 18, 1 B.C.
    
Dear Cassius,
    
Are you still working on the YOK problem? This change from BC to
AD is giving us a lot of headaches and we haven't much time left.
I don't know how people will cope with working the wrong way
around. Having been working happily downwards forever, now we
have to start thinking upwards. You would think that someone
would have thought of it earlier and not left it to us to sort
out at the last minute.
    
I spoke to Caesar the other evening. He was livid that Julius
hadn't done something about it when he was sorting out the
calendar. He said he could see why Brutus turned nasty. We called
in the consulting astrologers, but they simply said that
continuing downwards using minus BC won't work, that it might
lead to some of our less well educated tax collectors refunding
money among other things. As usual, the consultants charged a
fortune for doing nothing useful. As for myself, I just can't see
the sand in an hourglass flowing upwards.
    
We have heard that there are 3 wise guys in the east working on
the problem, but unfortunately they won't arrive till it's all
over. Some say the world will cease to exist at the moment of
transition. Anyway we are continuing to work on this Y zero K
problem and I will send you a parchment if anything further
develops.
    
Plutonius