3. How long has the "current cycle" of the seven-day week been going on? E.g. Janua...

How long has the "current cycle" of the seven-day week been going on? E.g. January 1, 10 AD was a Wednesday, according to us. Would the Romans have agreed? Were there different regions counting different days of the week that had to be aligned with the rise of modern communications?

Your question is addressing a lot of interrelated things which people may be unsure about how to answer because of ambiguity in the question. I want to touch briefly on some of them to perhaps allow you to refine and clarify your question to allow a more comprehensive answer.

You say January 1, AD 10 was a Wednesday according to us. This year would have been a Wednesday on the Julian calendar, which we do not use. We use the Gregorian calendar, which was first introduced in 1582, so it would depend on what you mean by "according to us" - according to what, the Gregorian or Julian calendar? Extrapolating backwards with calendars gets weird. There were times where several dates were skipped in particular countries - the British Empire jumped from September 2 to September 14, 1752 to adopt the Gregorian calendar. Does that eliminate any dates prior to this as being applicable to your question? There are also several countries which still don't officially use the Gregorian calendar today, so there is still not total agreement on dates.

The Julian calendar used by the Romans took effect in 45 BC, and the seven day week cycle associated with it (there were seven day weeks in other cultures with other calendars well before this) came into use during the reign of Augustus after 27 BC, but the earliest reference found to a named day of the week associated with a date on this calendar was Sunday/Wednesday (depending on which naming convention of the time is used) February 6, AD 60. However, the AD/BC system for numbering years wasn't invented until AD 525. So basically, the Romans of the time would not have agreed about Wednesday January 1, AD 10 - because they didn't call it AD 10. But even if they would have called it (their equivalent words for) Wednesday, January 1, our current calendar wouldn't, because we don't use the Julian calendar. Is that what you're asking about? Or are you asking about when people first called the days of the week what they're now called in that order? Or do you want the day name, day number, month, and year name to match?

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