10 JANUARY 1987, Page 20

Gale's dating

Sir: George Gale's suggestion ('Compute a date', 20/27 December) for simplifying our system of dating seems, to have confus0 him rather than to have had a beneficial effect upon his grasp of history. He states that 'in 10049 (Gale's dating) Julius Caesar conquered Gaul'. According to Mr Gale's own formula of conversion. Julius Caesar must thus have conquered Gaul in A.D. 49. But every schoolboy knows that Caesar was assassinated on the Ides of March 44 ac (or 9957 — Gale's dating).

Jonathan Karas

19 Priests Lane, Shenfield, Brentwood, Essex