In the newest special from Louis C.K., he raises a point about religion, and that f.ex. in the year 3, nobody would go around thinking it was the year 3. So that got me thinking; what kind of time tracking did they use around this time? I would imagine that all nations/cultures had different systems, but was there a 'most popular' one?
First of all there is no year 0, it goes -2 -1 1 2 3.
In Rome people refered to the years with the names of the reigning consuls so for example the year 44 BC was the year of Julius Caesar and Marc Antony. They would sometimes refer to the age of the city of Rome, 753 BC iirc, so 44 bc would be 708 ab urbe condita(since the founding of the city). In other cultures people refered to the reigning years of their kings/rulers. So for example I was born in the 7th year of King William the 86th. For more info you should check out the FAQ, it has a section for the calendar and timekeeping: https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/wiki/calendars