I was reading a Wikipedia article, at it said something like "late 3rd century BC" or "BCE". I think that was the first time I'd seen early/late applied to tim

I was reading a Wikipedia article, at it said something like "late 3rd century BC" or "BCE". I think that was the first time I'd seen early/late applied to times before year 0. It really threw my brain for a loop because - apparently - it has very strongly held opinions about what "early" and "late" mean when applied to time.