If the author said "Sextilis 2, 216 BCE" you wouldn't know it was late summer. And BCE didn't exist before Jesus Christ (AD/BC was invented in 525). So the per

If the author said "Sextilis 2, 216 BCE" you wouldn't know it was late summer. And BCE didn't exist before Jesus Christ (AD/BC was invented in 525). So the period-accurate translation is "Sextilis 2, the year of consuls Lucius Aemilius Paullus and Gaius Terentius Varro".