| # | Event is explicitly dated to a specific day or month |
| + | Event is explicitly dated to this year |
| ~ | Event is implicitly or approximately dated to this year |
| ! | Event is explicitly dated to a different year |
| { ... } | References from modern works, which confirm or challenge the date. Divergences from the date shown in the web page are highlighted in red |
| * | A translation of the longest or most detailed account |
| L | Link goes to Latin text (translation not available) |
| B | Link to Google Books (for modern sourcebooks) |
| (#.#) | Link goes to a translation which has different chapter numbers |
| (↓) | Link to a long section (chapter/page) - the reference is not near the start |
| (↓↓) | Link to an unusually long section - the reference is near the end |
| <v> | Variant reading |
| <x> | Modern conjecture, filling gap in text |
| <q" (reference)> | Quoting ... |
| <t= (reference)> | Translation/text in ... |
In order to avoid ambiguity, a fixed format is used for references. The format is: Author:Title_book.chapter'verse. For example: Frontin:Str_3.7'24.
But in fact, most references are simpler than that. In a lot of cases, there is no book number, for example: Plut:Marc_14'3; and the author or title is often omitted, for example: Liv_24.16'1.
When two different books by the same author are listed next to each other, the author is only written once. For example: Plut:Fab_24'1-2, :Mor_196'A means Plut:Fab_24'1-2 and Plut:Mor_196'A.
In some books which have long chapters and no other subdivisions, the symbol ↓ is used to indicate a position later in the chapter. For instance, August:DeCiv_3.18 is a reference to near the start of the chapter, but August:DeCiv_3.18 (↓) is a reference to further down in the chapter.
References in italics are from modern compilations of ancient documents.