In·dic'tion, n.

n. [Lat. indictio, Fr. indiction, Sp. indiction, It. indicione. See supra.]

1. Declaration; proclamation. [Obs.] Bacon.
2. (Chron.) A cycle of fifteen years, instituted by Constantine the Great, in connection with the payment of tribute, and afterward made a substitute for Olympiads in reckoning time. It was much used in the ecclesiastical chronology of the middle ages, and is reckoned from the year 313 as its origin, so that, if any given year, less 312, be divided by 15, the quotient will give the current period of the indiction, and the remainder the current year of the period.