Aurelian governed the Roman empire for five years and six months. Having excited a persecution against us, a thunderbolt fell before him to the great consternation of all present; and not long after this he was massacred by the soldiers half way on the road leading from Constantinople to Heraclea. Eutychian, the pope, was martyred at Rome, and interred in the cemetery of Callistus, where he had buried three hundred and thirteen martyrs with his own hands.1

Tacitus reigned six months. Having lost his life in Pontus, Florian seized the empire which he held eightyeight days, and was killed at Tarsus. Anatolius, a native of Alexandria, and bishop of Laodicea, in Syria, well versed in all the learning of the philosophers, is highly spoken of; we may judge of his genius by his work on Easter, and his ten books on arithmetic. About this time the insane heresy of the Manicheans and Sabellians commenced.2

Probus, during his reign of six years and four months, completely delivered Gaul from the barbarians, who for a long time had occupied that country, but whom he routed in many bloody battles. Archelaus, bishop of Mesopotamia, composed, in the Syrian language, a book on his con

He defeated the Goths, who had crossed over into Greece with an army of 32,000 men, in the years 269 and 270, nearly destroying their vast force; a pestilence carried him off at Sirmium. The statue erected in honour of Claudius in the Capitol, by the senate, was ten feet high.-The refutation of the errors of Paul of Samosata by Marcion took place in the third council of Antioch, over which Hymeneus, patriarch of Jerusalem, presided at the commencement of the year 270. The acts of this public disputation no longer exist.

1 This persecution was the ninth, and happened not before but after the fall of the thunderbolt mentioned by our author. St. Eutychian did not suffer martyrdom, and he died as late as December, 283. He is said to have interred as many as three hundred and forty-two martyrs with his own hands.

2 Marcus Claudius Tacitus, a Roman, was elected emperor by the senate after the death of Aurelian, when in his seventieth year. During a short reign of about six months he not only repelled the barbarians who had invaded the territories of Rome in Asia, but he prepared to make war against the Persians and Scythians. He died in Cilicia, during the expedition, of a violent distemper, or, according to some, was assassinated, on the 13th of April, A.D. 276. Bishop Anatolius flourished about the year 270. The heresy of the Manichees began in 277; that of the Sabellians dates as far back as the year 250.

troversy with Manes of Persia; this work, translated into Greek, is in the hands of a great many readers.1

Carus reigned, jointly with his sons Carinus and Numerianus, two years. Gaius, bishop of Rome, shone illustriously as the head of that church, but suffered martyrdom under Diocletian. Pierius, a priest of Alexandria, during the patriarchate of Theonas, instructed the people with the greatest success; his sermons and divers treatises, still extant, are written in so elegant a style, that he was called Origen the younger; a man surprisingly frugal, and affecting voluntary poverty; he spent the remainder of his days after the persecution at Rome.2

3

Diocletian reigned jointly with Heracleus Maximian twenty years. Carausius having assumed the purple, took possession of Britain. Narses, king of the Persians, invaded the east. The Quinquegentians infested Africa. Achilleus made himself master of Egypt. To face so many enemies, Diocletian admitted into the government the Cæsars Constantius and Galerius Maximian. The first married Theodora, the step-daughter of Heracleus, by whom he had six children, who were the brothers [and sisters] of Constantine. Galerius obtained the hand of Valeria, daughter of Diocletian. Ten years afterwards, Asclepiodotus, the prætorian prefect, recovered Britain.

In the nineteenth year of this reign, Diocletian in the east, and Heracleus Maximian in the west, ordered the churches to be plundered, and the Christians to be tormented and put to death. In the second year of this persecution, Diocletian laid down the purple in Nicomedia,

1 The dispute between Archelaus and Manes took place in 277.

2 Caius, or Gaius, elected pope September 17, 283, suffered martyrdom under Diocletian in 296. Theonas was patriarch of Alexandria from 282 until the 23rd of August, 300. What our author says of Pierius is quite true. He must have undertaken his voyage to Rome when the persecution had ended in 311. We are not informed of the date of his death.

3 Carausius, by birth either a Belgian or a Briton, it is not very certain which, was a bold and skilful naval commander; the legions and auxiliaries in Britain bestowed on him the imperial purple, A.D. 288, which he retained until the year 297, when he was murdered at York by Allectus, a Briton. The names he assumed were, Marcus, Aurelius, Valerius, Carausius. Narses invaded the east in 297. The Quinquegentians or Quinquegentanæ, committed their ravages in Africa during 292. The revolt of Achilleus belongs to the same date, and lasted more than five years.

and compelled his colleague Maximian, at the same time, to abdicate the government at Milan. However, this persecution, having once commenced, continued to rage until the seventh year of the reign of Constantine.

Constantius (Chlorus), a prince of a mild disposition, and of great affability, died at York, in Britain, in the sixteenth year of his reign. The persecution of the Christians was urged forward with such cruelty and fury, that in the course of a month they reckon eighteen thousand martyrs, who had suffered death for Christ. Having passed the limits of the ocean, it shed the precious blood of Alban, Aaron, Julius, and many other persons of both sexes, in Britain. Then also Pamphilus suffered martydom; he was the particular friend of Eusebius, bishop of Cesarea, who himself has given, in three books, the history of the life of this holy priest.

In the third year of the persecution, Constantius quitted this world, and Maximinus and Severus received the title of Cæsar from Galerius Maximian;' this Maximian added to his many misdeeds and adulteries, the crime of persecuting the Christians. At that time, Peter, bishop of Alexandria, and several other bishops in Egypt, were put to death, as well as Lucian, a priest of Antioch, remarkable for his good morals, continence, and erudition; with many other servants of Christ.3

1 Constantius Chlorus [to whom Britain fell in succession on the resignation of Diocletian and Maximian] and Galerius were created Cæsars, and taken as colleagues in the government, March 1st, 292. The two marriages mentioned above were also celebrated in the same year. Constantius had three sons and three daughters by his wife Theodora. Asclepiodotus, an officer of Constantius Chlorus, recovered Britain in 300, having defeated and slain Allectus, who had reigned about three years.

2 The tenth persecution against the Christians began on the 23rd of February, 303. The abdication of the two emperors took place May 1, 305. The edict that put an end to the persecution appeared in the spring of 311 (fifth year of Constantine). Constantius Chlorus died at York, July 25, 306, in the fifteenth year of his association to the empire as Cæsar. number of martyrs who perished in one month is only 17,000 in Bede (Ecclesiastical History, i. c. 7). St. Pamphilus was put to death, Feb. 13,

309.

The

3 Maximin and Severus were raised to the rank of Cæsar on the 1st of May, 305, by Diocletian and Maximian, at the moment of their abdication. Peter, patriarch of Alexandria, suffered martyrdom, Nov. 25, 311, and St. Lucian, Jan. 7, 312, the persecution having recommenced almost

Constantine, the son of Constantius, by Helena his consort, was proclaimed emperor in Britain; he reigned thirty years and ten months. In the fourth year of the persecution, Maxentius,' son of Heraclius Maximian, was proclaimed Augustus at Rome, and Licinius, who had married Constantia, the sister of Constantine, was created emperor at Carnuntum. Constantine, after having been a persecutor, became a convert to Christianity, and endeavoured, to the utmost of his power, to exalt the church of God." The catholic faith was defined at the council of Nice. The emperor ordered a number of churches to be built for divine worship: he had one constructed at Rome, in honour of St, John the Baptist, in which he was baptized, which was called the church of Constantine, after the founder's name; another on the site of the temple of Apollo, dedicated to St. Peter; and a third on the road to Ostia, to St. Paul; he raised a chapel in the Sessorian palace, to which he gave the name of Jerusalem, and placed in it a fragment of our Saviour's cross. At the request of his daughter, he dedicated a church to St. Agnes the Martyr, and another to St. Lawrence the Martyr, on the road to Tibur, on the land of Veranus. He also built a church on the Lavican way, between two laurels, in honour of the holy martyrs Marcellinus and Peter, and a mausoleum, where he laid the remains of his mother in a sarcophagus of porphyry. He, besides, ordered the construction of a church, to be dedicated to the memory of the holy apostles, Peter and Paul, and St. John the Baptist, near Ostia, the port of Rome. Churches immediately with fresh fury in those countries which were under the dominion of Maximin.

1 Maxentius seized the purple at Rome, Oct. 28, 306. Licinius obtained the title of Augustus, Nov. 11, 307, at Carnuntum in Pannonia, on the Danube, and not at Chartres (Carnutum), as Zozimas has asserted. He married, in 313, Constantia, sister to Constantine.

2 Constantine was proclaimed emperor at York, 25th July, 306, and died 22nd May, 337. The council of Nice lasted from the 19th of June until the 25th of August, 325. The foundation of Helenopolis at Drespana in Bithynia, took place in 317, and the building of Constantinople began Nov. 26, 329. Constantine was baptized, not at Rome but in the neighbourhood of Nicomedia, a few weeks before his death. This prince rather forbade sacrifices than closed the temples. His principal edict on this subject was made in 323. On the churches built by Constantine, consult the third volume of the Vetera Monimenta of Ciampini.

were also built to the memory of St. John in the towns of Albano and Naples. This same emperor rebuilt Drepana, a town in Bithynia, in honour of the martyr Lucian, who was buried there, and called it Helenopolis, after the name of his mother. But he founded in Thrace a town which was to bear his own name, and wished it to become the seat of the Roman government, and the capital of all the east. He also commanded that the pagan temples should be closed without further effusion of human blood.

Constantius [II.] with his brothers Constantine and Constans, reigned twenty-four years, five months, and thirteen days. James was acknowledged bishop of Nisibis, a town which was often delivered by his prayers from the perils that threatened it. The Arian heresy, upheld and protected by the emperor, at first caused the persecution of Athanasius, and afterwards of all the bishops who were not of that sect; who had to suffer banishment, imprisonment, and all kinds of punishment. Maximin, bishop of Treves, was one of the most illustrious prelates of that period; he sheltered with honour Athanasius, bishop of Alexandria, when Constantine sought to punish him. Anthony, the monk, died in his hermitage, at the age of a hundred and five. Constantius, having returned to Rome, the Christians at Constantinople received the bones of Andrew the apostle, and of Luke the evangelist, with great exultation. Hilary, bishop of Poictiers, who had been sent an exile into Phrygia by the Arians, after having repaired to Constantinople to present his petition to Constantius, was allowed to return to Gaul.'

1 St. James, bishop of Nisibis, in Mesopotamia, is said by his prayers to have saved three times this town from being taken by Sapor, in 338, 346, and 350. The banishment of St. Athanasius to Treves, took place in the year 335, and consequently in the reign of Constantine; the motive for it was a political denunciation by the partisans of Eusebius before this prince, and not a point of doctrine. St. Maximin, a native of Silé, in Poitou, bishop of Treves at the time when he received St. Athanasius, appears to have died, Sept. 12, 349, and St. Anthony on the 17th of January, 356. The removal of the relics of SS. Andrew and Luke to Constantinople was performed on the 3rd of March in the same year, before the journey of Constantius to Rome, which did not take place before the 28th of April, 357. St. Hilary, bishop of Poictiers about 350, was banished to Phrygia in 356, presented his petition to Constantius, and returned to Poictiers in 360.