Page:Historical Works of Venerable Bede vol. 2.djvu/336

 264 in Gaul, having been slain at Lyons by Severus, the latter transfers the war to Britain, and there, in order to make the provinces which he had recovered more secure from the invasions of the barbarians, he dug a great trench, and constructed a stout rampart which he strengthened with many towers, from sea to sea, a length of 132 miles, and died at York. Perpetua and Felicitas were sentenced to the wild beasts for Christ's sake, in the camp at Carthage in Africa, on the nones of March. A.M. 4170 [219].

Antouinus, surnamcd Caracalla, son of Severus, reigned 7 years. Alexander, a bishop of Cappadocia, having, from his love to the holy places, come to Jerusalem, while Narcissus, bishop of that city, and a very old man, was yet living, is himself there ordained bishop, the Lord having vouchsafed a revelation directing it to be done. Tertullian of Africa, the son of a centurion, is extolled in all the churches.

A.M. 4171 [220]. Macriuus reigned 1 year. Abgarus, a holy man, reigned at Edessa, according to Africanus. Macrinus, with his son Diadumenus, by whose aid he usurped the purple, is slain in a tumult of the soldiers at Archilaides.

A.M. 4175 [224].

. Marcus Aurelius Antoninus reigned 4 years. The city of Nicopolis, which before was called Emmaus, was built in Palestine; Julius Africanus, a writer of the times, engaging for it the zeal of the proconsul. This is that Emmaus, which the Lord vouchsafed to make holy by entering it after his resurrection, as St. Luke narrates. Hippolytus, a bishop, and author of many small works, brought down his chronicles to this period: