Page:Historical Works of Venerable Bede vol. 2.djvu/340

 268 of Saiiiosata, bishop of Aiitiocli, who taught that Christ was a mere man partaking of our common nature only: the Dialogue, which was taken down by notaries, remains to this day.

A.M. 4229 [278].

Aurelian reigned 5 years and 6 months. Having stired up a persecution against us, a thunderbolt fell at his feet, to the great terror of the bystanders, and not long after he was slain by the soldiers, in the midst of a march between Constantinople and Heraclea, near the ruins of an old town named Cœnofrurium. Eutychian, bishop of Rome, obtained the martyr's crown, and was buried in the cemetery of Callistus, having himself buried 313 martyrs with his own hands.

A.M. 4230 [279].

Tacitus reigned 6 months. Having been slain at Pontus, Florian possessed the empire 88 days, and was then slain at Tharsus. Anatolius., by birth an Alexandrian, bishop of Laodicea in Syria, and versed in philosophic learning, is celebrated in the writings of many; a proof of the vastness of his intellect may be found in his book on Easter, and his ten books on arithmetic.

A.M. 4236 [285].

Probus reigned 6 years and 4 months. He conquered the barbarians in many severe engagements, and wholly freed the Gallic provinces which they had for a long while occuppied. The foolish heresy of the Manichæans sprung up to the general misfortune of mankind in the second year of his reign, being, as we read in the Chronicles of Eusebius, the 325th year according to the reckoning of Antioch, the 402nd according to that of Tyre, the 324th according to that of Laodicea, the 588th according to that of Edessa, the 380th according to that of Ascalon, the beginning of the 86th Jubilee,