Page:Historical Works of Venerable Bede vol. 2.djvu/341

 CHRONICLE.] or the year 4250, according to that of the Hebrews, the Archelaus, a bishop of Mesopotamia, wrote in the Syriac tongue a book containing his disputation with a Manichæan who came out of Persia, though some think it a translation by some Greeks.

A.M. 4238 [287].

Carus, with his sons Carinus and Numerianus, reigned 2 years. Gains, bishop of the Roman church, who suffered martyrdom under Dioclesian, is eminent at this period. Pierius, a presbyter of Alexandria, most ably taught the people under Theon the bishop, and such was the elegance that he exhibited both in his sermons and in the many tracts of his which remain to this day, that he was styled the younger Origen; he was a man who denied himself to a wonderful degree, and of his own accord embraced poverty; after the persecution he passed the rest of his life at Rome.

A.M. 4258 [307].

Dioclesian, with Herculius Maximian, reigned 20 years. Carausius assumed the purple, and seized on Britain. Narseus, king of the Persians, made war in Britain. the East. The Quinquegentiani ravaged Africa. Achilleus seized on Egypt. On which account Constantius and Galerius Maximian were associated in the administration, with the title of Csæars. Constantius married Theodora, daughter of the wife of Herculius, and by her he had six children, brothers of Constantine; Galerius married Valeria daughter of Dioclesian. After ten years the Britannic provinces were recovered to the Empire by the præfect Asclepiodotus. In the nineteenth year of his reign, Dioclesian in the East, and Maximian Herculius in the West, directed that the churches should be wasted, and the Christians persecuted and put to death. But in the second year of the persecution, Dioclesian