The line of better Roman Emperors chosen by ability and
experience
ended in 180 when Commodus,
the son of Marcus
Aurelius, became sole Emperor
at his father's death.
Born
in 161, Commodus was the first Roman Emperor
to be born while
his father was Emperor.
The Stoic
education provided by the Emperor had little appeal
to Commodus,
who was more interested in fighting
as a gladiator, killing animals,
and enjoying sensuality.
He abandoned his father's ambition to
annex territory north
of the Danube and quickly made peace with
the Marcomanni
and the Quadi, gaining 13,000 soldiers from the
Quadi and
forbidding them from fighting the Iazyges, Buri, and
the Vandals.
Rome also made peace with the Buri,
regaining captives
from them and 15,000 from others.
Commodus returned to Rome in triumph
and began his dissolute
activities.
His associates he sent to rule the provinces were
so corrupt
that he soon alienated the Senate.
A conspiracy in
182 was given away when Pompeianus
approached Commodus with a
sword saying,
"This dagger the Senate sends."1
Pompeianus
and four conspirators were executed.
The power of Saoterus was
so hated by the people
that the prefects of the guard murdered
him.
Tigidius Perennis accused Paternus of instigating this;
he
and several prominent figures were put to death,
while others
were punished with exile.
Commodus stopped appearing in public
as he indulged
in banquets, baths, and pleasure with 300 concubines,
as many young men, and in brothels.
Perennis was allowed to subvert
the laws by executing men
and confiscating their wealth for himself
and Commodus.
Many senators and rich women were killed without
trials,
and rich provincials were robbed.
The sister of Commodus,
Lucilla, was exiled to Capri
and then killed for having conspired
with her husband Pompeianus.
An inscription from 182 indicates that Commodus tried to limit
forced labor on imperial estates in Africa to six days.
Four years
later regular shipment of African
produce to Rome was instituted.
In Britain Roman forces led by Ulpius Marcellus lost and
regained
the Antonine wall in 184; but this was abandoned the
next year
when he and his successor
Helvius Pertinax faced army mutinies.
Perennis was lynched by soldiers for dismissing senators
and appointing
knights as commanders.
Commodus replaced Perennis with Cleandar,
an imperial slave
who rose to become the richest chamberlain ever
by selling
government offices and confiscating wealth, appointing
as many
as 25 consuls for the year 190.
Burrus, the brother-in-law
of Commodus, was killed
by Cleandar for reporting to the Emperor
what Cleandar
was doing, as were several for defending Burrus.
Finally Papirius Dionysius, the grain commissioner,
caused a famine
in 190 so that hungry Romans
would destroy Cleandar.
The Emperor's
Christian concubine Marcia pleaded with
Commodus, and he had Cleandar
and his son executed to stop the rebellion.
Commodus had been treated for illness and trained to be a
gladiator
by the physician Galen, who was from Pergamum,
a city in Asia
Minor with an outstanding library
and a healing shrine of Asclepius.
Galen (c. 130-c. 200) developed the theories of Hippocrates
by practicing on gladiators and studying anatomy by vivisection
in Alexandria, though not a single human skeleton was available
when he came to Rome because of religious restrictions.
Galen,
whose medical influence was to last more than a
millennium, developed
a pharmacy of 540 medicines
from plants, 180 from animals, and
100 from minerals.
During the short reign of Pertinax Galen wrote
an
Exhortation to the Study of the Arts, Especially Medicine
in which he advised students against seeking riches and the
professions
of male prostitutes and athletes.
Galen also cited Christians
to support his argument
that even non-philosophers could achieve
good behavior
similar to the philosophical ideal.
Getting himself declared divine as Hercules, Commodus
delighted
in killing wild beasts in the arena,
and he killed many people,
often for petty reasons.
His arrogance knew few bounds as he renamed
Rome
Commodiana as his colony
and changed the names of the months.
He tried to remain popular by giving 140 denarii to each
person, while ordering senators in other cities to contribute
five denarii each every year on his birthday.
Imperial
authority was maintained by the use
of secret police and the army.
Commodus murdered many prominent men such as
prefect Julianus,
commissioner Dionysius,
his own nephew Antoninus, and several
ex-consuls.
When Marcia, the prefect Laetus and chamberlain Eclectus
learned they were about to be killed as Commodus
was moving to
live with the gladiators in the barracks,
Marcia poisoned Commodus.
After he vomited this, they sent an athlete named Narcissus,
who
strangled him in a bath on the last day of 192.
After Commodus was assassinated, Laetus and Eclectus
took Helvius
Pertinax, 66, to the praetorian camp, where he
promised the guards
a donative of 12,000 sesterces each.
Pertinax was probably chosen,
because he had held more
high offices than anyone; he may have
survived, because
he had gained less wealth than anyone.
Pertinax
told the Senate he wanted to resign;
but they declared him Emperor
and Commodus a public enemy.
Pertinax treated the Senate democratically,
and he was declared its chief according to ancient practice.
He
restored the rights of innocent victims, removed the stigma
against
those unjustly executed, and vowed never
to sanction the death
penalty for senators.
The imperial treasury had been reduced
to
less than a million sesterces.
So Pertinax sold imperial luxuries
such as statues, arms, horses,
furniture, and slaves while cutting
palace expenditures in half.
Oppressive taxes and restrictions
on commerce were canceled.
Those improving uncultivated Italian
lands were exempted
from tribute for ten years.
The praetorians
got what they were promised,
and the people received 100 denarii
each.
Not getting what he wanted, Laetus incited soldiers, who were
no longer allowed to plunder; after only 86 days on the throne
they murdered Emperor Pertinax and his loyal Eclectus.
City prefect
Sulpicianus, father-in-law of Pertinax,
aimed to take the throne;
but he was outbid by the wealthy
Didius Julianus, who promised
the praetorian guards
25,000 sesterces and gave them 30,000 each,
saying he would restore the honor of Commodus.
The Senate and
people loathed Julianus, because they believed
Pertinax was reforming
the abuses of the Commodus era,
and many believed the soldiers
killed Pertinax for money.
Pescennius Niger, the Roman governor in Syria, was urged by
those in Asia to assume the throne,
and Julianus ordered him killed.
Septimius Severus, commanding in Pannonia, shrewdly sent a
letter
to Britain governor Clodius Albinus,
declaring him Caesar, and
marched for Rome.
Julianus got the Senate to declare Severus a
public enemy and
fortified the palace, putting to death Laetus
and Marcia.
Meanwhile Severus not only won over most of Europe,
he even persuaded those sent by Julianus to kill him.
The desperate
Julianus tried to share the throne with Severus;
but the Senate
sentenced Julianus to death,
declared Severus Emperor,
and bestowed
divine honors on Pertinax.
Julianus was executed in the palace
after reigning 66 days.
Severus executed the praetorians, who had murdered Pertinax,
and dismissed the guards, who had failed to prevent this.
Severus
also promised not to execute senators;
but he was the first to
violate this law
by murdering Julius Solon, the senator who framed
it.
Severus was blamed for making Rome turbulent with many
non-Italian
troops and excessive expenditures on the army,
though he was popular
as the avenger of Pertinax.
Severus was born in Africa on April
11 in 145
and rose in a military career.
He punished magistrates
proved guilty by provincials
and secured the grain supply.
Severus
led his army against the forces of Niger
and Aemilianus in a brief
civil war.
His generals defeated and killed Aemilianus in the
Hellespont;
then they besieged Byzantium.
Severus defeated Niger
at Issus, where 20,000 Romans died
according to Dio Cassius; Niger
was killed retreating
from Antioch to the Euphrates.
Severus punished
supporters of Niger, crossed the Euphrates,
and in 195 brought
the Parthians and Adiabenians under
Roman authority, though Dio
Cassius complained this military
conquest cost more than it gained.
Byzantium was starved into surrender after three years.
Its magistrates
and soldiers were put to death;
its walls were demolished, and
its privileges were suppressed
as it was subjected to nearby Perinthus.
Suspecting Albinus, Severus had his army in Mesopotamia
declare
him a public enemy and headed for Rome.
Though both Albinus and
Severus were born in Africa,
Severus was only an equestrian,
and
Albinus was educated in the school of Marcus
Aurelius.
Yet Severus got the Senate in Rome to denounce Albinus,
who had crossed the channel from Britain with three legions
and
auxiliaries, defeating Roman forces led by Lupus.
This civil war
was won by the army of Severus
at Lugdunum (Lyons), where according
to Dio
150,000 from each side fought.
Albinus committed suicide,
and the city was sacked and burned in 197.
Severus returned to
Rome and executed 29 senators
who had supported Albinus.
Severus
had his son Antoninus (later called Caracalla)
confirmed as Caesar.
When Parthian king Vologases besieged Nisibis,
Severus launched
another campaign against the Parthians,
relieved Nisibis, took
Seleucia and Babylon, and plundered
Ctesiphon (enslaving perhaps
100,000);
but he failed to capture Hatra.
In 199 Severus visited
Egypt.
Severus returned to Rome, where Praetorian Prefect Plautianus
was exercising great power over finances and even laws.
In 203
Severus visited his native Leptis Magna in Africa,
promoting municipal
and cultural activities there.
Severus returned to Rome to celebrate
secular games the next
year, spending a record 200,000,000 sesterces
on the people.
The coinage was debased, as the denarius
was now less than half silver.
Severus gained popularity by moving
the postal service
from private individuals to the imperial government.
Plautianus was accused of plotting against the Emperor
and was
killed by an attendant of Caracalla.
The eminent lawyer Papinian
became praetorian prefect in 203
until 212 and was known for equity
and humaneness.
Caracalla and his brother Geta felt free to indulge
in
women
and boys, embezzle money, and associated with gladiators.
Dio described how for two years 600 bandits
led by Bulla robbed
travelers on Italian roads.
Before being thrown to wild beasts,
Bulla observed his band
was large, because slaves were mistreated,
and freedmen were underpaid.
Severus paid soldiers well and relaxed
discipline,
allowing them to live with their wives
and expect
frequent donatives.
Severus added two legions in Mesopotamia and
one in Italy,
and he put provincials in the praetorian guard.
In Britain Hadrian's wall was improved so much that later
generations
believed it was built by Severus.
Suffering from gout or arthritis,
Severus was carried in a litter
on the British campaign in 208
when they invaded the
Caledonians in the north, though it may
have
cost the Romans 50,000 men.
Geta was raised to equal rank
with his ambitious brother
Caracalla (Antoninus), who tried to
kill their aging father;
Severus punished others but not his son.
When Septimius Severus died of illness in 211,
his two sons mistrusted
each other and divided the palace.
Caracalla refused to divide
the empire though,
and the next year he had Geta murdered
while
clinging to their mother's arms.
The distinguished jurist Papinian
refused to justify this fratricide
and was killed, along with
about 20,000 others suspected of
being sympathetic to Geta or
a threat to the paranoid Emperor.
The guilt-stricken Caracalla
often had visions
of his angry father and brother.
Caracalla restored the rights of Antioch and Byzantium
that
had
been taken away by Septimius Severus for supporting Niger.
Caracalla placated the soldiers by raising their pay from
500
to 750 denarii; but he had to debase
the coins further
and double most taxes.
An edict of 212 extended Roman citizenship
to all free men
in the empire, broadening the tax base.
Caracalla
also wasted money on wild beasts
he liked to kill in arenas.
Although
he was more adulterous than any, Caracalla had
adulterers executed
in violation of the law.
In addition to murdering many prominent
men,
Caracalla sent others to cold or hot provinces
where their
health would fail.
After defeating the Alamanni in Lower Moesia,
in the east
he tricked Osroeni king Abgarus to visit as a friend
and
imprisoned him in order to subdue the Osroene in 216.
Then
he did the same thing to the Armenian king,
thereafter losing
any trust he might have had.
Believing he was the reincarnation
of the Macedonian
Alexander,
Caracalla went to Egypt, where he had thousands
of seditious Alexandrians
slaughtered while he reported to the
Senate he was performing
"purification rites."
While the Emperor was abroad,
senators were expected
to erect palaces and theaters for expensive
entertainment.
Finally while on a pilgrimage from Edessa to the
lunar temple
at Carrhae, Caracalla was assassinated
by the disgruntled
soldier Martialis.
The assassin was killed immediately, and Praetorian Prefect
Opellius Macrinus, promising to give the army money and end
the
burdensome war, became Emperor and took his young son
Diadumenus
as colleague, ordering soldiers
to name his son Antoninus.
The
credibility of Macrinus suffered when it was learned
he had organized
the assassination even though he denied it.
When the angry Parthian
Artabanus invaded Mesopotamia,
Macrinus was unable to pacify him,
and the Roman army was defeated near Nisibis.
Macrinus made peace
by paying Artabanus
200,000,000 sesterces, and the war with Armenia
ended
when Macrinus sent Tiridates a crown.
The harsh discipline
of Macrinus in a winter camp,
crucifying soldiers and decimating
his legions, alienated them
so quickly that after one year troops
deserted to Elagabalus.
Macrinus tried to appease his soldiers
by giving them money;
but he was defeated and put to death outside
of Antioch in 218.
Named after a Syrian sun cult of which he was priest,
Elagabalus
(Heliogabalus) was put forward by his
grandmother Maesa as the
son of Caracalla.
The army unusually gathered in Syria
was won
over to his cause.
After defeating Macrinus, Elagabalus entered
Antioch
and promised each soldier 2,000 sesterces
to prevent them
from sacking the city.
Elagabalus trampled on Roman tradition
by assuming
tribunician and proconsular powers even before
they
were decreed by the Senate.
He transferred a sacred black stone
from Emesa to Rome
and tried to make his religion dominant over
all others.
Elagabalus limited reprisals but soon slid into extraordinary
sensuality, murdering those who criticized him.
He married a Vestal
virgin and several others.
His banquets were orgies of rare foods
alternating with sexual pleasures.
Elagabalus dressed as a woman,
even married "husbands,"
and played the role of a prostitute
as he made lust
the principal occupation of his life.
Honors,
ranks, and powers were sold by him and his lusted
agents for money,
even positions such as senators, tribunes,
generals, legates,
and procurators.
It was reported that his religious sacrifices
included noble Italian boys.
Elagabalus' cousin Alexander Severus had been declared
Caesar
and soon became an alternative
to the Emperor's shameful lifestyle.
Alexander was protected by soldiers, who warned Elagabalus
to
dismiss the foul persons and return to a decent life.
While plotting
against Alexander,
Elagabalus ordered the Senate to leave Rome.
The rhetorician Silvinus was killed,
though the jurist Ulpian
was saved.
Finally in 222 soldiers killed Elagabalus in a latrine
and threw his body in the Tiber.
The Roman Senate immediately bestowed the imperial titles
and
power on Alexander Severus.
As he was born October 1, 208 and
was only 13,
his grandmother Maesa until her death in 226
and
his mother Mamaea acted as regents.
A council of seventy included
sixteen senators and was headed
by the distinguished jurist Domitius
Ulpian as praetorian prefect.
Ulpian reformed the many violations
of Elagabalus
and wrote massive works on Roman law.
He wrote that
all human beings are born free,
thus making slavery unnatural.
Yet the loss of privileges eventually led the
praetorians to murder
Ulpian in 228.
Iulius Paulus was another great jurist who was
praetorian prefect under Alexander.
Paulus emphasized that the
Emperor should set an example
by obeying the laws,
and he wrote
the voluminous Opinions (Sententiae).
During the reign of Alexander colleges of industries and trades
were organized to provide for the needs of Rome,
and welfare institutions
were extended.
Many were exempted from taxes, including officials,
soldiers,
college guilds, ship-owners, firemen, those over seventy,
women, fathers of five children, veterans,
doctors, teachers,
and philosophers.
Taxes thus fell heavily on farmers
and workers
in the lower classes.
Alexander loaned public money at only four
percent,
and to the poor he even advanced cash to purchase land
without any interest at all.
Elagabalus had wasted grain;
but
Alexander purchased it at his own expense
and restored the supply.
Coins indicate that at least five times Emperor Alexander
Severus
distributed grain or money to the people.
The imperial life of Alexander offered a striking contrast
to his predecessor as he practiced self-discipline, study,
instructive
discussion, and public service.
Elagabalus had allowed both sexes
to mix at public baths,
but Alexander ended that indulgence.
He
could be severe especially on thieves.
His friend Turinus used
his position to sell favors.
The Emperor ordered him bound to
a stake and suffocated
by smoke, because he had been a "seller
of smoke."
The palace was open to all, but only those
with
innocent minds were invited to enter.
Alexander sent the Syrian
sun-god back to Emesa
and tolerated all religions, respecting
the rights of Jews
and tolerating Christians, since he believed
each is an expression of universal truth.
Along with statues of
deified Emperors were represented
the holy souls of Abraham, Orpheus, Christ,
and Apollonius of Tyana.
Alexander
had heard the golden rule from a Jew or Christian,
and when disciplining
anyone he told the herald to announce
that what you do not wish
anyone to do to you,
you should not do to them.
This saying was
also inscribed on public buildings.
The discipline of Alexander and his commanders,
like historian
Dio Cassius in Pannonia,
was not popular with a corrupted army.
Mutinies against his officers had to be put down in Illyricum,
Mauretania, Armenia, Mesopotamia, and Germany.
Dio was saved by
retiring to write history in 229.
Artabanus V of the Arsacid dynasty
in Parthia,
weakened by the invasion of Septimius Severus and
others,
was overthrown in 224 by the Persian Ardashir (Artaxerxes),
who founded the Sassanian dynasty
as king of kings two years later.
In 230 the Persians, setting out to regain their ancient empire
with Magian zeal, besieged Nisibis.
Diplomatic efforts failed
as Persia insisted on
reclaiming all of western Asia.
Their 400
elegant emissaries were seized by Alexander
and sent to farm in
Phrygia.
Alexander and his mother launched a campaign in alliance
with Armenian king Chosroes by invading through
Armenia, Mesopotamia,
and Babylon.
The three separate Roman armies enabled the Persians
to destroy the central one.
Alexander retreated to Antioch as
disease, hunger,
and cold added to the disastrous war.
The need
for legions in the west caused the Romans to end
the war against
Persia without a settlement in 233,
and the next year a campaign
was prepared against the Alamanni.
Julius Verus Maxininus was put in charge
of training on the
Upper Rhine.
Alexander and his mother joined the army at Mainz
and began negotiating cash payments.
Troops resented this, and
Pannonian recruits
proclaimed Maxininus Emperor.
The army of Alexander
Severus deserted him,
and he and his mother were killed in 235.
Maxininus was a Thracian who rose
to equestrian rank in the
military.
He began his reign crushing two mutinies in the north
by
putting to death senator Magnus and as many as 4,000 others.
Maxininus used his army to defeat German resistance,
and in 236
and 237 they fought the Sarmatians and Dacians.
Lacking education
and culture,
Maxininus stayed away from Italy,
refused to see
such people, and even had those
who revealed his obscure background
killed.
With an extensive spy network senatorial officers were
especially proscribed as much property was confiscated.
Money
had to be found, because he doubled soldiers' pay,
and military
needs such as road-building were promoted.
He also appropriated
ornaments from public places
and temples, which often caused tumult
and massacres.
In opposing those who had supported Alexander,
Maxininus ordered Christians persecuted.
In Africa the imperial procurator was killed
in Thysdrus attempting
to gather taxes.
In 238 the 80-year-old proconsul Antonius Gordianus
Sempronianus was proclaimed Augustus (Emperor),
and at Carthage
he appointed his son co-Emperor.
Envoys were sent to Rome and
killed praetorian commander
Vitalianus, allowing the Senate
to
confirm the Gordians' imperial titles.
Romans turned against supporters
of Maxininus
and killed city prefect Sabinus.
Twenty consuls were
sent out to the provinces
to defend the new Emperors.
However,
Numidian governor Capellianus had a grudge
against Gordian and
remained loyal to Maxininus;
when his troops killed Gordian II,
his aged father committed suicide.
The Roman Senate quickly elected two of the twenty,
Pupienus
Maximus and Caelius Balbinus, as Emperors.
The people disliked
former city prefect Pupienus and
demonstrated until the elder
Gordian's grandson,
Antonius Gordianus, was named Caesar,
and
250 denarii was given to each citizen.
Pupienus organized
an army in north Italy
while Balbinus governed in Rome.
Maxininus
gave a donative and marched his army across the
Alps into northern
Italy, finding no food in the abandoned
land but meeting resistance
at Aquileia.
While besieging this city, the northern army's discipline
broke down, and soldiers, who had family and property in Alba,
murdered Maxininus, his son,
prefect Anulinus, and other officers.
Pupienus was supported by German soldiers,
because he had been
a conscientious governor of their province.
He arrived and gave
the rebel army amnesty and a donative,
dismissing them to their
stations.
Pupienus returned triumphantly to Rome, where recalcitrant
praetorian guards ended friction between the two Emperors
by capturing
them and murdering both in their camp.
The guards proclaimed the
13-year-old Gordian III Emperor.
Little is known about who advised the young Gordian
until Praetorian
Prefect Timesitheus took control in 241;
but a 238 decree indicates
administration by provincial
governors was given authority even
in judicial matters over
military courts, and local rights over
finances were regained.
A rebellion led by Sabinianus in Carthage
was quelled
by the governor of Mauretania in 240.
Having diverse
government experience in many provinces,
Timesitheus continued
extensive building of roads,
and lines of forts were erected in
Numidia and Mauretania.
In the east Persians had overrun Mesopotamia
and taken Nisibis and Carrhae.
Shapur I succeeded his father Ardashir
in 242,
quelling rebellions by the Chorasmians, mountain Medes,
Gelae, Dailamites, and Hyrcanians.
Then Shapur invaded Syria,
threatening Antioch.
Gordian and Timesitheus mobilized the Danubian
army,
and the latter defeated Carpi raiders in Thrace.
In 243
they drove the Persians out of Syria,
regaining Carrhae and Nisibis;
Edessa was made a Roman colony.
When Timesitheus died of illness
or perhaps poison,
he was succeeded as praetorian prefect
by an
Arabian named Philip.
The ambitious Philip blamed commissariat problems
on Gordian
and had the Emperor murdered,
writing the Senate he had died of
disease.
The soldiers proclaimed Philip Emperor in 244,
and he
made a peace treaty with Shapur.
Philip led troops against unrest
in Moesia and Dacia
before returning to Rome to celebrate
its
millennium with secular games in 248.
Excessive taxes and oppressive
government by Philip's
brother C. Julius Priscus in Mesopotamia
stimulated
rebellions led by Jotapianus in Cappadocia and Emesa
priest-king Sulpicius Uranius Antoninus in Syria.
In the lower
Danube region Pacatianus led a revolt.
Philip was so discouraged
he wanted to abdicate;
but instead the confident Decius was given
supreme command in Moesia and Pannonia.
Pacatianus was soon killed
by his own soldiers,
and in 249 the successful Decius was compelled
by the army to become Emperor.
The ill Philip marched north to
meet Decius
but was defeated and killed in battle.
The son of
Philip was put to death in Rome
by the praetorians, and the Senate
recognized Decius.
Attempting to restore Roman virtue, Decius appointed Valerian
censor and required traditional sacrifices, causing a serious
though brief persecution of Christians.
In Rome Senator Licinianus
attempted to become Emperor
but was soon killed, and the two sons
of Decius
were proclaimed Augusti.
Invading Goths brought Decius
to the Danube.
The Goths retreated but besieged Philippopolis
in Thrace.
The Gothic king Cniva defeated and killed Decius
and
his older son at Abrittus in 251.
Thrace governor T. Julius Priscus
had surrendered mutinous
troops to the Goths at Philippopolis
and briefly claimed to be Emperor also.
100,000 people in the
city
were reported to have been massacred.
Since Hostilianus,
the surviving son of Decius, was a child,
Moesia governor C. Trebonianus
Gallus
was proclaimed Emperor by his troops.
Gallus in a weak
position allowed the Goths to carry off much
of the population
and wealth of Thrace.
He adopted Hostilianus as his son but was
blamed
when the boy was carried off by a plague
that was to sweep
across the empire for the next fifteen years.
Aemilius Aemilianus, governing Pannonia and Moesia,
won victories
against the Goths north of the Danube
and was proclaimed Emperor.
The army of Aemilianus so outnumbered that of Gallus
that the
latter was killed by his own troops.
Aemilianus lasted only three
months, meeting a similar fate
to that of Gallus after he summoned
Valerian's Rhine legions,
who proclaimed him Emperor.
Valerian
got the Senate to declare his son Gallienus
as his colleague and
Augustus in September 253.
The next year Gallienus led an army that drove back
the Alamanni;
as he fought five wars with the Germans
in five years, he resided
mostly at Cologne.
In 256 the Franks, formed out of Cherusci and
Chatti,
invaded most of Gaul,
while Saxons began raiding the English
Channel.
As Valerian headed east to confront the Persians,
persecution
of Christians resumed.
Meanwhile the Goths plundered rich cities
like Chalcedon,
Nicomedia, Trebizond, Cyzicus, and eventually
even Athens.
In 259 the Persians defeated and captured Emperor
Valerian,
a great embarrassment to the Roman empire.
The next
year revolts broke out in the Danube region,
and Macrianus proclaimed
his two sons Emperors in the east.
Persian king Shapur got Armenian
king Chosroes assassinated.
Defeating Roman forces, Shapur's Persians
occupied
Antioch, Apamea, Seleucia, and Tarsus.
Palmyran king
Odenathus sent Shapur gifts,
but the Persian potentate had them
thrown in the Euphrates.
While Silvanus was governing for young Caesar Saloninus
in
Cologne, Postumus besieged the city with his legions
from Germany
and had them both killed.
Macrianus approached with an army of
30,000 but was
defeated by the Pannonian force of Aureolus.
In
262 Odenathus joined his Syrian army with Roman forces
and defeated
the Persians, regaining Carrhae and Nisibis
and even besieging
the Persian capital at Ctesiphon.
Egyptian prefect L. Mussius
Aemilianus, who had supported
the Macriani until their fall, stopped
grain shipments to Italy.
Gallienus sent a fleet commanded by
Theodotus,
who defeated, executed, and replaced Aemilianus.
The
next year Gallienus led an army against Postumus
and was wounded
defeating him in Gaul.
Emperor Gallienus enjoyed the Neo-Platonist philosophy
of Plotinus,
promoted Greek religion in the Eleusinian
mysteries,
and managed to survive until 268.
During his reign
of fifteen years though,
eighteen men and one woman, Palmyran
queen Zenobia,
vied for the imperial throne.
The provinces were
greatly disturbed, and the civil wars
weakened the frontier defenses,
such as Raetia and Germany.
In Sicily slaves rebelled; Alexandria's
civil war went on for
twelve years; and Isaurians in Asia Minor
became independent
of the empire and took over part of Cilicia.
These many wars along with the famine and plague that
accompanied
them devastated the land, the people,
and the economy of the empire.
Agriculture was greatly affected,
and the rich took over more
land.
Insecurity on the roads made commerce very risky and difficult.
Small farmers and city workers were hit hard, greatly shrinking
the middle class with the important exceptions of the military
and government officials, some of whom became rich.
Aureolus prevented Postumus from invading Italy.
Yet when the
cavalry of Aureolus became a threat to Gallienus,
the Emperor
besieged him at Milan,
as Aureolus proclaimed himself Emperor.
A conspiracy led by Aurelius Claudius and Domitius Aurelia
arranged
for the murder of Gallienus,
and a large contribution to the troops
secured the throne for Claudius.
The Senate, resenting their recent
loss of power, had the
late Emperor's family liquidated and supported
Claudius.
Aureolus surrendered to Claudius and was executed.
Postumus
was fighting a revolt led by Laelianus,
who died when Mainz was
taken.
When Postumus refused to let his soldiers
plunder the city,
they killed him.
These Rhine legions proclaimed Aurelius Marius
and,
after he died, Victorinus.
Claudius sent a force commanded
by
Placidianus against them in Gaul.
Claudius wrote the Senate that although the whole country
was
exhausted, 320,000 Goths had invaded Roman territory,
assaulting
the wealthy Macedonian capital at Thessalonica.
He had to admit
that the usurper Tetricus governed in Gaul
and Spain, while Zenobia
reigned over Asia.
Claudius led an imperial army that defeated
the Goths in
Moesia, Thrace, and Macedonia, taking some Gothic
youth into the army, enslaving others,
and giving each soldier
two or three captive women.
Claudius appointed Aurelian to continue
the campaign against
the Goths while he turned to face the Juthungi
and Vandals
in the Danube region,
where he succumbed to the plague
in 270.
The army in Italy elected his brother Quintillus Emperor
but had him killed after learning the army in the Balkans
had
selected the popular Domitius Aurelian.
Aurelian was a strict disciplinarian and declared that public
support and spoils taken from the enemy should be enough
so that
soldiers should leave the provincials' goods alone.
After two
decades of war Aurelian defeated and made a
treaty with the Goths
by which the Vandals supplied him
with 2,000 cavalry, and the
Goths were allowed
to retreat and occupy Dacia.
When 500 of these
cavalry broke the agreement,
they were destroyed.
Next the Juthungi
(Marcomanni) encroached into Italy.
After his forces took a beating
at Placentia,
Aurelian defeated the German invaders in Umbria
and exterminated what remained near Pavia.
This threat apparently
stimulated Aurelian to order the
erection of a wall twenty feet
high, twelve feet wide,
and twelve miles long around the city
of Rome.
Aurelian had some senators killed
and confiscated much
property.
In the imperial capital a revolt of mint workers
was
large enough to kill 7,000 soldiers.
Aurelian changed a monthly
dole of grain to a daily
distribution of two pounds of bread and
an
occasional allotment of pork, oil, and salt.
He made worship
of the sun an official religion.
In 271 Aurelian destroyed the Gothic invader Cannabas and
5,000
of his men north of the Danube on his way to recover
Asia Minor
from the retreating authority
of Palmyra queen Zenobia.
The death
of Persian king Shapur in 272
seems to have left her with few
allies.
The city of Tyana was spared by Aurelian,
and Greeks joined
the Roman side.
While his general Probus was driving her forces
out of Egypt,
Aurelian defeated her best general Zabdas at Antioch.
The Roman Emperor supported the claims of the
Christian Domnus,
who was endorsed by Italian bishops.
Zabdas retreated to Emesa,
while Zenobia prepared for a
siege at Palmyra, where she rejected
a peace offer.
However, as she escaped to the Euphrates,
where
she was captured, the city surrendered.
Her advisor, the rhetorician
Longinus, was put to death;
but she was taken to Rome,
as Aurelian
left a garrison of 600 archers in Palmyra.
The next year Aurelian
fought the Carpi beyond the Danube.
Hearing his garrison had been
massacred,
he returned to destroy Palmyra.
In Egypt a wealthy
merchant named Firmus led a revolt
joined by the Nubian Blemmyes
tribe.
Aurelian moved against them, causing Firmus
to commit suicide
and razing the walls of Alexandria.
In 274 Aurelian took his army into Gaul, where he punished
rebel fighters, gave Tetricus clemency, and drove the
Franks and
Batavians north of the Rhine.
Aurelian returned to Rome and marched
in triumph with
captives from many nations that included Zenobia
and the senatorial Tetricus,
both of whom received comfortable
pensions.
The sun temple received 15,000 pounds of gold.
Aurelian
went back to Gaul to counter invading Juthungi
and Alamanni from
Raetia; then he headed for Mesopotamia.
Before reaching Byzantium
a secretary charged with extortion
organized a conspiracy that
assassinated Aurelian in 275.
After so many competing Emperors, now for six months
no one
took on the imperial position;
the victories of Aurelian had calmed
usurpation
and sedition for a while.
Finally in September 275
the Senate persuaded
75-year-old Tacitus to don the purple.
Tacitus
governed conservatively for six months,
though his half-brother
Florian, whom he made praetorian
prefect, was rejected by the
Senate for a consulship,
and another relative, Maximinus, was
so oppressive
in governing Syria that he was murdered.
Florian
tried to succeed Tacitus without approval by the Senate
and marched
his army to Tarsus to counter the claim of Probus;
but after three
months
Florian was betrayed by his men and killed.
Probus punished surviving murderers of Aurelian and visited
Rome to receive confirmation by the Senate,
which he allowed to
conduct civil administration.
He then marched his army to Gaul
and drove out the Franks,
Longiones, Alamanni, and the Burgundian
Vandals,
liberating sixty cities, killing a reported 400,000 Germans,
and taking 16,000 into his army.
In 278 Probus secured Raetia
and drove
invading Vandals from Illyricum.
Julius Saturninus claimed
imperial command in Syria
but soon died at Apamea.
In Asia Minor
Probus established forts to control the Isaurians;
he made peace
with Persian king Vahram II (r. 276-293),
and while traveling
back through Thrace,
he settled 100,000 Batarnae in the empire.
Probus ordered a wall built from the Rhine to the Danube,
though
in a few years it would be torn down by the Alamanni.
Short-lived
rebellions were put down in
Lugdunum, Cologne, and Britain.
Probus
celebrated with violent games, though eighty gladiators
broke
free and rampaged in Rome before they were all killed.
Probus
began applying soldiers to reclaiming land and
cultivating vines;
he even hoped for a day
when an imperial army would no longer
be needed.
This idea frightened the military,
and Probus was murdered
by his own soldiers at Sirmium.
The Guard's prefect Carus was made Emperor
by the army in 282.
They defeated invading Quadi and
killed 16,000 Sarmatians with
heavy losses.
Then marching east to the Persian war, Carus and
his army
crossed both the Euphrates and Tigris to take Seleucia
and Ctesiphon; but after ruling ten months he was struck down
for going too far by lightning (according to the official report).
His oldest son Carinus was ruling in the west,
and the eastern
army was taken over by his younger son
Numerian, who was under
the influence of his father-in-law,
the prefect Aper; but Numerian
was soon found dead.
The army appointed Diocles Emperor,
and he
stabbed Aper with his own sword,
proclaiming himself Emperor Diocletian
in 284.
Carinus, who had married and divorced nine wives
and put
on extravagant and cruel spectacles with wild animals,
met Diocletian
with a strong army in the Margus valley;
but Carinus was murdered
by a tribune,
whose wife he had seduced,
making Diocletian undisputed
ruler of the Roman empire in 285.
Torah scholars called Tannaim continued to develop
an
oral tradition after the destruction of the Temple in 70 CE,
led
by such distinguished men as Jochanan ben Zakkai,
Gamaliel II
of Jabneh, Akiba ben Joseph,
Meir, and Judah Hanasi.
Based on
Akiba's collection as corrected by Meir,
the Patriarch Judah (c.
135-c. 225) managed to synthesize the
teachings of the various
schools into a unified compendium of
oral traditions called the Mishnah,
written only as notes or secretly.
The wealthy
Judah wielded unprecedented power over Jews,
even vetoing the
Sanhedrin, which he had moved from Usha
to Sepphoris because of
his health.
When the plague during the reign of Marcus Aurelius
was
followed by a famine, Judah opened his storehouses
and distributed
grain to the needy.
Judean communities were suffering
under the
"crown money" tax,
which caused many to leave Tiberias.
He was so respected that he was called the teacher saint,
and
quotes in the Mishnah by him are
simply attributed to the
Rabbi (Teacher).
The Mishnah completed the phase of the
independent Tannaim,
who would be followed by the Amoraim (Interpreters)
of the Mishnah in writing down
their ideas in the Talmud
(Teaching).
The Mishnah is arranged into six broad categories on
prayer,
agriculture, sacred times, marriage and family,
economic
and social issues, and ritual purity.
The Mishnah emphasizes
that laws of the Torah are to be
obeyed without exception,
giving Judaism a legalistic character.
By following the edicts
and decrees of God as handed in the
scriptures they believed they
would find prosperity on earth
and blessing in the world to come.
Their main duties included venerating parents, giving charity,
attending school, offering hospitality, endowing brides,
accompanying
corpses to the grave, praying devoutly,
peacemaking, and studying
their teachings.
Crimes were not expiated until the victims
were
reimbursed, satisfied, or appeased.
The Mishnah has two views on whether to educate daughters.
Ben-Azai favored it, but Eleazar ben Hyrcanus
compared it to prostitution.
Unfortunately the latter view prevailed,
and women were seldom
educated.
The Mishnah is much more critical of heathen
practices
than of their Christian rivals.
Jews were not allowed
to sell to Romans animals
that might be used for killing in the
arena.
Simeon ben Gamaliel said that the world rests on
truth,
justice, and peace.
Ben Zoma suggested that learning from everyone
makes
one wise, controlling one's passions makes one strong,
being
satisfied with one's lot makes one rich,
and honoring humanity
makes one honored.
Simeon ben Chalafta said that God
has no better
way of blessing than with peace.
Under Severus Jews as well as Christians
were persecuted for
their religion.
After the civil war that consolidated the power
of Severus,
marauding bands in Palestine were hunted down with
the aid
of teachers Eleazar, son of Simon ben Jochai,
and Ishmael,
son of Jose the Prudent.
Many people including Joshua ben Karcha
criticized them for this.
Judah was succeeded by his son Gamaliel
III,
who emphasized that study should supplement essential work.
In 216 the pressure of the Persian war caused the Romans
to end
the allowance first given by Julius Caesar making
Jews exempt
from taxes during their sabbatical year
in which fields lay fallow.
So the authority Jannai proclaimed it
permissible to cultivate
the land that year.
Judah II succeeded his father Gamaliel and
moved the
Sanhedrin from Sepphoris to the city of Tiberias.
Stories
and legends of a close friendship between Judah and
a Roman Emperor
or governor may refer to Antoninus Pius,
Marcus Aurelius, or Alexander
Severus.
Most likely is the last, since Alexander included Abraham
in his pantheon of religious figures
and was quite favorable to
Jews.
Jews had lived free of persecution in Babylon for generations;
but when the new Persian Sassanid dynasty replaced the
Parthians,
the religious fanaticism of the
Zarathustrian magi caused problems.
Abba-Areka (c. 175-247) had studied with Judah I in Tiberias.
The Babylonian exilarch appointed Abba inspector of the
markets
responsible for controlling weights and measures.
When Abba did
not obey the exilarch's order to control prices,
he was put in
prison.
About 219 Abba opened a school called Sidra
that attracted
1200 students.
Using the Mishnah for teaching,
Abba tried
to improve the morals of the Babylonians.
He forbade solemnizing
marriage until it was preceded
by courtship, and he prohibited
fathers from
marrying off their daughters without their consent.
He stopped the legal devices that enabled a husband
to make a
divorce retroactive.
Abba also strengthened the judicial system,
obliging everyone to obey a summons.
His rival Mar-Samuel went
even farther and declared
the secular laws as binding as the Jewish
ones.
This enabled Samuel to have good relations
with the court
of Shapur I (r. 242-272).
Soon under the Sassanid dynasty the
Jewish courts
lost their criminal jurisdiction, and Jews were
no longer permitted to hold public offices.
In 259 the Palmyran
king Odenathus destroyed the
city of Nahardea and its Jewish community;
Samuel's daughters and others
were taken as prisoners to Sepphoris.
Probably during the reign of Marcus
Aurelius a priest of the
mother goddess Cybele named Montanus,
who had converted
to Christianity in Phrygia, had ecstatic experiences
in which
he believed the Holy Spirit spoke through him.
Two prophetesses,
Priscilla and Maximilla,
who had left their husbands, had similar
experiences and beliefs.
From this in Asia Minor grew the Montanist
movement,
which considered itself the spiritual church, but which
was
opposed by many who believed these supernatural experiences
were not inspired by the Holy Spirit but devils.
Irenaeus grew up in Smyrna, where he was taught by Polycarp.
Irenaeus went to southern Gaul as a missionary, witnessed the
persecution in Lugdunum (Lyons), and succeeded
the martyred bishop
Pothinus in 177.
Irenaeus was sent to mediate the Montanist disputes
with
Eleutherus, who was bishop of Rome from 177 to 190.
While
churches in Asia Minor celebrated Easter on the
Jewish Passover
and Roman churches did so on the following
Sunday, Irenaeus advised
the resentful Victor, Bishop of Rome,
not to let this difference
destroy church unity.
In a letter to Victor Irenaeus wrote that
as long as one can do
good to one's neighbors and does not do
so,
that one will be considered a stranger to the love of God.
He recommended speaking well of the deserving but never ill
of
the undeserving in order to attain the glory of God.
Irenaeus
observed that transgressions bound one by the
chains of one's
own sins; but breaking the bonds
by repentance loosens the shackles.
He thought the business of the Christian
is always preparing for
death.
Irenaeus died before or possibly during the persecution
of Emperor Septimius Severus in 202.
Irenaeus knew that it is not easy to persuade one
under the
influence of error toward a contrary opinion.
His major work, Refutation of the Falsely Called Knowledge
(Gnosis), written
in Greek, survives in Latin translation.
In the first of five
books Irenaeus described the doctrines
of Gnostics such as Valentinus,
Marcion, and others.
Then he demonstrated by scriptures and the
apostolic tradition
why orthodox Christian theology is better.
His work and similar tracts by Tertullian and others were so
comprehensive
and persuasive that the Gnostic sects
declined rapidly in the
third century,
and most Gnostic texts were eradicated.
Recent
discoveries in the 20th century of some Gnostic
works have revealed
the general accuracy of his presentation.
Most of the differences
are metaphysical and theological
rather than ethical; but Irenaeus
did note Gnostic elitism
in their suggestion that good works are
necessary to traditional
Christians but not to those having
the
superior spiritual knowledge.
Irenaeus charged that some Gnostics
indulged in lusts of the
flesh in the belief that carnal things
may be allowed
to carnal nature, because spiritual things
are
provided to the spiritual nature.
Irenaeus believed that God allowed humans to fall because
of
pride and to teach discipline by experience, making salvation
a result of progressive education culminating in the divine
incarnation
and the universal good message.
Irenaeus acknowledged imperfection
in the world but believed
it has a purpose in developing character
by mastering temptations and difficulties.
He believed that God
made humans free with the ability
to obey God voluntarily and
not by compulsion.
God does not coerce, but good will is always
present.
Thus God did not make some good and others bad.
Humans
were given the mental ability to know good and evil,
and by experience
they learn that
disobeying God deprives one of life.
Irenaeus
established the importance of orthodox doctrines
passed on by
apostolic succession as a protection
against dangerous innovation
and speculation.
In contrast to Gnostic dualism Irenaeus emphasized
the
unity of God as creator, ruler, and judge.
The wisdom of God
excels all human wisdom, punishing the
wicked and blessing the
pious with infinite goodness and justice.
Irenaeus prayed that
his adversaries may be converted,
loving them, he wrote, better
than they love themselves.
For he believed that the true way to
God is love and
that it is better to know only Christ
than to
fall into curious questions and paltry subtleties.
Tertullian was born in the middle of the second century
at
Carthage, where he was well educated.
His father was probably
a centurion.
Tertullian went to Rome as a young man
and probably
practiced law.
He did not convert to Christianity until he returned
to
Carthage near the end of the century.
Twelve Christians had
been martyred at Carthage in 180.
Tertullian was impressed by
the witness of martyrs,
the moral discipline, and the devotion
to one God.
About 197 or so Tertullian wrote a defense of Christianity
addressed to the rulers of the Roman empire in which
he pleaded
for a hearing so that they would not condemn
Christians in ignorance
and therefore unjustly.
He argued that those who once hated Christianity
because
they knew nothing about it, after knowing it,
not only
laid down their enmity but became its disciples.
There is an outcry
that the state is being filled with Christians
of both sexes and
of every age and condition,
and this is true
because many are
passing over to the Christian faith.
Most criminals are ashamed
of their evils; but Christians are
an exception, usually only
being ashamed
they had not been converted earlier.
Christians
alone are forbidden to explain what they did
in order to help
the judge make a correct decision.
All that public hatred demands
is the confession of the name,
not an examination of the charge.
Usually criminals deny the offense and are tortured to confess;
but Christians alone are tortured
to make them deny their confession.
Since there is no investigation of one's actions,
clearly the
only crime of a Christian is adhering to the name.
The authorities
are unwilling or ashamed
to mention the actual crimes.
Tertullian argued that Romans hate the guiltless
and a guiltless
name, exhibiting violence and the unjust
domination of a tyranny,
because the law to condemn
for a mere name is unjust.
He cited Nero and Domitian
as examples of cruel tyrants
who persecuted Christians, whereas
the noble Marcus Aurelius
put the law aside and condemned their accusers.
Christians have
kept their secrets as have the
Samothracian and Eleusinian
mysteries.
False rumors have spread of Christian enormities
that have never been proven, such as child sacrifice,
which was
practiced publicly in Africa
as recently as the proconsulship
of Tiberius.
Christians are charged with not worshipping the gods
because
they do not sacrifice for the Emperor.
Tertullian believed there
are no such gods.
He wrote they worship the one God,
who is invisible
but created all things.
Christ came once as a lowly human and
expelled devils
by a word, restored vision to the blind, cleansed
lepers,
reinvigorated paralytics, summoned the dead to life,
and
made the elements of nature obey him by calming storms
and walking
on the sea, proving he was the Logos of God.
He was crucified;
but he had predicted that,
as he did also his resurrection.
His
disciples have spread over the world, as their master
bade them;
they have suffered persecution
by Jews and Romans.
Tertullian challenged the authorities to search
and see if
the divinity of Christ is true.
If its acceptance transforms a
person to one truly good,
one should renounce what is opposed
to it as false.
Tertullian believed that Christ is coming again
to judge every soul.
The charges recoil on the heads of the accusers
not merely for refusing the religion of the one true God
but for
persecuting it.
Even if their gods exist, is it not generally
held that there is
one higher and more powerful absolute God?
Tertullian noted that empires are acquired by wars and
victories that involve the taking of cities with the destruction
of temples and killing of priests as well as citizens.
"Thus the sacrileges
of the Romans
are as numerous as their trophies.
They boast as
many triumphs over the gods
as over the nations."2
They have
advanced to greatness by injuring religion.
Tertullian argued that it is unjust to compel free persons
to offer sacrifices against their will,
since honoring the gods
should be voluntary.
Jesus
taught Christians to pray for their enemies and bless
those who
persecute them, and Paul
said to pray for kings
and rulers so that they may live in peace.
Augustus, who founded
the empire,
would not accept the title Lord.
Tertullian suggested
they give up worship of other beings
as divine except God so that
God will be propitious to the Emperor.
To call Caesar god is to
invoke a curse.
Tertullian went on that in addition to loving
their enemies,
Christians are forbidden to retaliate if they are
injured
lest they become as bad themselves.
Thus who can suffer
from their hands?
He asked if anyone could point to a
single act
of Christian vengeance.
Christians even help by exorcising evil
spirits.
Therefore Christians should receive milder treatment
and have
a place among the societies that are tolerated by the
laws
since they are not charged with any real crimes.
Christians
are not interested in affairs of state, because
they acknowledge
the one all-embracing
commonwealth of the world.
Tertullian described Christian society as a religious community
bound by a unity of discipline and a common hope
that meets together
to pray to God.
They pray for emperors, those in authority, and
for the welfare
of the world in peace, and they read their sacred
writings.
They are known for loving one another.
All are brothers
by the law of their common mother nature,
though their opponents
are hardly men,
being such unkind brothers.
Those who have drunk
in one spirit of holiness
are even more fit to be called brothers.
One in mind and soul, they share their worldly goods
with one
another, having all things
in common except their wives.
Their
feasts are known by the Greek term for affection, agapè,
as they benefit the needy in modest gatherings
that begin with
prayer to God.
They eat and drink in chastity.
Tertullian also
observed that Christians fast and bind their
passions tightly
and assail heaven with importunities;
yet when they have awakened
the divine compassion,
Jupiter gets the honor.
Yet the Romans
are the sources of trouble in human affairs,
since they are always
attracting public adversity.
Christians live and work among them
without retreating
like Indian Brahmins, and their arts benefit
the public.
Tertullian believed that Christians alone are without crime,
because they are taught by God what goodness is and have
knowledge
revealed by a perfect master.
They faithfully do God's will enjoined
on them
by a Judge they dare not despise.
He asked why they are
not permitted equal liberty
for their doctrines, which are similar
to what the
philosophers counsel—justice, patience, sobriety,
and chastity.
Christians avoid sexual perversions,
as the men
confine themselves to women.
If their speculations are presumptuous,
they should be subjected to ridicule,
not to swords, flames, crosses,
and wild beasts.
Yet even these martyrdoms are their joy,
because
they would rather be condemned
than give up their faith in God.
Like warriors, their battle is to be summoned before
tribunals to face execution while testifying to the truth.
They are overcome,
but they conquer by dying,
being victorious at the moment they
are subdued.
The unjust killing of Christians is the proof of
their innocence.
Although this cruelty is a temptation to Christians,
the more often they are mowed down,
the more their numbers grow,
for the blood of Christians is the seed.
Those who inquire into
their doctrines embrace them,
and those who embrace them desire
to partake
fully of God's grace by giving their blood.
Although
they may be condemned by men,
they are acquitted by the Highest.
Under Emperor Septimius Severus about 202 several
Christians
were martyred for their religious belief in Carthage.
Tertullian
may have edited the account of Vivia Perpetua's
arrest and visions,
how Felicitas prayed and had her baby
a month early, and a description
of how these two women
and Saturas were exposed to wild animals
in the arena
before being killed by swords.
It was probably some
time after these events that Tertullian
supported Montanist prophecy
and its strict moral discipline
as he felt the traditional church
was becoming lax and corrupt.
In "The Crown" written probably in 204 Tertullian
questioned
whether warfare is proper at all for Christians.
He
asked,
Shall it be held lawful to make an occupation
of the sword, when the Lord proclaims that he
who uses the sword shall perish by the sword?
And shall the son of peace take part in the battle
when it does not become him even to sue at law?
And shall he apply the chain, and the prison,
and the torture, and the punishment,
who is not the avenger even of his own wrongs?3
He goes on to ask why one should watch others more than
Christ
or guard the temples one has renounced.
He suggested that when
one becomes a believer,
the military profession should be abandoned.
Like Irenaeus, Tertullian also wrote extensive treatises against
the doctrines of Marcion and the Valentinians.
He wrote that without
amendment repentance is vain.
After repentance ignorance cannot
be used as an excuse
if one goes back into the same sin.
The relapsing
sinner rejects the Giver in abandoning the
gift of forgiveness,
denying the Benefactor
and not honoring the benefit.
Such are
not only contumacious to the Lord but also ungrateful.
How can
one expect sins to be pardoned
if repentance has not been fulfilled?
Tertullian recommended confession
and various kinds of penance.
He also wrote about Christian baptism and prayer.
Tertullian was
married and presented a
positive portrait of Christian family
life.
He strongly warned Christians to reject idolatrous corruption
and certainly to avoid cruel spectacles.
The fiery Tertullian wrote "Of Patience" although
he confessed
he was not good at practicing that virtue.
God is
an example of patience in shining on the just and unjust,
allowing
the forces of nature to affect the worthy and unworthy,
and in
bearing with ungrateful nations.
The example of Jesus
is easier to imitate.
He despised no one's table or roof, cared
for the ungrateful,
yielded to those who ensnared him, tolerated
his betrayer,
and served others like an obedient slave.
Tertullian
suggested we be willing to lose earthly things since
we can keep
heavenly things.
The whole world may perish so long as patience
is gained.
Christians should be patient in the face
of personal
violence and abusive speech.
Why should one grieve or be impatient
at the death
of loved ones since death is only a departure?
Tertullian
cautioned against revenge.
Vengeance cannot be regulated, because
too little
can make one mad, and too much
puts one in danger of
the law.
Patience enables one not to feel the pain
so that one
will not desire revenge.
Eventually the severe Tertullian formed
his own sect
that lasted in Africa until the 5th century.
He died
some time after 220.
Similar arguments to those in Tertullian's Defense can
be found
in a dialog, Octavius, by his contemporary Minucius
Felix.
Octavius persuades Caecilius and points out that Roman
temples are built from the spoils of violence;
but to adore what
is taken by force
is to consecrate sacrilege, not divinities.
Octavius points out that Romans expose unwanted children
to wild
beasts, and their women cause abortions
by drinking medical preparations.
Christians are opposed to all homicide.
Modest Christians abide
by the bond of a single marriage
or by none at all.
They share
with each other in sober banquets.
They love one another, because
they do not know how to hate.
They call each other brothers, as
born of one God and Parent,
and they are companions in faith.
About 240 a North African bishop named Commodianus
wrote poetic
instructions in favor of Christian discipline.
In the daily war
he advised people to fight with lust,
neglect the persuasions
of luxury, be sparing with wine,
restrain the tongue from cursing,
repress rage,
beware of trampling on inferiors when weighed down
by misery,
lend yourself as a protector only and do no hurt,
lead
yourself on a right path unstained by jealousy,
be gentle with
your riches to those of little account,
give your labor, clothe
the naked, and thus you shall conquer.
Hippolytus studied with Irenaeus and wrote
The Refutation
of All Heresies, which was discovered
at Mount Athos in 1842.
In this long work Hippolytus criticized 32 heresies,
which he
traced back to pagan philosophies.
He also challenged the bishops
of Rome, charging that
Zephyrinus (199-217) was manipulated by
Callistus (217-222),
who arranged to be his successor.
According
to Hippolytus, Callistus operated a bank for his
wealthy Christian
master Carpophorus and,
caught embezzling money, Callistus caused
a disturbance
among Jews in a synagogue on the Sabbath,
resulting
in the Roman prefect Fuscianus
sending him to slave in the mines
of Sardinia.
During the reign of Commodus the bishop of Rome,
Victor,
through the influence of Marcia obtained the release
of
Christians from this misery of overwork, malnutrition,
and disease
that soon produced death.
Hippolytus wrote that Victor excepted
Callistus because
of his crimes; but Callistus pleaded and was
released
with the Christians, though it is difficult to explain
why
Victor gave Callistus a pension.
Zephyrinus put Callistus in charge of
the church's lucrative
cemeteries.
Callistus accused Hippolytus of heresy in a theological
dispute
and in 217 was elected bishop of Rome.
Hippolytus became
a rival bishop
and has been called the first anti-pope.
He complained
that Callistus connived with sensual indulgence
by continually
forgiving sins (such as adultery) of many who
had been rejected
by numerous sects,
that priests twice married were allowed to
remain as clergy,
and that women were considered married to slaves
and freedmen which Roman law did not recognize as such.
Hippolytus
thus favored a Christian community of saints
including only the
just, while Callistus, citing the parable
of the tares, accepted
saints and sinners while refusing
to go along with Roman class
distinctions.
Hippolytus also opposed Urban I (222-230)
and Pontian
(230-235); but in the persecution of 235
both Hippolytus and Pontian
were exiled to Sardinia,
where they were reconciled before they
died that year,
ending the schism.
Cyprian was born into a wealthy family at Carthage about 200.
He was probably a lawyer, and according to Jerome
he was a respected
teacher of rhetoric.
Cyprian did not convert to Christianity until
246 when he sold
his estates to benefit the poor, took a vow of
chastity,
and was baptized by Caecilius.
He lived ascetically
and opposed all pagan amusements.
He studied the scriptures and
the writing of Tertullian.
Popular demand persuaded him to become
bishop of Carthage only two years later.
During the Decian persecution
Cyprian hid himself and wrote
letters to clergy and others at
Rome and at Carthage
for fourteen months while thousands of Christians
rejected their faith to obtain libelli pacis
certifying
they had sacrificed to the pagan gods.
Bishop Fabius of Rome died a martyr in January 250,
and more
than a year passed before Cornelius
was elected bishop of Rome,
while Novatian, who had
continued official correspondence for
the Roman see
during
the interval, was consecrated by only three
Italian bishops.
Many "confessors," who had maintained
their faith,
were willing to forgive the apostates and allow them
back
into the community; but Cyprian and councils of bishops
strengthened
church control by asserting that power
to remit sins was in the
hands of the clergy
and that discipline rested with the bishops.
Lapsed Christians were divided into categories of those
who had
sacrificed, burned incense, or obtained a certificate,
and graduated
penance was applied.
The minority view for strict discipline was
condemned
by a council of sixty bishops at Rome in October 251,
and Novatian was excommunicated.
The Novatian schism spread and
continued for several
centuries as a puritan sect in the East.
Letters of Cornelius indicate he had 155 clerical personnel,
including
46 priests, supporting 1500 widows and dependents.
From this,
scholars estimate about 40,000 Christians
lived among 900,000
inhabitants at Rome.
Cyprian was able to return to Carthage in 251,
and a council
of bishops restored his authority.
The next year during a plague
he sacrificed himself in serving
his flock and taking care of
his enemies.
To support Cornelius against the Novatian schism,
Cyprian
wrote On the Unity of the Church in which
he acknowledged the primacy given the chair of Peter.
However, when two Spanish
congregations appealed to
Cyprian in 254, because Rome's Bishop
Stephen had insisted
they restore lapsed bishops, he summoned
a council that
decided the church was not obliged to retain a
sinful priest.
A controversy over re-baptizing those who had been
baptized
by the Novatian schism led to Cyprian calling three more
councils and his even removing the words "chair of Peter"
from his previous treatise.
The conflict between Carthage and
Rome ended in 257
when Stephen died,
and his successor Sixtus
II was more conciliatory.
Cyprian was banished to Curubis by the proconsul during the
persecution of Emperor Valerian in 257, and a year later
he willingly
suffered a martyr's death.
During a vision forewarning him of
his passion he asked for
one day to arrange his property, and
in fact the delay of one
day enabled him to dispose of his goods
in care of the poor.
Cyprian also wrote "On Works and Alms"
in which he exhorted
Christians to manifest their faith by works,
arguing that
contributing to the poor is the best investment.
In "On the Advantage of Patience" he suggested that
charity,
the great bond of brotherhood and the foundation of peace,
depended on patience to endure.
"On Jealousy and Envy"
warned that envy
is the root of all wickedness.
Loving one's enemies
prevents envy,
and love brings its own rewards.
A contemporary of Tertullian, Clement was born in the middle
of the second century at Athens.
He traveled widely studying philosophy
until he found in Egypt
his teacher Pantaenus, a former Stoic
and missionary to India.
About 190 Clement succeeded Pantaenus
as head of the
Christian catechetical school in Alexandria.
In
the next decade Clement wrote his three great works.
The Exhortation
to Conversion was designed to win pagans
to the Christian faith.
The Educator aimed to form and develop Christian character.
The Miscellanies taught Christian philosophy and knowledge.
In 202 Clement fled the persecution of Septimius Severus.
He lived
in Antioch, was in Jerusalem in 211,
and died about 215.
In his Exhortation (Protrepticus) Clement criticized
the
immoral idolatry of pagan culture and myths and the cruelty
of their sacrifices; yet he found that the philosophers were
often
divinely inspired by the truth as were the prophets.
He praised
the benefits conferred by Christ and exhorted his
readers to aspire
to what is good, to become God-loving,
and to attain God and life,
which are incapable of being harmed.
No blessing is greater than
salvation.
Clement's Educator (Paedagogus) takes up the second
stage
of developing ethical habits.
The educator, being practical
rather than theoretical, aims to
improve the soul by character
training,
instead of teaching the intellect.
As the diseased need
a physician, the tutor must cure maladies
so that a teacher may
then train and guide a soul to knowledge.
God alone is sinless,
but we may try to sin as little as possible.
Deliverance from
passions and disorders is most urgent;
then one may check the
liability of falling into habitual sins.
Clement held that virtue
is the same in men and women,
because temperance and modesty are
one;
their food is common, and marriage is an equal yoke.
All
who walk according to truth are children of God.
The instructor by being good artfully glides into censure,
rousing the sluggish mind by sharp words
if one does not respond
to exhortation and praise.
God punishes the disobedient for correction;
but He does not take vengeance.
Revenge is retribution for evil
imposed for the advantage
of the one taking revenge; but Christ
teaches us
"to pray for those who despitefully use us."4
The Divine Word saves children by various methods.
Admonition
is the censure of loving care
and produces understanding.
Upbraiding
censures what is base.
Complaint is for those despising or neglecting.
Reproach chides.
Reproof exposes sin.
The educator may also attempt
to get one thinking
by a severe rebuke or denunciation.
Accusation
is for wrong-doers.
Bewailing one's fate is an artful and latent
censure.
Indignation is upbraiding from a sense of justice.
All
these are used for the sake of salvation.
Clement believed that
virtue resulted from obeying reason
or the Word and is a will
in conformity to Christ.
In the second book and third books of The Educator
Clement
discussed specific moral issues and even manners.
He acknowledged
the Pythagorean idea that it is good
not to eat flesh or drink
wine;
but he allowed for individual decisions.
He warned us to
guard with
all our strength against drunkenness.
He referred to
costly vessels as a deception of the vision.
Christians' possessions
should express their beautiful lives;
but the best wealth is poverty
of desires,
and true magnanimity is to despise riches.
Boasting
about one's plate is base,
because anyone can buy it at the market.
Clement advised us to abstain from filthy speech and to
stop others
with stern looks,
by averting the face, or by mocking.
Bad language
exposes one as untrained and licentious.
In living together he
warned against jibing as leading
to insult, strife, contention,
and enmity.
He cautioned people against the use of ointments and
crowns,
although he allowed flowers and perfumes made from them.
He noted that sleeping on soft feathers is injurious to the health,
because turning the body is difficult;
he found a bed of moderate
softness most suitable.
Clement counseled against excessive fondness
for jewelry and disapproved of earrings.
Clement began the third book emphasizing that the greatest
lesson is to know oneself, because self-knowledge leads to
knowing
God, which will make one like God by doing well
and requiring
as few things as possible.
Another human beauty is love.
It is
better to decorate the soul with the ornament of goodness
and
adorn the body with temperance
than to beautify the outside with
embellishments.
In associations Clement advised
against having
many domestic servants.
Good people treasure wealth in heaven.
By selling one's goods and giving to the poor,
one finds imperishable
treasure.
He recommended frugal living, because a voluptuous life
is
alien to refined pleasures, and love of wealth induces one
to stop being ashamed of what is shameful.
Baths are used for
cleanliness, heat, health, or pleasure;
but Clement suggested
women use them for cleanliness
and health, and men only for cleanliness,
since they can use gymnastic exercise for health.
One should associate
with good people
and avoid public spectacles.
While respecting
celibacy
Clement also acknowledged the value of marriage.
Clement's work on Christian philosophy and knowledge
is a
long
compendium on various subjects
called Miscellanies (Stromateis).
He criticized the sophists but found that eclectic philosophy
prepared the way for divine virtue.
Clement did not discuss rhetoric,
probably because he
believed that to act well is more important
than to speak well.
The ancient laws of the Jews also are a good
foundation.
They train one for piety and prescribe what is to
be done,
restraining one from sins.
Clement emphasized that spiritual
knowledge starts with faith.
He endeavored to recapture the term
"gnostic" or knower
from the heretical gnostics by giving
his
ideal of the true Christian gnostic.
The true gnostic imitates
God as far as possible
by conferring benefits.
Patience is another
characteristic of the divine.
Clement praised martyrdom but did
not approve of
offering oneself to be martyred.
He argued that
women as well as men
are capable of perfection.
One may be perfect
as pious, as patient, as continent,
as a worker, as a martyr,
or as a gnostic.
The true gnostic does good not from fear of punishment or
hope for reward but for the sake of goodness itself.
For Clement true
perfection is knowledge and love of God.
Running down creation
and vilifying the body are wrong,
because the human frame was
formed erect to contemplate
heaven, and the senses are to gain
knowledge;
all its parts are arranged for good, not pleasure.
Clement realized that God cannot be embraced
in words or by the
mind.
Yet he put philosophy at the service of Christianity
more
than any before him, believing that
philosophy is knowledge given
by God.
Like the Stoic, the true gnostic is
free of all perturbations
of the soul.
The gnostic converses with God in prayer.
The knower
retains the objects contemplated in the mind.
Knowledge produces
consideration by teaching one to
perceive the things that contribute
to the permanence of virtue.
God helps gnostics by overseeing
them closely,
for is not everything made for the sake of good
persons?
Those teaching others should excel in virtues.
Clement described the life of true gnostics.
They never prefer
the pleasant to what is useful.
Their souls are strong, like the
body of an athlete.
They are prudent in judging what should be
done by the just,
applying the principles of God from above
and
having achieved physical moderation.
Gnostic souls with perfect
virtue are the earthly image
of divine power; their development
results from
nature, training, and reason.
The beautiful soul
becomes the temple of the Holy Spirit
when the whole life corresponds
to the Gospel.
The really good person transcends
the passions
by the habit of virtue.
They relieve the afflicted, helping with
consolation,
encouragement, and the necessities of life,
giving
to all who need.
Who could become the enemy of a person
who gives
no cause for hurt in any way?
The truly continent not only control their passions but have
mastered all good things as well, the accomplishments
of science
and the fruits of virtue.
Gnostics' entire lives are prayer and
communication with God.
They impoverish themselves in order to
help those afflicted
through perfect love, especially if they
know
they can bear it more easily than their brothers.
Whenever
they remember those who have sinned
against them, they forgive
them.
They are not disturbed by anything that happens,
as they
realize everything takes place
by divine arrangement for good.
They never prefer pleasure or profit to this divine arrangement,
since they are trained by the divine commands
to depend on the
will of God.
Clement also wrote a short essay,
"Who Is the Rich Man
That Shall Be Saved?"
Riches may be used to benefit one's
neighbors.
The important thing is to make the right use of them.
He noted that one may give away riches and retain passions,
thus
gaining no advantage.
One must put away what uses riches badly.
He suggested that the truly rich are the virtuous,
who are able
to make a holy use of their fortunes.
The spurious rich turn their
lives into outward possessing
of what is perishable that now belongs
to one,
then to another, and finally to no one.
By being frugal
one may escape superfluous riches
and be able to enjoy the eternally
good things.
Clement recommended that the powerful and wealthy
appoint some person of God as their trainer and governor.
Clement did much to integrate Greek philosophy with
Christian
piety, and he passed the torch
to his student and successor, Origen.
Origen was born about 185 probably at Alexandria.
He was well
educated by his father Leonidas, who made him
memorize passages
from the Bible,
and by Clement in the Catechetical school.
In
the persecution of 202 when his father was arrested,
Origen was
restrained by his mother from becoming a martyr
by hiding all
his clothes, though he wrote encouraging his
father not to change
his beliefs for their sake.
Leonidas was beheaded, and his property
was confiscated,
leaving Origen to provide for his mother
and
six younger brothers.
Origen lived with a wealthy woman and earned
money
teaching Greek and copying manuscripts.
Bishop Demetrius
appointed Origen to succeed
Clement as principal of the Catechetical
school
when he was only 18 years old.
He attended classes of philosopher
Ammonius Saccas,
founder of Neo-Platonism.
According to Eusebius while he was a young man,
Origen castrated
himself so as to instruct freely
young female catechumens.
However,
in 248 Origen wrote one should not take literally
the statement
of Jesus in Matthew
19:12 that some "made
themselves eunuchs because of the
sovereignty of heaven."
Eusebius also described how Origen
fearlessly supported
martyrs and barely escaped himself on numerous
occasions.
Origen arranged for Heraclas to teach elementary students
so that he could learn Hebrew and devote himself
to advanced teaching
and writing.
Origen lived very ascetically, fasting often, rarely
eating flesh,
never drinking wine, having only one coat,
no shoes,
and sleeping on the bare floor.
Origen traveled, meeting Hippolytus at Rome in 211,
fleeing
Emperor Caracalla's persecuting visit to Alexandria by
going to
Jerusalem and Caesarea in 216, and visiting
Alexander Severus'
mother Mammaea at Antioch in 218.
Back in Alexandria, the wealthy
Ambrosius was converted
from Valentinian beliefs and provided
Origen
with books and seven stenographers.
In 229 he was ordained
a presbyter in Caesarea on the way
to a debate with Valentinian
Candidus in Greece, where he
answered the theory of predestination
by asserting that Satan
fell by free will and therefore could
repent.
This caused Alexandrian bishop Demetrius to hold two church
councils, excommunicating Origen in 231.
Rome and other churches
concurred, but bishops in Palestine,
Arabia, Phoenicia, and Greece
strongly supported Origen.
He pitied and prayed for his enemies,
opening a school at Caesarea in Palestine.
During the persecution
of 235 he fled to Cappadocia and
stayed with the Christian woman
Juliana for two years.
At an Arabian council in 244 he persuaded
bishop Beryllus
to change his theological position on the Christ.
During the Decian persecution Origen was thrown
into prison, tortured,
and condemned;
the Emperor's death in 251 freed him,
but Origen
died three years later in Tyre.
While he was young in Alexandria, Origen wrote
On Principles
(De Principiis), which except for fragments
only exists
in the Latin translation made by
Rufinus in the late fourth century.
In the prolog Rufinus admitted he made changes to make this
work
more consistent with Origen's later writings,
thus making it more
orthodox.
Origen believed that Christ, the Word of God, was in
Moses
and the prophets before it was in Jesus.
He followed the
apostolic teaching that the soul has its own life
and after departing
the world is rewarded according to its merit
with eternal life
or is punished for its crimes in eternal fire.
Every rational
soul has free will and must struggle with
opposing influences,
though we may free ourselves from
the burden of sins if we live
correctly and wisely.
In the resurrection the soul rises in incorruptible
glory.
Origen held that the scriptures are inspired and therefore
have meanings not apparent at first sight
which he attempted to
elucidate on various levels.
Origen wrote that every rational creature is capable of earning
praise by advancing to better things, acting in conformity
to
reason, or of receiving censure for falling away from
what is
right and so becoming justly liable to pains and penalties.
In
addition to humans Origen included among these rational
creatures
the devil and its followers as well as angels.
He believed in
a final consummation in which the goodness
of God through the
Christ may recall all creatures to one end,
including the enemies
that have been conquered.
While the heretical gnostics separated
the God of the law
and justice from the good God of the Gospels,
Origen perceived only one just and good God, who confers
benefits
justly and punishes with kindness; for the dignity
of the divine
nature must have both justice and goodness.
With free will comes
individual responsibility,
and Origen cited Isaiah 1:11
for the idea that
all sinners kindle for themselves their fire.
No one is plunged into a fire kindled by another.
When the soul
has gathered a multitude of evil works,
the abundance of sins
boils up to punishment.
The mind then can see in signs and forms
a history
of its foul and shameful deeds.
Thus the conscience
is harassed and becomes
the accuser and witness against itself.
The first chapter of the third book of On Principles
about the
freedom of will exists in the original Greek.
The just
judgment of God urges people to live virtuously and
shun sin,
because things worthy of praise or blame
are within our power.
In Origen's view the Creator makes vessels of honor and
dishonor
not from foreknowledge since that would be
condemning or justifying
ahead; but vessels of honor are for
those who have cleansed themselves
and those of dishonor are for those unpurged.
Thus he inferred
that older causes before the lifetime affect
the destiny and gave
the example of Jacob and Esau.
Ancient causes lead some to be
born into better vessels
(or circumstances) than others.
Also
by the actions in this life one may earn by reformation
an honored
vessel in the future,
or one may fall back to a worse condition.
These ideas clearly imply the doctrines
of karma and reincarnation.
To explain wisdom of the world, Origen suggested there are
spiritual powers which use their freedom of will
to produce certain
effects.
Those admiring worldly power adopt their way of life
and
habits and thus work for these spirits they serve.
Thus souls
in human bodies may attract different energies in
operations using
a diversity of good and evil spirits.
Humans may be acted upon
by good or evil spirits, previous to
their birth as in the examples
of John the Baptist
and Jeremiah;
for souls have free
will whether in a body or not.
In discussing temptations, Origen
described an irrational
component of the human psyche as well
as a rational one.
The irrational part has two affections—coveting
and passion.
The rational and irrational psyches have been called
the good,
heavenly one and the other that is inferior and earthly.
The wisdom of the flesh is dominated by a material spirit,
which
is not subject to the law of God,
because it has earthly wishes
and bodily desires.
These desires can produce mental perturbations
such as
ambition, avarice, envy, pride, and so on.
Origen suggested
that the will of the soul is intermediate
between the flesh and
the spirit,
obeying and serving one or the other.
Those yielding
to the pleasures of the flesh become carnal,
and those uniting
to the spirit become spiritual.
As a result of his On Principles Origen would later
be considered unorthodox on four points.
1. Human souls existed previously, and their life in
material bodies reflects the results of previous actions.
2. Christ existed previously and was united to the divine
nature before incarnating as the son of God
related in the Gospels.
3. The resurrection will occur in absolutely ethereal bodies
rather than in material ones.
4. All souls, even devils, will finally be restored
through the mediation of Christ.
As Origen let his readers choose what they think they should
prefer, so I too will let readers decide
whether these principles
may be true.
When Origen was about sixty, Ambrosius asked him to
respond
to A True Discourse by Celsus
that severely criticized
Christianity.
In a long work Origen repeated and answered every
charge
of Celsus, whom he called an Epicurean.
Celsus believed
the Jews were barbarous, that through Moses
and others they gained most of their wisdom from the
Egyptians, and that their god Jehovah was an inhuman ogre.
He considered
Christianity a Jewish superstition aimed at
the uneducated by
the self-deluded.
He thought Jewish and Christian religious beliefs
ignored
the intellectual problems posed by Greek philosophy.
Celsus
noted that Christianity attracted the wicked and shiftless
from
the fishermen and tax collectors who were disciples
to appealing
to thieves, criminals, and blasphemers.
He suggested that Jesus
was the illegitimate son of a
Roman soldier, who being rejected
at home,
went to Egypt, where he learned magic.
Later he hawked
a contradictory message,
failed to overcome his enemies, and was
abandoned
by his disciples to a shameful death.
Celsus argued that ethical teachings of Christianity
are nothing
new, since they could be found in Plato.
Other mysteries like those of the Egyptians and Persian
Mithraism
offered a similar ascent of the soul to God.
Celsus also accused
the Christians of treason in their secret
and illegal associations,
which supported
the barbarian threats to the state.
He criticized
their presumption to have a monopoly on God,
and finally he asked
them to reject their perverted nonsense
and make common cause
for the public welfare.
Origen answered these objections by the usual methods of
quoting
scripture and philosophical arguments.
He particularly noted that
if Christianity seduced people,
it seduced them into much more
ethical behavior,
making them temperate instead of dissolute,
just instead of unjust, prudent instead of foolish,
and courageous
instead of cowardly, especially in the
struggles for the sake
of their religion.
Origen appealed to the higher natural law as
superior
to the man-made laws of the Romans.
The legitimacy of
the state depends on
how well it fulfills the spiritual laws.
Origen argued that Christians do more good by praying
than by
fighting in the army.
Ultimately he hoped for a peaceful society
in which
every world citizen would display Christian virtue
so
that state compulsion would disappear.
Origen also wrote commentaries to many scriptures
such as the
Gospels of John
and Matthew.
He interpreted these on the three levels of the physical,
psychological,
and spiritual, already described
as the three parts of humans.
Origen also wrote an Exhortation to Martyrdom,
encouraging
Christians not to be tempted by compromises,
and On Prayer
to counter determinists
who believed that prayer had no effect.
Gregory called Thaumaturgus ("wonder-worker") was
born
at Neo-Caesarea in Pontus early in the third century.
After
his father died when he was 14, he and his brother
Athenodorus
studied Roman law.
He studied Neo-Platonism at Alexandria, more
law at
Berytus (Beirut), and was converted to Christianity
by
Origen at Caesarea in Palestine.
After studying with Origen for
several years, Gregory wrote
a tribute to his teacher when he
left to be a missionary in his
native Neo-Caesarea in 238.
He
became bishop six years later, and it was said that in the
next
quarter century he transformed this community
that had had only
17 Christians to one that had
only that many pagans.
Stories of
his exorcisms and miraculous abilities
were still being told in
the next century.
In his panegyric oration Gregory described how Origen
praised lovers of philosophy and declared that the only life
worthy of rational creatures is to aim at upright living, seeking
first
to know themselves, then to strive after what is truly good
and
avoid really evil things.
For Origen one could not be truly pious
without philosophizing.
Gregory found that, like some spark lighting
his inmost soul,
love was kindled and burst into flame within
them—
a love for the Holy Word and toward his friend.
Gregory
wrote that the soul is free
and cannot be coerced by any means.
He admitted that when his teacher perceived any infirmity
or baseness
in their minds, he pricked it with discourses
and reasoning, causing
them to start up, as though out of sleep.
Origen also taught them
logic, natural science, geometry,
and astronomy; but the most
important subject was ethics.
The divine virtues were taught not
only in words but
by deeds too so that they would not only understand
virtue
but practice it as well.
To the ancient cardinal virtues
of justice, prudence, wisdom,
temperance, and courage, he added
patience and piety
so that they might become friends of God.
Origen
urged them to read all the philosophers and poets,
excluding only
atheists as unworthy to be studied.
So with a prayer Gregory took
leave of his teacher.
Dionysius of Alexandria was also converted and taught by
Origen,
becoming principal at the Catechetical school in 232.
Dionysius
succeeded Heraclas as bishop of Alexandria in 248.
He fled the
Decian persecution two years later but wrote a
description of
the martyrs' ordeals to Bishop Fabius of Antioch.
A mob charged
into the houses of their Christian neighbor
to raid, plunder,
and loot.
Many renounced their faith while others held out
until
torture became too much.
Some who did not deny their faith were
savagely
torn to pieces or burnt alive with quicklime.
In 257
during the Valerian persecution Dionysius was banished
by governor
Aemilian for refusing to worship any other gods
beside the one
Creator God.
During this persecution three men and a Marcionite
woman
came forward to confess the Christ at Caesarea
in Palestine
and were fed to beasts.
Also at Caesarea a wealthy man named Marinus,
who was about to be appointed centurion, was beheaded
for declaring
he was a Christian.
The amnesty of Gallienus allowed Dionysius
to return to Alexandria.
During a severe epidemic in 263 Dionysius
described how
the Christians nursed the sick and often died in
their places,
while the heathens fled from their dearest.
Because of his outstanding writing, by the fourth century
Dionysius
was referred to as "the Great."
In his book On Nature
he challenged Epicurean determinism
by arguing that human observation
of design and purpose
discredits notions of chance or coincidence
and even demonstrates beauty and grace.
In On Promises
Dionysius criticized the theory of Arsinoe
bishop Nepos that scripture
promises a millennium
of bodily delights and indulgence.
Although
he admitted he did not understand the book
of Revelation,
Dionysius argued with scholarly skill
that this book was probably
not written by the disciple John.
Mani was born in Babylonia on April 14, 216 soon after
Caracalla
overthrew Vologases V and made his brother
Artaban IV (r. 215-226)
the last Parthian king.
When Mani was twelve, he was told in a
vision to withdraw
from a baptizing sect associated with Elkhasai.
This revelation coincided with Ardashir's overcoming the
Parthians
and reviving the Persian empire.
Near his 24th birthday Mani was told by his higher self or
angelic
teacher to proclaim himself a prophet.
Two years later Shapur
I became the king of Persia.
Mani's mission took him to Ctesiphon
and then into
western India for two years.
There he wrote a book
diplomatically praising Shapur.
Hindus found his teaching of celibacy
too strict;
but in 243 he had more success in Khorasan,
where
he converted governor Feroz, who told his brother
King Shapur
that Mani had no political ambitions but wanted
to unify the people
of the empire with this universal religion.
After Mani spent a year in a cave making paintings,
Shapur
invited the prophet to his court in 245, and Mani
requested and
received royal letters to all the Persian
governors telling them
not to hinder his mission.
For the next ten years Mani was able
to spread his teachings
throughout the Persian empire,
establishing
many churches and sending out disciples.
Adda and Pateg carried
the teachings of Mani to Egypt.
When people made fun of an ugly
saint, Mani pointed out that
the soul is beautiful and is to be
rescued from the material body.
In 255 Zarathustrian magi led by Kartir persuaded Shapur
to
break with Mani and promote their religion in the empire,
causing
Mani to go into exile.
In the next eighteen years the prophet
returned to Khorasan
and traveled in central Asia as far as western China,
returning by way of Tibet
and Kashmir.
In 273 Shapur died and was succeeded by his son Hormizd
I,
governor of Khorasan, who supported the Manichaeans;
but he
died after reigning one year.
His younger brother Vahram I loved
pleasure and was cruel.
He was persuaded by the magi to end toleration
of heresies
and foreign cults in order to promote
the orthodox
Sassanid religion.
Mani tried to meet with the new king at his
winter palace in
Ctesiphon but failed to do so.
Mani was said
to have been related to the Parthian Arsacid
dynasty, and his
association with King Baat, possibly a
Parthian Armenian, as he
lectured to his disciples at Phargalia,
may have led to Mani's
arrest at Gondeshapur (Belapat).
Mani was brought before an angry King Vahram and said
he had
done no harm but had helped the royal family by freeing
their
servants of demons and by healing them.
The king accused Mani
of supporting
the defeated Parthian cause.
Mani replied that God
sent him to bring the perfect
commandments of Christ
that he received from God through
an angel so that many souls
might be
saved and escape punishment.
Vahram asked why God did
not reveal this to him, the king.
Mani replied that God commands
and decides whom to teach.
The angry king silenced the prophet
and had him chained
in order to please the magi.
Mani said that
he had been protected by Shapur and Hormizd,
but Vahram sentenced
him to death and scourging.
Mani was chained heavily in prison
for 26 days.
There he consoled his disciples
and appointed Sisin
as his successor.
Mani died in prison on February 26 in 274 or
277, described
as the Messenger of the Light
withdrawing his soul
from the body.
Public distress at the news stimulated the king
to order
Mani's body fed to birds and his head placed on a gate.
So began persecution of the Manichaeans in the Persian
empire
that would continue sporadically for centuries.
Four years of persecution occurred
before Sisin could organize
the church.
Many died as martyrs, and many fled to Khorasan or
Turkestan.
Some went west, and Pateg is said to have preached
against the Old Testament in Rome by 280.
Vahram II lost
Ctesiphon and Seleucia to the Roman Emperor
Aurelius Carus in
282, while Amu traveled in central Asia
and Adda put together
scriptures in Africa.
About five years later African proconsul
Julian warned
Diocletian that this strange religion's ideas on
sex, war,
agriculture, and civic duties endangered Roman society.
By 290 Manichaeism was flourishing in the Fayyum district
of Egypt,
and the Syriac Psalms
would soon be translated into Coptic.
Terrible persecution broke out in the Persian empire in 291.
Vahram
II killed Sisin himself,
and many Manichaeans were slaughtered.
Innai became the leader and is reported to have healed the
king
by prayer, giving peace to the new religion for a while.
In 296 Diocletian extended the Christian persecution to the
Manichaeans, resulting in numerous
martyrs in Egypt and North
Africa.
Although Persian king Narses (r. 296-303) lost Mesopotamia
and western provinces to Rome after he was defeated
by Galerius,
he left the Manichaeans in peace.
In 303 Hormizd II executed Innai,
and the next four Manichaean leaders were also killed.
In the
fourth century Manichaeism
spread throughout the Roman empire.
Two Christians, Archelaus in his Disputation with Manes
and Alexander of Lycopolis in his "Of the Manichaeans,"
treated Manichaeism as a Christian heresy
instead of a new religion,
because Mani acknowledged Jesus
as the Christ.
In
372 Valentinian I prohibited all meetings,
and Augustine adopted
the faith for a decade until
Christians urged Theodosius I to
take away
their civil rights in 381; the next year he decreed
Manichaean
elders put to death, and in 383
Theodosius banished
all Manichaeans.
Exile was again decreed by Valentinian II,
and
in Rome their property was confiscated in 389.
Since Mani believed that other religions had deteriorated
because
their original founders did not write down their teachings,
he
wrote several books himself in the Aramaic language of
Syriac and made sure that they were accurately copied.
His first book, Shabuhragan, honored King Shapur I
and assured him that
he had no political ambitions.
The Living Gospel was written
and illustrated in the Turkestan
cave and contains an account
of the mission of Jesus.
Mani began this book and his letters
by referring to himself
as the messenger of Jesus.
The Treasure
of Life describes how the soul comes from
the pure Light and
the body from the bad darkness.
Although Manichaeism is similar
and has been compared
to Gnosticism, this book refutes the Marcionite
doctrine of
a third intermediary principle, and it gives cures
for errors.
The Book of Mysteries teaches that souls are
purged
and educated through reincarnation,
and it aims to cut
away false beliefs.
The Pragmateia suggests what ought
to be done.
His other main works are The Book of Giants,
Letters,
and The Book of Psalms and Prayers.
Although these books were faithfully copied and translated
into
many languages as the religion spread, the many persecutions
eventually destroyed the books.
As Manichaeism faded into Catharist
movements in the
13th century, the religion disappeared.
In the
20th century Coptic documents were found at al-Fayyum
in Egypt,
and texts were also found
in Turfan and Dun-huang in China.
The
Chinese catechism noted a book illustrating the two great
principles,
which may have been based on Mani's paintings
made for those who
cannot read.
The largest work found at al-Fayyum, the Kephalaia,
contains the principal teachings of Mani described by disciples.
These discoveries, though difficult to piece together because
the texts were deteriorating, provide a more balanced view
to
the already known Christian works refuting Mani.
Mani taught there are two sources that are unborn and eternal—
God (Light) and matter (darkness).
God as good has nothing in
common with evil, because
"a good tree cannot bring forth
evil fruit."
Mani explained the universe as having three
moments
involving these two substances.
In the past Spirit and
matter were at first separate.
Then Spirit entered into matter
as souls incarnated into bodies,
which is the present condition.
Mani as a messenger of Light is helping souls
become liberated
from their bodies.
The third moment is the future when the world
will end
as Spirit becomes purified again from matter.
Somehow
the king of darkness decided
to enter the region of Light.
God
had no evil with which to punish, so Spirit entered into
matter
as souls went into bodies with the five faculties of
intuition,
thought, will, consideration, and reason.
As souls mixed with
matter they began to feel material
and thus became trapped in
bodies.
When the Mother of Life, the First Man, and the Living
Spirit
prayed to the Great Father, that one sent a Messenger
with
the following twelve virtues: royalty, wisdom, victory,
contentment,
purity, truth, faith, patience,
sincerity, kindness, justice,
and Light.
According to Mani, Jesus lifted up the first man Adam
to taste
the Tree of Life.
Mani also taught the trinity of the Father (God
of truth),
the beloved Son (Christ), and the Holy Spirit (Mother
of Life).
The five dark rulers may express themselves as the tyranny
of rulers, arrogance of officials, idolatrous errors,
superstitious
rites, and sorcery.
Previous messengers of God include
Zarathushtra,
Buddha, and Jesus.
True messengers may be known by the following
five characteristics:
gentleness, austerity,
beauty, wisdom, and transformation.
Their
mission is to teach and convert living beings in order
to save
them from their suffering.
Mani planted good seeds of truth and
strengthened his church,
sending out envoys to many lands.
He
fought greed and lust in order to
teach people wisdom and knowledge.
The Psalms refer to the divine medicine that heals wounds,
crushes evil while crowning godliness, purifies the Light
from
the darkness, and gives rest to the souls.
The Great Father is
Love who gives oneself for everything.
Souls are divine; even
though they have
fallen into the world, they will return to God.
Although the Manichaean community had a hierarchy of five
levels
including Mani's successor and twelve masters (teachers),
72 illuminates
(overseers), elders (priests), the rest of the elect,
and hearers,
the main distinction was
between the elect and the hearers.
The
elect have their hearts, hands, and mouths sealed by
celibacy,
non-injury, and abstinence from alcohol and meat.
The elect eat
only a little in the morning
and one meal in the evening.
In their
strict poverty their only possession was one garment
that was
replaced once a year.
The elect teach by grace, wisdom, and faith.
The duties of the hearers are to fast, pray, and give charity.
They are to fast and be celibate on Sundays,
and hearers pray
four times a day.
Giving charity includes providing food for the
elect,
who do no injurious work such as farming, giving a relative
to be one of the elect, and building a temple or dwelling place.
The hearers could work in the fields and have one wife,
but they
were forbidden to fight in wars.
The hearers confess to the elect,
and the elect confess to one another.
The soul is from on high but is imprisoned
in the body waiting
to be liberated.
Mani taught renouncing the world's possessions
to find the peace of poverty.
He advised wisely and skillfully
strengthening oneself
around the body's gates lest the sin of
the body
prevail and extinguish the Light.
His religious methods
include singing and chanting spiritual
words, reading and studying,
discriminating with wisdom
and accepting pure commands, always
being clean in
actions of body, mouth, and mind, practicing kind
deeds,
being gentle and amiable, bearing humiliation,
following
good rules and habits, resting the mind in the place of
liberation,
and leaping for joy in standing firm in the right way.
Mani warned
against, lying, anger, and hurtful words
that may come from speaking
for the sake of killing a man, beasts, or trees.
Kindness and
sincerity are for saints a base for
brightness and a wonderful
gate which lets one see
everywhere while walking a straight path.
Like the Mahayana Buddhists, Mani promised such would
be born
in a Pure Land, where they would be free
of penalties and could
rejoice in calmness.
The Light-mind of the Christ awakens those
who sleep
and gathers those who are scattered abroad.
God sends
the soul to the judge of the dead
that appears as in a mirror.
The Great Judge has no partiality but knows
how to forgive those
who have repented.
No one can hide when that one searches out
their actions
and repays them according to their deserts.
The
saints go to the heaven of Light and are at peace.
Unstained by
ignorance, passion, and desire,
they are not pressed into rebirth.
Plotinus was born in Egypt in 205, and at age eight
he was
attending a school of grammar.
He studied philosophy in Alexandria
but became depressed
until he found the teacher he had been looking
for in
Ammonius Saccas when he was about 28.
Plotinus stayed with
Ammonius for eleven years.
Hoping to learn Persian and Indian
philosophy, Plotinus traveled
with Gordian III's military expedition
against Persia.
However, Gordian was assassinated in Mesopotamia,
and Plotinus found his way to Antioch
and then to Rome by 245.
For the next quarter century Plotinus taught philosophy in Rome,
influencing many prominent people including Emperor Gallienus.
Porphyry became a disciple of Plotinus in 263,
and his biography
of the philosopher
is based mostly on the next six years.
Porphyry
collected and edited 54 treatises
of his teacher into The Six
Enneads.
Plotinus was a vegetarian and spent much time meditating
in
order to experience union with God.
According to Porphyry during
the time he knew him
Plotinus attained this mystic realization
four times.
Plotinus acted as a mediator in disputes, and friends
often
appointed him guardian of their children's education.
His
plan for a Platonic city in Campania was favorably
considered
by Gallienus; but the Emperor's conflicts
with the Senate never
allowed the project to be realized.
When Porphyry considered suicide,
Plotinus persuaded him to rest in Sicily instead.
Plotinus himself
became ill and retired to Campania,
where he died a year later
in 270.
His closest disciple Amelius had gone to Syria.
Finally
his physician Eustochius came to him, and Plotinus
said that he
would attempt to make the divine within him
rise up to the divine
in the universe.
In The First Ennead Plotinus discussed the relation
between
the soul and the body, virtue, dialectic,
happiness, beauty,
the good, and evil.
That the soul uses the body indicates they
are different.
He also identified the good with the soul,
because
he did not believe it could be a joint affection.
Thus the soul
in us stands apart from the evils,
which humans do and suffer
that belong
to the animate couplement.
Yet if the mind comes out
of the soul, it is difficult
to separate them, because lower knowledge
can be delusional and the cause of much evil.
Plotinus believed
we do evil because we are worsted
by our baser side in desire
or rage or some evil imagination.
These do not always listen to
the reasoning principle.
For Plotinus this intellectual principle
transcends action and so is guiltless.
However, we may or may
not be in touch
with this intellectual realm.
While the body is
a living and brutal animal, the true person
is this other intellectual
principle that is pure and naturally
endowed with virtues in the
soul.
Yet practical virtues do not come from contemplative
wisdom
but belong to the couplement that includes the vices.
In the tractate "On Virtue" Plotinus asked
how the
soul can escape from evil.
The answer he read (in Plato)
is to be like God
by becoming just, holy, and wise.
The divine
being, the soul of the universe,
is most wonderful in wisdom.
He asked what could be more fitting than for us
to become like
the ruler of this world.
Aspiring toward the ruling in the intelligible
means
looking for the source of virtues in ourselves.
Plotinus
distinguished this source of virtue from virtue itself.
Yet he
observed that we become like the divine
by possessing virtue.
Even the civic virtues carry a trace of that highest good.
The
soul becomes evil when it is infused with the body,
sharing its
states and thoughts.
Virtue throws off the body's moods and devotes
itself
to its own action from wisdom that never allows the passions
to affect it (prudence), does not fear parting from the body
(courage),
and is ruled by reason (rectitude).
Such virtue is like God and
pure.
The virtue is actually in the soul, not in the intellectual
principle.
Plotinus next asked whether purification
is all of virtue or
only its forerunner.
Purification brings an alignment with the
intellectual principle,
and the alignment brings about virtue
within.
Plotinus wondered how much purification can dispel emotions
like anger, desire, and grief and to what degree
disengagement
from the body is possible.
By disengagement he meant the soul
withdrawing into itself above all emotions.
Necessary pleasures
still exist; but fear, for example,
ceases except as a monitor.
Desires will not be for vile things though they may pass through
the imagination in fleeting fancies.
The soul will be free and
will work to keep the irrational part
from being violently assaulted,
like a person living next door
to a sage may be wise and good
out of sheer shame,
not venturing to do what a nobler mind would
disapprove.
For Plotinus this was not sin but discipline.
His concern was
not merely to be sinless but to be God.
To associate with the
reasoning phase of nature
leads one to the highest self, as far
as an earthly mind is capable.
Virtue appears as wisdom, which
contemplates all that exists
in the intellectual principle.
Virtue
is dependent on the supreme being, which is independent.
Purification
of the soul produces the virtues.
If any virtue is lacking, none
is perfect.
One will transcend beyond civic virtues
in the final
disengagement.
Instead of living as a good person, one will live
like the gods.
To model oneself on good persons produces an image
of an image; we must fix our gaze above the image
and be like
the supreme exemplar.
Plotinus described two stages of the path as
first: conversion
from the lower life, and
second: advancing within the realm of
the intelligibles.
The musician must learn to transcend specific
harmonies
and beauty to recognize absolute beauty itself.
The
lover must not be spellbound by one embodied form
but be led by
mental discipline
to discern the one principle in all.
This ascent
Plotinus called dialectic,
the most precious part of philosophy.
This dialectic provides the discipline
for the understanding of
ethics.
Inferior virtues may exist without dialectic;
but one
cannot be a sage or master in dialectic
without the lower virtues.
They develop together as the purification of the virtues
leads
to the development of the greater wisdom and vice versa.
Plotinus found that happiness is more than pleasure,
because
it depends on the faculty
capable of discerning that pleasure
is good.
Complete happiness depends on living fully and possessing
not merely what is good but also the supreme good.
The sage finds
the good within and only seeks outside desires
that are necessities
for the sake of the body
to which one is bound.
One knows that
one is above all such things
but gives to them to keep the true
life undiminished.
Adverse fortune does not affect the
felicity
of one whose life is stable.
Happiness is not freedom from pain,
sickness, and disaster,
but it is the fruition of the authentic
good.
Anything such as health, which is desired because its
opposite is annoying, is not a good but a necessity.
Even in pain the radiance
of the inner soul shines
like the light in a lantern when winds
blow.
The sage would like to see all people prosper
but is still
content when they do not.
Pleasure for the sage is not found in
gratifications of the body;
but one is cheerful and untroubled.
For Plotinus it is absurd to think that happiness is associated
with the body; rather it is the good life centered in the soul.
The sage gives the body what is useful and possible
as its master
while remaining a member of a higher order.
Plotinus observed that happiness is found in the present
as
the action of the good life.
The best life is of the authentic
existence and is not measured
by time but by eternity.
Those who
see with the soul know the beauty
of noble conduct and moral wisdom.
The spiritually ugly are dissolute and unjust, teeming with lust,
torn by internal discord, beset by cowardly fears and
petty envies, thinking only of what is perishable and base,
and perverse in
impulses and unclean pleasures,
living in abandonment to bodily
sensations
and delighting in its deformity.
Thus one becomes ugly
by the alien fall into the body.
The soul is dishonored by ceasing
to be clean and apart.
Thus the soul must be cleared of the desires
that come from
being intimately conversant with the body
and must
be emancipated and purged from passions
by being withdrawn and
solitary.
We must ascend to the good, which is what
every soul
truly desires.
To see into a virtuous soul and know its loveliness,
withdraw into yourself and look.
If you find that you are not
yet beautiful, then act like a
creator of a statue who cuts away
the excessive,
straightens the crooked, and smoothes it until
it is lovely.
Plotinus concluded that life in the body is evil,
but the soul
enters its good through virtue
by holding itself apart.
This flight
does not mean quitting earth but living our earth-life
with justice
and piety guided by the light of philosophy.
Vice is what we are
to flee.
He criticized the Gnostics for believing the world and
its creator
are evil, and he noted that they neglected to mention
virtue.
For Plotinus virtue is what makes God in the soul manifest.
God on the lips without good conduct is only a word.
Despising
this world and its gods is not the way to goodness.
Plotinus believed
in tutelary spirits and suggested that souls
return to this sphere
under the same spirit
or a new one according to the life it is
to live.
He found the primal source of love in the soul's tendency
toward pure beauty, recognizing its kinship,
while the vile clashes
with nature and God.
Copulative love is the will to generate in
beauty.
Nature seeks to produce the beautiful and
thus does not
desire to procreate in the ugly.
Ultimately Plotinus believed
that the life of gods, the godlike
and the blessed liberates from
the alien,
taking no pleasure in the earthly
but passing from
the alone to the alone.
Porphyry was born at Tyre in 233, advanced rapidly in liberal
education, and studied in Athens with Cassius Longinus,
who changed
his name from the Syrian Malchus,
meaning "king," to
Porphyry, meaning "purple."
Porphyry wanted to see Rome
and met Plotinus
when he was thirty, becoming completely devoted
to him.
When he wanted to give up his body, his teacher gave him
strength and sent him to Sicily to recover.
After Plotinus died,
Porphyry returned to Rome
and married Marcella to help educate
her seven children,
becoming head of the Neo-Platonist school.
Porphyry was best known for his introduction to the
Categories
of Aristotle and other works on logic.
He tried to show that the
philosophies of
Aristotle
and Plato essentially agree.
He wrote a long work of fifteen books criticizing the Christians;
but it was ordered burned by Emperors Valentinian III and
Theodosius
II in 448, and only fragments remain.
He tried to make the traditional
Roman religion more
philosophical, as he also argued against its
superstitious
elements in his letter to Anebo, an Egyptian priest.
In addition to his short biography of Plotinus
he also wrote a
life of Pythagoras.
Porphyry was concerned with salvation and focused
more on practical
ethics than Plotinus.
Porphyry taught abstinence from meat, sex,
and theatrical performances.
He believed the soul must purify
itself by ascetic discipline
in turning from the lower to the
higher.
The lowest stage is to reduce affections by the golden
mean
under the dominion of reason in human relations.
The next
level was the cleansing virtues that lead to detachment.
In the
higher stages one develops the intuition (nous).
He emphasized
that God values deeds not words.
Greek novels continue to stand out among the extant literature
of western civilization in the third century.
The pastoral romance
of Daphnis and Chloe was written by
Longus about 200 CE
and later influenced
the literature of the Renaissance.
In the
prolog Longus claimed, "It will cure the sick,
comfort the
distress, stir the memory of those who have loved,
and educate
those who haven't."5
On the island of Lesbos a baby boy and
girl are exposed;
the boy is suckled by goats and becomes a goatherd;
the girl is nurtured by sheep and becomes a shepherd.
They learn
about love gradually on their own.
Daphnis is captured by pirates
and survives their shipwreck.
Old Philetas tells Daphnis and Chloe
about the god Love,
who rules the stars and all creatures.
He
explains that the disease of love is cured by kissing,
embracing,
and lying naked on the ground,
which they innocently experience.
They are attacked by Methymneans, who go to war
with the Mytileneans.
Nymphs and Pan help Chloe to escape unharmed.
Daphnis and Chloe are confused about love,
because they see
goats doing it standing up from behind;
but Lycaenion falls in
love with Daphnis
and shows him what to do.
However, she warns
him that Chloe will bleed the first time,
and so he refrains,
not wanting to hurt her.
Soon Chloe attracts suitors, and Daphnis
becomes one of them.
The homosexual Gnathon while drunk tries
to force himself
on Daphnis but is pushed away.
Nymphs help Daphnis
find a purse of silver
so that he can marry Chloe.
Lampis desires
Chloe and abducts her,
but Gnathon rescues her.
Daphnis learns
he is the son of Dionysophanes,
who exposed him because he had
enough children.
Chloe turns out to be the daughter of a wealthy
man, who,
after becoming poor by spending his money on dramatic
choruses and warships, had exposed her.
Finally the two lovers
are happily married.
The longest Greek novel of this era is The Ethiopian Story
of Theagenes and Charikleia by Heliodorus of Emesa.
Scholars
differ on when it was written—from about 230
to the late 4th
century.
Byzantine culture enjoyed the novel and believed
its
author wrote it before converting to Christianity
and becoming
a bishop.
Set in the 6th century BC, in the western delta of the
Nile
some bandits find a scene of devastation and
Charikleia treating
the wounds of Theagenes.
Bandits thrive in nearby marshes,
and
more led by Thyamis soon appear.
Charikleia vows to hang herself
to preserve what even
her lover Theagenes has not yet enjoyed.
The Athenian Knemon tells the lovers about his step-mother's
passion
for him and how she died by the cleverness of Thisbe.
Thyamis
wants to marry Charikleia,
who says Theagenes is her brother.
Charikleia asks Thyamis to allow her to lay down
her priesthood
at a shrine of Apollo.
When bandits attack Thyamis, he kills the
woman
he thinks is Charikleia but who turns out to be Thisbe.
Knemon meets the Egyptian sage Kalasiris,
who eats no animal food
and drinks no wine.
Kalasiris tells Knemon how he adopted Charikleia
from her father Charikles, a priest of Apollo.
At the Pythian games in Delphi Kalasiris learned that Charikles
found the infant Charikleia with tokens indicating
she is the
daughter of Ethiopian queen Persinna,
a friend of Kalasiris and
the very daughter he has been seeking.
Kalasiris helped Charikleia
and Theagenes escape from Delphi.
Theagenes swore to honor the
chastity of Charikleia;
though he is the slave of love, he is
the master of pleasure.
They were captured by pirates, and Peloris
fought their leader
for Charikleia, because he was the first to
board the ship
and by their pirate custom should have first prize.
In Egypt the merchant Nausikles betroths his daughter
Nausikleia
to Knemon, while Theagenes is captured
by Thyamis and taken to
Memphis.
Kalasiris and Charikleia disguise themselves as beggars.
Egypt at this time is ruled by the Persian satrap Oroondates,
whose queen Arsake likes to take lovers.
Petosiris had replaced
his older brother Thyamis as priest
by accusing him of adultery
with Arsake.
The two brothers fight in single combat for the priesthood
at Memphis until their father Kalasiris
reveals himself in his
sacerdotal dignity.
Thyamis dismisses his men of Bessa, who were
attacking
Memphis, and he is ordained priest
by his father, who
soon dies.
Arsake desires the handsome Theagenes and has her nurse
Kybele arrange for him and Charikleia
to be imprisoned in the
palace.
Kybele's son Achaimenes wants Charikleia and gets the
queen to promise her to him in exchange for the information
that
Theagenes is already enslaved
to the Persian royalty but had escaped.
However, Theagenes refuses to gratify Arsake
if Charikleia is
married,
and he reveals she is his betrothed, not his sister.
Having lost Charikleia, Achaimenes goes to the satrap
Oroondates,
who is fighting the Ethiopians
over the city of Philai and emerald
mines.
Achaimenes gets him to send the eunuch Bagoas for
Theagenes and Charikleia to prevent his queen's adultery.
Meanwhile Thyamis
argues with Arsake that Theagenes
should be freed in peace time
as a royal act.
Kybele is poisoned while trying to kill Charikleia
when a servant switches the cups.
When Theagenes refuses to give
in to her desires,
Arsake charges Charikleia with this murder
and has her burned at the stake;
but Charikleia is miraculously
untouched by the flames
and is protected by the awe-struck spectators.
Theagenes and Charikleia are tortured by order of Arsake.
Bagoas
arrives to take Theagenes and Charikleia,
and Arsake hangs herself.
Before they get to the satrap, an Ethiopian ambush
captures Bagoas
and the young couple.
As the first prisoners in this phase of
the war,
Ethiopian king Hydaspes reserves Theagenes and Charikleia
for human sacrifice according to their customs.
The army of Hydaspes
attacks and besieges the
Persian-Egyptian forces of Oroondates
at Syene (Aswan).
Oroondates runs away and is forced
to surrender
to the Ethiopians.
Hydaspes returns to his capital at Meroe,
and people demand
the human sacrifice.
Both Theagenes and Charikleia are proved
virgins
by an ordeal of standing on a hot gridiron.
The local
Hindu philosophers led by Sisimithres protest
human and animal
sacrifices and are about to leave.
Charikleia asks them to judge
a suit between her and the king,
claiming and proving that she
is his daughter as Sisimithres and
Queen Persinna, her mother,
recognize her and the royal tokens.
Although he acknowledges her
as his daughter,
King Hydaspes plans to sacrifice her anyway
but
is persuaded not to by the people.
Theagenes captures a run-away
bull
and defeats the Ethiopian wrestling champion.
As ambassadors
appear, Charikles accuses Theagenes of
abducting his daughter
Charikleia, proving to the king that
Theagenes knows and should
marry Charikleia.
Hydaspes recognizes that miracles have occurred
and orders
Sisimithres to proclaim that human sacrifice is abolished.
At last Theagenes and Charikleia are to be wed,
and the king crowns
them with the insignia of the priesthood.
The purity of their
love, their courage and determination
have brought an end to human
sacrifice in Ethiopia.
Written in Greek between 140 CE and 340, the
Alexander Romance
was so popular that it was translated
into 24 languages and proliferated
into eighty versions.
In some manuscripts it was falsely attributed
to
Alexander's court historian Kallisthenes.
This combination
of biography, history, and fantasy alters
many facts and confuses
the chronological sequence of events.
His mother is still Olympias,
but in this romance the
Egyptian king Nektanebos impersonates
the god Ammon in fathering Alexander.
The boy kills this court astrologer,
only then learning he was
his father.
The precocious youth wins the Olympic chariot race
by killing
Nikolaos, who was trying to kill him.
At a banquet
celebrating King Philip's wedding to Cleopatra,
Alexander
kills Lysias for saying that Philip had many
illegitimate children;
but the real Alexander
after killing Attalos fled with Olympias
to Epirus.
Alexander tells
the satraps of Persia
that he will not pay them tribute.
In the
romance Alexander also apprehends Pausanias
after he assassinated
Philip.
He attacks Thebes out of anger and becomes ruler of Greece.
In this version Alexander
goes to Sicily, Italy, and Libya,
though the historical Alexander
died
before he could attempt those conquests.
He is declared a
god in Egypt and crowned its king.
He sacks Tyre and razes it
to the ground.
Persian king Darius sends him a strap for correction,
a ball to play with as a child, and a box of gold
so that he could
pay his brigands on their way home.
Alexander
threatens to kill the messenger, because Darius
treated him as
a brigand chief;
but he doesn't, because he is a king.
Alexander
writes he will use the strap to reduce the barbarians
to servitude,
considers the ball a symbol of his ruling the world,
and believes
the money box means that he will be paid tribute.
When his men
are starving in the Black Sea region,
he orders the horses killed
and eaten.
Alexander goes to Darius, pretending to be his own
messenger,
putting gold cups in his pocket,
and sneaking out when
he is recognized.
In the battle Darius panics and flees.
Alexander
refuses to compromise, saying he believes Asia is his.
In this
romance Darius appeals to the Hindu king Poros.
Darius warns Alexander that Fortune knows
no king and
gives him his daughter Roxana as a wife before he
dies.
Alexander writes to the
Persians that they may keep their
customs, but he demands their
gold, silver, and weapons.
He makes the assassins of Darius "notable
before everyone"
by having them crucified.
Alexander
writes to his mother of fantastic adventures even
beyond this
world though a flying sage asks him why
he investigates heaven
when he has not grasped earthly things.
His soldiers question
why they should invade India,
and so he uses his Persian forces.
Alexander kills Poros, though
in history he allowed him
to rule under himself.
In his conversation
with the sages of India,
they define kingship as
"An immoral
force for superior power, daring maintained
by opportunity, a
golden burden."6
They ask him, if he is mortal, why he wages
so many wars
when he must leave behind the things he wins.
Alexander
goes to Queen Kandake as if he were Antigonus;
finding out his
true identity, she protects him.
Alexander
even negotiates with the Amazons.
At Babylon Alexander
is poisoned by Iollas,
and his body is sent to Egypt.
Thus the
conqueror became a popular figure,
though the ethics of the literary
hero
are about as bad as the real Alexander.
The Story of Apollonius King of Tyre was probably written
in Greek in the 3rd century also,
though its earliest extant versions
are in Latin.
The short novella has a complicated plot.
King Antiochus
in Antioch treats his beautiful daughter
as his wife and eliminates
suitors by demanding
they solve an unsolvable riddle or be beheaded.
Apollonius of Tyre realizes Antiochus is committing incest
with
his daughter, and the evil Antiochus sends a man
to murder him
and puts a price on his head.
When the people of Tarsus agree
to keep him secretly,
Apollonius contributes grain to end their
famine.
Apollonius survives a shipwreck but is destitute.
A fisherman
helps him, and he wins the favor of
King Archistrates in the gymnasium
playing ball.
The many-talented Apollonius tutors the princess,
and she marries him.
When the cruel Antiochus dies,
his kingdom
is given to Apollonius.
So he and his pregnant wife board a ship.
She dies in childbirth and is buried at sea
in an elaborate coffin,
which is found.
She is revived from a coma
and then serves the
goddess Diana.
Apollonius names his daughter Tarsia after the city and entrusts
her to his hosts there, Stranguillio and Dionysias.
Fourteen years
later Dionysias resents Tarsia outshining her own
daughter and
orders her steward Theophilus to murder her;
but Tarsia is captured
by pirates and sold to a pimp at Mytilene,
though its king Athenagora
helps to preserve her virginity
by urging her to tell her lamentable
story to each client.
When Apollonius finally returns to Tarsus
for her,
he is told she died.
The suicidal king, now a merchant,
is eventually redeemed
in joy by Tarsia when she tells Apollonius
her story,
and he realizes she is his daughter.
The pimp is burned
to death by the people of Mytilene,
while his assistant is liberated
for helping Tarsia.
The prostitutes are given their earnings and
their freedom.
Apollonius makes a generous gift to repair the
city's walls,
and Tarsia weds King Athenagora.
Apollonius finds
his wife in the temple of Diana,
and they live as a couple happily
for many years.
Stranguillio and Dionysias are stoned to death.
Apollonius is eventually succeeded as king by his son.
This romance
further typifies the value of chastity.
1. Augustan History 4:1 in Lives of the Later Caesars
tr. Anthony Birley, p. 164.
2. Tertullian, Apology 25 in The Ante-Nicene Fathers,
ed. Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson, volume 3, p. 40.
3. Tertullian, "The Chaplet, or De Corona" 11 in The
Ante-Nicene Fathers, volume 3, p. 99.
4. Matthew 5:44 as quoted by Clement.
5. Longus, Daphnis and Chloe
tr. Christopher Gill in Collected
Ancient Greek Novels ed. B. P. Reardon, p. 289.
6. Alexander Romance 3:6 tr. Ken Dowden in Collected
Ancient Greek Novels
ed. B. P. Reardon, p. 717.
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