the queen of Sheba went forth to see Solomon. This tribe is part of the Israelitish family, and practises circumcision on the eighth day; but they also offer sacrifices to the sun and moon, and to the native gods of the country. Constantius accordingly sent an embassage to them, in order to induce them to come over to the true religion. The king determined, in pursuance of his plan, to conciliate the king of that people by magnificent presents and words of gentle persuasion, and thence to take an opportunity forthwith of sowing the seeds of religion. He also asked for licence to build churches on behalf of the Romans who came thither by sea, and the inhabitants of the country who wished to embrace the Christian faith. At the head of this embassy was placed Theophilus the Indian, who had been sent when very young as a hostage from the Divæans to the Romans when Constantine was at the head of the empire. The island called Divus,1 is a portion of their territory, and the inhabitants of it are called Indians. Further, he relates that this Theophilus, having passed a long life among the Romans, formed his character upon a pattern of the most strict and perfect virtue, and embraced the true faith concerning God; but, he adds, that he chose the monastic life, and was promoted to the diaconate at the hands of Eusebius. Thus much as to his early life. But afterwards, having undertaken this embassy, he was invested, by the men of his own party, with the episcopal2 dignity. But Constantius, wishing to array the embassy with peculiar splendour, put on board of their ships two hundred well-bred horses from Cappadocia, and sent with them many other gifts, with the double view of making an imposing show and of conciliating the feelings of the people. Accordingly, Theophilus, on his arrival among the Sabæans, endeavoured to persuade the ruler of the tribe

This island is said to lie in the Indian Ocean, near the mouth of the Indus, and to have been known also under the name of Diva, Divu, and Devu.

2 ¿pópov ážíwμa. See below, note on the extract from Suidas concerning Auxentius, at the end of this volume. We may observe that this step of the Arian party was taken out of opposition to Athanasius and his friends, for the latter had recently sent Frumentius as bishop to the Auxumitæ, as Socrates, Sozomen, and Rufinus testify. The Arians took care also to engage the secular power on their own side, by obtaining from the emperor letters to the chiefs of the Auxumitæ, urging the expulsion of Frumentius from their country, as we learn from Athanasius in his Apology. Vales.

c. 5.]

THEOPHILUS THE INDIAN.

445

to become a Christian, and to give over the deceits of heathenism. Hereupon, the customary fraud and malice of the Jews was compelled to shrink into deep silence, as soon as ever Theophilus had once or twice proved by his wonderful miracles the truth of the Christian faith. The embassy turned out successfully; for the prince of the nation, by sincere conviction, came over to the true religion, and built three churches in the district, not, however, with the money which the emperor's ambassadors had brought with them, but out of sums which he voluntarily supplied out of his private resources, with a laudable strife to show that his own zeal was a match for the wonders performed by Theophilus. One of these churches he erected in a place called Tapharum, the metropolis of the nation: another in the place where the mart of Roman commerce stood, lying towards the outer sea. place is called Adane; and it is the spot where everybody is in the habit of landing on coming out of the Roman territories. The third church he built in another part of the district, where the mart of Persian commerce stands, hard by the mouth of the Persian Sea, which lies along those parts.

This

CHAP. 5.-Theophilus, having arranged everything among the Homeritæ according to his ability and circumstances, and having dedicated the churches, and adorned them with such decorations as he could, crossed over to the island of Divus, which, as we above showed, was his native country. Thence he made his way to the other districts of India, and corrected many disorders among their inhabitants. For they listened to the reading of the Gospel in a sitting posture,1 and used other customs repugnant to the Divine law. But Theophilus, having corrected everything among them according to a religious rule, confirmed the doctrine of the church. For, with regard to the worship of the Divine Being, as that impious writer asserts, they needed no correction, inasmuch as from the earliest antiquity they constantly professed to believe the Son to be of a different substance from the Father.

It was the custom for all Christians who were present at the solemn mysteries of the church, to stand with their heads bare, and their staves on the ground, while the Gospel was read aloud. We learn from Augustine, (Hom. b. v. serm. 26,) that the same custom prevailed in Africa. Compare Eusebius, Life of Constantine, chap. 33; Augustine, serm. 2, " de SS. Martyribus," Tract. 112, on the Gospel of St. John, and serm. 112, delivered in the Basilica of Faustus.

CHAP. 6. From this Arabia Magna Theophilus proceeded to the Æthiopians who are called Auxumitæ,1 who dwell along the coast near the entrance of the Red Sea, which is formed there by the ocean deeply indenting the continent. The Red Sea, in its turn, after extending to a very great length, terminates in two distinct gulfs, the one of which bends in the direction of Egypt, and is called Clysma,2 after the name of a place situated at the head of it. This was the sea across which the Israelites passed on dry ground, when they fled away from the Egyptians. The other gulf goes off in the direction of Palestine, near a city which, from the earliest times, has borne the name of Aila. On the further coast of this gulf of the Red Sea, and on its left side, dwell the Auxumitæ, so called from their metropolis, which bears the name of Auxumis. Next to these Auxumitæ, but to the east, dwell the Syrians, who stretch to the other ocean, and who are so called even by the men of those parts. For Alexander the Great of Macedon placed them there after he had removed them from Syria; and they still use their hereditary Syrian tongue. Further, these are all of a very dark colour, from the effects of the vertical rays of the sun. Among these, the woodcasia, and the common casia, grow in the greatest abundance, as likewise the cassamum and cinnamon. In this same region, also, there is an abundance of elephants. Theophilus did not penetrate as far as these people, but he came to the Auxumitæ, and, having ordered all things there correctly, he thence began to return into the territory of the Romans: and after his return he was loaded with honours by the emperor; he received the charge of no episcopal see; but was looked up to by the followers of his own sect, as a public example of excellence.

CHAP. 7.-Philostorgius says, that among other large rivers, the Tigris falls into the inner part of the Persian Sea,

Philostorgius states that these Auxumita were converted to Christianity by Theophilus the Arian, in the time of Constantine: but it is quite clear that their conversion is in reality to be ascribed to Frumentius, who was ordained by Athanasius in the commencement of his episcopate, about A. D. 337, and soon after sent among them. See above, note on chap. 4, and compare the epistle addressed by Constantine to the chiefs of the Auxumitæ, as given by Baronius (Annals, A. D. 356). Lowth.

2 Just as the other gulf is termed the Elanitic gulf, from the town of Elana (or Aila) which is situated at its head.

c. 8.]

THE TIGRIS AND EUPHRATES.

447 which is here connected with the ocean. The shores of this sea are surrounded by many nations; and the river itself runs in a south-easterly direction, below the Hyrcanian Sea, and appears to take its rise among the Cordiæans. Thence it flows along the side of Syria,1 and upon reaching the district of Susis, it joins the waters of the Euphrates with its own, and thence flowing on with a deep and rapid stream, it rushes on with a violent roar of its eddies, from which circumstance they say it derives its name of Tigris.2 Before, however, it reaches the sea, it divides its waters into two large channels; and thence it flows into the Persian Sea, the extreme points of its mouths being so far distant from each other, that the two mouths embrace between them a large extent of country. This is an island; it is washed both by the rivers and the sea, and it is inhabited by a tribe called Messenians.

CHAP. 8.-The Euphrates, however, to all appearance, takes its rise among the Armenians; in this region stands the Mount of Ararat, so called even to the present day by the Armenians, the same mount on which the Holy Scripture says that the ark rested. Many fragments of the wood and nails of which the ark was composed are said to be still preserved in those localities. This is the place where the Euphrates takes its rise. At first it is but a small stream, but gradually increases in size, and absorbing into itself many other tributary rivers which flow into it, it passes through Upper and Lower Armenia in its onward course. First of all it cuts Syria Euphratensis, so called after the river. Afterwards, however, it cuts its way through the rest of Syria, winding along with many varied folds in every region which it passes through, until it reaches Arabia, where it takes a circular course, when nearly opposite to the Red Sea; and embracing in its windings a large tract of country, finally turns its course towards the wind called Cacias, or Northeast, and falls into the Tigris. Here its waters do not entirely mingle with those of the Tigris; but though partly absorbed in it, it flows parallel to the Tigris with the largest

That is, Assyria. The two names are frequently interchanged in classical writers. See Herodotus, b. vii. ch. 63, and the notes of Baehr in loco.

2 Curtius, however, (b. vi.) Strabo, (b. viii.) and Pliny, (b. vi. ch. 27,) state that the river Tigris is so called from the arrow-like rapidity of its course, Tigris being the Median word for a "dart."

portion of its waters, and finally mixes with the Tigris near about Susa; and thenceforward, the Euphrates having lost its independent name, the two rivers flow conjointly into the Persian Gulf. The district which lies between these two rivers, the Euphrates, namely, and the Tigris, is called Mesopotamia.

CHAP. 9.-The sources of the Euphrates and the Tigris, so far as we have been able to ascertain, are such as we have related. But our sacred books, when they say that these rivers flow out of Paradise, speak most truly. For it is from this place that they derive their first supplies of water; inasmuch as after having traversed some distance in all probability above-ground, they afterwards pass into a large sandy desert, where they sink deep into the sand, and do not cease from this downward course, until they reach the firm rocky soil, of which that region consists: the base of this region affords a check on their downward course, and so they each gather their waters together and rush onwards, making their course all the more straight on account of the force and magnitude of their accumulating waters. But these rivers flowing beneath the ground, being partially absorbed by the sand of the intermediate district, burst forth again with a considerably diminished supply of water. It is not, however, after all so incredible a thing, that these rivers should flow so long a distance underground. For there are found everywhere the largest and most rapid streams and rivers whose course is under-ground, as is clear from the fact that their sound is heard as they rush on with loud murmurs and roarings. Moreover, some persons in their attempts to sink wells in the ground above these rivers, when they had gradually dug down to the rocky soil which resisted their efforts, beneath which the roaring waves endeavoured to force an egress upwards, were with difficulty rescued by those who stood above at the brink of the well, for the water burst forth in a torrent, which was intercepted by no subsequent drought, on account of the perpetual supply of water. For the secret wisdom of God has rendered the very courses of rivers, some occult and others open to the view, like veins supplying the necessary blood in the body. Whence also the prophet David sings, "He hath founded it upon the seas, and hath prepared it upon the floods,"1 enclosing the seas

Ps. xxiv. 2. Comp. Ps. cxxxvi. 6.