66. The Six Ages of this world

66. The Six Ages of this world

[V. THE WORLD-CHRONICLE (CH. 66)]

66. THE SIX AGES OF THIS WORLD

We have mentioned a few things about the Six Ages of this world, and about the Seventh and Eighth [Ages] of peace and heavenly life above, by way of comparison to the ¢rst week, in which the world was adorned.1 Here I will discuss the same subject somewhat more extensively, comparing it to the ages of man,whom the philosophers are accustomed to call ''microcosm'' in Greek, that is, ''smaller universe''.

The First Age of this world, then, is from Adam to Noah, containing 1,656 years according to the Hebrew Truth, and 2,242 according to the Septuagint, and ten generations according to both versions. This [First

Age] was wiped out in the universal Flood, just as the ¢rst age of every person is usually submerged in oblivion, for how many people can remember their infancy?

The Second Age from Noah to Abraham comprises ten generations and 292 years according to the Hebrew authority, but according to the Septuagint 272 years2 and eleven generations. This was, so to speak, the childhood of God's people, and therefore it is discovered in a language, that is, in Hebrew, because from childhood on, when infancy [infantia] is over ^ which is so called because an infant cannot speak [fari] ^ a person begins to learn to speak.

The Third, from Abraham to David, contains fourteen generations and 942 years according to both authorities. This [Age] was like the adolescence of the people of God, because from this age on, a person can reproduce. For this reason, the evangelist Matthew takes the beginning of the generations [of Christ] from Abraham, who was established as the father of the nations when he received his altered name.

1 In ch. 10.

2 The correct ¢gure is 942 years, and Bede records it as such in On Times (602.2) and Letter to Plegwin 5.Yet the MSS of The Reckoningof Time all read 272, despite the fact that it contradicts Bede's statement below, s.a. 1693, that the Septuagint's reckoning of the ¢rst two Ages is longer than the Vulgate's. A marginal gloss on fol. 103v of an early 12thcentury copy,Oxford St John's College 17, corrects the number to 2072, which shows that at least one reader realized the absurdity and tried to rectify it.

THE RECKONING OF TIME

The Fourth, from David up to the exile to Babylon has 473 years according to the HebrewTruth,twelve more according to the Septuagint, and seventeen generations according to both texts. However, the evangelist Matthew /464/ puts these [generations] at fourteen, for the sake of a certain symbolism.3 From this Age ^ youth, so to speak ^ the era of the kings began among the people of God, for this age in man is normally apt for governing a kingdom.

The Fifth Age ^ maturity, if you will ^ from the exile into Babylon until the coming of our Lord and Saviour in the £esh, extends for fourteen generations and 589 years. In this Age the Hebrew people were weakened by many evils, as if wearied by heavy age.

The Sixth Age, which is now in progress, is not ¢xed according to any sequence of generations or times, but like senility, this [Age] will come to an end in the death of the whole world.4

By a happy death, everyone will overcome these Ages of the world, and when they have been received into the Seventh Age of perennial sabbath, they look forward to the Eighth Age of the blessed Resurrection, in which they will reign forever with the Lord.

In the First Age of the new-made world, on its ¢rst day, God made light, which he called ''day''.5 On the second [day], he balanced the ¢rmament in the midst of the waters: these waters and the Earth, together with the upper heaven and the powers which praise the Creator therein, were created before the beginning of those six days. On the third day, when the waters that covered everything were gathered into their place, He commanded the dry land to appear. On the fourth [day] He placed the stars in the ¢rmament of heaven; this day we now call the 12th kalends of April [21 March], inasmuch as we deduce that it was the equinox.6

On the ¢fth [day] He created swimming and £ying creatures. On the 3 Bede explains this later on, s.a. 3065.

4 Bede's text here amalgamates portions of Augustine, DCD 16.43 (550.57^84) with De GenesicontraManichaeos 1.23.35^41 (PL34.190^193).For the numerous other Augustinian texts on the same theme, see Jones' apparatus fontium on this passage in BOD;

Elizabeth Sears, The Ages of Man: Medieval Interpretations of the Life Cycle (Princeton:

Princeton University Press, 1985):174, n. 5; and especially Auguste Luneau, L'Histoire du salut chez les Pe' res de l'E¤ glise: la doctrine des a" ges du monde, The¤ ologie historique 2 (Paris:

Beauchesne, 1964): ch. 12.

5 This summary of Creation, drawn from Genesis 1, corresponds to Isidore, Chronica maiora 3, ed. T. Mommsen, MGH AA 11 (1894):426. Cf. Bede, In Gen. 1.2.3

(lines 1093 sq.).

6 Cf. ch. 6 above.

TRANSLATION

sixth [day] He formed terrestrial creatures, and man himself, Adam.

From his side, as he slept, He brought forth Eve, the mother of all. This day (for so it seems probable to me) is called the 10th kalends of April

[23 March]. Hence, unless some stronger argument should prevail, it should rightly be believed what blessed Theophilus, together with other bishops not only of Palestine but from many other regions, wrote when he debated the matter of Easter, [namely] that the Lord was cruci¢ed on that same 10th kalends of April [23 March].7 For it is ¢tting that not only on the same day of the week but on the same day of the month

/465/ the second Adam, stricken by a living death for the sake of the salvation of the human race should, from the heavenly sacraments drawn from his own side, sanctify the Church to himself as a bride. For on that [same] day He created the ¢rst Adam, father of the human race, and by removing a rib from his side, he fashioned woman, with whose aid [Adam] would propagate the human race.

Adam at the age of 130 begat Seth, and lived a further 800 years.8 The Septuagint in fact puts 230 years before the birth of Seth, and 700 after.9

Seth means ''resurrection'', signifying the Resurrection of Christ from the dead; Abel, which means ''mourning''10 and who was killed by Cain, signi¢es [Christ's] death, which was brought about by the Jews.

Seth at the age of 105 begat Enosh and lived a further 807 years.11 But the Seventy put 205 years before the birth of Enosh, and 707 afterwards.

Enosh means ''man'',12 and of him it is well said, he began to call upon the name of the Lord.13 For it behoves men, mindful of their fragility, to 7 Bede is alluding here to the spurious Acts of the Synod of Caesarea (307). But see ch. 61 and Commentary.

8 Genesis 5.3.

9 Cf. Isidore, Chronica maiora 4 (426); Bede, In Gen. 2.5.3 (93.749^94.753).

10 Bede, In Gen. 2.4.25 (91.650^651). These two etymologies are drawn from Jerome, Liber interpretationis hebraicorum nominum 10 and 12, ed. P. de Lagarde, CCSL

72 (1959):60.17 and 71.12^13.

11 Genesis 5.6.

12 Bede, In Gen. 2.5.2 (92.716). The etymology of ''Enosh'' is from Jerome, Lib. int. heb. nom. (65.17). Bede may also have used Isidore, Chronica maiora 5 (426), although

Isidore's etymology is di¡erent.

13 Genesis 4.26; cf. Bede, In Gen. 2.4.26 (91.657^660).

THE RECKONING OF TIME

invoke the aid of the Creator ^ at any rate, it behoves those who, living in the faith of Christ, rejoice to be sons of the Resurrection.

Enosh at the age of 90 begat Kenan, and lived thereafter 815 years.14 But the Septuagint puts 190 years before the birth of Kenan, and 715 afterwards.

Kenan at the age of 70 begat Mahalalel, and after his birth lived 840 years.15 The Septuagint says that there were 170 years before the birth of Mahalalel, and 740 afterwards.

Mahalalel at the age of 65 begat Jared and lived thereafter 830 years.16

The Septuagint puts 165 years before the birth of Jared, and 730 afterwards.

Jared at the age of 162 begat Enoch, and lived 800 years thereafter.17

With regard to this generation, the two codices are nowhere at variance.

We ¢nd that this Enoch wrote certain things of a divine nature, as the Apostle Jude attests.18 But as St Augustine says: Not /466/ in vain are these [books] not included in the canon of the Scriptures which was preserved in the temple of the Hebrew people by the diligence of a long line ofpriests. For these books were longagojudged to be of doubtful reliability, nor could it be discovered whether these were the things which [Enoch] himself had written. Hence those things which are circulated under his name, and contain those fables about the giants ^ namely that they did not have human fathers ^ are rightly judged by the prudent as not to be attributed to him.19

14 Genesis 5.9.

15 Genesis 5.12.

16 Genesis 5.15.

17 Genesis 5.18^19.

18 Jude 14.

19 Augustine, DCD 15.23 (491.112^120); cf. Isidore, Chronica maiora 9 (427).

TRANSLATION

Enoch at the age of 65 begat Methuselah,20 after whose birth [Enoch] walked with God for 30 years.21 The Septuagint puts 165 years before the birth of Methuselah, and 200 afterwards. And rightly in the seventh generation did God withdraw Enoch, whose name means 'dedication', fromthecompanyof mortal men,22 because the city of the elect, labouring on behalf of God in the Six Ages of this world, anticipates the splendour of dedication in the Seventh [Age] of the coming sabbath. But because the reprobate are content merely with present happiness, Cain consecrated the city which he had founded not in the seventh generation, but in his ¢rstborn son Enoch.23

At the age of 187, Methuselah begat Lamech, and lived thereafter 772 years, that is, until the Flood.24 The Septuagint puts 167 years before the birth of Lamech, and 802 thereafter. This number, as the reader will readily see, exceeds the time of the Flood by 20 years according to the Hebrew Truth, and according to [the Septuagint's] authority by 14 years. The most learned fathers, Jerome in his book On Hebrew Questions25 and Augustine in his book On the City of God26 have debated this notorious question at great length.

At the age of 182, Lamech begat Noah, and lived thereafter 595 years.27

The Septuagint puts 188 years before the birth of Noah, and 565 afterwards. In this generation alone, the sum total is at odds, because

Lamech is found to have lived 24 years longer /467/ in the Hebrew codices than in those of the Septuagint.

The Flood arrived in the 600th year of Noah, in the second month, on the 20 Genesis 5.21.

21 Genesis 5.22.

22 Augustine, DCD 15.19 (481.3^5).

23 Ibid. 15.17 (480.47^52).

24 Genesis 5.25; cf. Bede, Letter to Plegwin 10.

25 Jerome, Hebraicae quaestiones in Geneseos 5.25, ed. P. de Lagarde, CCSL 72 (1959):8.19^9.17.

26 Cf. Augustine, DCD 15.11, passim. Cf. Letter to Plegwin 10.

27 Genesis 5.28^30.

THE RECKONING OF TIME

17th day of the month.28 Indeed, should anyone chastise us for putting forth novel questions concerning the di¡erence of years between the Hebrew authority and that of the Seventy Translators, let him read the works of the Fathers named above, and he will see that this discrepancy is already quite well known. Because St Augustine had very astutely inquired into the origin of this gap, he stated in the 13th chapter of the work cited above,among other things: Onemight plausiblysuggesttherefore that when these things began to be transcribed for the ¢rst time from the library of Ptolemy, something of this ilk might have been in one codex. But once it had been transcribed, what could have been a scribe's error would have been disseminated far and wide. It is not far-fetched to suppose that this is the case with respect to the question of Methuselah's life. And a little later on: I would certainly not be justi¢ed in doubting that when a discrepancy is found between the two texts, and both cannot be true records of historical fact, one should place greater reliance in the language from which the translators made a version in another tongue.29

In the Second Age of the world, on the ¢rst day of this [Age], being the 17th [day] of the second month, Noah went forth from the ark,30 in which a few people, that is, eight souls, were saved from the water. Calling this to mind in his epistle, the blessed Apostle Peter took pains to explain it on the spot in a marvellous way, when he added, Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a clean conscience, through the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, who is at the right hand of God.31 He teaches that baptism is symbolized by the water of the Flood, the Church and its faithful people by the ark and those it contained and the mystery of the Lord's

Resurrection in the number eight of the souls.32

Shem, at the age of 100, begat Arpachshad two years after the Flood.33

Jerome writes that the Chaldeans took their origin from Arpachshad.34

28 Genesis 5.31.

29 Augustine, DCD 15.13 (471.17^22, 472.89^93); cf. Letter to Plegwin 10.

30 Genesis 8.4.

31 I Peter 3.21^22. Cf. Bede, In Epistolas VII catholicas, ed. David Hurst, CCSL

121 (1983):249.238^250.269.

32 Cf. Augustine, Contra Faustum 12.14.15 (343.23^345.14).

33 Genesis 11.10.

34 Jerome, Hebraicae quaestiones in Geneseos 10.22 (14.7).

TRANSLATION

/468/ After the birth of Arpachshad Shem lived another 500 years, that is until ¢fty years after the birth of Jacob.

At the age of 35, Arpachshad begat Shelah.35 Here the Seventy Translators insert one generation more than does the Hebrew Truth, saying that when Arpachshad was 135 years old he begot Cainan, who himself begat Shelah when he was 135 years old. The evangelist Luke seems to follow their translation in this instance.36 Indeed the Greek chronographers, although they criticize this sequence of generations, and remove the one generation of Cainan, nonetheless did not take care to call into question the number of years in the generations according to [the Septuagint's] authority. Following their own authority, they gave to this age a sum total of years which is 130 less than that of the Seventy Translators, but 650 more than that of the Hebrew Truth, that is, 942.37 But Arpachshad lived 303 years after the birth of Shelah; nonetheless the Septuagint ascribes to him 430 years after the birth of Cainan, and to Cainan 438

[years] after the birth of Shelah.

Shelah at the age of 30 begat Heber, and lived thereafter for 403 years.38

The Septuagint puts 130 years before the birth of Heber, and 330 after.

The name and tribe of the Hebrews take their origin from this Heber.

When Heber was 34 years old, he begat Peleg, and lived thereafter 430 years.39 Peleg means ''division'' and his parents gave him this name because at the time of his birth the Earth was divided by the confusion of languages. The rhetor Arnobius recalls this division in his commentary on Psalm 104: To Shem, Noah's ¢rstborn, was given the portion from Persia and Bactria all the way to India and to the Rinocoruras. This expanseoflandcomprised28barbariclanguages.Withintheselanguages, the peoples form 48 nations, not of diverse languages but, as I said, of 35 Genesis 11.12.

36 Luke 3.36.

37 Bede is referring to Eusebius here: cf. Letter to Plegwin 6. This passage is also reproduced verbatim in Bede, In Gen. 3.11.12 (163.769^164.783).

38 Genesis 11.14.

39 Genesis 11.16.

THE RECKONING OF TIME

diverse nations. /469/ For example, although Latin is a single language, there are under this single language diverse nations of Bruttii, Lucani,

Apuli, Calabri, Picentes, Tusci and others of their ilk, if I may say so.

Ham the second son [received] from the Rinocoruras to Gadira, containing languages of Punic speech in the region of the Garamantes,

Latin in the northern part, barbarian in the southern region of the Ethiopians and the Egyptians, and of various speech in the barbarous interior:

22 languages in 394 nations. But Japeth, the third [son took] from Media to Gadira and northwards. Japeth had the Tigris River, which divides

Media and Babylonia: 200 nations, in 23 languages of di¡erent speech.

Altogether these made 72 languages, and1,000 nations of the generations, located in this order throughout the threefold world. Japeth, as I said, had the Tigris River, which divides Media and Babylonia, while Shem had the Euphrates and Ham the Geon, which is called the Nile.40

Peleg at the age of 30 begat Reu, and lived thereafter 209 years.41 The Septuagint puts 130 years before the birth of Reu, 108 thereafter.

At this time, temples were ¢rst constructed, and certain rulers of the nations were adored as gods.42

At the age of 32, Reu begat Serug, and lived thereafter 207 years.43 The Septuagint puts 132 years before the birth of Serug, 207 afterwards.

The kingdom of the Scythians, where Tanaus was the ¢rst ruler, is said to have begun.44

Serug at the age of 30 begat Nahor, and lived thereafter 200 years.45 The Septuagint puts 120 years before the birth of Nahor, 200 after.

It is said that the Egyptians inaugurated their empire, Vizoues being the ¢rst to reign over them.46

40 Arnobius, In Psalmos 104, ed. Klaus-D. Daur, CCSL 25 (1990):159.60^160.80.

41 Genesis 11.18.

42 Isidore, Chronica maiora 24 (430).

43 Genesis 11.20.

44 Isidore, Chronica maiora 26 (430).

45 Genesis 11.22.

46 Isidore, Chronica maiora 28 (430).

TRANSLATION

At the age of 29, Nahor begatTerah, and lived thereafter 119 years.47 The Septuagint puts 70 years before the birth of Terah, and 129 after.

The kingdom of the Assyrians and Sycinians begins. Belus wasthe ¢rst to rule over the former, and Aegialius over the latter.48

Terah at the age of 70 begat Abraham, and lived thereafter 135 years.49

The Second Age of the world extends to this point. Having passed its whole sequence in review, St Augustine in The City of God, Book 16, ch.

10, concludes as follows: From the Flood to Abraham, then, there were 1072 years according to the conventional text, that is, [the text] of the Seventy Translators. But far fewer years are found in the Hebrew codices. They can give no reason for this, or only a very tortuous one.50

The Third Age of the world began with the birth of the Patriarch Abraham, who was 75 years old when he left his native country at God's command and went to the land of Canaan, receiving the promise that a saviour would be born of his seed, in whom all the nations would be blessed, and that he himself would become a great nation.51 One of these promises was spiritual, the other carnal.

At this time, Ninus and Semiramis ruled over the Assyrians.52

Abraham at the age of 86 begat Ishmael, from whom the Ishmaelites [are descended].53 Ishmael begat twelve princes and lived 137 years.54

This same Abraham at the age of 100 begat Isaac,55 who is the ¢rst and 47 Genesis 11.24.

48 Isidore, Chronica maiora 30 (431).

49 Genesis 11.26.

50 DCD 16.10 (512.51^55).

51 Genesis 12.4; 13.15.

52 Jerome, Chronicon, ed. Rudolf Helm, Eusebius Werke 7.1, Griechischen christlichen Schriftsteller 24 (Leipzig: J.C. Hinrichs, 1913):20a.1^6, 17^18.

53 Genesis 16.16.

54 Genesis 25.16^17.

55 Genesis 21.5.

THE RECKONING OF TIME

only person in the entire Old Testament who is said to have been circumcised on the eighth day, which is a privilege given to the son of the promise, and not without profound mystery.

Isaac at age 60 begat Esau and Jacob, patriarchs of the Idumean and Israelite peoples.56 After their birth he lived 120 years.

At this time, Inachus ¢rst reigned over the Argives /471/ for 50 years, whose daughter Io the Egyptians worship under the altered name ''Isis''.57

At the age of 130 Jacob went down into Egypt together with seventy souls.58

At this time, Memphis was constructed in Egypt by Ape, king of the Argives.59 Sparta also was founded by Spartus, son of Phoroneus king of the Argives.60

Now the sojourning of the children of Israel, who dwelt in Egypt, was 430 years, and at the end of the 430 years, even on the selfsame day, all of the hosts of the Lord went out from the land of Egypt, as the book of Exodus testi¢es.61 However, the chronographers calculate the sum of these years from the 75th year following the birth of Abraham, when he entered the Promised Land, following the version of the Seventy Translators which says: The sojourning of the children of Israel, in which they and their fathers dwelt in Egypt and in Canaan 430 years. The Hebrew Truth itself shows that this [computation] must of necessity be followed, for it tells that Kohath, son of Levi, who, it claims, was born in the land of Canaan,62 lived for 132 years, and his son Amram the father of Moses for 137 years,63 and Moses himself was 80 years old at the time of the departure from Egypt, and obviously the sum of these years cannot

56 Genesis 25.26.

57 Jerome, Chron. 27b.10^15.

58 Ibid. 33a.4.

59 Ibid. 32b.22^23.

60 Ibid. 33b.18^20.

61 Exodus 12.40^41; Jerome, Chron. 23b.15^25.

62 Genesis 46.11.

63 Exodus 6.18^20.

TRANSLATION

amount to 430. The Apostle also agrees with [the Septuagint] translation when he says, Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not 'And to seeds', as [if referring to] many, but as of one, 'And to thy seed', which is Christ. And this I say, that the covenant con¢rmed before of God, the law, which was 430 years after, cannot annul, to make what was promised to the fathers of no e¡ect.64

Moses ruled over the people of Israel in the desert for 40 years after their departure from Egypt.65 In the ¢rst year he built a tabernacle to the Lord66 and completing the work in seven months, he erected it on the ¢rst day of the ¢rst month of the second year. Up to this point, /472/ as Eusebius observes, the ¢ve books of Moses contain the deeds of 3,730 years, according to the translation of the Seventy Elders.67 In his ¢rst book against Apion the grammarian, Josephus records the number of years which the HebrewTruth contains: Norarethere among us innumerable books, all disagreeing with one another, but only 22 books, which contain the sequence of all the ages, and which are justly believed to be divinely inspired. Of these, ¢ve are by Moses, containing the laws of life and the lineage of human succession down to the death of Moses himself, which they reveal to contain a little less than 3,000 years.68

Joshua ruled over the people of Israel for 26 years, as Josephus teaches,69 for Scripture is silent on the number of years of his leadership. Later on, we will discuss why Eusebius puts it at 27 years in his Chronicle.70 In the ¢rst year of the leadership of Joshua, in the ¢rst month, on the tenth day of the month, the people entered the Promised Land through the exposed channel of the Jordan.71 This year, as we ¢nd in the chronicles of the aforementioned Eusebius, was the beginning of the 51st Jubilee

64 Galatians 3.16^17.

65 Numbers 14.34.

66 Exodus 20 sqq.

67 Jerome, Chron. 46a.1^6.

68 Josephus, Contra Apionem 1.38^39, versio latina ed. C. Boysen, CSEL 37 (1898):11.7^13; cf. Letter to Plegwin 8.

69 Josephus, Antiqu. 5.1.29, ed. Blatt (320.22).

70 Jerome, Chron. 46a.1^3. Bede discusses the reason for this discrepancy s.a.

2790, below.

71 Joshua 4.19.

THE RECKONING OF TIME

according to the Hebrews,72 that is, 2,500 years had been completed since the beginning of the world, with each cycle of the Jubilee being assigned

50 years. But in fact our research has not been able to con¢rm that this is the sum total of this time. It is agreed that up to the Flood there were

1,656 years; and from thence to Abraham (who was 75 years old when he received the promise) 292 years; 430 years of the promise, and 40 years of Moses' leadership. Added together, this makes, not 2,500 years, but seven less, that is 2,493, as we said above.

By God's command, Othniel of the tribe of Judah was made the ¢rst judge over Israel, for 40 years.73 At the outset of his [rule], the sons of Israel served Chushan-rishathaim, king of Mesopotamia, for eight years.74

/473/

Ehud, son of Gera, son of Gemini, who used eitherhand like his right hand, [ruled] for 40 years. In his ¢rst years Israel served Eglon king of Moab for eighteen years, until [Ehud] freed them by slaying Eglon.75

At this time the city of Cyrene was founded in Libya.76

The prophetess Deborah of the tribe of Ephraim, together with Barak of the tribe of Naphtali [ruled] for 40 years.77 At the beginning of their rule Jabin, king of Canaan, who reigned in Hazor, oppressed the sons of Israel for 20 years. But when Sisera, captain of his army, was slain by Israel, he was at length humiliated and destroyed.78

At this time, Miletus was founded.79

Gideon of the tribe of Manasseh [ruled] 40 years,80 under whom Israel 72 Jerome, Chron. 46a.4^8.

73 Jerome, Chron. 47a.7^9.

74 Judges 3.8.

75 Judges 3.15^30.

76 Jerome, Chron. 52b.18^19.

77 Ibid. 53a.6^8.

78 Judges 4.2, 23^24.

79 Jerome, Chron. 55b.3.

80 Ibid. 55b.5^6.

TRANSLATION

served the Midianites and the Amalekites seven years, but they were liberated by Gideon in battle.81

Tyre was founded 240 years before the building of the Temple in Jerusalem, according to Josephus.82

Abimelech, son of Gideon, [ruled] for three years, and he ruled in Shechem.83

Hercules lays Troy waste.84

Tola, son of Puah, uncle of Abimelech, a man of Issachar, [ruled] 23 years; he dwelt in Shamir in Mount Ephraim.85

The battle of the Lapiths and the Centaurs, who (as Palaephatus writes in his ¢rst book On Marvels) were noble horsemen of Thessaly.86

In Troy, Priam ruled after Laomedontes.87

Jair of the tribe of Manasseh [ruled] 22 years.88

Hercules establishes the Olympic Games, from which 430 years are reckoned up to the ¢rst Olympiad.89

Jephthah the Gileadite [ruled] six years. The Philistines and /474/ Ammonites oppressed Israel, and of these the Ammonites were defeated by Jephthah.90 He says in the Book of Judges that from the time of Moses up to his own time there were reckoned 300 years.91

81 Judges 6.3, 14; Jerome, Chron. 55a.5^6, 10.

82 Jerome, Chron. 55a.21^23.

83 Ibid. 57a.7^8.

84 Ibid. 57b.6^7.

85 Judges 10.1^2.

86 Jerome, Chron. 57b.14^17.

87 Ibid. 57b.19^20.

88 Judges 10.3^5; Jerome, Chron. 58a.17.

89 Jerome, Chron. 59b.1^3.

90 Judges 11; Jerome, Chron. 59a.22^23.

91 Judges 11.26; Jerome, Chron. 60a.2^4.

THE RECKONING OF TIME

Ibzan of Bethlehem [ruled] seven years.92

Agamemnon ruled over Mycenae for 35 years, and in the 15th year of his [reign] Troy was captured.93

Elon the Zebulonite ruled for ten years.This man, and these ten years, are not in the Septuagint.94 In order to make up for their omission, Eusebius records more years for Joshua son of Nun, Samuel and Saul (whose years Scripture does not declare) than can be read in Josephus, in order that he might arrive at the sum of 480 years, which Scripture declares

[elapsed] between the departure of Israel from Egypt and the construction of the Temple.

Abdon of the tribe of Ephraim [ruled] eight years.95

In his third year, Troy was captured, 375 years after the ¢rst year of Cecrops, who ¢rst ruled over Attica.96 835 years [had passed] since the 43rd year of the reign of Ninus over the Assyrians.97

After the death of Abdon, Israel served the Philistines for 40 years.98

Samson of the tribe of Dan [ruled] 20 years.99 Up to this point, the Book of Judges has recorded a [period of] time comprising 299 years, and twelve judges.

Aeneas ruled over the Latins, who were later called Romans, for three (or as some would have it, eight) years following the capture of Troy.100

After him, Ascanius [ruled] 39 years.101 Prior to Aeneas, Janus, 92 Judges 12.8^9.

93 Jerome, Chron. 59b.24^25.

94 Judges 12.11; Jerome, Chron. 60a.17^20.

95 Judges 12.14; Jerome, Chron. 60a.18.

96 Jerome, Chron. 61b.2^10.

97 Ibid. 61a.5^6.

98 Judges 13.1.

99 Jerome, Chron. 62a.12.

100 Ibid. 62b.1^8.

101 Ibid. 62b.14^15.

TRANSLATION

Saturnus, Picus, Faunus, and Latinus ruled in Italy forabout150 years.102

Ascanius, the son of Aeneas, built the city of Alba.103

Eli was priest for 40 years. In the books of the Hebrews we ¢nd 40 years, in the Septuagint 20.104 /475/ The sons of Hector retake Troy, after the descendants of Antenor have been expelled; Helenus gave them refuge.105

Silvius, the third son of Aeneas, reigned over the Latins for 29 years.

Because he was born after the death of his father and raised in the country, he took the names ''Silvius'' and ''Posthumus'', whence all the kings of Alba are called ''Silvius''.106

The kings of Sicyon died out, who from Aegealus to Zeuxippus had reigned 962 years. After them the priests of Carnus were established.107

Samuel [ruled] twelve years, as Josephus teaches, but in Holy Scripture it is not evident how long he held pre-eminence.108 From this point on, the time of the Prophets begins.

Aeneas Silvius, the fourth [king] of the Latins, [ruled] 31 years.109

Saul, the ¢rst king of the Hebrews, ruled 20 years.110 We have recorded the duration of his reign from the Antiquities of Josephus, because it is not contained in the canonical Scripture.

Eurystheus ¢rst ruled in Lacedaemonia for 42 years, and Alethis ¢rst ruled in Corinth for 35 years.111

The Fourth Age of the world begins not only with the inception of the rule of the tribe of Judah, but also with a renewal of the promise of Chris102 Ibid. 62b.9^12.

103 Ibid. 62b.19^20.

104 Ibid. 63a.13^14, 14^17.

105 Ibid. 63b.17^19.

106 Ibid. 64b.9^13.

107 Ibid. 64a.15^26.

108 Josephus, Antiqu. 6.13 (Cologne: ex aedibus Eucharii Cervicorni, 1534): fol. 63v.

109 Jerome, Chron. 66b.1^2.

110 Josephus, Antiqu. 6 ¢n. (fol. 66r).

111 Jerome, Chron. 66b.9^11.

THE RECKONING OF TIME

tian rule once given to the patriarchs, the Lord swearing in truth unto David, of the fruit of his body would He set upon his throne.112

David, the ¢rst king from the tribe of Judah, [ruled] 40 years.113

Latinus Silvius, ¢fth [king] of the Latins, [ruled] 50 years.114

Ephesus is founded by Andronicus.115

Carthage is founded, as some would have it, by Carcedon of Tyre, but others [say] by his daughter Dido, 143 years after the Trojan War.116

Solomon, son of David, [ruled] 40 years.117 In the fourth year of his reign, and in the second month, he began to build a Temple for the Lord /476/ in Jerusalem, 480 years after the departure of Israel from Egypt, as is also the testimony of the Book of Kings.118 [The Temple] was ¢nished in seven years, and dedicated in the seventh month of the eighth year, as a symbol of the totality of time in which the Church of Christ, which is made perfect in the future [age], is built up in this world.119 Alba Silvius, son of Aeneas Silvius, sixth [king] of the Latins, ruled 39 years.120 The Queen of Sheba came to hear the wisdom of Solomon.121

Rehoboam son of Solomon [ruled] 17 years.122 Jeroboam of the tribe of Ephraim separated ten tribes from the house of David and from the Lord.123 He is a symbol of the heretics, who dissociate their followers from Christ and His Church. In [Rehoboam's] ¢fth year, Shishak king of Egypt came to Jerusalem and looted the Temple.124

112 Psalm 132 (131).11.

113 Jerome, Chron. 67a.17^19.

114 Ibid. 67b.13^15.

115 Ibid. 69b.13^14.

116 Ibid. 69b.19^23.

117 Ibid. 69a.22^23.

118 Ibid. 70a.1^6, 70b.1^5; I Kings 6.31. Cf. Bede, De tem. 1 (157.393^158.451).

119 I Kings 6.38. Cf. Bede, De tem. 2 (196.189^197.234).

120 Jerome, Chron. 70b.14^15.

121 I Kings 10.1.

122 Jerome, Chron. 72a.5.

123 I Kings 12.20.

124 II Chronicles 12.2; Jerome, Chron. 72a.18^20.

TRANSLATION

Aegyptus Silvius, son of the previous king of Alba, [ruled] 24 years [as] seventh [king] of the Latins.125

Samos is founded and Smyrna is expanded into a city.126

Abijah son of Rehoboam [ruled] three years.127 He overcame Jeroboam when [Jeroboam] attacked him, and 15,000 of [Jeroboam's] soldiers were killed, because [the people of Judah] relied in the Lord.128

Asa son of Abijah [ruled] 41 years.129 Ben-Haddad king of Damascus in Syria advanced against Israel and smote all the land of Naphtali.130

Capys Silvius, son of Aegyptus the previous king, [ruled] 28 years [as] eighth king of the Latins.131

Asa destroyed the idols, puri¢ed the Temple, and overthrew Zara the Ethiopian, together with his army, when he went out against him. Omri king of Israel bought the hills of Samaria from Shemer for two talents of silver and constructed [Samaria].132 Hiel the Bethelite restored

Jericho.133

Jehoshaphat son of Asa [ruled] 25 years.134 Elijah the Tishbite withheld the rain for three and a half years because of the sins of Ahab and the people of Israel.135 Amongst other mighty deeds, he anointed Elisha son of Shaphat of Abelmeholah to be a prophet in his place.136

Carpentus Silvius, son of the previous king Capys, ruled as ninth [king] of the Latins for 13 years.137 After him, his son Tyberinus Silvius

125 Jerome, Chron. 72b.18^19.

126 Ibid. 72b.24^26.

127 I Kings 15.2; Jerome, Chron. 73a.8.

128 II Chronicles 13.17^18.

129 II Chronicles 16.13; Jerome, Chron. 73a.15.

130 II Kings 13.3; II Chronicles 16.4.

131 Jerome, Chron. 74b.7^8.

132 I Kings 16.24.

133 I Kings 16.34.

134 Jerome, Chron. 75a.26.

135 I Kings 17.1.

136 I Kings 19.16.

137 Jerome, Chron. 75b.21^23.

THE RECKONING OF TIME

[ruled] 8 years, after whom the river Tiber is named, which was called Albula before.138 After him, his son Agrippa Silvius [ruled] 40 years.139

Jehoshaphat did what was right before the Lord.140

Jehoram son of Jehoshaphat [ruled] 8 years.141 Elijah is carried o¡ into heaven (as it were) in a ¢ery chariot, and the bereaved Elisha, the heir of his prophetic power, cleanses the waters of Jericho in his ¢rst miracle.142

In the days of Jehoram, Edom seceded lest it be subject to Judah, and set up a king for itself.143 Jehoram walked in the ways of the house of Ahab, for the daughter of Ahab was his wife.144

Azariah son of Jehoram [ruled] one year.145 Jehonadab son of Rechab attained renown.146 The evangelist Matthew excluded Azariah from the genealogy [of Christ], together with his son Joash and grandson

Amaziah, because of the enormity of their crimes, and because neither father nor son had anything good about them.

AthaliahmotherofAzariah[ruled]6years.147She,seeing hersonAzariah killed byJehu king of Israel, slew all theroyal line of the house of Jehoram save Joash, son of Azariah, whom Jehoshabeath sister of Azariah and wife of Jehoiada stole away from the midst of the kings' sons, when they were slain.148 In the Septuagint, Athaliah is said to have reigned 7 years.

Joash the son of Azariah [ruled] 40 years.149 This [king], who started o¡ 138 Ibid. 76b.21^24.

139 Ibid. 77b.10^11.

140 I Kings 22.

141 II Kings 8.17; Jerome, Chron. 77a.23.

142 II Kings 2.

143 II Kings 8.20.

144 II Kings 8.18.

145 II Kings 8.24^25; Jerome, Chron. 78a.9.

146 II Kings 10.15; Jerome, Chron. 78a.14^16.

147 II Chronicles 22.12.

148 II Chronicles 22.10^11.

149 II Kings 12.1; Jerome, Chron. 78a.24.

TRANSLATION

well and ended very badly, restored the Temple at the beginning of his reign; /478/ at the end, among other outrages, he ordered Zechariah, son of Jehoiada, who was once his guardian, and who made him king, to be stoned between the Temple and the altar.150 The Lord in the Gospel gives a distinctive epithet to the son of Zechariah, that is, ''blessed of the Lord'', for the sake of his merits.151

Aremulus Silvius, son of the previous king Agrippa, ruled for 19 years as twelfth [king] of the Latins. He established the stronghold of the Albi in the hills where Rome now stands. His son was Julius, great grandfather of Julius Proculus, who, migrating to Rome with Romulus, founded the Julian clan.152

Amaziah son of Joash [ruled] 29years.153 Elisha the prophet died and was buried in Samaria.154 Hazael king of Syria oppressed Israel.155

Aventinus Silvius, elder son of the previous king Aremulus, ruled as thirteenth king of the Latins for 37 years. He died and was buried on the hill which is now a part of the city, and bestowed the name of ''eternal'' on the spot.156

Azariah, also called Uzziah, son of Amaziah, [ruled] 52 years.157

Thonos Concoleros, who in Greek is called Sardanapalus, 36th [king] of the Assyrians, built Tharsus and Anchiale, and when he was defeated in battle by Arbaces the Mede, he burnt himself to death in a ¢re.158

History relates that there were kings of Assyria up to this point in time, and that altogether [they ruled] 1,197 years. All the years of the kingdom of Assyria from the ¢rst year of Ninus total 1240 years.159

Procas Silvius, son of Aventinus the previous king, ruled as fourteenth 150 II Chronicles 24.21.

151 The allusion is to John the Baptist, whose father was named Zechariah (Luke 1.5 sqq.).

152 Jerome, Chron. 79b.22^80b.5.

153 II Kings 14.2; Jerome, Chron. 81a.6.

154 II Kings 13.20.

155 II Kings 13.22.

156 Jerome, Chron. 81b.1^7.

157 II Kings 15.1^2; Jerome, Chron. 82a.25^26.

158 Ibid. 82a.1^3, 19^24.

159 Ibid. 83a.7^10.

THE RECKONING OF TIME

[king] of the Latins for 23 years.160 After him Amulius Silvius, the ¢fteenth [king], ruled 43 years.161

Arbaces the Mede, having destroyed the empire of the Assyrians, transferred sovereignty to the Medes, where he was the ¢rst to rule, for 28 years.162

The kingdom of the Macedonians was established, whose ¢rst king, Caranus, ruled 28 years.163 The kings of the Lacedaemonians died out,164 and those of the Lydians began.165 /479/

Jotham son of Uzziah [ruled] 16 years.166

Olympias was ¢rst founded by the Elisians 405 years after the capture of Troy.167

Mars and Ilia beget Romulus and Remus.168

Amongst other good deeds, Jotham built the uppermost gate of the house of the Lord,169 which in the Acts of the Apostles is called ''Beautiful''.170 All the gates of the Temple were [built] into the ground except the Beautiful Gate, which was suspended, and which the Jews called the gate of Jotham.

Ahaz son of Jotham [ruled] 16 years.171

Tiglath-Pileser king of Assyria came up and slew Rezin, king of Syria, and carried o¡ the inhabitants of Damascus to Cyrene.172

Rome was founded on the Palatine hill on the 11th kalends of May [21 April] by the twins Romulus and Remus, sons of Rhea Silvia, who was the daughter of Numitor, brother of King Amulius. She was a Vestal

160 Ibid. 83b.10^11.

161 Ibid. 84b.20^21.

162 Ibid. 83a.13^15, 11^12.

163 Ibid. 83b.21^23.

164 Ibid. 86b.2^3.

165 Ibid. 85b.24^25.

166 II Kings 15.33; Jerome, Chron. 86a.26.

167 Jerome, Chron. 86a.7^8.

168 Ibid. 87b.1^2.

169 II Kings 15.35.

170 Acts 3.2.

171 Jerome, Chron. 87a.25; cf. 86a.25.

172 II Kings 16.2, 5^9.

TRANSLATION

Virgin, but was ravished.173 In the third year after the foundation of the City, the Sabine women were carried o¡ at the games of the Consualia.174

Remus is killed with a rustic shovel by Fabius, Romulus' general.175

Hezekiah son of Ahaz [reigned] 29years.176 In his sixth year Shalmaneser king of Assyria, having captured Samaria, carried o¡ Israel to Assyria, whose kingdom from the ¢rst year of Rehoboam had stood for 360 years.177

After the death of Romulus, who reigned for 38 years, the senators governed the republic for ¢ve days, and in this way one year was completed.178 After them, Numa Pompilius [ruled] 41 years; he built the Capitol from its foundations.179 /480/

Manasseh, son of Hezekiah, [ruled] 55years.180 On account of his crimes, he was carried o¡, chained and shackled, to Babylon, but was restored to his kingdom because of his penitence and prayers.181

Tullius Hostilius, third [king] of the Romans, ruled 32 years. He was the ¢rst king of the Romans to use purple and the fasces,182 and he expanded the City by annexing the Caelian hill.183

Amon, son of Manasseh, [ruled] two years.184 In the Hebrew Truth it is read that he ruled for two years, and in the Septuagint, for 20.185

173 Jerome, Chron. 88a.5^6; Eutropius, Breviarium ab urbe condita 1.1., ed. C.

Santini (Leipzig: Teubner, 1979):3.1^5.

174 Jerome, Chron. 88a.11^12.

175 Ibid. 88a.7^8.

176 II Chronicles 29.1; Jerome, Chron. 89a.12^13.

177 II Kings 18.9. The Bible says that these events took place in Shalmaneser's fourth year.

178 Jerome, Chron. 91a.5^8.

179 Ibid. 91b.9^10.

180 Ibid. 91a.11^12.

181 II Chronicles 33.11^13.

182 Jerome, Chron. 93a.25^26.

183 Ibid. 94a.16^17.

184 II Kings 21.19; Jerome, Chron. 95a.3.

185 Jerome, Chron. 95a.4^6.

THE RECKONING OF TIME

Istrus, a city in Pontus, was founded.186

Amon is slain by his servants.187

Josiah son of Amon [ruled] 31 years.188 Having puri¢ed Judaea and Jerusalem, he restored the Temple, and after casting out the impurities of idolatry, he made a very celebrated Passover unto the Lord in the 18th year of his reign. When he went forth against Necho, king of the Egyptians, he was slain in the ¢eld of Megiddo,189 which is now called Maximianopolis.190

Ancus Marcius, Numa's grandson by his daughter, [ruled as] fourth [king] of the Romans for 23 years. He added the Aventine hill and the Janiculum to the City, and founded Ostia on the sea coast 16 miles from the City.191 After him Tarquinius Priscus ruled 37 years. He built the Circus at Rome, augmented the number of senators, instituted the Roman games, built walls and sewers, and constructed the Capitol.192

In the Hebrew [version of the Bible] Josiah is read to have reigned for 31 years, and in the Septuagint for 32.193 But Eusebius adds another year, taken from his [reign], between his reign and that of Jehoiakim, on account of the two [periods] of three months in which Jehoahaz and Jehoiakin ruled.194 In fact, Jeremiah demonstrates what the [Hebrew]

Truth would hold: he testi¢es that he prophesied for 33 years from the thirteenth year of Josiah to the fourth year of Jehoiakim. /481/

Nebuchadnezzar began to reign in the fourth year of Jehoiakim, and in the nineteenth year of his reign, Jerusalem was destroyed.195

Jehoiakim son of Joash [ruled] 11years.196 After Josiah, Jehoahaz his son ruled for three months.197 Necho defeated him and carried him o¡ into 186 Ibid. 95b.4.

187 II Chronicles 33.24.

188 II Kings 22.1; II Chronicles 34.1.

189 II Chronicles 35.

190 Jerome, In Zachariam 3.12.11^14, ed. M. Adraien, CCSL 76A (1970):869.335.

191 Jerome, Chron. 96a.5^6, 97a.9^13.

192 Ibid. 97a.15^16, 99a.11^14, 97b.14^15.

193 II Chronicles 34.1; Jerome, Chron. 96a.24.

194 Jerome, Chron. 98a.1^4.

195 Jeremiah 25.1 sqq.

196 II Kings 23.36; Jerome, Chron. 98a.4.

197 II Kings 24.8.

TRANSLATION

Egypt, and set up Jehoiakim as king. In his third year, Nebuchadnezzar captured Jerusalem, and took many prisoners, among whom were

Daniel, Ananias, Azarias and Misael, and carried o¡ part of the Temple vessels to Babylon.198 Scripture computes the reign of Nebuchadnezzar from the fourth year of Jehoiakim, because from this point on, he began to rule not only over the Chaldeans and the Jews, but also over the Assyrians, Egyptians, Moabites and countless other peoples. Jehoiakin, also called Jeconiah, son of Jehoiakim [reigned] for three months and eleven days.199 When Jerusalem was surrounded by the Chaldeans, he went out to the king of Babylon together with his mother, and he was taken o¡ to Babylon with his people in the eighth year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar.200

Zedechiah, also called Mattaniah, son of Josiah, [ruled] 11 years.201 In his eleventh year, and in the nineteenth year of the king of Babylon,

Judaea was carried away captive into Babylon and the Temple of the Lord was burnt, 430 years after its foundation.202 The Jews who were left behind took refuge in Egypt.203 Five years later, Egypt was smitten by the Chaldeans, and these people too were exiled to Babylon.

The Fifth Age of the world began after the extinction of the kingdom of Judah, which lasted, in accordance with the prophecy of Jeremiah, for 70 years.204

In the fourteenth year after the city was attacked,which was the 25thyear of the deportation of King Jehoiakin, with whom Ezekiel was taken captive, this same Ezekiel, borne o¡ in the visions of God to the land of Israel, saw the restoration of the city, and of the Temple and its ceremonies.205

Servius reigned 34 years as twelfth [king] of the Romans. He added 198 II Kings 25.1; Jerome, Chron. 98a.11^16.

199 II Chronicles 36.9; Jerome, Chron. 99a.3^4.

200 II Kings 24.10^12.

201 Jerome, Chron. 98a.26^99a.1.

202 II Kings 25.2^12.

203 II Kings 25.26.

204 Jeremiah 25.11^12.

205 Ezekiel 40.1 sqq.

THE RECKONING OF TIME

three /482/ hills to the City ^ the Quirinal, Esquiline and Viminal ^ laid moats around the walls, and instituted the ¢rst census of the Roman people.206

Inthe 26th year after the overthrow of Jerusalem, whichisthe37thyearof the deportation of King Jehoiakin, Evilmerodach, king of Babylon, in the year that he began to reign did lift up the head of Jehoiakin king of Judah out of prison, and set his throne above the throne of the kings that were with him in Babylon.207 Jeremiah had in mind this time, but also the future, when he wrote as follows: Behold, I will send and take all the families of the north, saith the Lord, and Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon my servant, and will bring them against this land, and against the inhabitants thereof, and against all these nations round about, and will utterly destroy them, and make them an astonishment, and an hissing, and perpetual desolations and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years, and when the seventy years are accomplished, I will visit upon the king of Babylon and upon that nation (says the Lord) their iniquity, and upon the land of the Chaldeans, and will make it perpetual desolations.208 And writing elsewhere to the exiles which Nebuchadnezzar carried o¡ to Babylon with King Jeconiah, he says: After seventy years be accomplished at Babylon I will visit you, and perform my good work toward you, in causing you to return to this place, says the Lord.209

Again, the words of the same man called to mind the days gone by as follows: And them that escaped from the sword carried he away into Babylon; where they were servants to him and his sons until the reign of the kingdom of Persia: to ful¢l the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed her sabbaths: for as long as she lay desolate she kept sabbath, to ful¢l threescore and ten years. Now in the ¢rst year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the Lord spoken by the mouth of Jeremiah might be accomplished, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, and so on.210 It is plain by these words that after Judea had been laid waste, the Chaldeans did not send in settlers, as the Assyrians [had done] /483/ in Samaria, but left the land deserted until

206 Jerome, Chron. 101a.7^8, 10^14.

207 II Kings 25.27^28.

208 Jeremiah 25.9, 11^12.

209 Jeremiah 29.10.

210 II Chronicles 36.20^22.

TRANSLATION

the Jews themselves could return there after 70 years. Josephus agrees with this; he writes in his book of Antiquities that the Temple, and Jerusalem, and all of Judea remained desolate for 70 years. On the other hand, in enumerating the kings of Babylon (if indeed he wrote this, and a faulty codex is not in error) [Josephus] calculates almost 100 years from the overthrow of Jerusalem to the overthrow of the kingdom of the Chaldeans. For he writes that after Nebuchadnezzar, who according to Holy Scripture lived 25 years after the overthrow of Jerusalem, his son Evilmerodach ruled 18 years. After him, his son Hegesar ruled 40 years, who was succeeded for nine months by his son Labosordach.

Upon his death, the kingdom passed to Belshazzar, who is called Naboan: when he had reigned 17 years, Babylon was captured by Cyrus the Persian and Darius the Mede. And there follows: Darius, son of Astiagis, who together with Cyrus his kinsman destroyed the realm of the Babylonians, was 62 years of age when Babylon was invaded. However, the Greeks call him by another name. Summoning Daniel the prophet, he carried him o¡ to Media and bestowed every honour upon him.211 Daniel himself calls to mind this Darius: In the ¢rst year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus, of the seed of the Medes, who was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans, I Daniel understood by books the number of the years, whereof the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah the prophet, that seventy years would be accomplished in the desolation of Jerusalem.212 Eusebius in the Chronicle computes 30 years from the overthrow of Jerusalem to the beginning [of the reign] of Cyrus, king of the Persians, but Julius Africanus [computes] 70 [years].213 Furthermore Jerome, in his commentary on the Prophet Daniel says this: Concerning the 70th year, in which Jeremiah said that the captivity of the Jewish people would be loosed, and of which Zechariah also speaks in the beginning of his book, the Hebrews recount a legend like this. Belshazzar, thinking that God's assurance was void and his promise false, turned it into a cause for merriment /484/ and made a great feast, insulting the hope of the Jews and the vessels of the Temple of God. But vengeance was executed immediately.214

211 Josephus, Antiqu. 10.13 (Cologne 1534 ed., fol. 109v^110v; quotation is on fol.

110v).

212 Daniel 9.1^2.

213 Jerome, Chron. 100a.20^102a.12.

214 Jerome, In Dan. 2.5.2 (821.30^37).

THE RECKONING OF TIME

Cyrus, ¢rst [king] of the Persians, reigned 30 years.215 In order that the word of the Lord from the mouth of Jeremiah might be ful¢lled, in the ¢rst year of his reign he loosed the captivity of the Hebrews. He caused about 50,000 people to return to Judea, and restored to them 5,400 gold and silver vessels from the Temple of the Lord.216 Gathering in Jerusalem, they built an altar in the seventh month, and from the ¢rst day of the same month they began to o¡er burnt sacri¢ces unto the Lord. In the second year after their arrival, in the second month, they laid the foundation for the Temple, 72 years after its destruction according to Africanus, but 32 years according to the Chronicle of Eusebius.217 But because of the obstruction of the Samaritans the work was interrupted until the second year of Darius.218 Even in the reigns of Ahasuerus and Artaxerxes [the Samaritans] wrote accusations against the Jews, and they wrote again to Artaxerxes that Jerusalem should not be rebuilt.219

Tarquin, seventh [king] of the Romans, ruled 35 years.220 He was expelled from his kingdom on account of his son Tarquin the Younger, who violated Lucretia.221

Cambyses, son of Cyrus [ruled] eight years.222 When he had conquered Egypt, he suppressed its rites and temples, for he utterly loathed its religion.223 He constructed Babylon in Egypt.224 They say that the Hebrews call him a second Nebuchadnezzar. The history of Judith was written in his reign.225

The Magi brothers rule seven months.226

215 Jerome, Chron. 102a.19^20.

216 I Esdras 2.13; Jerome, Chron. 102a.18^20.

217 Jerome, Chron. 102a.22.

218 Ezra 4.24.

219 Ezra 4.6^16.

220 Jerome, Chron. 104a.11.

221 Jerome, Chron. 104a.5^8; Eutropius 1.8. (4.25^5.2).

222 Jerome, Chron. 104a.11.

223 Orosius, Historiarum adversus paganos libri quinque 2.8.2, ed. C. Zangemeister, CSEL 5 (1882):99.17^100.2.

224 Josephus, Antiqu. 2.15.1, ed. Blatt (212.4^7).

225 Jerome, Chron. 104a.12^15.

226 Ibid. 104a.23^24.

TRANSLATION

Joshua [was] the high priest and Zerubabbel the prince of the people.227 TheProphetsHaggai,ZechariahandMalachiwereeminent.228

Pythagoras the natural philosopher was considered famous.229

Darius [ruled] 36 years.230 We ¢nd in the Chronicle /485/ of Eusebius that two Magi brothers ruled between Darius and Cambyses.231 In fact

Jerome in his commentary on Daniel writes: After Cambyses, Smerdes the Magus ruled. He took Panthaptes the daughter of Cambyses as his wife. After he had been killed by seven Magi, and Darius had taken over the kingdom in his place, Panthaptes married Darius and had a son by him, Xerxes.232

In the second year of Darius, the seventy years of the captivity of Jerusalem were accomplished, according to Eusebius,233 based on the testimony of Zechariah the prophet, to whom in the second year of Darius an angel said: O Lord of hosts, how long wilt thou not have mercy on Jerusalem and on the cities of Judah, against which thou hast been indignant? Now is the seventieth year.234 Again in the fourth year of King Darius the same prophet says: When ye fasted and mourned those seventy years, did ye not fast unto me?235 In the sixth year of Darius the building of the Temple was completed, on the third day of the month of Adar,236 which is 46 years after its foundations were laid under Cyrus.

Hence in the Gospel the Jews say, Forty and six years was this temple in building.237 For they began to build in the second year of Darius, in the sixth month, on the 24th day, and they ¢nished, as was said, in the sixth year, in the twelfth month, on the third day. From which it appears that 227 Ibid. 104a.16^18.

228 Ibid. 104a.21^22.

229 Ibid. 104b.12^13.

230 Ibid. 104a.25^26.

231 Ibid. 104a.23^24.

232 Jerome, In Dan. 3.11.2 (898.834^837).

233 Jerome, Chron. 105b.5^22.

234 Zechariah 1.12.

235 Zechariah 7.5.

236 Ezra 6.15. Bede's attention throughout this chapter to dating events concerning the Temple might be compared to his Hom. 2.24 (363.187^364.228), which recounts, with great chronological precision, the history of the three Jewish Temples from the time of Solomon to the time of Christ.

237 John 2.20.

THE RECKONING OF TIME

since the work on the Temple had been carried out to a considerable degree beforehand, the 70 years should be computed from its destruction until permission was granted for its full restoration.

After the kings, who had ruled for 243 years, had been expelled from the city, Rome held sway barely up to the ¢fteenth milestone.238 After the kings were driven away, consuls were ¢rst instituted at Rome with Brutus, then the tribunes of the people and the dictators. The consuls ruled the republic for almost 464 years, up to Julius Caesar, who ¢rst seized exclusive power in the 183rd Olympiad.239

Xerxes, son of Darius, [ruled] 20 years.240 He captured Egypt, which Darius had abandoned.241 /486/ It is related that he set o¡ to ¢ght the Greeks with 70,000 soldiers from his kingdoms and 300 auxiliaries, 1,200 prowed ships and 300 transport vessels. Nevertheless he was defeated, and £ed back to his homeland.242

Herodotus, writer of histories, [lived].243

Zeuxis the painter won recognition.244

Artabanus [ruled] seven months.245

Socrates was born.246

Artaxerxes, also called ''Long-Hands'' (that is, makro¤ weir) [ruled] 40 years.247

In his seventh year, on the ¢rst day of the ¢rst month, Ezra the priest and scribe of the Law of God went up from Babylon with the king's letters,248 and on the ¢rst day of the ¢fth month came to Jerusalem with 238 Jerome, Chron. 106.13^15, 19.

239 Ibid. 106.20^26.

240 Ibid. 108.23.

241 Ibid. 108.25.

242 Orosius 2.9.1^2, 2.10 (102.10^103.1, 105.3^107.15).

243 Jerome, Chron. 110.2.

244 Ibid. 110.6.

245 Ibid. 110.15^16.

246 Ibid. 110.12.

247 Ibid. 110.18^21.

248 Ezra 7.9.

TRANSLATION

1700 men, and among other deeds of zeal, he chastised the sons of the exile because of their foreign wives.249 In the twentieth year of the same

[king], Nehemiah the cupbearer, arriving from the fortress of Susa, rebuilt the wall of Jerusalem250 in 52 days, and was leader of the nation for twelve years.

Up to this point Holy Scripture follows a chronological sequence. The deeds of the Jews which follow hereafter are recorded in the Books of the Maccabees, and in the writings of Josephus and Africanus, who survey the history of the world from the beginning up to Roman times.251 Africanus calls to mind this time in the ¢fth book of his chronicle: The work remained un¢nished until Nehemiah and the 20th year of Artaxerxes, at which time 115 years of Persian rule had passed. It was the 185th year following the capture of Jerusalem. Then Artaxerxes ¢rst commanded that the walls of Jerusalem should be erected, and Nehemiah presided over the work, and the street [platea] was built and the walls [were raised] around. And if you wish to count from that time, you will be able to ¢nd seventy weeks of years up to Christ.252

Xerxes ruled two months.253 After him Sogdianus [ruled] seven months.254

Plato was born.255

The physician Hippocrates was reputed famous.256

Darius surnamed Nothus [ruled] 19 years.257 Egypt broke away from the Persians.258 When the Jews returned from captivity, it was priests and not kings who ruled over them up to the time of Aristobolus, who began to assume the royal title together with the priestly dignity.259

249 Ezra 10.10^11.

250 Jerome, Chron. 112.24^113.3.

251 Ibid. 113.7^13.

252 Jerome, In Dan. 3.9.24, lines 173^181. The ''seventy weeks of years'' allude to 7067 or 490 years; cf. ch. 9.

253 Jerome, Chron. 115.15^16.

254 Ibid. 115.18.

255 Ibid. 115.13.

256 Ibid. 114.8^10.

257 Ibid. 115.19^20.

258 Ibid. 116.5^6.

259 Ibid. 148.6^10; Jerome, In Dan. 3.9.24 (873.318^320); Augustine, DCD 18.36

(632.12^13), and 18.45 (642.45^47).

THE RECKONING OF TIME

Artaxerxes, also known as Mnemon, son of Darius and Parysatidis, [ruled] 40 years.260 The story of Esther was written under this king. This is he who is called Ahasuerus by the Hebrews and Artaxerses by the Seventy Translators.261

The Athenians, who hitherto had used sixteen letters, began to use twenty-four.262

The celebrated Carthaginian war [took place].263 The Gauls [called] Senones under their leader Brennus captured Rome except for the Capitol, and devastated the burnt [city] for six months.264 Military tribunes start to be proconsuls.265

Aristotle is Plato's disciple, and continues as such for eighteen years.266

Artaxerxes, who is called Ochus, [reigned] 26 years.267 He annexed Egypt to his empire, and drove King Nectanebo into Ethiopia; with [Nechtanebo] the kingdom of the Egyptians came to an end.268

The orator Demonsthenes is renowned in the opinion of all.269

The Romans defeat the Gauls.270

Plato died; Speusippus was head of the Academy after him.271

Arses son of Ochus [ruled] four years.272 /488/ Jaddus, high priest of the Jews, was pre-eminent.273 His brother Manasses built the temple on Mount Gerizim.274

260 Jerome, Chron. 116.23^117.2.

261 Ibid. 117.1^8.

262 Ibid. 117.23^26.

263 Ibid. 118.12^13.

264 Ibid. 118.16^18; Orosius 2.19.5.13 (130.5^132.11).

265 Jerome, Chron. 118.24^26.

266 Ibid. 120.17^18.

267 Ibid. 120.19^21.

268 Ibid. 121.18^21.

269 Ibid. 121.26^122.1.

270 Ibid. 122.2.

271 Ibid. 122.5^7.

272 Ibid. 122.17^18.

273 Ibid. 122.16^18.

274 Ibid. 123.1^3.

TRANSLATION

Speusippus died, and was succeeded by Xenocrates.275

In the fourth year of Ochus, Alexander, son of Philip and Olympias, being 20 years of age, began to reign over the Macedonians.276

Darius son of Arsamus [ruled] six years.277

Alexander waged war successfully against the Illyrians and the Thracians, overthrew Thebes, and took up arms against the Persians. After defeating their royal generals at the river Granicus, he captured the city of Sardis.278 When he had captured Tyre, he invaded Judea. There he was received with favour, and made sacri¢ces to God, and bestowed many honours upon Jaddus priest of the Temple, after he had dismissed Andromachus as guardian of the [holy] places.279 In the seventh year of his reign he built Alexandria in Egypt.280 Immediately thereafter he captured Babylon and slew Darius, with whom the Persian empire, which had endured 231 years, died out.281

At this time, the Romans subjugated the Latins.282

Alexander reigned for ¢ve years after the death of Darius, and seven years before.283 Alexander captured the Hyrcanians and the Mardi.

Returning to Ammon, he built Paraetonium.284 He reached the Indian Ocean more by victories than by battles.285 Returning to Babylon, he died from a poisoned draught in the thirty-second year of his life and the twelfth of his reign.286 After [Alexander], the empire was handed on to a number of men. Ptolemy son of Lagus held Egypt. Philip called

Arideus, the brother of Alexander [took] Macedon. Seleucus Nicanor reigned over Syria, Babylon, and all the kingdoms of the East, and 275 Ibid. 122.19^20.

276 Ibid. 122.17^18.

277 Ibid. 123.2^3.

278 Ibid. 123.4^10.

279 Ibid. 123.16^20.

280 Ibid. 123.25^26.

281 Ibid. 124.1^3.

282 Ibid. 123.26^27.

283 Ibid. 124; cf. I Maccabees 1.7.

284 Jerome, Chron. 124.13^15.

285 Orosius 3.19 (179.14 sqq.).

286 Jerome, Chron. 124.25^26; In Dan. 3.11.3, 4a (899.860^861).

THE RECKONING OF TIME

Antigonus over Asia.287 These men are designated by Daniel as the four horns of the goat which smote the ram.288 /489/

Ptolemy son of Lagus ¢rst ruled over Egypt for 40 years.289

Appius Claudius Caecus was held in eminence in Rome. He put the Claudian aqueduct in place, and paved the Via Appia.290

Ptolemy brought Jerusalem and Judea under his sway by fraud, and carried o¡ many captives into Egypt.291

Onias the son of Jaddus, high priest of the Jews, was pre-eminent.292

In the thirteenth year of Ptolemy, Seleucus Nicanor began to rule over Syria, Babylon and the upper regions.293 The Hebrew history of the Maccabees reckons the kingdom of the Greeks from this point;294 the Edessans also compute their chronology from this [point].295 Seleucis built the cities of Seleucia, Laodicea, Antioch, Apamia, Edessa, Beroea and Pella.296 Simon, son of Onias, a most devout and pious high priest of the Jews, was pre-eminent.297 After him, his brother Eleazar received the o⁄ce of ministry in the Temple; his son Onias was passed over because he was only a little boy.298 Seleucus deported the Jews into the cities he had built, granting them citizenship rights and municipal government on a par with the Greeks.299

Ptolemy Philadelphus ruled 38 years.300 Sostratus of Cnidus built the lighthouse of Alexandria.301 Ptolemy allowed the Jews who were in Egypt

287 Jerome, In Dan. 2.8.5b^9a (854.835^839).

288 Daniel 8.8 sqq.

289 Jerome, Chron. 125.1^5.

290 Ibid. 125.6^8.

291 Ibid. 125.17^19.

292 Ibid. 125.20^21.

293 Ibid. 126.16^20.

294 Ibid. 126.16^18.

295 Ibid. 126.24^25.

296 Ibid. 127.8^10.

297 Ibid. 127.16^18.

298 Ibid. 128.21^24.

299 Ibid. 128.15^19.

300 Ibid. 129.7^9.

301 Ibid. 129.10^11.

TRANSLATION

to gofree,andgave Jerusalemtothe High Priest Eleazar, along with many vessels as gifts fortheTemple. He sought outthe SeventyTranslators, who turned Holy Scripture into the Greek language.302 Aratus gains recognition.303 After Eleazar, his uncle Manasses takes over the priesthood of the Jews.304 It is said that the power of this Ptolemy was so great /490/ that he outstripped his father Ptolemy, for the histories recount that he had 200,000 foot soldiers, 20,000 cavalry, 2,000 chariots, 4,000 elephants

(which he was the ¢rst to import from Ethiopia), etc.305

Ptolemy Evergetes, brother of the previous king, [ruled] 26 years.306 The Egyptians called him Evergetes because when he had captured Syria and Cilicia and then all of Asia, he restored to [the Egyptian] gods, out of the innumerable pieces of silver and precious vessels which he captured, those

[pieces] which Cambyses had carried o¡ into Persia after the capture of Egypt.307

Onias, son of Simon the Just, High Priest of the Jews, was preeminent.308 His son Simon enjoyed no less glory; under him, Jesus son of Sirach wrote the Book of Wisdom, which they call Panareton, and even mentions Simon in it.309

Ptolemy Philopator son of Evergetes [ruled] 17 years.310 Antiochus king of Syria annexed Judea after the defeat of Philopator.311 Onias, son of Simon, high priest of the Jews, is pre-eminent, to whom King Arius of the Lacedaemonians sent ambassadors.312

302 Ibid. 129.15^23.

303 Ibid. 130.18.

304 Ibid. 131.22^24.

305 Jerome, In Dan. 3.11.5b (901.912^902.916).

306 Jerome, Chron. 132.8^10. Ptolemy III Evergetes was actually the son of Ptolemy II Philadelphus.

307 Jerome, In Dan. 3.11.7^9 (904.975^905.982).

308 Jerome, Chron. 132.10^13.

309 Ibid. 133.16^22.

310 Ibid. 134.9^12.

311 Ibid. 135.4^5.

312 Ibid. 135.8^11.

THE RECKONING OF TIME

Ptolemy Epiphanes son of Philopator [ruled] 24 years.313

The second Book of the Maccabees contains the events which took place amongst the Jews at this time.314 Onias the priest £ed into Egypt, taking many of the Jews with him. He was honorably received by Ptolemy, and given the region called Heliopolis. With the king's permission, he constructed a temple in Egypt similar to the Temple of the Jews.

This temple endured for 250 years, until the reign of Vespasian.315

Because of the favourable circumstances [created by] Onias the priest, a huge number of Jews took refuge in Egypt at this time, and Cyrene was

¢lled with their multitude.316 /491/ The reason why Onias and the others went to Egypt was that during the con£ict between Antiochus and the generals of Ptolemy, the parties in Judea were divided into opposing camps, some favouring Antiochus and others Ptolemy.317

Ptolemy Philometor ruled 35 years.318

Aristobolus the Jew, a Peripatetic philosopher, gained recognition; he wrote commentaries on [the books of] Moses for Ptolemy Philopator.319

Antiochus Epiphanes, who ruled after Seleucus Philopator, reigned elevenyears in Syria. Heo¡endedagainstthelawoftheJews, ¢lling everything with the obscenities of idols, and set up a statue of Olympian Jupiter in the Temple. But he also built a shrine to Jupiter Peregrinus in Samaria on the top of Mount Gerizim; the Samaritans themselves asked him to do this. However Mattathias the priest vindicated the ancestral laws, taking up arms against the generals of Antiochus.320 After his death, his son

Judas Maccabeus took on the leadership of the Jews, in the 146th year of the Greek kingdom, in the 20th year of Ptolemy, in the 155th Olympiad.321 As soon as he had expelled the generals of Antiochus from Judaea, he puri¢ed the Temple of images and after three years restored to 313 Ibid. 135.14^16.

314 Ibid. 137.7^9.

315 Jerome, In Dan. 3.11.14b (908.1054^1060).

316 Ibid. 3.11.14b (908.1062^909.1065).

317 Ibid. 3.11.14b (908.1051^1054).

318 Jerome, Chron. 138.18^19.

319 Ibid. 139.1^6.

320 Ibid. 139.22^23; 140.3^12.

321 Ibid. 141.10^11.

TRANSLATION

his fellow countrymen their ancestral laws.322 After the withdrawal of Onias the priest into Egypt (of which we spoke above) and the death of Alchymus, who though unworthy attempted after the £ight of Onias to usurp his ponti¢cate, the priesthood was conferred upon Maccabeus with the assent of all the Jews.323 After his death his brother Jonathan, having been chosen by lot, ministered for nineteen years with great zeal.324

Ptolemy Evergetes [II ruled] 29 years.325

Jonathan, leader and high priest of the Jews, made an alliance with the Romans and Spartans.326 After he had been killed by Tryphon, his brother Simon was elevated to the priesthood, /492/ in the seventh year of the reign of Evergetes.327 After exercising this o⁄ce with great energy for eight years, he relinquished it to his son John.328 This man waged war against the Hyrcani, and received the name ''Hyrcanus''. Petitioning the Romans for the right of alliance, he was enrolled amongst the allies by a decree of the Senate.329 He levelled Samaria (which in our time is called

Sebaste) after having captured it by siege alone. Afterwards Herod restored it, and wanted to name it Sebaste in honour of Augustus.330

Ptolemy Physcon, also called Soter, [ruled] seventeen years.331

Cicero wasbornat Arpinum; hismotherwasHelvia, hisfatherbeingof a family of equestrian rank from the territory of the Vulsci.332

Aristobolus succeeded Hyrcanus in the priesthood, which [Hyrcanus] held for 28 years, for one year. He was the ¢rst to wear the diadem as king as well as priest, 484 years after the Babylonian captivity.333 After him

322 Ibid. 141.3^8.

323 Ibid. 141.23^25.

324 Ibid. 142.5^8.

325 Ibid. 144.3^5.

326 Ibid. 144.6^8.

327 Ibid. 144.13^15.

328 Ibid. 145.18.

329 Ibid. 146.17^21.

330 Ibid. 146.24^147.4.

331 Ibid. 147.7^9.

332 Ibid. 148.1^3.

333 Ibid. 148.5^10.

THE RECKONING OF TIME

Janaeus called Alexander [reigned] for 27 years; he also exercised the o⁄ce of priest, and ruled his fellow-citizens most cruelly.334

Ptolemy, also called Alexander, [ruled] ten years.335

In the eighth year of his reign, Syria came under Roman sway when Philip was captured by Gabinus.336 Expelled from the kingdom by his mother Cleopatra, Ptolemy Physcon withdrew to Cyprus.337

Ptolemy,whohadbeenejectedbyhismotherforeightyears,returnedfrom exileandgainedcontrol ofthekingdom, forthecitizenshadexpelledAlexander (who preceded him) for killing his mother.338

Sulla plunders the Athenians.339

Ptolemy Dionysius [ruled] 30 years.340

From the ¢fth year of [Ptolemy's reign], Alexandra, wife of the high priest Alexander, /493/ ruled the Jews for nine years following his death.

From this time forward, confusion and diverse calamities weighed heavily upon the Jews.341 After her death, Aristobolus and Hyrcanus her sonsfought with one anotherforthe rulership,and thisfurnishedan opportunity for the Romans to invade Judea. Thus Pompey, advancing on Jerusalem, captured the city. Opening up the Temple, he penetrated all the way to the Holy of Holies. He carried o¡ the defeated Aristobolus with him, and con¢rmed Hyrcanus as priest. Then he made Antipater, son of Herod of Ascalon, procurator of Palestine. And Hyrcanus remained priest for 34 years.342

334 Ibid. 148.11^14.

335 Ibid. 149.6^8.

336 Ibid. 150.4.

337 Ibid. 149.9^11.

338 Ibid. 150.14^18. There is some confusion in Bede's account here. The Ptolemy referred to in this passage is Ptolemy IX Physcon, i.e. the king whose reign is recorded in the preceding entry, and whose reign was interrupted by that of Ptolemy X Alexander I. The Ptolemy Alexander who was assassinated by the citizens of Alexandria after killing his own mother is actually Ptolemy XI Alexander II, who succeeded Ptolemy IX.

339 Ibid. 151.3.

340 Ibid. 151.23^24.

341 Ibid. 152.8^10, 11^14.

342 Ibid. 153.13^23.

TRANSLATION

Vergilius Maro was born in a country district called Andes, near Mantua, in the consulate of Pompey and Crassus.343

Pompey, afterthecapture of Jerusalem, makestheJewstributaries.344

Vergil pursues his studies in Cremona.345

Caesar takes Germany and Gaul and Britain as well, where before the name of Roman was not even known. After taking hostages, he made

[these peoples] tributaries.346

Cleopatra, sister of Ptolemy, [ruled] 22 years.347

When civil warbroke out between Caesarand Pompey, Pompey £ed to Alexandria, and there he died, struck down by Ptolemy himself, from whom he had hoped for assistance. Subsequently Caesar came to Alexandria, and again Ptolemy wished to prepare an ambush. War was declared against him, and he was defeated and perished in the Nile. Caesar, now in possession of Alexandria, gave the kingdom to Cleopatra, with whom he had had illicit sexual relations.348 In the third year of her reign, [Caesar]

¢rst obtained sole rule over the Romans; the princes of the Romans are called ''Caesars'' after him.349 Cleopatra enters the City with a royal entourage.350

Four years and six months after he began to reign, Caesar, because of his arrogance, was killed, stabbed in the Curia by sixty or more Roman senators and knights who had taken an oath against him.351 /494/

343 Ibid. 153.1^3.

344 Ibid. 154.7^8.

345 Ibid. 154.21.

346 Ibid. 155.19; Eutropius 6.17 (38.19^23, 38.26^39.2).

347 Jerome, Chron. 155.21. It should be noted that the three entries which follow are out of chronological sequence. After the end of the Jewish kingdom, Bede's chronology follows, ¢rst, the line of the Ptolemaic rulers of Egypt, and thereafter the succession of the Roman emperors. Bede interrupts the sequence at this point in order to dovetail the two chronologies by recording (a) the death of Julius Caesar (which occurred after the death of the last Ptolemy, Cleopatra) and (b) the birth of Christ (which occurred before the death of Augustus, the ¢rst Caesar). The Roman sequence resumes in 3979, with the death of Tiberius Caesar.

348 Cf. Eutropius 6.19, 21 (39.15^25, 40.7^15).

349 Jerome, Chron. 156.1^4.

350 Ibid. 156.20^21.

351 Eutropius 6.25 (41.13^22); Jerome, Chron. 156.5.

THE RECKONING OF TIME

Cassius, having captured Judea, sacked the Temple.352

Octavius Caesar Augustus, second [emperor] of the Romans, ruled for 56 years and six months. The kings of the Romans are called ''Augusti'' after him.353 Of his [reign], 15 years were during the lifetime of Cleopatra, and 41 after.

In the eleventh year of Augustus the rule of the priests in Judea came to an end. Herod, who did not belong to their [line], but rather was the son of Antipater of Ascalon and his mother Cypros of Arabia, received the government from the hands of the Romans; he held it for 36 years.354 This man, lest it be proven that he was base born and not of Jewish stock, burnt all the books inscribed with the pedigrees of the Jewish people and preserved in the Temple, so that he could be believed to belong to [the nobility], for want of proof [to the contrary].355 Moreover, in order to mix his own progeny with their royal race, he cast o¡ Dosis, a woman of Jerusalem whom he had privately married and by whom he had his son Antipater, and took to himself Mariamne,the daughter of Alexander and granddaughter of Aristobolus the brother of Hyrcanus, who before him had been king of the Jews.356 She bore him ¢ve sons, two of which ^

Alexander and Aristobolus ^ he himself killed in Samaria.357 And very shortly thereafter he slew their mother by a similar act of villany, though he loved her more than anything else.358 Of these [sons], Aristobolus had a son Herod by Berenice. We read in the Acts of the Apostles that he was struck down by an angel.359

After the third war broke out between Augustus and Antony, Antony, who held Asia and the East, repudiated the sister of Augustus and took

Cleopatra as his wife. After their defeat, Antony and Cleopatra killed themselves.360 It is from this point on that some reckon the ¢rst year of 352 Jerome, Chron. 157.3.

353 Ibid. 157.18^20.

354 Ibid. 160.1^9.

355 Cf. Ru¢nus' trans. of Eusebius, HE 1.7.13 (61.2^13).

356 Cf. Hegesippus, Hegesippi qui dicitur historiae libri quinque 1.36.2, ed. V.

Ussani, CSEL 66 (1932):70.8^25.

357 Cf. ibid. 1.42.1 (101.11^13).

358 Cf. ibid. 1.37.6 (77.6^28); 1.42.2 (101.14).

359 Acts 12.23.

360 Eutropius 7.3; Jerome, Chron. 162.12^15, 21^22.

TRANSLATION

the monarchy of Augustus.361 /495/ Hitherto the Lagids, as they were called, had ruled in Egypt for 295 years.362

In the forty-second year of Caesar Augustus, and the twenty-seventh [year] after the death of Cleopatra and Antony, when Egypt was turned into a [Roman] province, in the third year of the one hundred and ninety-third Olympiad,363 in the seven hundred and ¢fty-second from the foundation of the City [of Rome],364 that is to say the year in which the movements of all the peoples throughout the world were held in check, and by God's decree Caesar established genuine and unshakeable peace,365 Jesus Christ, the Son of God, hallowed the Sixth Age of the world by His coming.

In the forty-seventh year of Augustus, Herod died in a suitably horrid way from a disease [which produced] water under the skin and worms which teemed throughout his whole body.366 Augustus set up [Herod's] his son Archelaus in his place, and he ruled for nine years, up till the end of the reign of Augustus.367 Then the Jews, who could stand no more, denounced his ferocity before Augustus, and he was exiled to the city of Vienne in Gaul.368 To reduce the power and subdue the insolence of the Jewish kingdom, his four brothers Herod, Antipater, Lysias, and Philip were made tetrarchs in his place.369 Of these Philip and Herod

(previously called Antipas) had already been appointed as tetrarchs during the lifetime of Archelaus.370

361 Jerome, Chron. 163.7^9.

362 Ibid. 163.1^3.

363 Ru¢nus' trans. of Eusebius, HE 1.5.2 (45.24^27); cf. Jerome, Chron. 169.9^10.

364 Orosius 6.22.1 (426.17^427.2) and 7.3.1 (437.18).

365 Ibid. 6.22.1, 5 (426.17^427.2, 428.3^5).

366 Jerome, Chron. 170.1^3. Cf. Ru¢nus' trans. of Eusebius, HE 1.8.5 (65.18^22);

Josephus, Antiqu. 17.9 (Cologne 1534, fol. 181r). The phrase scatentibus . . . uermis which Bede quotes from Jerome echoes Acts 12.23, where it describes the death of Herod Agrippa.

367 Jerome, Chron. 170. 9^10, 6^7.

368 Josephus, Antiqu. 17.17^19 (Cologne 1534, fol. 185v^187v); Ru¢nus 1.9.1

(71.18^72.2).

369 Jerome, Chron. 170.9^10.

370 Hegesippus 2.3.2 (135.23^136.2).

THE RECKONING OF TIME

Tiberius the stepson of Augustus, that is to say the son of the latter's wife Livia born of a previous marriage, ruled for 23 years.371

In the twelfth year [of his reign] Pilate was sent by him as procurator of Judea.372

Herod the tetrarch, who ruled over the Jews for 24 years,373 founded Tiberias in honour of Tiberius and Livias in honour of his mother

Livia.374 /496/

In the ¢fteenth year of [the reign of] Tiberius, the Lord, after [receiving] the baptism preached by John, proclaimed the kingdom of heaven to the world. As Eusebius indicates in his chronicle, this happened in the 4,000th year from the beginning of the world, according to the Hebrew system of years, which holds that the sixteenth year of Tiberius was the eighty-¢rst Jubilee, according to the Hebrews.375 Why our computation calculates nineteen years less may easily be discovered by reading the previous parts of this book.376 According to that chronicle which Eusebius composed from both versions [of the Bible], as it seemed good to him, the years [from Creation] are 5,228.377

In the eighteenth year of the reign of Tiberius the Lord redeemed the world by His Passion,378 and the Apostles, preparing to preach throughout the regions of Judea, ordained James the brother of the Lord to be bishop of Jerusalem. They also ordained seven deacons,379 and after the stoning of Stephen the Church was scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria.380

Agrippa surnamed Herod, the son of Aristobolus the son of king Herod,381 accuser of Herod the tetrarch, having been brought to Rome,

371 Jerome, Chron. 171.17; Hegesippus 2.3.2.

372 Jerome, Chron. 173.4^5.

373 Ibid. 171.11^16.

374 Ibid. 173.9.

375 Ibid. 174.7^11.

376 See above s.a. 2519.

377 Jerome, Chron. 173.18^174.5.

378 Cf. ibid. 174.14 sqq.

379 Cf. ibid. 175.24^26.

380 Acts 8.1.

381 Cf. Ru¢nus' trans. of Eusebius, HE 2.1.8 (107.4^7).

TRANSLATION

was thrown into prison by Tiberius. He made many friends there, in particular Gaius [Caligula] the son of Germanicus.382

Gaius, called Caligula, ruled for 3 years, 10 months, and 8 days.383

He released his friend Herod Agrippa from chains and made him king of Judea,384 and he remained king for seven years,385 that is, until the fourth year of Claudius. Then, when Herod Agrippa had been struck down by an angel,386 his son Agrippa succeeded to the kingdom.387 He continued in o⁄ce for 26 years, until the Jews were overthrown.388

Herod the tetrarch, who also sought the friendship of Gaius, went to Rome under compulsion from Herodias; but being accused by Agrippa, he lost his post as tetrarch. Fleeing to Spain with Herodias, he died destitute there.

Pilate, who had pronounced the verdict of condemnation on Christ, /497/ was beset with such anguish in£icted by Gaius that he committed suicide.389

Gaius, counting himself one of the gods, profaned the holy places of Judea with the ¢lth of idols.390

Matthew, preaching in Judea, wrote his Gospel.391

Claudius [ruled for] 13 years, 7 months, and 28 days.392

The Apostle Peter, afterhe had ¢rstestablished the Church in Antioch, went to Rome,393 and there held the episcopal throne for 25 years, until the last year of the reign of Nero.

Mark, having been sent to Egypt by Peter, preached the Gospel he had written in Rome there.394

382 Jerome, Chron. 176.21^23 and Hegesippus 2.3.4 (136.16^20).

383 Jerome, Chron. 177.11^13; Eutropius 7.12 (45.10).

384 Jerome, Chron. 177.14^15.

385 Ibid. 179.16^17.

386 Acts 12.23.

387 Hegesippus 2.5.6 (141.15^16).

388 Jerome, Chron. 179.17^19.

389 Orosius 7.5.8 (445.18^446.4).

390 Jerome, Chron. 177.17.

391 Isidore 242.

392 Jerome, Chron. 179.1^2.

393 Ibid. 179.7^9.

394 Ibid. 179.12^13.

THE RECKONING OF TIME

In the fourth year of Claudius there was a very severe famine, which is recorded by Luke.395

In the same year [Claudius] went to Britain, whichnoonebeforeJulius Caesar or since his time had dared to invade. Most of the island surrendered without battle or bloodshed within a very few days. He also added the Orkney islands to the empire, and he returned to Rome in the sixth month after he had set forth.396

In the ninth year of his reign the Jews were expelled from Rome for disturbing the public peace, as Luke reports.397

The following year a great famine overcame Rome.398

Nero [reigned for] 13 years, 7 months, and 28 days.399

In his second year Festus succeeded Felix as procurator of Judea;400 Paul was sent in chains to Rome by this man. He was held there under house arrest for two years, and thereafter was released to preach, while

Nero burst forth in those great crimes that histories relate of him.401

James the brother of the Lord, after having ruled the Church of Jerusalem for 30 years, was stoned to death by the Jews in the ninth year of Nero; they took their revenge on him because they had been prevented from killing Paul.402 /498/ Albinus succeeded Festus in the governorship of Judea, and Florus

[succeeded] Albinus.403 Because they could not tolerate his wantonness, greed and other enormities, the Jews rebelled against the Romans.

Vespasian, Master of the Soldiers, was sent out against them, and captured many of the cities of Judea.404

On top of all his other crimes, Nero now persecuted the Christians; of their leaders in Rome he killed Peter by cruci¢xion and Paul by the sword.405

395 Ibid. 179.20^22; Acts 11.28.

396 Orosius 7.6.9^10 (447.6^450.4); cf. Bede, HE 1.3 (22^24).

397 Orosius 7.6.15 (451.7^8).

398 Ibid. 7.6.17 (452.1^4).

399 Jerome, Chron. 181.24^25.

400 Ibid. 182.4.

401 Jerome, De viris illustribus 5 (10.29^11.4).

402 Jerome, Chron. 182.25^183.1; Jerome, De viris illustribus 2 (9.12^18); Ru¢nus' trans. of Eusebius, HE 2.23.16^18 (171.11^24).

403 Jerome, Chron. 182.24 and 183.23.

404 Ibid. 185.11^15.

405 Ibid. 185.6^10; Orosius 7.7.10 (454.15^455.1).

TRANSLATION

This[emperor]undertooknothingofamilitarynature,andnearlylost Britain, for in his reign two of the ¢nest towns there were captured and sacked.406

Vespasian [ruled for] 9 years, 11 months, and 22 days.407

He had been declared emperor by his army in Judea, and leaving the war in the hands of his son Titus, he journeyed to Rome by way of Alexandria.408 In the second year [of his reign], Titus overthrew the kingdom of Judea and destroyed the Temple by himself,409 1,089 years after it was

¢rst built. This war was ¢nished in four years: two during the lifetime of Nero, and two more after him.

Amongst other great deeds which Vespasian performed while he was still in private life, he was sent by Claudius to Germany, and thence to Britain, and he fought the enemy thirty-two times. He added to the empire two powerful peoples, twenty towns, and the Isle of Wight, near

Britain.410

He erected the Colossus [of Rome], one hundred and seven feet high.411

Titus [ruled for] 2 years and 2 months, a man so admirable in all forms of virtue that he could be called the love and delight of humankind.412

He built the amphitheatre in Rome, and killed ¢ve thousand wild beasts during its dedication.413

Domitian the younger brother of Titus [reigned for] 16 years and 5 months.414

406 Eutropius 7.14 (46.35).

407 Jerome, Chron. 186.20^21.

408 Ibid. 186.22^25.

409 Ibid. 187.1^26.

410 Eutropius 7.19 (47.23^28); cf. Bede, HE 1.3 (22^24).

411 Jerome, Chron. 188.9^10. This Colossus, a gigantic statue of the Sun God, gave its name to the Colosseum: see s.a. 4033 and 4145.

412 Ibid. 188.2^3; Eutropius 7.21 (48.20^22).

413 Jerome, Chron. 189.14^16. This is the Flavian amphitheatre, popularly known as the Colosseum.

414 Ibid. 189.24^26.

THE RECKONING OF TIME

After Nero, he was the second [emperor] who persecuted Christians.

Under his [rule] /499/ the Apostle John was exiled to the island of Patmos,415 and Flavia Domitilla, the niece of the consul Flavius Clemens byhis sister, was exiled to the island of Pontia for testifying to the faith.416

It is said that this same John was placed in a vat of boiling oil, but he remained as immune to pain as he had always been to corruption of the £esh.417

Nerva [ruled for] one year, 4 months, and 8 days.418

In his ¢rst edict, he recalled the exiles, and so the Apostle John, freed by this general pardon, returned to Ephesus.419 Because he saw that during his absence the faith of the Church had been assailed by heretics, he immediately made it ¢rm by describing the eternity of the Word of God in his Gospel.420

Trajan [reigned for] 19 years, 6 months, and 15 days.421

Inthe sixty-eighth yearafterthe Passion ofthe Lord and in the ninetyeighth year of his life, the Apostle John died a peaceful death at Ephesus.422

When Trajan began to persecute the Christians, Bishop Simeon of Jerusalem (also known as Simon), the son of Cleophas, was cruci¢ed.423

Ignatius bishop of Antioch was also broughtto Rome and throwntothe wild animals.424

Alexander, the bishop of the city of Rome, was also crowned with martyrdom, and he was buried where hewasbeheaded, ontheViaNomentana at the seventh milestone from the City.425

415 Ibid. 192.1^4.

416 Ibid. 192.16^18.

417 Jerome, Adversus Jovinianum 1.26 (247C).

418 Jerome, Chron. 192.25^26; Eutropius 8.1 (50.1^11).

419 Jerome, Chron. 193.3^8.

420 Cf. Jerome, De viris illustribus 9 (14.24^15.16).

421 Jerome, Chron. 193.19^22; Eutropius 8.5 (51.15^17).

422 Jerome, De viris illustribus 9 (16.3^4).

423 Jerome, Chron. 194.19^22.

424 Ibid. 194.24^26.

425 Liber ponti¢calis 7, ed. L. Duchesne (Paris: E. de Boccard, 1955):1.127.

TRANSLATION

Pliny [the Younger], the orator and famous historian from Como, lived at this time. Many products of his genius survive.426

The Pantheon at Rome, which Domitian built, was burnt by lightning;427 it took this name from the fact that it was to be the dwellingplace of all the gods.428 /500/

The Jews, instigating sedition in various parts of the world, were struck down by the slaughter they deserved.429

Trajan extended the borders of the Roman empire far and wide, which since Augustus had been defended rather than nobly expanded.430

Hadrian the son of Trajan's female cousin [ruled for] 21 years.431

Because he had been instructed by reading the books written about the Christian religion by Quadratus the disciple of the Apostles and by Aristides the Athenian, a man full of faith and wisdom, and by the legate

Serenus Granius, he ordered in a letter that the Christians should not be condemned without being accused of crimes in a proper fashion.432

HeutterlydefeatedtheJews,who had rebelled a second time, ina¢nal slaughter, and also deprived them of permission to enter Jerusalem, whose walls he had restored to their ¢nest state; and he ordered [the city] to be called Aelia after himself.433

He himself, being most learned in both languages [Latin and Greek], constructed a library of marvellous workmanship in Athens.434

Mark was the ¢rst gentile to be made bishop of Jerusalem,435 when the Jewish bishops came to an end. There were ¢fteen of these,436 extending for 107 years from the Passion of the Lord.

426 Jerome, Chron. 195.21^23. Bede con£ates the Elder and Younger Pliny here.

427 Ibid. 195.26.

428 Cf. ibid. 191.8.

429 Ibid. 196.12^26.

430 Eutropius 8.2 (50.16^17).

431 Jerome, Chron. 197.9^12.

432 Orosius 7.13.2 (467.18^468.6).

433 Ibid. 7.13.4^5 (468.9^469.3).

434 Jerome, Chron. 197.21^22; 200.18^19.

435 Ibid. 201.15^17.

436 Cf. ibid. 203.25.

THE RECKONING OF TIME

Antoninus, surnamed Pius, with his sons [Marcus] Aurelius and Lucius [Aurelius Commodus], [ruled for] 22 years and 3 months.437

The philosopher Justin [Martyr] gave Antoninus the book that he had written in favour of the Christian religion, and caused him to look kindly uponthe Christians.438 Not long after, when Crescens the Cynic [philosopher] stirred up persecution, [Justin] shed his blood for Christ.439

In the time of Bishop Pius of Rome, Hermas wrote a book called The Shepherd, in which is contained an angel's command that Easter should be celebrated on Sunday.440

When he arrived in Rome, Polycarp chastised many people who had recently been corrupted by the teachings of Valentinus and Cerdo for disgracing themselves with heresy.441

Marcus Antoninus Verus [i.e. Marcus Aurelius] [ruled] with his brother Lucius Aurelius Commodus for 19 years and one month.442

From the outset they administered the empire with equal authority, although hitherto there had [only ever] been single emperors.443

They made waragainst the Parthians with great valourand success.444

When the persecution began in Asia, Polycarp and Pionius were martyred; in Gaul as well, many gloriously shed their blood for Christ.445

Not long after, plague, the avenger of evil deeds, caused extensive devastation in many provinces, especially Italy and the city of Rome.446

After the death of his brother Commodus, Antoninus [i.e. Marcus Aurelius] made his own son Commodus his colleague as emperor.447

437 Ibid. 202.1^3.

438 Orosius 7.14.2 (469.10^12).

439 Jerome, Chron. 203.13^18.

440 Liber ponti¢calis 11 (1.132) No such episode appears in the Shepherd of Hermas. On similar early medieval legends about angelic authority for computistical rules, see ch. 43 and Commentary.

441 Ru¢nus' trans. of Eusebius, HE 4.14 (333.19^335.14).

442 Jerome, Chron. 204.7^9.

443 Ibid. 204.10^12.

444 Orosius 7.15.2 (470.1^2).

445 Jerome, Chron. 205.9^10.

446 Ibid. 205.13; Orosius 7.15.5 (471.1^2).

447 Jerome, Chron. 207.18^19.

TRANSLATION

Melitus of Asia, the bishop of Sardis, gave the emperor Antoninus his apology on behalf of the Christians.448

Luciusthe kingof Britain sent a letter to Bishop Eleutherius of Rome, asking to become a Christian.449

The celebrated bishops Apollinaris of Asia, bishop of Hieropolis, and Dionysius bishop of Corinth, lived [then].450

Lucius Antoninus Commodus ruled for 13 years after the death of his father.451 He waged war successfully against the Germans,452 but otherwise he was given over to all forms of wantonness and indecency453 and did nothing which can be compared to his father's virtue and piety.454

Irenaeus the famous bishop of Lyons lived [then].455

The Emperor Commodus ordered the head of the Colossus to be removedandarepresentationofhisownheadputup[initsplace].456/502/

Aelius Pertinax [ruled for] six months.457

He was murdered in the palace through the treason of Julian [i.e.

Didius Julianus], a lawyer; seven months after [Julian] began to rule, Severus defeated him in battle at the Milvian Bridge and slew him.458

Through notices sent far and wide, Victor the thirteenth bishop of Rome ordered that Easter should be celebrated on the Sunday between the¢fteenth and thetwenty-¢rstday ofthelunar month, as his predecessor

Eleutherius [had done].459

448 Ibid. 206.1^3.

449 Liber ponti¢calis 14.2 (1.136); cf. Bede, HE 1.4 (24).

450 Jerome, Chron. 206.4^6.

451 Orosius 7.16.1 (472.19^21).

452 Ibid. 7.16.2 (472.21^473.1).

453 Cf. Eutropius 8.15 (54.31).

454 Ibid. (54.28).

455 Jerome, Chron. 208.20^21.

456 Ibid. 209.16^18.

457 Ibid. 210.4^5.

458 Ibid. 210.16^19; Orosius 7.16.5^6 (473.14^20).

459 Jerome, Chron. 210.9^10 and Liber ponti¢calis 15 (1.137).The standard recension of the Liber ponti¢calis actually says that Victor ordered that Easter be kept between the 14th and the 21st day, and implies that this was the system espoused by Theophilus of Alexandria.

THE RECKONING OF TIME

In support of this decree, Theophilus bishop of Caesarea in Palestine together with other bishops present at the same Council, wrote a very useful synodical letter against those who celebrated Easter with the Jews on the fourteenth day of the lunar month.460

[Septimius] Severus Pertinax [ruled for] 17 years.461

Clement, a priest of the church of Alexandria, and Panthenus, a Stoic philosopher, conducted a very vigorous disputation on the subject of [Christian] doctrine.462

Narcissus bishop of Jerusalem, Theophilus bishop of Caesarea, and Polycarp and Bachylus, bishops of the province of Asia, were notable at this time.463

Many persecutions were unleashed against the Christians in various provinces. Leonidasthefather of Origen was amongst those who received the crown of martyrdom.464

After Clodius Albinus, who had made himself Caesar in Gaul, was killed at Lyon, Severus carried the war over to Britain, where in order to make the provinces more secure from barbarian incursions he built a massive ditch and a very solid wall, closely set with towers, running for one hundred and thirty-two miles from sea to sea. He died at York.465

PerpetuaandFelicitaswerethrowntothebeasts forChristinthearena at Carthage in Africa on the Nones of March [7 March].466 /503/

Antoninus surnamed Caracalla, the son of Severus, [ruled for] 7 years.467

Alexander bishop of Cappadocia came to Jerusalem out of longing for the holy places. While Narcissus, then a very old man, was still bishop of that city, [Alexander] was ordained bishop there, after the Lord indicated in a revelation that this should happen.468

460 Jerome, Deviris illustribus 43 (34.2^6). Bede undoubtedly identi¢ed this ''very useful synodical letter'' with the spurious Acts of the Synod of Caesarea.

461 Jerome, Chron. 210.20^21.

462 Ibid. 211.1^4.

463 Ibid. 211.5^8.

464 Ibid. 212.7^9; Orosius 7.17.4 (474.10^12).

465 Orosius 7.17.6^7 (474.17^475.9); cf. Bede, HE 1.5 (24^26).

466 Prosper of Aquitaine, Chronicon 757, ed. Th. Mommsen, MGH AA 9 (1892):434.

467 Jerome, Chron. 213.4^5.

468 Ibid. 213.8^10; Ru¢nus' trans. of Eusebius, HE 6.11.1^2 (541.25^543.6).

TRANSLATION

Tertullian the African, son of a centurion in the service of the proconsul, was praised in the report of all the churches.469

Macrinus [reigned for] one year.470

According to [Julius] Africanus, the holy man Abgar ruled at Edessa.471 Together with his son Diadumenian, with whom he had usurped the empire, Macrinus was killed during a military uprising at Archilaides.472

Marcus Aurelius Antoninus [ruled for] 4 years.473

In Palestine the city of Nicopolis, previously called Emmaeus, was [re]founded; Julius Africanus, a writer of chronicles, received the commission to carry this out.474 This is the Emmaeus which the Lord deigned to sanctify by going there after his Resurrection, as Luke records.475

Bishop Hippolytus, the author of many works, brought his book The Canon of History up to this point [in time]. His discovery of the sixteenyear Easter cycle gave Eusebius the opportunity to compose a nineteenyear cycle based on it.476

Aurelius Alexander [Severus ruled for] 13 years.477

He was singularly478 dutiful towards his mother Mammaea and for this reason, beloved by all.479

469 Jerome, Chron. 212.23^25.

470 Ibid. 213.23^24.

471 Ibid. 214.5^6.

472 Orosius 7.18.3 (476.1^4).

473 Jerome, Chron. 214.8^9. This is the emperor more commonly known as Elagabalus.

474 Ibid. 214.20^24.

475 Luke 24.13.

476 Jerome, Deviris illustribus 61 (41.24^42.3); cf.Ru¢nus' trans.of Eusebius, HE

6.22.1 (569.15^20). See ch. 44 and Commentary.

477 Orosius 7.18.6 (476.11^14); Jerome, Chron. 215.1^2.

478 Jones and Mommsen read unicae, but I emend to unice to agree with Jerome's text.

479 Jerome, Chron. 215.25^26.

THE RECKONING OF TIME

Urban the bishop of Rome led many of the nobility to the faith of Christ and to martyrdom.480

Origen of Alexandria was famous throughout the world.481 For this reason, Mammaea, the mother of Alexander, arranged to hear him and received him at Antioch with the highest honour.482 /504/

Maximin [the Thracian ruled for] 3 years.483

He launched a persecution against the bishops and clergy of the Churches, that is to say, against the teachers, largely because the family of Alexander, whom he had succeeded, and of his mother Mammaea, were Christian; but above all because of the priest Origen.484

Pontianus and Antherus, bishops of the city of Rome, were crowned with martyrdom and buried in the cemetery of Calixtus.485

Gordian [reigned for] 6 years.486

Julius Africanus was celebrated amongst the authors of the Church. In the chronicles that he wrote, he said that he was hastening to Alexandria, attracted by the very celebrated reputation of Heraclas, whom rumour declared to be exceptionally learned in divine and in philosophical studies and in all Greek learning.487

In Caesarea in Palestine, Origen initiated [two] young brothers from Pontus ^ Theodore (known as Gregory)488 and Athenodorus, who later became very celebrated bishops ^ into divine philosophy.489

Philip [the Arabian] together with his son Philip [ruled for] 7 years.490

He was the ¢rst of all the emperors to be a Christian, and in the third 480 Liber ponti¢calis 18.2 (1.143).

481 Jerome, Chron. 215.22.

482 Orosius 7.18.7 (476.14^15); Jerome, De viris illustribus 54 (38.12^15).

483 Jerome, Chron. 216.8^9.

484 Orosius 7.19.2 (477.9^13).

485 Liber ponti¢calis 19^20 (1.145^147).

486 Jerome, Chron. 216.18^19.

487 Ru¢nus' translation of Eusebius, HE 6.31.1 (585.24^25, 587.3^9).

488 More commonly known as St Gregory the Thaumaturge: see below s.a. 4222.

489 Jerome, De viris illustribus 65 (44.2^9).

490 Jerome, Chron. 217.9^13.

TRANSLATION

year of his reign, the thousandth year from the founding of Rome was completed. Thus, this anniversary year of past events, the most august of all, was celebrated with magni¢cent games by a Christian emperor.491

Origen replied in eight volumes to a certain Epicurean philosopher called Celsus, who had written against our books. [Origen], to put it brie£y, was so proli¢c in writing that Jerome remembers that he read somewhere that his books [numbered] ¢ve thousand.492

Decius [ruled for] one year and 3 months.493

After he had killed both the Philips, he launched a persecution against the Christians out of hatred of them,494 in which Fabian /505/ was crowned with martyrdom in the city of Rome. He left his episcopal see to Cornelius, who was also martyred.495 Alexander the bishop of Jerusalem was killed at Caesarea in Palestine and Babylas at Antioch.496

This persecution, as Dionysius bishop of Alexandria states, did not originate in an imperial command, but, as he says, ''A servant of the demons, who in our city was said to be divine, anticipated the imperial edicts by a whole year, stirring up the credulous crowds against us''.497

Gallus with his son Volusian [ruled for] 2 years and 4 months.498

Dionysius the bishop of Alexandria recalls of his reign that Gallus could neither see nor guard against Decius' misfortune, but tripped over the same stone. When his reign was prospering at the outset and all was as he wished it to be, he persecuted the holy men who were praying to God on high for the peace of his realm, and both peace and his prosperity took

£ight with them.499

491 Orosius 7.20.2 (478.12^479.1).

492 The source of this quotation has not been traced. Ep. 82.7.2 (114.11^12) refers to the 6000 volumes of Origen's works, and Ep. 84.8.2 (130.24) says that Origenwrote ''1000 or more books''. Cf. Mommsen's introduction to his ed. of ch. 66 in MGH AA 13

(1898):228.

493 Jerome, Chron. 218.7^8.

494 Ibid. 218.11^13.

495 Liber ponti¢calis 21^22 (1.148^151).

496 Jerome, Chron. 218.16^18.

497 Ru¢nus' trans. of Eusebius, HE 6.41.1 (601.4^6).

498 Jerome, Chron. 218.11^12.

499 Ru¢nus' trans. of Eusebius, HE 7.1 (637.8^12).

THE RECKONING OF TIME

Origen died and was buried in the city of Tyre, being not quite seventy years old.500

Bishop Cornelius of Rome moved the bodies of the Apostles from the catacombs at night at the request of a certain lady called Lucina, and on the 3rd kalends of July [29 June] he installed the body of Paul on the road to Ostia where he had been beheaded, and that of Peter in the place in which he had been cruci¢ed, among the bodies of the holy bishops in the temple of Apollo on the Mons Aurelius in the Vatican palace of Nero.501

Valerian [ruled] with his son Gallienus [for] 15 years.502

While the persecution of the Christians raged, [Valerian] was suddenly captured by Shapur [I] king of the Persians. His eyes were gouged out, and he grew old there in miserable slavery.503 Gallienus, frightened by such a clear judgement from God, therefore restored peace to us

[Christians].504 But because of his own wanton cravings, and his father's war against God,505 he sustained much loss to the Roman realm from barbarian uprisings. Bishop Cyprian of Carthage, whose highly learned writings have survived, was crowned with martyrdom in this persecution.506 /506/ His deacon Pontius, who shared his exile up to the day of his death, left a celebrated book about [Cyprian's] life and passion.507

Bishop Theodore of Neocaesarea in Pontus, who was also called Gregory [the Thaumaturge], and of whom we wrote above,508 shone with great glory of [miraculous] powers,509 one of which was that he moved a mountain by his prayers that there might be su⁄cient space to build a church.510

Stephen and Sixtus, bishops of Rome, su¡ered martyrdom.511

500 Ibid. 7.1 (637.4^5); Jerome, De viris illustribus 54 (39.20^22).

501 Liber ponti¢calis 22.4 (1.150).

502 Jerome, Chron. 220.1^2; Ru¢nus' trans. of Eusebius, HE 7.10.1 (649.13^15).

503 Jerome, Chron. 220.12^14; cf. Orosius 7.22.4 (481.12^14).

504 Orosius 7.22.5 (482.2^4).

505 I.e. the persecution of the Christians.

506 Jerome, Chron. 220.9^11.

507 Jerome, De viris illustribus 68 (45.11^13).

508 s.a. 4197.

509 Jerome, De viris illustribus 65 (44.16^17). Jerome, however, states only that Theodore/Gregory worked miracles, and does not mention this speci¢c one.

510 Ru¢nus' trans. of Eusebius, HE 7.28 (954.11^12).

511 Liber ponti¢calis 24^25 (1.154^155).

TRANSLATION

Claudius [reigned for] one year and 9 months.512

He defeated the Goths who had been ravaging Illyria and Macedonia for ¢fteen years, and because of this a golden shield was erected to him in the Senate house and a golden statue of him erected on the Capitol.513

Marcion, a very eloquent priest of the church of Antioch, who also taught rhetoric in the same city, disputed with Paul of Samosata, bishop of Antioch,514 who was teaching that Christ had the same nature as man.515 This dialogue still survives today, for it was taken down by notaries.516

Aurelian [ruled for] 5 years and 6 months.517

After he had launched a persecution against us, lightning struck directly in front of him, greatly terrifying bystanders, and not long after he was killed by some soldiers while travelling between Constantinople and Heraclea, at a place on the old highway called Caenofrurium.518

Eutychius bishop of Rome was crowned with martyrdom and buried in the cemetery of Calixtus; he himself had buried three hundred and thirteen martyrs with his own hands.519

Tacitus [reigned for] 6 months.520

After [Tacitus] was killed in Pontus, Florian was emperor for 88 days and was killed at Tarsus.521 /507/ Bishop Anatolius of Laodicea in Syria, an Alexandrian by birth, who was very learned in philosophical subjects, was widely renowned. The greatness of his genius can readily be appreciated from the book that he

512 Jerome, Chron. 221.22^23.

513 Ibid. 221.26^222.3; Orosius 7.23 (485.1^5).

514 Jerome, De viris illustribus 71 (47.7^10).

515 Cf. Ru¢nus' trans. of Eusebius, HE 7.27.2 (703.20^26). Neither Ru¢nus nor Jerome mention Paul's speci¢c heresy.

516 Jerome, De viris illustribus 71 (47.11^12).

517 Jerome, Chron. 222.8^9.

518 Ibid. 223.7, 9^10; Orosius 7.23.6 (486.10^13); Eutropius 9.15 (60.20^26).

519 Liber ponti¢calis 28 (1.159).

520 Jerome, Chron. 223.12.

521 Ibid. 223.13^14.

THE RECKONING OF TIME

wrote about Easter, and from his ten books on the principles of arithmetic.522

The insane heresy of the Manichees was born at this time.523

Probus [ruled for] 6 years and 4 months.524

By many ¢erce battles he completely liberated the Gallic [provinces], which had been occupied for some time by barbarians.525

As we read in Eusebius' chronicle, the second year of his reign was the 335th year of the Antiochenes, the 402nd of the Tyrians, the 334th of the Laodiceans, the 588th of the Edessans, the 318th of the city of Ascalon, and the beginning of the eighty-sixth Jubilee for the Hebrews, which means their year 4250.526

Bishop Archelaus of Mesopotamia wrote an account in Syriac of the debate he had with a Manichee who had come from Persia; this became known to many through its Greek translation.527

Carus [reigned] with his sons Carinus and Numerian [for] 2 years.528

Bishop Gaius of Rome, who later su¡ered martyrdom under Diocletian, was illustrious.529

Pierius, a priest of Alexandria under Bishop Theon taught the people very e¡ectively. His words and various treatises, which have survived to the present, were of such re¢nement that he was called ''the younger

Origen''. He was amazingly frugal and longed for voluntary poverty.

After the persecution he spent the rest of his life in Rome.530

Diocletian [ruled] with Herculius Maximian for 20 years.531

522 Ibid. 223.21^22; De viris illustribus 73 (47.24^48.2).

523 Jerome, Chron. 223.25^26.

524 Ibid. 223.16.

525 Orosius 7.24.2 (487.2^4).

526 Jerome, Chron. 223.23^24, 20^22. Bede explains s.a. 2519 and 3981 why his reckoning deviates from Eusebius' by 19 years.

527 Jerome, De viris illustribus 72 (47.17^20).

528 Jerome, Chron. 224.19^20.

529 Liber ponti¢calis 29 (1.161).

530 Jerome, De viris illustribus 76 (49.2^10). Jerome identi¢es Pierius' bishop as Thomas.

531 Jerome, Chron. 225.7^8, 13^14.

TRANSLATION

Carausius, having assumed the purple, occupied the British [provinces]. Narseh king /508/ of the Persians declared war in the East.

The ''Five Nations'' invaded Africa. Achilleus took control of Egypt. For these reasons Constantius and Galerius Maximianus were taken on as Caesars.532

Constantius took Theodora the stepdaughter of Herculius [as his wife], and afterwards had by her the six half-brothers of Constantine.

Galerius [married] Valeria the daughter of Diocletian.533

After ten years, Britain was recaptured by the praetorian prefect Asclepiodotus.534

In the seventeenth year [of their reign], Diocletian in the East and Herculius Maximian in the West ordered the churches to be destroyed, and the Christians attacked and killed.535

InthesecondyearofthepersecutionDiocletianlaidasidethepurple536 at Nicomedia and Maximian at Milan.537 However, the persecution now under way did not cease to rage until the seventh year of the reign of Constantine. In the sixteenth year of his reign, Constantius, a man singularly mild and unpretentious, died in Britain, at York.538

This persecution raged with such cruelty and intensity that in the course of a single month it was discovered that 17,000 had su¡ered martyrdom for Christ.539

It even crossed the band of the Ocean, and in Britain Alban, Aaron, and Julius, with many other men and women, were condemned to that happy slaughter.540

The priest Pamphilius, a close connection of Bishop Eusebius of Caesarea, was martyred.541 [Eusebius] wrote his life in three books.

532 Ibid. 225.18^23; cf. Bede, HE 1.6. ''Caesar'' in this case means a junior coemperor. Senior emperors in the Diocletianic tetrarchy were called ''Augusti''.

533 Jerome, Chron. 225.26^226.3.

534 Ibid. 227.2^3.

535 Ibid. 228.5^6; Orosius 7.25.13 (491.13^15).

536 I.e. abdicated.

537 Jerome, Chron. 228.12^14; Orosius 7.25.14 (492.1^7).

538 Jerome, Chron. 228.20^21; Orosius 7.25.16 (493.1^2); cf. Bede, HE 1.8 (36).

539 Liber ponti¢calis 30.2 (1.162); cf. Bede, HE 1.6 (28).

540 Gildas, De excidio etconquestu Britanniae 10, ed.T. Mommsen, MGH AA 13 (1898):31.14^22. Cf. Bede, HE 1.7 (28^34).

541 Ru¢nus' trans. of Eusebius, HE 8.13.6 (773.10^12); Jerome, De virisillustribus

81 (50.26).

THE RECKONING OF TIME

In the third year of the persecution, Constantine, Maximin and Severus were made Caesars by Galerius Maximianus.542 Of these, Maximin added crimes and debauchery to the persecution of the Christians.

During this time, Bishop Peter of Alexandria su¡ered [martyrdom] along /509/ with many other Egyptian bishops; so did Lucian a priest of Antioch, a man of exceptional chastity and erudition,543 and Timothy,

[martyred] at Rome on the 10th kalends of July [22 June].544

Constantine, the son of Constantius by his concubine Helena, was made emperor in Britain, and ruled for 30 years and 10 months.545

In the fourth year of the persecution Maxentius, the son of Herculius Maximianus, was made Augustus in Rome.546

Licinius, the husband of Constantia the sister of Constantine, was made emperor at Carnuntum.547

Constantine turned from a persecutor into a Christian.

AttheCouncilofNicaea,inthe636thyearafterAlexander,onthe19th day of the Greek month Desi, which is the 10th kalends of July [22 June], in the consulship of Paulinus and Julian, ''viri clarissimi'', the catholic faith was laid out.548

In Rome, where he was baptized, Constantine built the basilica of St John, known as the Constantinian basilica.549 He also built a basilica dedicated to the the blessed Peter on [the site of] the temple of Apollo,550 and also [one] to the blessed Paul,551 and he encased both their bodies in [sarcophagi of] copper ¢ve feet thick. He built a basilica in the Sessorian

Palace, which is known as [the basilica of the Holy Cross] of Jerusalem, 542 Jerome, Chron. 228.20^21, 18^19.

543 Ru¢nus' trans. of Eusebius, HE 9.6.2^3 (813.1^12).

544 Prosper 974 (447).

545 Jerome, Chron. 228.26^229.1; Eutropius 10.2 (65.20^23) and 10.8 (67.21^24); cf. Bede, HE 1.8 (36).

546 Jerome, Chron. 229.1^3.

547 Ibid. 229.6; Eutropius 10.4 (66.13).

548 Liberponti¢calis 34.4 (1.171); the full dating clause comes from the Acta of the Council of Chalcedon 2, ed. J.D. Mansi, Sacrorum conciliorum amplissima collectio (Paris:

Hubert Welter, 1901):6.955.

549 St John Lateran.

550 St Peter's on the Vatican.

551 St Paul outside the Walls.

TRANSLATION

where he deposited some of the wood of the Lord's Cross. He built a basilica dedicated to the holy martyr Agnes at his daughter's request, and a baptistery552 in the same place, where his sister Constantia was baptized together with the emperor's daughter. Again, he built a basilica to the blessed martyr Lawrence on the Via Tiburtina, in the ¢eld of Veranus,553 and also one to the blessed martyrs Peter and Marcellinus, between two laurel trees on the Via Labicana, and a mausoleum where he laid his mother [to rest] in a purple sarcophagus. He built a basilica in the town of Ostia to the holy Apostles Peter and Paul and John the Baptist, near the port of the city of Rome, and a basilica in the city of Alba to St John the Baptist, and a basilica in the city of Naples.554 /510/

When he restored the town of Drepanum in Bithynia in honour of the martyr Lucian, who was buried there,Constantine renamed it Helenopolis after his mother.555

He also wished to make the city in Thrace to which he had given his own name556 the seat of the Roman empire and the capital of all the East.557

He ordered thatthetemples ofthe pagans beclosed, but without killing [anyone].558

Constantius ruled with his brothers Constantine and Constans for 24 years, 6 months, and 13 days.559

Bishop James of Nisibis enjoyed renown; the city was often saved in times of crisis by his prayers.560

Fostered by the protection of the Emperor Constantius, the Arian heresy persecuted ¢rst Athanasius and then all bishops not of its party with exile, imprisonment, and various types of a¥iction.561

Bishop Maximin of Trier was famous. Bishop Athanasius of Alexan552 St Constance.

553 St Lawrence without the Walls.

554 Liber ponti¢calis 34.9 (1.172), 13 (1.174), 16 (1.176), 21^24 (1.178^181), 26

(1.182), 28 (1.183^184), 30 (1.184^185), 32 (1.186).

555 Jerome, Chron. 231.22^25.

556 I.e. Constantinople.

557 Orosius 7.28.27 (504.12^16); 3.13.2 (163.18^164.3).

558 Ibid. 7.28.28 (505.1^3).

559 Jerome, Chron. 234.13^15.

560 Ibid. 234.24^25.

561 Ibid. 234.16^235.4.

THE RECKONING OF TIME

dria was honourably received by him when Constantius wished to punish him.562

The monk Anthony died in the desert at the age of 105.563

The relics of the Apostle Timothy were brought to Constantinople.564

After Constantius had visited Rome, the bones of the Apostle Andrew and Luke the evangelist were received by the citizens of Constantinople with marvellous enthusiasm.565

Bishop Hilary of Poitiers who had been driven out by the Arians and exiled to Phrygia, returned to Gaul after a book [written] on his behalf was presented to Constantius in Constantinople.566

Julian [reigned] for 2 years and 8 months.567

Julian, having converted to the worship of idols, persecuted the Christians.568

In the city of Sebaste in Palestine, pagans broke into the tomb of John the Baptist and scattered the bones. After these had been collected up again they burnt them and scattered them more widely. But by the providenceofGod,somemonksfromJerusalemwerethere.Collectingwhatever they could, they brought [the bones], all mixed together, as an o¡ering to their father [i.e. abbot] Philip. He /511/ immediately sent them by his deacon Julian to the metropolitan [ad ponti¢cem maximum], who at that time was Athanasius [of Alexandria], for [Philip] felt it was beyond his powers to guard so great a treasure by his own vigilance. After he had received them, [Athanasius], inspired by a prophetic spirit, preserved the relics for a generation yet to come in a hole under the sanctuary wall in the presence of a few witnesses.569 This prophecy was accomplished in the reignofTheodosiusbyTheophilus,bishopofthesamecity,whodedicated a church to St John after the tomb of Serapis had been destroyed.570

562 Ibid. 236.1^4.

563 Ibid. 240.5^6.

564 Ibid. 240.15^16.

565 Ibid. 240.26^241.2.

566 Ibid. 240.11^14; 241.17^19.

567 Ibid. 242.10^11.

568 Ibid. 242.11^12.

569 Ru¢nus' trans. of Eusebius, HE 11.28 (1033.20^1034.16).

570 Ibid. 11.26^27 (1031.10^1032.18). For a di¡erent account of the fate of the Baptist's relics, see below s.a. 4410.

TRANSLATION

Jovian [ruled for] 8 months.571

A synod was held at Antioch by Melitius and his supporters, in which, having rejected ''homoousion'' and ''anomoio'' as a compromise, they a⁄rmed the ''homoeousion'' of the Macedonians.572

Jovian, warned by the fall of his predecessor Constantius, in most courteous and respectful letters inquired of Athanasius, and received from him the form of the faith, and the manner in which the Church should be ordered. But an early death cut short his pious and happy reign.573

Valentinian [ruled] with his brother Valens for 11 years.574

Apollinaris bishop of Laodicea wrote a variety of works concerning religion, but later, deviating from [true] belief, he instituted the heresy that bears his name.575

Damasus bishop of Rome built the basilica of St Lawrence next to the theatre, and another in the catacombs, where the holy bodies of the Apostles Peter and Paul had lain. There he adorned with verses the very marble slab576 where the bodies had lain.577

Having been baptized by Eudoxius, a bishop of the Arians, Valens persecuted our people.578

Gratian, the son of Valentinian, was made emperor at Amiens in [Valentinian's] third year.579

The martyrium of the Apostles at Constantinople was dedicated.580

571 Jerome, Chron. 243.16^17; cf. 247.23^26.

572 Ibid. 243.21^24.

573 Ru¢nus' trans. of Eusebius, HE 11.1 (1002.10^13).

574 Cf. Jerome, Chron. 244.7^8; Orosius 7.32.1 (512.1^2).

575 Jerome, Chron. 244.14^15; Prosper 1129 (457).

576 I emend Jones' platoniam to platomam.

577 Liberponti¢calis 39 (1.212).The basilica ''next to the theatre'' is St Lawrence a Damaso in the Campus Martius, which Damasus built on the site of his family's house. The basilica in the catacombs is St Lawrence ''without theWalls'': it was actually constructed by Constantine the Great (see above, s.a. 4290), but remodelled during the ponti¢cate of Damasus: see Richard Krautheimer, Rome, Pro¢le of a City (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1980):33^34.

578 Jerome, Chron. 245.4^5.

579 Ibid. 245.6^7.

580 Ibid. 245.24^25.

THE RECKONING OF TIME

After Auxentius died late in life, Ambrose, elected bishop of Milan, converted all Italy to the true belief.581 /512/

Bishop Hilary of Poitiers died.582

Valens [ruled for] 4 years with Gratian and with Valentinian, the son of his brother Valentinian.583

Valens issued a law that monks should serve in the army, and he ordered that those who refused should be cudgelled to death.584

The people of the Huns, who had long dwelt secluded in inaccessible mountains, struck by sudden madness, burst forth against the Goths, and scattering them hither and thither drove them from their ancient settlements. The fugitive Goths, having crossed the Danube, were received by Valens without [being made to] lay down their arms. Soon they were driven to rebel because of the greed of general Maximus, and having defeated Valens' army they spread abroad throughout Thrace, all the while perpetrating massacres, arson, and rapine.585

Gratian [ruled] with his brother Valentinian [for] 6 years.586

TheodosiuswasmadeemperorbyGratian,andinmanyterriblebattles defeated the greatest of those Scythian peoples, namely the Alans, the Huns, and the Goths.587

Because they could not reach an agreement with [Theodosius], the Arians relinquished the churches which they had held by force for forty years.588

A synod of one hundred and ¢fty bishops under Bishop Damasus of Rome was held in the Augustan city589 against [the heresy of] Macedonius.590

581 Ibid. 247.16^18.

582 Ibid. 245.13.

583 Orosius 7.33.1 (515.8^9); cf. Jerome, Chron. 247.23^26.

584 Jerome, Chron. 248.3^4.

585 Orosius 7.33.10^11 (518.2^10); Jerome, Chron. 248.23^25.

586 Prosper 1167 (460).

587 Marcellinus Comes, Chronicon 379, ed. T. Mommsen, MGH AA 11 (1894):60.17^22; Orosius 7.34.5 (522.7^523.2).

588 Cf. Marcellinus 380 (61.3^6).

589 I.e. Rome.

590 Cf. Marcellinus 381 (61.8^12).

TRANSLATION

Theodosius made his son Arcadius his colleague as emperor.591

In the second year of Gratian's reign, and in his and Theodosius' sixth consulship,592 Theophilus wrote his paschal computus.593

Maximus, a man of energy and integrity, who would have been worthy to be an emperor if he had not emerged as a usurper in de¢ance of his oath of allegiance, was invited to Britain and there virtually made emperor by the army. He crossed into Gaul, and there waylaid the Emperor Gratian at Lyons, and killed him, and expelled his brother Valentinian from Italy.594

The latter su¡ered a richly deserved penalty of exile with his mother Justina, because he had polluted himself with the Arian heresy and had tormented Ambrose, /513/ the most eminent citadel of the catholic faith, by a treacherous seige.595 Not until the relics of the blessed martyrs

Gervasius and Protasius, revealed by God, were brought forth incorrupt did he abandon the wicked deeds he had begun.596

Theodosius, who had already ruled the East for 6 years while Gratian was alive, reigned for 11 years after his death.597

He received Valentinian, who had been expelled from Italy, kindly.

They killed the usurper Maximus at the third milestone from Aquileia.598

For [Maximus] had despoiled Britain of almost all of its armed youth and large numbers of soldiers, who had followed in the footsteps of this tyrant to Gaul. Seeing that they would never return home, some wild peoples from across the sea ^ the Irish from the north-west and the Picts from the north ^ came to the island thus abandoned by its troops and by its defender, and after devastating and pillaging it, they oppressed it for many years.599

591 Orosius 7.34.9 (524.2^5).

592 Recte ¢fth. This error was detected by Roger Collins: see above, p. xcix.

593 Cf. ch. 44 above. This is a unique instance of Bede using the word computus to denote a book or text about calendar reckoning.

594 Orosius 7.34.9^10 (524.5^11); cf. Bede, HE 1.9 (36); the information that Gratian was killed at Lyons is from Marcellinus 383 (61.26^27). Maximus was in fact o⁄cially recognized as emperor in the West from 383 to 388.

595 Cf. Ru¢nus' trans. of Eusebius, HE 11.15 (1020.18^1021.15).

596 Cf. Paulinus, Vita Ambrosii 14^15, ed. M. Pellegrino, Verba seniorum n.s. 1

(Rome, 1961).

597 Orosius 7.35.1 (525.1^4).

598 Prosper 1191 (462); Orosius 7.34.10 (524.10^13).

599 Gildas 13^14 (32.26^33.14); cf. Bede, HE 1.12 (40).

THE RECKONING OF TIME

Jerome, the translator of sacred history, wrote a book about the most illustrious men of the Church, which he brought down to the fourteenth year of Theodosius' reign.600

Arcadius, the son of Theodosius [ruled] with his brother Honorius for 13 years.601

By a divine revelation, the bodies of the holy prophets Habakkuk and Micah were discovered.602

The Goths entered Italy and the Vandals and Alans entered the Gallic [provinces].603

Bishop Innocent of Rome dedicated the basilica of the blessed martyrs Gervasius and Protasius, [built with] the testamentary bequest of a certain illustrious lady called Vestina.604

Pelagius the Briton impugned the grace of God.605

Honorius [ruled] with Theodosius the Younger, the son of his brother, for 15 years.606

Alaric, king of the Goths, captured Rome and burnt part of it607/514/ onthe 9th kalends of September [24 August]608 inthe1,164th year after its foundation.609 Onthesixthdayafterenteringit,heleftthepillagedcity.610

Inthe seventh yearofthe reign of Honorius,the priest Lucian, to whom God had revealed the place where the relics of the blessed protomartyr

Stephen and of Gamaliel and Nicodemus (about whom it is possible to read in the Gospel and in the Acts of the Apostles) were buried, wrote down his revelation in Greek for the whole Church.611

600 Marcellinus 392 (63.5^9).

601 Isidore, Chronica maiora 365 (470).

602 Ibid. 367 (471).

603 Ibid. 368 (471).

604 Liber ponti¢calis 42.3 (1.220).

605 Isidore, Chronica maiora 374 (471); cf. Bede, HE 1.10 (38).

606 Isidore, Chronica maiora 371 (471).

607 Marcellinus 410 (70.7^8).

608 Prosper 1240 (466).

609 Orosius 7.40.1 (548.14^15); cf. Bede, HE 1.11 (40).

610 Marcellinus 410 (70.9^10).

611 Gennadius, De viris illustribus 47 (92.7^11). Lucian's Revelatio sancti Stephani has been edited by E. Vanderlinden in Revue des e¤ tudes byzantines 4 (1946):190^217.

TRANSLATION

The priest Avitus, a Spaniard by birth, translated this revelation into Latin, and, adding a letter of his own, sent it to the West by the priest

Orosius.612 When he arrived in the Holy Land, whither he had been sent by Augustine to Jerome to learn about the nature of the soul, Orosius received relics of the blessed Stephen and returning home, was the ¢rst to bring them to the West.613

The Britons, who could bear the vexations of the Irish and the Picts no longer, sent to Rome, and promising their submission, /515/ besought help against the enemy. Immediately, a legion was sent to them which struck down the great horde of barbarians and expelled others from the borders of Britain. When it was preparing to return home, [the legion] ordered the allies614 to build a wall across the island between the two seas in order to keep the enemy out. As there was no master builder, this

[wall] was built without craftsmen, and from turf rather than stone.

Shortly after the Romans had departed, the former enemy came in ships and cut down whatever stood in their way, devouring it as if it were ripe grain. Their help having been sought again, the Romans swooped down and defeated the enemy, chasing them across the seas. With the Britons, they built [another] wall from sea to sea, for fear of the enemy, not as before out of crumbly earth, but in solid stone, between the towns which were sited there. But along the southern sea coast, because they also feared an enemy approach there, they built towers at intervals overlooking the sea. Then they bade farewell to their allies, but they were never to return again.615

Bishop Boniface of Rome built an oratory in the cemetary of Saint Felicitas, and decorated her sepulchre and that of Saint Silvanus.616

The priest Jerome died at the age of ninety-one on the 2nd kalends of October [30 September] in the twelfth year of Honorius.617 /516/

Theodosius the Younger, the son of Arcadius, [ruled for] 26 years.618

612 Ibid. 48. Bede knew the works of Avitus at ¢rst hand, and cites him in his Retractatio in Actus Apostolorum and his commentary on the Epistle of James.

613 Gennadius, De viris illustribus 40 (89.5^8).

614 I.e. the Britons.

615 Gildas 15^18 (33.14^35.7); cf. Bede, HE 1.12 (40^42).

616 Liber ponti¢calis 44.6 (1.227).

617 Prosper 1274 (469).

618 Isidore, Chronica maiora 376 (472).

THE RECKONING OF TIME

Valentinian the Younger, son of Constantius, was made emperor at Ravenna.619

His mother [Galla] Placidia was called Augusta.620

The ferocious race of the Vandals, the Alans, and the Goths, crossing from Spain into Africa, ravaged everything with ¢re, sword, rapine, and the Arian heresy.621 But the blessed Bishop Augustine of Hippo, the foremost doctor of the Church, lest he see the ruin of his city,went to the Lord onthe5thkalendsofSeptember [28 August] inthethirdmonthofthesiege, having lived for seventy-six years and having completed nearly forty years in holy orders and as a bishop.622

At this time, the Vandals, having captured Carthage, annihilated Sicily as well. Paschasinus bishop of Lilybaeum recalled its capture in the letter which he sent to Pope Leo about the calculation of Easter.623

In the eighth year of Theodosius, Palladius was ordained and sent by Pope Celestine to the Irish who believed in Christ, to be their ¢rst bishop.624

When word got around that the Roman army had left Britain with no intention of returning, the Irish and Picts came back again and captured the whole island from its indigenous inhabitants, from the north right up to the wall. With the guardians of the wall defeated, captive, or in £ight and [the wall] itself broken, the savage brigands without delay prowled through [the land]. In the twenty-third year of the reign of the Emperor

Theodosius, a letter was sent bearing [the Britons'] tears and groans to the commander of the Romans, Aetius thrice consul, /517/ seeking help, but without success. Meanwhile a terrible and very notable famine attacked the fugitives, forcing some to surrender to the enemy, but others to ¢ght back vigorously from the mountains, caves, and de¢les, and to in£ict defeat upon the enemies. The Irish returned home, though shortly to come back again. The Picts took hold of the uttermost part of the island 625 for the ¢rst time and inhabited it from that time forward.

619 Marcellinus 425 (76.22^23), 419 (74.5^7).

620 Marcellinus 424 (76.11^12).

621 Isidore, Chronica maiora 377 (472).

622 Possidius, Vita Augustini 28.4, ed. M. Pellegrino, Verba seniorum 4 (Alba:

Edizioni Paolini, 1955):148.26^27, 29.1 (156.11^12 and 158.3^4); the date of Augustine's death is supplied from Prosper 1304 (473).

623 Ed. Krusch, Studien I, 247; see Introduction, p. l.

624 Prosper 1307 (473); cf. Bede, HE 1.13 (46).

625 I.e. the northern part.

TRANSLATION

The famine mentioned earlier was followed by a great abundance of crops, the abundance by indulgence and carelessness, the carelessness by a very severe epidemic, and soon the ¢ercer plague of a new enemy, namely the Angles. By unanimous agreement with their king Vortigern,

[the Britons] had chosen to invite them in as defenders of [their] homeland; but soon they realized that those they had chosen were assailants and conquerors.626

Sixtus the bishop of Rome built the basilica of Saint Mary the mother of the Lord, which wascalled bythe ancients [the basilica] of Liberius.627

Eudoxia the wife ofthe EmperorTheodosiusreturned from Jerusalem, bringing with her the relics of the most blessed Stephen the ¢rst martyr; these were venerated in the basilica of Saint Lawrence, where they had been placed.628

The brothers Bleda and Attila, kings of many peoples, depopulated Illyria and Thrace.629

Marcian and Valentinian [ruled for] 7 years.

The people of the Angles or of the Saxons were conveyed to Britain in three longships. When their voyage turned out to be a success, news of them was carried back home. A stronger army set out, which, joined to the previous one, ¢rst of all drove away the enemy they were seeking.630

Then they turned their arms on their allies, and subjugated almost the entire island by ¢re or the sword, from the eastern shore as far as the western one, /518/ on the trumped-up excuse that the Britons had given them a less than adequate stipend for their military services.631

John the Baptist revealed [the location of] his head, next to a former dwelling of King Herod, to two eastern monks who had come to Jerusalem to pray.632 It was then taken to the city of Emesa in Phoenicia and venerated with appropriate honour.

The Pelagian heresy disturbed the faith of the Britons. Having sought 626 Gildas 19^22 (35.8^38.11); cf. Bede, HE 1.12 (42^44).

627 Liber ponti¢calis 46.3 (1.232).

628 Marcellinus 439 (80.4^8).

629 Ibid. 442 (80.4^8).

630 I.e. the Picts and Irish.

631 Gildas 23 (38.12^39.9); cf. Bede, HE 1.15 (48^52). For discussion of Bede's dating of the Adventus Saxonum, see Harrison, Framework 124^125.

632 Marcellinus 453.1^2 (84.21^85.11). Cf. above s.a. 4316.

THE RECKONING OF TIME

help from the bishops of Gaul, they received Bishop Germanus of Auxerre, and Lupus, equally by apostolic grace bishop of Trier, as the defenders of the faith. The bishops strengthened the faith by the word of truth and at the same time by miraculous signs. Having gathered some men they stemmed the campaign of the Saxons and Picts against the Britons by divine power. With Germanus himself as their general, the brutal enemy was put to £ight, not by the sound of the trumpet, but by the shout of ''Alleluia'' raised to the stars. [Germanus] then went to Ravenna, where after being received with the utmost reverence by Valentinian [III] and [Galla] Placidia, he migrated to Christ. His body was brought to Auxerre accompanied by a guard of honour, and by the working of miracles.633 The patrician Aetius, the great salvation of the Western empire and once the terror of King Attila, was killed by Valentinian; with him fell the Western realm, and to this day it has not had the strength to be revived.634

Leo [ruled for] 17 years. /519/ He sent identical letters to all the bishops throughout the world in support of the Chalcedonian Tome, asking them to write back to him what they thought of this Tome. He received concordant replies from all of them concerning the true Incarnation of Christ; it was as if all had been written at one time and at one dictation.635

Theodoret, bishop of the city called Cyrrhus, after its founder the Persian king Cyrus, wrote about the true Incarnation of the Lord our

Saviour against Eutyches and Bishop Dioscorus of Alexandria, who denied the human £esh in Christ. He also wrote an Ecclesiastical History from the point where Eusebius' work breaks o¡ down to his own time; which is to say down to the reign of Leo, under whom he died.636

Victorius, at the command of Pope Hilarius, wrote a paschal cycle of ¢ve hundred and thirty-two years.637

633 Constantius, Vita Germani 12, ed. W. Levison, MGH Script. rerum merov. 7

(1920): 259; 14^18 (260^265); 35 (276^277); 42 (281); 44^46 (281^282); cf. Bede, HE 1.17

(54^58), 20^21 (62^66).

634 Marcellinus 454.2 (86.6^10); cf. Bede, HE 1.21 (66).

635 Marcellinus 458 (87.9^17).

636 Gennadius, De viris illustribus 89 (108.9^25).

637 Ibid. 88 (107.25^108.7); cf. ch. 51 above, and Introduction, pp. l^li.

TRANSLATION

Zeno ruled for 17 years.

The body of the Apostle Barnabas and the Gospel of Matthew written by his own hand were found through [Matthew's] own revelation.638

Odoacer king of the Goths gained control of Rome, which their kings henceforward held for a long time.639 After the death of Theodoric the son of Triarius, another Theodoric, surnamed Valamer, ruled as king of the Goths, and depopulated both Macedonia and Thessaly.640 Having put various parts of the royal city [of Constantinople] to the torch, he also invaded and occupied Italy.641

Huneric the Arian king of the Vandals in Africa having driven into exile or £ight more than three hundred and thirty-four catholic bishops, closed their churches and a¥icted the populace with various torments.

Although he cut o¡ countless hands and cut out innumerable tongues he still could not eliminate the expression of the catholic confession.642

/520/ Under the leadership of Ambrosius Aurelianus ^ a man of modest means, who alone of the mighty Romans had survived the slaughter

[in£icted] by the Saxons in which his parents, who had worn the purple, had been killed ^ the Britons goaded the victors into battle and defeated them. And from then on, ¢rst one side then the other had the palm, until the intruders, being stronger, gained possession of the whole island for a long time.643

Anastasius [ruled for] 28 years.

Trasamund the king of the Vandals closed the catholic churches and sent two hundred and twenty bishops into exile in Sardinia.644

Pope Symmachus, amongst the many church buildings which he built from the ground up or restored, constructed a dwelling for the poor, dedicated to Saints Peter, Paul and Lawrence. And every year he supplied

638 Isidore, Chronica maiora 388 (474).

639 Marcellinus 476.2 (91.21^26).

640 Ibid. 481.1^482.2 (92.14^18, 24^25).

641 Ibid. 487^489 (93.18^21, 25^30).

642 Cf. ibid. 484.2^4 (92.3^93.9).

643 Gildas 25^26 (40.1^41.14); cf. Bede, HE 1.16 (52^54).

644 Isidore, Chronica maiora 390 (474).

THE RECKONING OF TIME

money and clothes to the bishops who were in exile throughout Africa or in Sardinia.645

Anastasius, who supported the heresy of Eutyches, harassed the catholics, and perished by a divine thunderbolt.646

Justin the Elder [ruled for] 8 years.

John, bishop of the Roman church, when he came to Constantinople, was met by a great crowd at the gate called ''Golden'', where, in the sight ofall, herestoredthesightofablindmanwho besought him [to dothis].647

When he returned to Ravenna, Theodoric killed him and his companions by imprisoning them in a dungeon, out of spite that Justin, the defender of catholic piety, had received [John] with so much honour.648

In that year, the consulship of Probus the Younger, he killed the patrician Symmachus at Ravenna, and in the following year he himself died suddenly, and was succeeded in the kingship by his grandson Athalaric.649

Hilderic king of the Vandals ordered the bishops to return from exile and /521/ the churches to be restored, after seventy-four years of heretical profanation.650

Abbot Benedict shone forth in the glory of his miracles, which the blessed Pope Gregory wrote down in his book of Dialogues.

Justinian, nephew by a sister of Justin [ruled for] 38 years.

The patrician Belisarius, sent to Africa by Justinian, exterminated the Vandals.651 Carthage was recovered in the ninety-sixth year after its loss.

The Vandals were defeated and expelled, and their king Gelimer was sent as a captive to Constantinople.652

The body of St Anthonythe monk,discovered by divine revelation, was 645 Liber ponti¢calis 53.10^11 (1.263).

646 Ibid. 54.5 (720.4).

647 Gregory, Dialogi 3.2.3, ed. A. de Vogu« e¤ , Sources chre¤ tiennes 251 (Paris: Cerf,

1978):2.268.22^26.

648 Liber ponti¢calis 55.6 (1.276).

649 Marius Aventicensis, Chronica, anno 525, 526, ed. Th. Mommsen, MGH AA 11 (1892): 235; Liber ponti¢calis 55.6 (1.276).

650 Isidore, Chronica maiora 396 (475).

651 Ibid. 398^399 (475).

652 Marcellinus 534 (103.33^104.3).

TRANSLATION

brought to Alexandria, and buried in the church of the blessed John the Baptist.653

Dionysius wrote paschal tables beginning in the 532nd year from the Lord's Incarnation, which is the 248th year after Diocletian.654

After [came] the consulship of Lampadius and Orestes, and in this year the Code of Justinian was promulgated to the world.655

Victor bishop of Capua wrote a book about Easter, criticizing the errors of Victorius.656

Justin the younger [ruled] for 11 years.

The patrician Narses overcame and killed Totila king of the Goths in Italy.657

Then, due to the malice of the Romans, on whose behalf he had laboured long against the Goths, [Narses] was accused before Justin and his wife Sophia of claiming Italy in subjection as his reward.He withdrew to Naples in Campania, and wrote to the people of the Lombards

[telling them] that they should come and possess Italy.658 /522/ John bishop of the Roman Church completed and dedicated the church of the Apostles Philip and James, which his predecessor Pelagius had begun.659

Tiberius Constantine [ruled for] 7 years.

Gregory, then apocrisiarius in Constantinople and later pope, wrote his commentaries on Job. He also showed, in the presence of the Emperor Tiberius, that Bishop Eutychius of Constantinople had erred concerning our faith in the Resurrection, so that the emperor ordered that the book he had written about the Resurrection be burned, refuting it with catholic arguments. For Eutychius had taught that ourbodies will be impalpable in the glory of resurrection, and will be more subtle than winds

653 Isidore, Chronica maiora 400 (476).

654 Counting from his accession in AD 284. Cf. ch. 47.

655 Marcellinus 531 (103.12).

656 See ch. 51 above.

657 Isidore, Chronica maiora 402 (476); Liber ponti¢calis 61.8 (1.299).

658 Ibid. 63.3 (1.305).

659 Ibid. 62.3 (1.303) and 63.1 (1.305).

THE RECKONING OF TIME

and air; contrary to [what] the Lord [said]: Touch me and see, because a spiritdoes not have£esh and bones inthe waythat you see Ihave.660

The plundering people of the Lombards, accompanied by famine and plague, seized hold of all Italy, and besieged the city of Rome; at this time

King Alboin was pre-eminent.661

Maurice [ruled for] 21 years.

Herminigild, son of Leuvigild the king of the Goths, because his profession of the catholic faith was proof against all persuasion, was deprived of his kingdom by his Arian father, and was thrown into prison in chains, until he was struck on the head at the end of the night of Easter Sunday, and exchanged an earthly kingdom for the heavenly one, which he entered as a king and martyr. His brother Reccared soon after took over the kingdom, following their father, and converted to the catholic faith all of the Gothic people over whom he ruled under the instigation of Leander bishop of Seville, who had also taught Herminigild.662 /523/

In the thirteenth year of the reign of Maurice and the thirteenth indiction, Gregory, the bishop of Rome and outstanding teacher, assembled a synod of twenty-four bishops at the tomb of the blessed Apostle Peter, to make decisions concerning the needs of the Church.663

He sent to Britain Augustine, Mellitus and John, and many others, with God-fearing monks with them, to convert the English to Christ.664

Aethelberht was soon converted to the grace of Christ, together with the people of the Cantuarii over whom he ruled, and those of neighbouring kingdoms. [Gregory] gave him Augustine to be his bishop and teacher, as well as other holy priests to become bishops.665 However, the people of the Angles north of the river Humber, under Kings Aelle and Aethelfrith, did not at this time hear the Word of life.666

660 Gregory, Moralia in Job 14.56.74, ed.

Adriaen, CCSL 143A (1979):745.70.85; the biblical quotation is from Luke 24.39.

661 Liber ponti¢calis 64^65 (1.308.9); Marius Aventicensis 569 (238).

662 Gregory, Dialogi 3.31 (2.384^390).

663 Gregory, Registrum 5.57a, ed. P. Ewald and L.M. Hartman, MGH Ep. 1

(1887):362^366; cf. Bede, HE 2.1 (128).

664 Liber ponti¢calis 66.3 (1.312); cf. Bede, HE 2.1^3 (130^142).

665 Cf. Bede, HE 1.23 (114^116).

666 Cf. ibid. 2.1 (134), 2.2 (140^142).

TRANSLATION

Gregory, in the eighteenth year of Maurice and the fourth indiction, decreed in a letter to Augustine that the bishops of London and York, having received the pallium from the apostolic see, should be metropolitan bishops.667

Phocas [ruled for] 8 years.

In his second year and the eighth indiction, Pope Gregory went to the Lord.

At the request of Pope Boniface, [Phocas] proclaimed that the see of the Roman and apostolic Church was the head of all other churches, because the Church of Constantinople wrote that it was the ¢rst of churches.668

The same emperor, [responding to] another request of Pope Boniface, ordered that a church should be constructed in the old temple called the Pantheon, with the stains of idolatry removed, and dedicated to the blessed and ever virgin Mary and all the martyrs;669 so that where once the worship, not of all the gods but rather of all the demons had taken place, there should thenceforth be a memorial to all the saints. /524/

The Persians, waging a terrible war against the empire, seized many Roman provinces, and even took Jerusalem itself,670 destroying churches and profaning the holy furnishings of the places of the saints and of ordinary people. They carried them o¡, and also stole the standard of the Lord's Cross.

Heraclius [ruled for] 25 years.

Anastasius the Persian monk su¡ered a noble martyrdom for Christ.671 Born in Persia, he learned the magic arts from his father when a boy, but when he heard the name of Christ from Christian captives, he soon converted to Him with all his heart. Leaving Persia, he came to 667 Cf. ibid. 1.29 (104^106).

668 Liber ponti¢calis 68.1 (1.316).

669 Ibid. 69 (1.317); cf. Bede, HE 2.4 (148).

670 Isidore, Chronica maiora 413 (479).

671 Bede revised a poorly translated Greek vita of Anastasius, of which what follows is a summary: cf. HE 5.24 (568^580); see C. Vircillo Franklin and Paul Meyvaert,

''Has Bede's Version of the 'Passio S. Anastasii' come down to us in 'BHL' 408?'', Analecta

Bollandiana 100 (1982):373^400.

THE RECKONING OF TIME

Chalcedon and then Hierapolis in search of Christ, and ¢nally reached Jerusalem, where he received the grace of baptism, and entered the monastery of Abbot Anastasius, at the fourth milestone from the city.

There he lived under a monastic rule [regulariter] for seven years, until he came for the sake of prayer to Caesarea in Palestine. Captured by the Persians, he was kept in prison by the sentence of Marzban the judge, whipped frequently and held in chains for a long time. Then he was sent back to Persia, to their king Chosroes. Over a period of time, he was almost £ogged to death by them three times, and suspended by one hand for three hours a day, before he was beheaded, along with seventy others, and his martyrdom was completed. Shortly after, a man possessed by a demon was cured by putting on his tunic. He was amongst those who were survivors when the Emperor Heraclius defeated the Persians with his army and brought the Christian captives back rejoicing. The relics of theblessedmartyrAnastasiuswere¢rstofallveneratedathisownmonastery, and then after they had been brought to Rome, in the monastery of the blessed Apostle Paul, called ''By the Salvian Waters''. /525/

In the sixteenth year of Heraclius' reign and the ¢fteenth indiction, and more or less one hundred and eighty years after the arrival of the English in Britain, Edwin, the most excellent king of the English living across the Humber in north Britain, received with his people the Word of salvation through the preaching of Bishop Paulinus, whom the venerable Archbishop Justus had sent from Kent. This was in the eleventh year of [Edwin's] reign. He gave Paulinus the episcopal see at York.672

As an omen of the coming of the faith and of the heavenly kingdom, the power of this king's earthly kingdom was increased, so that all the con¢nes of Britain, wherever either the English or the Britons dwelt, were under his authority. None of the English before him [had accomplished this].673 At this time Pope Honorius condemned in a letter the Quartodeciman error concerning the observance of Easter, which had appeared amongst the Irish. Also John, who came after [Honorius'] successor Severinus, while he was still pope-elect, wrote to them about this same problem of Easter and at the same time about the Pelagian heresy, which was reviving amongst them.674

672 Cf. Bede, HE 2.14 (186^188).

673 Cf. ibid. 2.9 (162).

674 Cf. ibid. 2.19 (198^202). Though Honorius de¢nitely accused the Irish of Quartodecimanism, an accusation frequently repeated by Eddius Stephanus (Vita sancti

TRANSLATION

Heracleonas [ruled] with his mother for 2 years.

Cyrus of Alexandria, with Sergius and Pyrrhus, bishop of the royal city [of Constantinople], instigators of the Acephalite heresy, taught that there was one operation of divinity and humanity in Christ and one will.675 Of these [two], Pyrrhus, coming to Rome from Africa at this time, namely [the time] of Pope Theodore, displayed (as it later became evident) a false penitence in the presence of the pope and all the clergy and people when he presented a declaration, signed by himself, in which he condemned everything that he or his predecessors had either by word or deed done against the catholic faith. Hence he was graciously received by Pope Theodore, as if he really were /526/ the bishop of the royal city.

But when he returned home and again took up his wonted error, the aforementioned Pope Theodore, having called together all priests and clergy in the church of the blessed Peter, Prince of the Apostles, condemned him under the bond of anathema.676

Constantine the son of Heraclius [ruled for] 6 months.

Paul the successor of Pyrrhus, tormented the catholics not only by his insane teaching, as his predecessors had done, but by open persecution, a¥icting the envoys of the holy Roman Church, who had been sent to correct him, with imprisonment, exiling some and £ogging others. He also overturned and destroyed their altar, consecrated in the ancient oratory of the house of Placidia, forbidding them to celebrate mass there.677 Thus he, like his predecessors, was condemned by the apostolic see by a just sentence of deposition.678

Wilfridi, ed. Bertram Colgrave (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1927) chs. 12, 14,

15), Bede seems to have realized that this was not the case, for in HE, he edits Pope Honorius' letter to excise the reference to Quartodecimanism; cf. Alan Thacker, ''Bede and the Irish'', 38^39.The other heresy associated with the Celtic Paschal observance was Pelagianism: see D. O¤ Cro¤ in|¤n, '' 'New Heresy for Old': Pelagianism in Ireland and the Papal Letter of 640'', Speculum 60 (1985):505^516. However, Bede seems to associate Pelagianism with celebrating Easter in a lunation which has not reached its 14th day before the equinox, which is a problem with Victorius' tables: cf. ch. 6 and ch. 51.

675 Cf. Liber ponti¢calis 76.3 (1.336^337).

676 Ibid. 76.3 (1.337).

677 Ibid. 76.1^2 (1.336).

678 Ibid. 76.6 (1.338).

THE RECKONING OF TIME

Constantine [i.e. Constans II] the son of Constantine [ruled for] 27 years.

Deceived by Paul in the way that his grandfather Heraclius had been deceived by Sergius, bishop of that same royal city, he promulgated a Typos against the catholic faith, in which he confessed that neither one nor two wills or operations in Christ should be speci¢ed, as if Christ could be believed neither to have willed nor to have acted.679 In consequence Pope Martin convened a synod in Rome of one hundred and ¢ve bishops, and under anathema condemned the aforementioned Cyrus,

Sergius, Pyrrhus and Paul as heretics.680

Following this, the exarch Theodore, sent by the emperor, carried o¡ Pope Martin from the Constantinian basilica and sent him to Constantinople. Afterwards [Martin] was exiled to Cherson, where he ended his life, refulgent in many signs of miracles in that place right up to today.681 The above-mentioned synod was held in the month of October, in the ninth year of the Emperor Constantine, in the eighth indiction.

When Pope Vitalian had just been consecrated, the Emperor Constantine /527/ sent to the blessed Apostle Peter a golden Gospel book, decorated all around the edge with white gems of great size.682

Some years later, in the sixth indiction, he came to Rome and laid on [St Peter's] altar a cloak made of cloth of gold, while the entire army entered the church carrying wax candles.683

In the following year there was a solar eclipse, which is still remembered in our days, around the ¢fth hour on the 5th Nones of May [3

May].684

Archbishop Theodore and Abbot Hadrian, a man equally learned, were sent to Britain by Pope Vitalian, and made many of the churches of the English fertile with the fruit of ecclesiastical teaching.685

Constantine, after many and unprecedented raids had been made on 679 Ibid. 76.1 (1.336).

680 Ibid. 76.3 (1.336^337).

681 Ibid. 76.8 (1.338).

682 Ibid. 78.1 (1.343).

683 Ibid. 78.2^3 (1.343).

684 Cf. Bede, HE 3.27 (310). This eclipse actually took place on 1 May, 664: cf.

Commentary on ch. 43.

685 Cf. Bede, HE 4.1^2 (328^336).

TRANSLATION

the provinces, was killed in his bath in the twelfth indiction. Not long after this, Pope Vitalian also sought the heavenly kingdom.686

Constantine, the son of the previous Constantine [ruled for] 17 years.

The Saracens invaded Sicily, and then returned to Alexandria, taking with them much booty.687

Pope Agatho, at the request of the most pious rulers Constantine, Heraclius and Tiberius, sent envoys to the royal city, amongst whom was John, then a deacon, but not long after bishop of Rome, to bring about the uni¢cation of the holy churches of God. They were received very graciously by Constantine, the most reverend defender of the catholic faith, and were ordered to lay aside all philosophical debates in order to search for the true faith in peaceful discussion, and all the works of the Fathers that they asked for were given to them from the library of Constantinople. One hundred and ¢fty bishops were present there, under the presidency of the Patriarchs George of the royal city

[Constantinople] and Macarius of Antioch. And they were convinced.

They added that those who asserted that there was onewillandoneoperation/528/inChrist falsi¢ed very many statements of the catholic Fathers.

With the con£ict settled, George was corrected, and Macarius, together with his followers and their predecessors Cyrus, Sergius, Honorius,

Pyrrhus, Paul, and Peter, were anathematized. In [Macarius'] place Theophanius, an abbot from Sicily, was made bishop of Antioch. Such great gratitude accompanied the envoys of the catholic peace, that John bishop of Porta, who was one of them, publicly celebrated mass in Latin in the presence of the emperor and the patriarch in the church of Sancta

Sophia, on the Sunday of the octave of Easter.688

This was the sixth universal synod held in Constantinople689 and written up in Greek in the time of Pope Agatho, enforced and presided over by the most pious Prince Constantine in his palace, together with the legates of the Apostolic See and with one hundred and ¢fty bishops taking part. The ¢rst universal synod was convened in Nicaea against Arius, with three hundred and eighteen bishops, in the time of Pope

686 Liber ponti¢calis 78.4 (1.344).

687 Ibid. 79.3 (1.346).

688 Ibid. 81.3^4 (1.350^351), 6 (1.351), 12 (1.353^354), 14^15 (1.354); the reference to the condemnation of Honorius is from 82.2 (1.359).

689 Ibid. 82.2 (1.359).

THE RECKONING OF TIME

Julius and under the Emperor Constantine.The second was in Constantinople with one hundred and ¢fty bishops, against Macedonius and Eudoxius in the time of Pope Damasus and the Emperor Gratian, when

Nectarius was ordained bishop of Constantinople. The third was held in Ephesus, with two hundred bishops present, against Nestorius, the bishop of the imperial city, under the Emperor Theodosius the Great and Pope Celestine. The fourth was in Chalcedon, with six hundred and thirty bishops under Pope Leo and in the time of the Emperor Marcian, against Eutyches the most villainous leader of the monks. The ¢fth was also in Constantinople in the time of Pope Vigilius and under the Emperor Justinian, against Theodore and all heretics. The sixth is the one of which we have just spoken.690

The holy and perpetual virgin of Christ Aethelthryth, daughter of Anna king of the English, was ¢rst married to a very eminent man, and afterwards /529/ to King Egfrid. After she had preserved the marriage bed uncorrupted for twelve years, she who was once a queen became a consecrated virgin by taking the holy veil. Immediately she also became a mother of virgins and the pious nurse of holy women, and received the place called Ely in order to build a monastery. Her dead body, discovered uncorrupted along with the garment in which it had been wrapped, having been buried for sixteen years, also attests to her enduring merits.691

Justinian the Younger, the son of Constantine, [ruled for] 10 years.

He made a ten-year peace on land and sea with the Saracens. But the province of Africa was brought under the control of the Roman empire. It had been occupied by the Saracens,692 and Carthage itself was captured by them and destroyed.

[Justinian], sending out his protospatharius Zacharias, ordered that the Roman Bishop Sergius, of blessed memory, be deported to Constantinople because he was unwilling to approve of and subscribe to the heretical synod that [Justinian] was holding in Constantinople. But the militia of the city of Ravenna and of the surrounding regions forestalled

690 Cf. Bede, HE 4.17 (386).

691 Cf. ibid. 4.19^20 (390^400).

692 Liber ponti¢calis 84.3 (1.366).

TRANSLATION

the wicked orders of the emperor and drove Zacharias from Rome with insults and injuries.693

The same Pope Sergius ordained the venerable man Willibrord, called Clement, as bishop of the Frisian people. Even now, as a pilgrim for the eternal homeland (for he is one of the people of the English from Britain) he achieves there every day innumerable daily losses for the devil and gains for the Christian faith.694

Because he was guilty of treason, Justinian was deprived of the glory of his kingdom, and withdrew to Pontus as an exile.

Leo [ruled for] three years.

Bydivinerevelation, Pope Sergius found asilverchest inthesanctuary of the blessed Apostle Peter, where it had long lain hidden in a very dark corner. In it was a cross adorned with diverse precious stones. /530/

When he had removed the four metal plates by which the gems were embedded, he discovered inside the cross a piece of the salvi¢c Cross of the Lord, of marvellous size. From that time forward, each year on the day of the Exaltation [of the Cross] this [relic] is kissed and adored by all the people in the basilica of the Saviour, known as the Constantinian

[basilica].695

The most reverend Bishop Cuthbert, who from being an anchorite became bishop of the church of Lindisfarne in Britain, led from infancy to old age a life justly celebrated for its miraculous signs. When his body had remained buried but uncorrupted for eleven years, it was thereafter discovered, together with the clothes by which he was covered, as if he had just died, as we have recounted in the book of his life and miracles recently composed in prose, and some years ago in hexameter verse.696

Tiberius [ruled for] 7 years.

A synod held at Aquileia out of ignorance of the faith was reluctant to 693 Ibid. 86.6^8 (1.372^374).

694 Cf. Bede, HE 5.11 (584^586).

695 Liber ponti¢calis 86.10 (1.374).

696 Cf. HE 4.27^32; Bede's prose life of Cuthbert is edited and translated by Bertram Colgrave,Two Lives of St. Cuthbert. A Life by an Anonymous Monk of Lindisfarne and Bede's Prose Life (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1940). The verse life has been edited by W.

Jaeger, Bedas metrische Vita Sancti Cuthberti (Leipzig: Palaestra, 1935).

THE RECKONING OF TIME

accept the ¢fth universal council; but instructed by the salutary warnings of the blessed Pope Sergius, it consented to endorse it along with the other churches of Christ.697

Gisulf, the duke of the Lombards of Benevento, ravaged Campania with ¢re and sword and the [taking of] captives. Because there was no one who could resist his advance, the apostolic Pope John, who had succeeded Sergius, having sent priests and very many gifts to him, ransomed all of the captives and made the enemy return home.698

He was succeeded by another John, who amongst many notable deeds, built the oratory of the holy Mother of God, of the most beautiful workmanship, inside the church of the blessed Apostle Peter.699

KingAripertoftheLombardsrestoredmanyfarmsandestates/531/in the Cottian Alps which previously had belonged to the Apostolic See, but which had been stolen by the Lombards a long time since, to the same

See, and he sent this deed of gift to Rome written in letters ofgold.700

Justinian [reigned] for a second time with his son Tiberius for 6 years.

With the help of Terbellius, the king of the Bulgars, he killed those who had expelled him, the patricians Leo, who had usurped his place, and also his successor Tiberius, who ejected [Leo] from the throne and held him a captive in Constantinople throughout his reign.701 He sent the patriarch Callinicus to Rome with his eyes gouged out, and gave the bishopric [of Constantinople] to Cyrus, who had been an abbot in Pontus and had aided him when in exile. He ordered Pope Constantine to come to him, and received and saw him o¡ with great honour. He even ordered [Constantine] to celebrate mass on Sunday, and received communion from his own hand. He prostrated himself on the ground asking [the pope] to intercede for his sins, and he restored all the privileges of the Church.702 When he sent a large army into Pontus in order to overtake Philip[picus], whom he had exiled there, though the pope forbade it, the whole army went over to Philip[picus]' side, and made him emperor. Returning with him to Constantinople, [the army] fought

697 Liber ponti¢calis 86.15 (1.376).

698 Ibid. 87.2 (1.383).

699 Ibid. 87.1 (1.385).

700 Ibid. 88.3 (1.385).

701 Ibid. 88.4 (1.385).

702 Ibid. 90.6 (1.390^391).

TRANSLATION

against Justinian at the twelfth milestone from the city. With Justinian defeated and killed, Philip[picus] took over the empire.

Philip[picus] [ruled for] one year and 6 months.

He ejected Cyrus from the bishopric and ordered him to go back and govern his monastery in Pontus. The emperor sent letters containing deviant teaching to Pope Constantine, which /531/ the latter, along with the council of the Apostolic See, rejected, and for this reason [the Pope] set up pictures in the portico of Saint Peter depicting the deeds of the six holy universal synods.703 For Philip[picus] had ordered similar pictures in the royal city [of Constantinople] to be removed. The Roman people ordained that they would not recognize the name of the heretical emperor or his decrees or his face on the coinage. Hence, his portraits were not carried into church, nor was his name mentioned in the solemnities of the mass.704

Anastasius [ruled for] 3 years.

He captured Philip[picus] and blinded him, but did not kill him.

He sent letters to Pope Constantine in Rome via the patrician Scholasticus, the exarch of Italy, in which he demonstrated that he supported the Catholic faith and proclaimed the sixth holy Council.705

Reproved by Pope Gregory, King Liutprand of the Lombards con¢rmed the gift of the estates in the Cottian Alps, which King Aripert had made and he had claimed back.706

In the seven hundred and sixteenth year from the Incarnation of the Lord, Egbert, a holy man of the English people and priest /533/ in monastic life, training himself for the celestial homeland as a pilgrim, converted through his pious preaching many provinces of the Irish to the canonical observance of the timing of Easter, from which they had long strayed.707

703 Ibid. 90.8 (1.391).

704 Ibid. 90.10 (1.392).

705 Ibid. 90.11 (1.392^393).

706 Ibid. 91.4 (1.398).

707 Cf. Bede, HE 5.22 (553^554).

THE RECKONING OF TIME

Theodosius [reigned for] one year.

Elected emperor, he defeated Anastasius in a terrible battle at the city of Nicaea, and having administered an oath to him, he forced him to become a cleric and be ordained a priest. In order to receive the imperial o⁄ce, since he was a catholic, he soon restored to its former place in the royal city that image, worthy of veneration, depicting the six holy synods, which had been torn down by Philip[picus].708

The riverTiber over£owed its bed and caused a great exodus from the city of Rome. The waters, £owing together and exceeding their normal height by one and a half times, descended in a broad sweep from the gate of St Peter as far as the Milvian Bridge. [The £ood] lasted for for seven days, /534/ until, with the citizens performing frequent litanies, it at last receded on the eighth day.709

At this time many of the English, both nobles and commoners, men and women, leaders and people in private life, were wont to go from Britain to Rome, inspired by divine love.710 Amongst these was my most reverend Abbot Ceolfrid, 74 years of age, who had been a priest for 47 years and an abbot for 35. When he reached Langres, he died and was buried there in the church of the blessed twin martyrs. Amongst other gifts which he had arranged to take with him, he sent to the church of Saint Peter a complete Bible [pandectem], translated by the blessed Jerome from the Hebrew and Greek sources.711

Leo [ruled for] 9 years.

The Saracens, coming to Constantinople with an immense army, besieged it for three years until, with the citizens calling on God on numerous occasions, many of [the Saracens] died of hunger, cold /535/ and pestilence, and withdrew, as if wearied of the siege. As they retreated, they started a war with the people of the Bulgars on the river Danube, and being likewise defeated by these people, they £ed and sought their

708 Liber ponti¢calis 91.5 (1.398^399).

709 Ibid. 91.6 (1.399).

710 Cf. Bede, HE 5.7 (472).

711 Cf. Bede, Historia abbatum 2.15^23 (379^387); Historia abbatum auctore anonymo 21^22 (395^400). Judith McClure has argued for Bede's authorship of the latter:

''Bede and the Life of St Ceolfrid'', Peritia 3 (1984):71^84. The ''pandect'' is the famous

Codex Amiatinus.

TRANSLATION

ships. When they were on the high sea, a storm suddenly blew up and many were killed when their ships were sunk or wrecked upon the shore.

Hearing that the Saracens had depopulated Sardinia and had dug up the place where the bones of holy Bishop Augustine had once been moved on account of the barbarian raids and honourably buried, Liutprand sent and paid a great price [for them], received [them] and transported them to Pavia, and reburied them there with the honour due to so great a Father.

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