Narrative of Events Happening in Persia on the Birth of Christ

Julius Africanus (d. 240)

II.-Narrative of Events Happening in Persia on the Birth of Christ

The best introduction to this production will be the following preface, as given in Migne:-Many men of learning thus far have been of opinion that the narrative by Africanus of events happening in Persia on Christ's birth, is a fragment of that famous work which Sextus Julius Africanus, a Christian author of the third century after Christ, composed on the history of the world in the chronological order of events up to the reign of Macrinus, and presented in five books to Alexander, son of Mammaea, with the view of obtaining the restoration of his native town Emmaus. With the same expectation which I see incited Lambecius and his compendiator Nesselius, I, too, set myself with the greatest eagerness to go over the codices of our Electoral Library.... But, as the common proverb goes, I found coals instead of treasure. This narrative, so far from its being to be ascribed to a writer well reputed by the common voice of antiquity, does not contain anything worthy of the genius of the chronographer Africanus. Wherefore, since by the unanimous testimony of the ancients he was a man of consummate learning and sharpest…

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