A HISTORY OF SCIENCE 



saved the day. " Dion knew," he declares, "that there 

 existed a legion called The Thundering Legion, which 

 name was given it for no other reason than for what 

 came to pass in this war," and that this legion was 

 composed of soldiers from Militene who were all 

 professed Christians. "During the battle," continues 

 Xiphilinus, "the chief of the Pretonians had set at 

 Marcus Antoninus, who was in great perplexity at 

 the turn events were taking, representing to him 

 that there was nothing the people called Christians 

 could not obtain by their prayers, and that among 

 his forces was a troop composed wholly of followers of 

 that religion. Rejoiced at this news, Marcus An- 

 toninus demanded of these soldiers that they should 

 pray to their god, who granted their petition on the 

 instant, sent lightning among the enemy and con- 

 soled the Romans with rain. Struck by this won- 

 derful success, the emperor honored the Christians in 

 an edict and named their legion The Thundering. 

 It is even asserted that a letter existed by Marcus 

 Antoninus on this subject. The pagans well knew 

 that the company was called The Thunderers, having 

 attested the fact themselves, but they revealed nothing 

 of the occasion on which the leader received the 

 name." 1 



Peculiar interest attaches to this narrative as illus- 

 trating both credulousness as to matters of fact and 

 pseudo-scientific explanation of alleged facts. The 

 modern interpreter may suppose that a violent thunder- 

 storm came up during the course of a battle between 

 the Romans and the so-called barbarians, and that 

 owing to the local character of the storm, or a chance 



298 



