72 ORIGIN AND DECLINE Of THE 



who were very numerous in that country; but suc- 

 ceeded at last, and built three churches, for the be- 

 nefit chiefly of the Roman traders. One was at Taphar 

 or Tapharon, now Daj'ai\ and the metropolis of that 

 country ; the second was at Aden^ near the straits of 

 Babelmandel, and the third near the entrance of the 

 Persian Gulf. From thence he went by sea to Diu, 

 his native country, visited several parts of India, 

 comforting the Christians^ introducing wholesome 

 regulations, and spreading the errors of Arius. He 

 thence returned to Antioch, according to Suidas, 

 where he lived a long time, highly respected. He 

 accompanied afterwards Constantius Gallus into 

 Germany, as far as Petaviwn, now Pettaw in Stiria, 

 in the year 354. 



Marutha, a Hindu, and a bishop of Suphara, now 

 Sufferdam, assisted at the Si/nod ol" Sides, in Pampliy- 

 lia, in the year 383. He was afterward translated to 

 the bishoprick of Meyaferkin, on the borders of 

 Mesopotamia, when Yezdejikd I., King oF Persia, 

 charmed with his piet}', was very near becoming a 

 Christian; andCnRvsosTOM speaks highly in favour* 

 of our bishop. According to the Notitia of Nilus 

 Doxopatrius, the Greek Patriarch o^ Antioch, or- 

 dained a certain Ramogyris Metropolitan o? India ; 

 and, from his name, there is every reason to believe 

 that he was also a native of India, where the appella- 

 tion of Ra'ma-gir is by no means uncommon. 

 CosMAS Indico-pleustes, who visited India about 

 the year 522, says, that there were churches and 

 priests, with the whole liturgy, in Ceylon: also on 



Photii Biblioth. p. 38, &c. 



