538 CHRONOLOGICAL ARRANGEMENT 



" 238 A. D. = 1st year of the 'yen-hi ' of Heou-tcheou " — (Chinese chron. table). 



"In the spring" (Clint.), Maximinus succeeded by Pupienus Maximus, twenty-sixth Roman 

 emperor. He reigned only about three months ; but his name occurs on coins issued in Egypt. 



"June" (Clint.), Pupienus Maximus and his colleague Balbinus put to death; and succeeded 

 by Gordianus Pius, at the age of "thirteen" the twenty-seventh Roman emperor. The name of 

 Gordianus Pius occurs on coins issued in Egypt : and (according to Champollion-Figeac), in inscrip- 

 tions addressed to the ancient deities, acts of adoration by Egyptian families. 



His preceptor, Serenus Sammonicus, presented the extensive library of his own father bearing 

 the same name. 



" 239 A. D." (Chinese chron. table), Ming-ti king of Wei succeeded by Tsao-fang ; and the years 

 of his reign named " tcheng-chi." 



"In this year" (=1209 — " 970 years " of Tchao yuan phing, Klapr. mem. ii. 335), Bouka- 

 khan made chief of the Ouigours, a Turkish tribe on the Selenga. 



"240 A. D." (J. R. Hind, and Humb. cosm. i. 1), the Chinese from beyond "B. C. ;oo " having 

 recorded the apparent paths of comets through the constellations, the first comet whose orbit is known ; 

 calculated from these observations. 



In this year (=232 -(-"8 years reign" in the Mahavamsa xxxvi), Abha-tissa succeeded by his 

 brother Sirinaga II. now king of Ceylon. 



" 241 A. D." (Eutrop., Zosim., and Clint.), marriage of Gordianus Pius ; the temple of Janus 

 opened by him, and his departure for the seat of war in Persia. 



"The same year" (Agath., and Clint.), Artaxerxes succeeded by Sapor (Shahpoor), second 

 Sasanid king of Persia. 



242 A. D. (=240-)- " 2 years reign " in the Mahavamsa xxxvi.), Sirinaga II. succeeded by his 

 son Wijava, now king of Ceylon. 



243 A. D. (=242-)-'' 1 year reign" in the Mahavamsa xxxvi.), Wijaya succeeded by Saugha- 

 tissa, now king of Ceylon. 



" After the Corean invasion in the earlier part of the third century, certain Coreans were brought" 

 by the empress Jingo-Kogu "to introduce the cultivation of mulberry and of the silk-worm 1 ' 1 into 

 Japan — (Jap. centen. comm. 77). 



" 244 A. D. = 7th year of the ' yen-hi ' of Heou-tcheou " (Chinese chron. table), beginning of the 

 Forty-ninth cycle. 



" In the spring " (Clint.), Gordianus Pius succeeded by Philippus, twenty-eighth Roman empe- 

 ror ; an Arab by birth, and nominally a Christian. The name of Philippus occurs on coins issued in 

 Egypt: and (according to Champollion-Figeac), in the above mentioned series of inscriptions 

 dedicated to ancient deities of Egypt. 



In the quarry at Gertassee in Nubia, some of the Greek inscriptions, " exvotos " in honour of 

 Isis, are in the reign of Philippus. A "considerable number of Greek exvotos .inscribed to Hermes 

 .Trismegistos," occur at Pselcis (Wilk. theb. and eg. p. 478). But in ascending the Nile, the "last 

 harvest of Greek inscriptions " occurs at Hierasykaminos (Leps. eg. and sin. p. 125). 



" 245 A. D." (Nicol.), a synod at Ephesus. Against Noetus, who denied distinction of persons 

 in the Trinity. 



247 A. D. (=243 -)-" 4 years reign" in the Mahavamsa xxxvi.), Saughatissa succeeded by Siri- 

 sanghabo, now king of Ceylon. — He reigned "two years." 



" 247 or 248 A. D." (Nicol., see Alst.), a synod in Arabia, Origen presiding. Against those 

 who asserted the death and resurrection of the soul with the body. 



"248 A. D." = " third consulship of Philippus" (coins, Eutrop., Capitolin., Vict., Clint., and 

 Ramsay in Sm. b. d.), celebration of the Thousandth anniversary of the founding of Rome. (The 

 exact month not ascertained, but the computation of Varro is evidently the one followed). 



" The same year " (Clint.), the rhetor Cyprianus, who after conversion had given up his property 

 to the poor, appointed bishop of Carthage. His writings are in Latin. <• 



"249, after Aug. 29th" (coins, and Clint.), Philippus succeeded by Decius, twenty-ninth Roman 

 emperor. The hieroglyphic ovals of Decius conclude the series on the Egyptian monuments. 



"The same year" (Vict., Syncell., and Clint.), the Goths, a "Scythian" tribe, crossing the 

 Danube ravage Thrace, and capture the city of Philippopolis. 



"The same year" (Euseb., and Clint.), Heraclas succeeded by Dionysius, "thirteenth" bishop 

 of Alexandria. 



About this time, Democritus the Platonic philosopher writing. He was seen by Lon^inus, — and 

 is mentioned by Porphyrins vit. Plot. 20, and Syrianus (Ruhnken, and Sm. h. d.). 



Cnicus benedictus of the Mediterranean countries. Called in Germany " cardo benedict " (Trag.), 

 in Greece "kalaggatho" (Sibth.) ; in which we recognize the KAAAKAN-e-OU of Democritus, — 

 Anatolius Berytius, and Paxamus : C. benedictus was observed by Forskal, Sibthorp, and Fraas, 



