A.M.

3973 The battle of Actium was fought, in which Mark Antony and Cleopatra were totally defeated by Octavius, nephew to Julius Cæfar.

3974 Alexandria, in Egypt, was taken by Octavius; upon which Antony and Cleopatra put themselves to death, and Egypt was reduced to a Roman province.

Dionyfius, of Halicarnaffus, wrote his Roman history.

3977 Octavius, by a decree of the fenate, obtained the title of Auguftus Cæfar, and an absolute exemption from the laws, and was, properly fpeaking, the firft Roman emperor. At this time, Rome was fifty miles in circumference, and contained 463,000 men fit to bear arms.

4004 The temple of Janus was fhut by Auguftus, as an emblem of univerfal peace. Virgil,

the famous epic and paftoral poet, Horace, the celebrated lyric and fatiric poet, flourished under Auguftus, and were patronized by him.

JESUS CHRIST, the Saviour of mankind, was

born, at Bethlehem, on the 25th of December.

CHAP.

CHA P. LXVII.

REMARKABLE EVENTS DURING THE FOUR FIRST

CENTURIES OF THE CHRISTIAN ÆRA.

A.D.

H

EROD maffacres all the infants of Beth

lehem, thinking that certainly Chrift would not efcape.

12 Our Saviour difputes with the Doctors in the Temple.

17 Livy, the elegant hiftorian, wrote his Roman hiftory. Ovid, the ingenious elegiac poet; Celfus, the philofopher and physician; and Strabo, the Greek geographer, flourished about the fame time.

33 Chrift was crucified on Friday, April 3, at three o'clock, P. M. His refurrection took.

place on Sunday, April 5; and his afcenfion on Thursday, May 14.

Phædrus, the Roman fabulift, lived at this memorable period.

39 Pontius Pilate killed himself.

40 The name of Chriftians was first given at Antioch to the followers of Chrift.

49 Lond

A.D.

49 London was founded by the Romans; and in 368 they furrounded it with a wall, some parts of which are still obfervable.

63 Christianity is supposed to have been introduced into Britain by St. Paul, or some of his difciples.

64 Quintus Curtius, a Roman, wrote the history of Alexander the Great.

7༠

Seneca, of Spain, the philofopher and tragic poet, was put to death.

Lucan, the Roman epic poet, rendered himfelf famous by his Pharfalia.

Whilst the factious Jews were deftroying one another with mutual fury, Titus, the Roman general, took Jerufalem, which was razed to the ground, and the plough made to pafs over it.

79 Pliny, the elder, the Roman natural historian, flourished.

85 Julius Agricola, governor of South-Britain, to protect the civilized Britons from the incurfions of the Caledonians, built a line of forts between the rivers Forth and Clyde ; defeated the Caledonians under Galgacus on the Grampian hills; and firft failed round Britain, which he difcovered to be an ifland.

93 Jofephus,

A.D.

93 Jofephus, the Jewish hiftorian, Epictetus, the Greek ftoic philofopher, and Quintilian,

the Roman orator and advocate, were the ornaments of the age in which they lived. 99 Tacitus and Lucius Florus, the Roman historians, and Martial, of Spain, the epigrammatic poet, flourished.

117 Pliny, the younger, published his historical letters; Suetonius his Roman history; and

Plutarch, the Grecian biographer, his lives. 121 The Caledonians recovered from the Romans all the fouthern parts of Scotland; upon which the emperor Adrian built a wall between Newcastle and Carlifle. But this alfo proving ineffectual, Pollius Urbicus, the Roman general, about the year 144, repaired Agricola's fort, which he joined by a wall four yards thick.

128 Juvenal wrote his fatires, and Juftin his univerfal history, fome time after.

180 Lucian, the ingenious Roman philologer, published his dialogues.

193 Galen, the Greek philosopher and physician,

flourished.

273 Longinus, the Greek orator, and author of the celebrated treatife on the fublime, was put to death by Aurelian.

274 Silk

A. D.

274 Silk was firft brought from India. The ma

nufactory of it was firft introduced into Europe by fome monks, in 551; and it was first worn by the clergy in England, in 1534.

306 Conftantine the Great began his reign. 320 Arius, a priest of Alexandria, founded the fect of the Arians.

325 The first general council was held at Nice, when 318 fathers attended, against Arius,

when the famous Nicene creed was compofed.

328 Conftantine removed the feat of empire from Rome to Byzantium, which was afterwards called Conftantinople. Not long after he ordered all the heathen temples to be deftroyed.

342 Eufebius, the ecclefiaftical hiftorian and chronologer, flourished.

363 The Roman emperor Julian, furnamed the Apoftate, endeavoured in vain to rebuild. the temple of Jerufalem.

364 The Roman empire was divided into the eaftern, of which Conftantinople was the capital, and the western, of which Rome continued to be the capital, each being under the government of different emperors.

400 Bells