A.D. 82. Domitian causes temples to Isis and Serapis to be built at Rome. 98. Trajan. The Nile and Red Sea Canal (Amnis Trajânus) re-opened. 117. Hadrian. Visited Egypt twice. 138. Antoninus Pius. 161. Marcus Aurelius caused the famous Itinerary to be made. 180. Commodus. 193. Septimius Severus. 211. Caracalla visited Egypt, and caused a large number of young men to be massacred at Alexandria. 217. Macrinus. 218. Elagabalus. 249. Decius. Christians persecuted. 253. Valerianus. Christians persecuted. 260. Gallienus. Persecution of Christians stayed. Zenobia, Queen of Palmyra, invades Egypt a.d. 268. 270. Aurelian. Zenobia becomes Queen of Egypt for a short time, but is dethroned A.D. 273. 276. Probus. 284. Diocletian. “Pompey's Pillar " erected A.D. 302, persecution of Christians A.D. 304. The Copts date the era of the Martyrs from the day of Diocletian's accession to the throne (August 29). 324. Constantine the Great, the Christian Emperor, in whose reign, A.D. 325, the Council of Nicæa was held. At this council it was decided that Christ and His Father were of one and the same nature, as taught by Athanasius; and the doctrine of A.D. Arius,* that Christ and God were only similar in nature, was decreed heretical. 337. Constantius. George of Cappadocia, an Arian, is made Bishop of Alexandria. 361. Julian, the Apostate. 379. Theodosius I., the Great, proclaims Christianity the religion of his empire. The Arians and followers of the ancient Egyptian religion were persecuted. THE BYZANTINES. 395. Arcadius, Emperor of the East. The Anthropomorphites, who affirmed that God was of human form, destroyed the greater number of their opponents. 408. Theodosius II. In his reign the doctrines of Nestorius were condemned by Cyril of Alexandria. Nestorius, because of the two natures of Christ, inferred also two persons, a human and a divine. “In the Syrian school, Nestorius had been taught (A.D. 429-431) to abhor the confusion of the two natures, and nicely to discriminate the humanity of his master Christ from the Divinity of the Lord Jesus. The Blessed Virgin he revered as the mother of Christ, but his ears were offended with the rash * "He was a most expert logician, but perverted his talents to evil purposes, and had the audacity to preach what no one before him had ever suggested, namely, that the Son of God was made out of that which had no prior existence; that there was a period of time in which He existed not; that, as possessing free will, He was capable of virtue, or of vice; and that He was created and made."-Sozomen, Eccles. Hist., Bk. I., ch. 15. For the statement of the views of Arius by his opponent Alexander, Bishop of Alexandria, see his letter addressed to the Catholic Church generally, in Socrates, Eccles. Hist., Bk. I., chap. vi. The leader of this persecution was Theophilus, Bishop of Alexandria, who, before he discovered that the majority of the Egyptian monks were Anthropomorphites, was himself opposed to this body. A.D. and recent title of mother of God, which had been insensibly adopted since the origin of the Arian controversy. From the pulpit of Constantinople, a friend of the patriarch,* and afterwards the patriarch himself, repeatedly preached against the use, or the abuse, of a word unknown to the apostles, unauthorized by the church, and which could only tend to alarm the timorous, to mislead the simple, to amuse the profane, and to justify, by a seeming resemblance, the old genealogy of Olympus. In his calmer moments Nestorius confessed, that it might be tolerated or excused by the union of the two natures, and the communication of their idioms (i.e., a transfer of properties of each nature to the other-of infinity to man, passibility to God, etc.): but he was exasperated, by contradiction, to disclaim the worship of a newborn, an infant Deity, to draw his inadequate similes from the conjugal or civil partnerships of life, and to describe the manhood of Christ, as the robe, the instrument, the tabernacle of his Godhead."Gibbon, Decline and Fall, chap. 47. 450. Marcianus. The Monophysite doctrine of Eutyches was condemned at the Council of Chalcedon, A.D. 451. Eutyches, from the one person of Christ, inferred also one nature, viz., the Divine--the human having been absorbed into it. Silko invaded Egypt with his Nubian followers. 474. Zeno. He issued the Henoticon, an edict which, while affirming the Incarnation, made no attempt to decide the difficult question whether Christ possessed a single or a double nature. * Anastasius of Antioch, who said, "Let no one call Mary Theotokos; for Mary was but a woman; and it is impossible that God should be born of a woman."-Socrates, Eccles. Hist., Bk. VII., chap. xxxii. A.D. 491. Anastasius. 66 527. Justinian. The Monophysites separated from the Melkites, or Royalists," and chose their own patriarch; they were afterwards called Copts, 610. Heraclius. The Persians under Chosroes held Egypt for ten years; they were expelled by Heraclius A.D. 629. MUHAMMADANS. 640. 'Amr ibn al-'Ași conquers Egypt. 'Amr began his expedition against Egypt with about 4,000 men, but the Khalifa Omar sent him reinforcements, and by the time the famous general arrived at 'Arîsh his army numbered 16,000 men. Having vanquished the garrison at Pelusium, he marched along the Pelusiac branch of the Nile, and passed by way of Bubastis to Heliopolis. A truce of four days was obtained for George, the Makawkas, the governor of Upper Egypt, by the Coptic Patriarch Benjamin, and it seems that the Egyptian official, who was a Jacobite Copt, and a hater of the ruling class in Egypt, greatly aided the Arab general. The Arabs moved on towards Memphis, and soon after, under Zubêr, 'Amr's colleague, made a general assault upon the fortress of Babylon, scaled the walls, and so became masters of the capital of Upper Egypt. George, the Makawkas, arranged the details of the capitulation, and a capitation tax of two dînârs for every male adult, besides other payments. 'Amr then marched on Alexandria, and as the Greeks took to their * The name given to the native Christians of Egypt by the Arabs, from ΚΥΠτ&10C for Αἰγύπτιος. A.D. ships and fled, George, the Makawkas, who had gone to Alexandria after the fall of Babylon, offered to capitulate on the same terms as he had made for that city. 'Amr returned to Memphis, and made the head-quarters of the army at Fostât, near which the modern town of Cairo has grown up. 'Amr refused to possess himself of any land, and he was not even given a site whereon to build a house. One of his most useful works was to reopen the old canal which ran from Belbês through the Wâdî Tûmîlât to the Bitter Lakes, and thence to the Red Sea; by this means it was possible to convey corn which had been loaded into ships at Memphis from that city into Yenbô, the port of Medina in Arabia, without transhipment. This canal was in use for about eighty years, when it became silted up. After the second siege of Alexandria (A.D. 646) the Arabs made Fosṭat the capital of Egypt. 644. 'Othmân. 750. Merwân II., the last of the 'Omayyade dynasty, was put to death in Egypt. 750-870. The 'Abbasides rule over Egypt. 786. Harûn ar-Rashîd. 813. Mâmûn visited Egypt, and opened the Great Pyramid. 870. Aḥmad ibn-Tulûn governs Egypt. 884. Khamârûyeh enlarges Fostât. 969-1171. The Fâțimites govern Egypt, with Masr elKâhira * (Cairo) as their residence. 975. Al-'Aziz, son of Mu'izz, great grandson of 'Obêdallâh. 996. Ḥâkim, son of 'Azîz, founder of the Druses. This remarkable prince wished to be considered God incarnate. . القاهرة * |