B.C. Ptolemy VI. did not reign a full year. 181. Ptolemy VII. Philometor was taken prisoner at Pelusium by Antiochus IV., B.C. 171, and died 170. Ptolemy VIII. is murdered by Physcon. 146. Ptolemy IX. Euergetes II. 117. Ptolemy X. Soter II. Philometor II. (Lathyrus), reigns jointly with Cleopatra III. Ptolemy X. is banished (B.C. 106), his brother Ptolemy XI. Alexander I. is made co-regent, but afterwards banished (B.C. 89) and slain (B.C. 87); Ptolemy X. is recalled, and dies B.C. 81. 81. Ptolemy XII. Alexander II. is slain. 81. Ptolemy XIII. Neos Dionysos (Auletes), ascends the throne; dies B.C. 52. 52. Ptolemy XIV. Dionysos II. and Cleopatra VII. are, according to the will of Ptolemy XIII. to marry each other; the Roman senate to be their guardian. Ptolemy XIV. banishes Cleopatra, and is a party to the murder of Pompey, their guardian, who visits Egypt after his defeat at Pharsalia. Cæsar arrives in Egypt to support Cleopatra (B.C. 48); Ptolemy XIV., is drowned; Ptolemy XV., brother of Cleopatra VII., is appointed her co-regent by Cæsar (B.C. 47); he is murdered at her wish, and her son by Cæsar, Ptolemy XVI., Cæsarion, is named co-regent (B.C. 45). B. C. 42. Antony orders Cleopatra to appear before him, and is seduced by her charms; he kills himself, and Cleopatra dies by the bite of an asp. Egypt becomes a Roman province B.C. 30. ROMANS. 27. Cæsar Augustus becomes master of the Roman Empire. Cornelius Gallus is the first prefect of Egypt. Under the third prefect, Aelius Gallus, Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, invades Egypt, but is defeated. A. D. 14. Tiberius. In his reign Germanicus visited Egypt. 37. Caligula. In his reign a persecution of the Jews took place. 41. Claudius. 55. Nero. In his reign Christianity was first preached in Egypt by Saint Mark. The Blemmyes made raids upon the southern frontier of Egypt. 69. Vespasian. Jerusalem destroyed A.D. 70. 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. 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. A.D. 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; date the era of the Martyrs from the day of 324. Constantine the Great, the Christian Emperor, in 337. Constantius. George of Cappadocia, an Arian, is made Bishop of Alexandria. 379. Theodosius I., the Great, proclaims Christianity the religion of his empire. The Arians and followers of the ancient Egyptian religion were persecuted. * "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, A.D. 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, from 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 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 * 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. + 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. 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. Silco 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. 481. Anastasius. 527. Justinian. The Monophysites separated from the Melchites and chose their own patriarch; they were afterwards called Copts, .* 69 610. Heraclius. The Persians under Chosroes held Egypt for ten years; they were expelled by Heraclius A.D. 629. MUHAMMADANS. 638. 'Amr ibn el-'Âși conquers Egypt. 644. ‘Othmân. 750. Merwân II., the last of the 'Omayyade dynasty, was put to death in Egypt. * The name given to the native Christians of Egypt by the Arabs, from ΚΥΠΤΑΙOC for Αἰγύπτιος. |