This was followed by
a sermon, a prayer, the bread and wine, and a second prayer. Justin's
quotations prove that he is speaking of the New Testament, which within
a hundred years of the crucifixion wras read in all the principal cities
in which Greek was spoken. Justin died as a martyr in 163 A.D.

The platonic professorship in Alexandria had usually been held by an
Athenian, and for a short time Athenagoras of Athens taught that branch
of philosophy in the museum; but he afterwards embraced the Christian
religion, and then taught Christianity openly in Alexandria. He enjoys
with Justin the honour of being one of the first men of learning who
were converted, and, like Justin, his chief work is an apology for the
Christians, addressed to the emperor, Marcus Aurelius.

[Illustration: 108.jpg GEMS SHOWING SYMBOL OF DEATH AND THE WORD [IAH]
JAVEH]

Athenagoras confines himself in his defence to the resurrection from
the dead and the unity of the Deity, the points chiefly attacked by the
pagans.

Hadrian's Egyptian coins are remarkable both for number and variety. In
the sixth year of the reign we see a ship with spread sails, most likely
in gratitude for the emperor's safe arrival in Egypt. In the eighth year
we see the head of the favourite Antinous, who had been placed among the
gods of the country. In the eleventh year, when the emperor took up the
tribunitial power at Rome for a second period of ten years, we find a
series of coins, each bearing the name of the nome or district in which
it was coined. This indeed is the most remarkable year of the most
remarkable reign in the whole history of coinage; we have numerous coins
for every year of this reign, and, in this year, for nearly every nome
in Egypt. Some coins are strongly marked with the favourite opinion of
the Gnostics as to the opposition between good and evil.

[Illustration: 109.jpg Hadrian's Egyptian coins]

On one we have the war between the serpent of good and the serpent of
evil, distinguished by their different forms and by the emblems of Isis
and Serapis; on others the heads of Isis and Serapis, the principles of
love and fear; while on a third these two are united into a trinity by
Horus, who is standing on an eagle instead of having an eagle's head, as
represented on previous coins.

The beginning of the reign of Antoninus Pius (A.D. 138) was remarkable
as being the end of the Sothic period of one thousand four hundred and
sixty years; the mov