en years old, but was already deeply read in
the Scriptures, and in the great writers of Greece. As the property of
Leonides was forfeited, his children were left in poverty; but the young
Origen was adopted by a wealthy lady, zealous for the new religion,
by whose help he was enabled to continue his studies under Clemens. In
order to read the Old Testament in the original, he made himself master
of Hebrew, which was a study then very unusual among the Greeks, whether
Jews or Christians.

In this persecution of the Church all public worship was forbidden to
the Christians; and Tertullian of Carthage eloquently complains that,
while the emperor allowed the Egyptians to worship cows, goats, or
crocodiles, or indeed any animal they chose, he only punished those that
bowed down before the Creator and Governor of the world. Of course,
at this time of trouble the catechetical school was broken up and
scattered, so that there was no public teaching of Christianity in
Alexandria. But Origen ventured to do that privately which was forbidden
to be done openly; and, when the storm had blown over, Demetrius, the
bishop, appointed him to that office at the head of the school which he
had already so bravely taken upon himself in the hour of danger. Origen
could boast of several pupils who added their names to the noble list of
martyrs who lost their lives for Christianity, among whom the best known
was Plutarch, the brother of Heraclas. Origen afterwards removed for a
time to Palestine, and fell under the displeasure of his own bishop for
being there ordained a presbyter.

In Egypt Severus seems to have dated the years of his reign from the
death of Niger, though he had reigned in Rome since the deaths of
Pertinax and Julian. His Egyptian coins are either copper, or brass
plated with a little silver; and after a few reigns even those last
traces of a silver coinage are lost in this falling country. In tracing
the history of a word's meaning we often throw a light upon the customs
of a nation. Thus, in Rome, gold was so far common that avarice was
called the love of gold; while in Greece, where silver was the metal
most in use, money was called _argurion_. In the same way it is
curiously shown that silver was no longer used in Egypt by our finding
that the brass coin of one hundred and ten grains weight, as being the
only piece of money seen in circulation, was named an _argurion_.

The latter years of the reign of Caracalla were sp