ggles,
but to have acknowledged each emperor as soon as the news reached them
that he had taken the title. In one year we find Alexandrian coins of
Maximin and his son Maximus, with those of the two Gordians, who for a
few weeks reigned in Carthage, and in the next year we again have coins
of Maximin and Maximus, with those of Balbinus and Pupienus, and of
Gordianus Pius.

The Persians, taking advantage of the weakness in the empire caused by
these civil wars, had latterly been harassing the eastern frontier; and
it soon became the duty of the young Gordian to march against them
in person. Hitherto the Roman armies had usually been successful; but
unfortunately the Persians, or, rather, their Syrian and Arab allies,
had latterly risen as much as the Romans had fallen off in courage and
warlike skill. The army of Gordian was routed, and the emperor himself
slain, either by traitors or by the enemy. Hereafter we shall see the
Romans paying the just penalty for the example that they had set to
the surrounding nations. They had taught them that conquest should be
a people's chief aim, that the great use of strength was to crush
a neighbour; and it was not long before Egypt and the other Eastern
provinces suffered under the same treatment. So little had defeat
been expected that the philosopher Plotinus had left his studies in
Alexandria to join the army, in hopes of gaining for himself an insight
into the Eastern philosophy that was so much talked of in Egypt. After
the rout of the army he with difficulty escaped to Antioch, and thence
he removed to Rome, where he taught the new platonism to scholars of all
nations, including Serapion, the celebrated rhetorician, and Eustochius,
the physician, from Alexandria.

[Illustration: 151.jpg SYMBOL OF EGYPT]

Philip, who is accused by the historians of being the author of
Gordian's death, succeeded him on the throne in 244; but he is only
known in the history of Egypt by his Alexandrian coins, which we find
with the dates of each of the seven years of his reign, and these seem
to prove that for one year he had been associated with Gordian in the
purple. In the reign of Decius, which began in 249, the Christians of
Egypt were again harassed by the zeal with which the laws against
their religion were put in force. The persecution began by their
fellow-citizens informing against them; but in the next year it was
followed up by the prefect AEmilianus; and several Christians were
su