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AFRICANUS, SEXTUS JULIUS

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Originally appearing in Volume V01, Page 361 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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AFRICANUS, SEXTUS See also:JULIUS , a See also:Christian traveller and historian of the 3rd See also:century, was probably See also:born in See also:Libya, and may have served under Septimius See also:Severus against the Osrhoenians in A.D. 195. Little is known of his See also:personal See also:history, except that he lived at See also:Emmaus, and that he went on an See also:embassy to the See also:emperor See also:Heliogabalus 1 to ask for the restoration of the See also:town, which had fallen into ruins. His See also:mission succeeded, and Emmaus was henceforward known as See also:Nicopolis. See also:Dionysius See also:bar-Salibi makes him a See also:bishop, but probably he was not even a See also:presbyter. He wrote a history of theworld(Xpovoypacgat, in five books)from the creation to the See also:year A.D. 221, a See also:period, according to his computation, of 5723 years. He calculated the period between the creation and the See also:birth of See also:Christ as 5499 years, and ante-dated the latter event by three years. This method of reckoning became known as the Alexandrian era, and was adopted by almost all the eastern churches. The history, which had an apologetic aim, is no longer extant, but copious extracts from it are to be found in the Chronicon of See also:Eusebius, who used it extensively in compiling the See also:early episcopal lists. There are also fragments in See also:Syncellus, Cedrenus and the Paschale Chronicon. Eusebius (Hist.

Ecc. i. 7, cf. vi. 31) gives some extracts from his See also:

letter to one See also:Aristides, reconciling the apparent discrepancy between See also:Matthew and See also:Luke in the See also:genealogy of Christ by a reference to the Jewish See also:law, which compelled a See also:man to marry the widow of his deceased See also:brother, if the latter died without issue. His terse and pertinent letter to See also:Origen, impugning the authority of the apocryphal See also:book of Susanna, and Origen's wordy and uncritical See also:answer, are both extant. The ascription to Africanus of an encyclopaedic See also:work entitled Kearot (embroidered girdles), treating of See also:agriculture, natural history, military See also:science, &c., has been needlessly disputed on See also:account of its See also:secular and often credulous See also:character. See also:Neander suggests that it was written by Africanus before he had devoted himself to religious subjects. For a new fragment of this work see Oxyrhynchus Papyri (Grenfeli and See also:Hunt), iii. 36 if.

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