Dialogue Against the Marcionites, Exhortation to Martyrdom (Wettstein 1674)

...that were held? Furthermore, even if we grant this man, who is most versed in the monuments of antiquity, that it is genuine, yet such coins could be minted either in Rome or in some province without the Emperor’s knowledge. Nothing is more common on the coins of Constantine the Great than that inscription: SOLI INVICTO COMITI To the Unconquered Sun, My Companion, and many other signs of paganism appear on his coins. Thus, on the coins of Otacilia Severa, by all agreement a Christian woman, IVNO DEA Goddess Juno is seen. Add that Philip, after the games were exhibited—as is collected from Zonaras—finally professed Christianity publicly upon his return from Persia. I see nothing that prevents him from having favored the truth in secret even before that time; nor do the coins seem to protest, but rather to side with us. Above all, the Apamean coin favors our cause, described in Rome by the illustrious Octavius Falconerius: which, as I have been taught by a great man and one most skilled in these matters, bears on one side the image of Emperor Philip, and on the other a man sitting in an ark with a dove flying above him, with the inscription ΝΩΕ Noah. I have written these things a bit more expansively because, after that illustrious pair, the Christianity of Philip the Arab is denied by a great number of recent writers.

But let it be: let it be that Emperor Philip was not a Christian. It does not follow from this that in the whole of the East or the West there remained no kings, princes, or dukes who gave their name to Christ. The Duke of Arabia, instructed in the Christian religion by Origen (who was summoned from Egypt), is reported by Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History, bk. 6, c. 13, and by many others. The courtiers of Emperor Alexander Severus had embraced the true faith in great numbers, as attested by Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History, bk. 6, c. 28. Origen himself makes mention of Christian princes in Commentary on Matthew, vol. 2, tract 2, p. 86, when he says: "It is possible to see in certain churches, especially of the greatest cities, leaders of the Christian people who have no affability, or who do not permit anyone to approach them." But perhaps he wished the bishops to be understood by these words. Nevertheless, even before Origen, some Christian princes are mentioned. Eusebius presents Abgar, the dynast of Edessa, in Ecclesiastical History, bk. 1, c. 13, called βασιλεὺς Ἄβγαρος King Abgar, and also Τοπάρχης Ἐδέσσης Toparch of Edessa. Regarding Helena, Queen of the Adiabeni, Ado of Vienne records these things in his Chronicle, age 6, p. 111: "In the fourth year of his [Claudius's] reign, a most severe famine occurred throughout Syria, which Luke also mentions. But to the needs of the Christians at Jerusalem, Helena, Queen of the Adiabeni—converted to the faith—brought grain transported from Egypt."