BIBLIOTHECA ORIENTALIS.

1 [The year was completed in which the Parthians were conquered by the Romans at his hand.]

[In the fifth year of his reign.]

2 In the five hundred and thirteenth year of the reign of Severus and in the reign of Abgar: in the month of Tishrin I October/November, the current of the great waters began, which went out from the kingdom of King Abgar, like great and terrifying rivers, and filled the three gates, the porticoes, and the king's monasteries. And when King Abgar saw it, he fled and went up to the hill where the king's craftsmen were dwelling there. And at that same hour, the water surged and rose to the craftsmen, a spring from the land of the people of Daisan the river flowing through Edessa, and they went out at that same hour, the rivers and the terrifying [waters] from the land, and it filled, as it were, the three gates of the king, to destroy everything.

VII. Lucius 1 Caesar, together with his brother, conquered the Parthians for the Romans in the fifth year of his reign.

[In the fifth year of his reign.]

VIII. In the five hundred and thirteenth year, under the rule of Severus and under the king, Abgar son of Ma'nu, in the month of November, the fountain that erupts from the greater palace of Abgar the Great overflowed according to custom with a very wide inundation in all directions, so that it invaded the atria, the porticoes, and the royal halls. Wherefore, King Abgar, our Lord, terrified, fled to the plain of the mountain overhanging the palace, where the workshops of the royal craftsmen are seen. Meanwhile, while they consulted about containing the inundation of the waters, in the dead of night, a vast force of rains fell: by which the river Daisan the river of Edessa, which washes the city, was increased in a wonderful manner, and on a day and month not its own, it struck the sluices woven with iron plates with its own and foreign waters—

If, therefore, he ceased to be among the living under M. Aurelius, he must have died before the year of Christ 180, namely before he completed his twenty-sixth year of age: which seems hardly probable, since such a brief life of Bardesanes would by no means suffice for so many and such great deeds of his, which are reported by the writers of Ecclesiastical History. Wherefore, I think his life should be extended after the death of M. Aurelius, at least until the year of Christ 190. Regarding his writings, read Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History, book 4, chapter 30; Sozomen, book 3, chapter 16; Theodoret, book 4, chapter 29; St. Jerome in De Viris Illustribus original: "in Catalogo", chapter 33; and William Cave, vol. 1, Historia Literaria, page 35.

1 Lucius. This annotation was joined in the Chronicle with the year of the Greeks 449. We restored it to its own place, namely to the year 476, [which is] the year of Christ 165, into which the fifth year of Lucius Verus falls. Furthermore, by this authority of our Chronicle, the controversy which is agitated among the learned regarding the Parthian triumph of Lucius is settled. Cassiodorus and Hermannus Contractus in their Chronicles link the Parthian victory with the fourth year of Lucius, but the triumph celebrated in the City with his fifth year. Mediobarbus places both triumphs one year later: for thus he says to the year of Christ 166, the 6th of Lucius: L. Verus again sets out to the Euphrates, where he acted prosperously against the Barbarians; hence [he is acclaimed] Imperator for the fourth time. Then in the year 167, the 7th of Lucius, he writes: L. Verus, having returned to Rome after five years, triumphs with M. Aurelius over the Parthians. Whose opinion Dionysius seems to confirm in the Chronicle—

with these words: [The year was completed in which the Parthians were conquered by the Romans at his hand. In the fifth year of his reign, the King...] In their fourth year (that is, of M. Aurelius and L. Verus), Vologesus, King of the Parthians, ravaged many cities from the Roman dominion. But in their sixth year, Lucius defeated and conquered the Parthians. But from our Chronicle it is clear that it was done in the fifth year of Lucius, not the sixth: namely in the year of Christ 165, not 166, as Pagi learnedly [argues] to the year 166, from number 3. It is clear that Dionysius, although he consigned the Parthian victory to the sixth year of Lucius, does not dissent in the least from the Chronicle of Edessa, from those things which he had premised regarding the beginning of the reign of Lucius: namely, that he began to reign in the year of Abraham 2177. For if you add six more years to this, you will have the year 2183, which, according to the mind of the same Dionysius, is certain to correspond to the year of Christ 165.

2 Year 513, which was the year of Christ 202, the 10th of Septimius Severus, and the 2nd of Abgar, the last King of the Edessenes. The author of our Chronicle mentions the same inundation again at the end, and consigns it to the aforementioned year and month. Wherefore Dionysius was deceived when he reports it as done in the year of Abraham 2232, the year of Christ 216, unless perhaps that error is to be ascribed to the scribe, who lazily put the year of Abraham 2232 for 2218.