6.
Then he further indicates the exact time at which he wrote this account, as follows:--And it occurs to me again to review the days of the imperial years. For I see that those most impious men, whose names may have been once so famous, have in a short space become nameless. But our more pious and godly prince 1 has passed his septennium, and is now in his ninth year, in which we are to celebrate the festival. 2
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[Rom. xiii. 4, 6. St. Paul's strong expressions in this place must explain these expressions. A prince was, quoad hoc, comparatively speaking, godly and pious, as he "attended continually to this very thing." So, "most religious," in the Anglican Liturgy.] ↩
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Who ever expressed himself thus,--that one after his seven years was passing his ninth year? This septennium (eptaeteris ) must designate something peculiar, and different from the time following it. It is therefore the septennium of imperial power which he had held along with his father. In the eighth year of that empire, Macrianus possessed himself of the imperial honour specially in Egypt. After his assumption of the purple, however, Gallienus had still much authority in Egypt. At length, in the ninth year of Gallienus, that is, in 261, Macrianus the father and the two sons being slain, the sovereignty of Gallienus was recognised also among the Egyptians. And then Gallienus gave a rescript to Dionysius, Pinna, and Demetrius, bishops of Egypt, to re-establish the sacred places,--a boon which he had granted in the former year. The ninth year of Gallienus, moreover, began about the midsummer of this year; and the time at which this letter was written by Dionysius, as Eusebius observes, may be gathered from that, and falls consequently before the Paschal season of 262 a.d.--Pearson, p. 72. Gall. ↩
