OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE.

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at the same lime the lessons of faith and of hu-manity. The kings of Iberia and Armenia wor-shipped the god of their protector; and theirsubjects, who have invariably preserved thename of Christians , soon formed a sacred andperpetual connection with their Roman breth-ren. The Christians of Persia were suspected,in time of war, of preferring their religion totheir country; but as long as peace subsistedbetween the two empires, the persecuting spiritof the magi was effectually restrained by theinterposition of Constantine . 11 The rays of thegospel illuminated the coast of India . Thecolonies of Jews , who had penetrated into Ara-bia and ./Ethiopia, * opposed the progress ofChristianity : but the labours of the missionarieswas in some measure facilitated by a previousknowledge of the mosaic revelation ; and Abys-sinia still reveres the memory of Frumentius,who, in the time of Constantine, devoted hislife to the conversion of those sequestered re-gions. Under the reign of his son Constantius ,Theophilus, k who was himself of Indian ex-

11 See in Eusebius (in Vit. Constant. I. iv, c. 9) the pressing andpathetic epistle of Constantine in favour of bis Christian brethren ofPersia .

1 See Basnage, Hist, des Juifs , tom. vii, p. 182; tom. viii, p. 333;tom. ix, p. 810. The curious diligence of this writer pursues the Jew-ish exiles to the extremities of the globe.

k Theophilus had been given in his infancy as a hostage by hiscountrymen of the isle of Diva, and was educated by the Romans inlearning and piety. The Maldives , of which Male, or Diva, may bethe capital, are a cluster of 1900 or 2000 minute islands in the Indianocean. The ancients were imperfectly acquainted with the Maldives ;but they are described in the two mahometan travellers of the ninthcentury, published by Renaudot. Geograpb. Nubiensis, p, 30, 31.D’Herbelot , Bibliotheque Orientale, p. 704. Hist. Generale des Voy-ages, tom. viii.

CHAP.

XX.