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234 Credibililij of the Oospel Hislory.
CHAP. LX.
PHILEAS, BISHOP OF THMUIS IN EGYPT ; AND PHILOROMUS,
RECEIVER-GENERAL AT ALEXANDRIA.
' PHILEAS,' says* Jeroin, ' of a city in Egypt called
' Tlimuis, of a noble family, and a large estate, accepted an
' episcopal charge. He wrote an excellent book in praise
' of the martyrs. After a long- debate with the judge, who
' commanded him to sacrifice, he was beheaded for Christ
' under the same persecutor, by whose ttrders Lucian suf-
' fered at Nicomedia.'
Jerom means the emperor Maximin. But learned men
arc not agreed about the year of this g-ood man's martyrdom.
By Cave"^ it is placed in 311, by'^ Basnage in 311 or 312,
by'' Tillemont after 306, and before the edict in 311 or 312.
The place of his martyrdom is now, I think, generally
allowed to be "^Alexandria, though '^Valesius once inclined
to Thcbais.
Phileas flourished, as Cave computes, near the end of the
third century, about the year 296. It is likely that Thmuis
was the place both of his nativity and his episcopate.
Eusebius in his Ecclesiastical History has a long- passage
of a letter of Phileas to the christians at Thmuis; which is
generally reckoned to be the same that Jerom calls a book in
Praise of the Martyrs.
Eusebius at the same time o-ives an account of the martyrdoni
of Philoromus. And there are still extant^ Acts of
the inart3'rdonis of these two persons, which are esteemed
genuine and sincere by'' Tillemontand' Ruinart: and indeed
they are in the main agreeable to Eusebius: but yet it seems
to mo that they are interpolated : at least, 1 am of opinion
that they are not to be relied upon as sincere and uncorrupt ;
for which reason I shall not make any use of them. But
* Phileas, de urbe ^gypti, quae vocatur Tlimuis, nobili genae, et noii parvis
opibus, suscepto episcopatu, elegantissimum hbrum de martyrum laude com-
posuit. Et disputatione actorum habita adversus judicem, qui eum sacrificare
cogebat, pro Christo capite truncatur, eodein in Egypto persecutionis auclore,
quo Lucianus Nicomediae. De V. I. c. 78.
" H. L. in Philea.