Identifier: historyofallnati05wrig (find matches)
Title: A history of all nations from the earliest times; being a universal historical library
Year: 1905 (1900s)
Authors: Wright, John Henry, 1852-1908
Subjects: World history
Publisher: (Philadelphia, New York : Lea Brothers & company
Contributing Library: University of California Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Internet Archive

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Italy and Gaul monach-isra was adopted toward the end of tlie fourth century. The most stubborn intellectual ()p()osition to the progress of Chris-tianity came from Hellenism, in which was concentrated the opposi-tion of all the adherents of the old order, — on the one side theuniversity of Athens, which enjoyed once again a period of prosperity,and on the other the Neo-Platonic philosophy. Neo-Platonism, whichbegan in the school of Plotinus fA.D. 205-270), at Alexandria, andunited many Oriental conceptions mth the old Platonic ideas sup-plemented from Aristotle, ministered to the desire for marvels, and thefanaticism of the age, and while tending to elevate morality and an as-cetic life, brought magic into its service, and in the so-called theurgysummoned and exorcised gods, demons, and departed souls. This modeof thought, transplanted to Athens in the time of the Emperor Julian,gave to the university during the fifth century its last importance. A NEW PARTITION OF THE EMPIRE. 243
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Ilc. li:;. - riu/ Clwistris .il St. r.iul-wiihnul-lliL-Willis, at Uomr. ( iMniii (iiiilhabaud.) Ill the summer of A.D. 338 the new masters of the world more ex-actly divided their spoil. The government of the East, Constantinople,and Thrace, was given to Constantius II. Constans (Fig. 114) re-ceived the lllyrian and Italian prefectures, and Constantine II. (Fig. 244 THE HOUSE OF CONSTANTINE. 115) the Gallic with a part of northern Africa. In April, A.D. 340,Constantine II. met his death at Aquileia in an attack upon the king-dom of his brother, and the entire West fell into the hand of Con-stans. In A.D. 350 his brother Constantius II., who, since A.D. 338,had been occupied in a Persian war, that as usual had been carried onalong the frontiers of Armenia and Mesopotamia without decisivel)attles, and had seen the attacks of the Iranians broken against thestrong fortress of Nisibis, heard that Constans, who had gained the ill-will of the troops by his blunders, had been dethroned and mu

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