III. The Christians for a leng time had no a?ra of their own, but followed those in common use in the several countries. 1. In the western part of the Roman empire the Consular /Era remained in use until the sixth century after Christ. Frequently, also, the years were counted from the accession of an emperor to the throne. 2. The.iVa Diocletiana, beginning with the ac- cession of Diocletian to the throne (284), came into use first, and became very common in Egypt. The Chris- tians who used it gave to it the name ^Era Martyrvm, on account of the great number of those who suffered martyrdom under the reign of that emperor. It is still used by the Abyssinians and Copts. 3. In the da}-s of Constantine the custom arose to count the years according to Indictions. A cjxlc of indiction is a period of fifteen years, and the first year of the first cycle is generally considered to correspond with the year 313 of the Christian /Era. This sera was very common in the Middle Ages. 4. The jEra Ilispaniea was in use in Spain from the 5th until the 14th cen- tury, when it gave way to the Dionysian /Era. It begins with the year 38 B.C., i.e. the year following the conquest of Spain by Augustus. 5. The /Era of the Seleucida', or Macedonian /Era, begins, according
^ERE
91
AFFECTION
to the computation generally followed, with September 1, B.C. 812, the epoch of the first conquests of Seleucus Nicator in Syria. It is still used in the church year of the Syrian Christians. G. The /Era of Antioch, which was adopted to commemorate the victor}' of Caesar on the plains of 1'harsalia, begins with Sept. 1, B.C. 49, according to the computation of the Greeks, but 11 months later according to that of the Syrians. It is followed by Evagrius in his Ecclesiastical History. 7. The /Era of the Armenians begins with the year A.D. 552, in which the Armenians, at the council of Tiben, separated from the main body of the Eastern Church by rejecting the council of Chalcedon. 8. The /Era of Constantinople, or Byzantine /Era, begins with the creation of the world, which it fixes 5508 years before the Christian or Vulgar /Era. It is still in use among the Albanians, Servians, and modern Greeks. 9. The most common a;ra among Christians is the Dio- nysian /Era (/Era Dionysiana), so called after Diony- sius Exiyuus (q. v.), who proposed it in the sixth cen- tury. It counts the years from the birth, or rather the conception of Christ, designating the January of the year in the December of which Christ was born, as the January of the first year post Christum. Christ, according to this calculation, was born at the close of the first year '"post incarnationem" (i. e. the concep- tion). As the first year ])ost Christum, Dionysius as- sumes the year 75-1 from the foundation of Rome, an opinion which has long ago been shown to be incor- rect. See Nativity. The Dionysian /Era was adopt- ed in Rome as early as the middle of the 6th century. The first public transaction which was dated according to it is the Concilium German, a. 742 ; and the first sov- ereign who used it is Charlemagne. In the 11th cen- tury it was adopted by the popes, since which time its use in the Western Church has been universal.
2Ere, a city noted in the Antonlne Itinerary on the way from Damascus to Scythopolis (Bethshean) ; identified, from an inscription found in its extensive ruins, with the Sanamein of Abulfeda (Tabula Syria;, ed. Koehler, p. 97), now Sununein, a large Moslem village in the district of Jedur ^Bitter, Erdk. xv, 812- 817). See Asiiteroth-karnaim.
Aerians, a sect which arose about the middle of the fourth century, being the followers of Aiirius (who must be distinguished from Arius and Aetius), a monk and a presbyter of Sebastia, in Pontus. He is charged by Epiphanius with being an Arian, or Semi-Arian, without just ground. The real cause, perhaps, of the accusation against him was his attempt to reform the Church, by maintaining that a presbyter or elder dif- fers not in order and degree from a bishop ; and by rejecting prayers for the dead, with certain fasts and festivals then superstitiously observed. Epiphanius attributes the zeal of Aiirius to his being disappointed of the bishopric of Sebaste, which was conferred on his friend Eustathius ; but the statements of Epipha- nius are evidently colored by his personal prejudice against Aerius. His followers were driven from the churches, and out of all the towns and villages, and were obliged to assemble in the woods, caverns, and open defiles. The sect was still in existence at the time of Augustine. — Epiphanius, Adv. Hares, lvi ; Neander, Ch. Hist, ii, 342, 343; Bingham, b. xv, ch. 3 ; Lardner, Works, iv, 179 ; Walch, Hist. d. Ketzer. iii, 321.
Aerius. See Aerians.
^Ethiopia, etc. See Ethiopia, etc.
Aetians, a branch of Arians, named from Aetius of Antioch, one of the most zealous defenders of Arian- ism, who, after being servant to a grammarian, of whom he learned grammar and logic, was ordained deacon, and at last bishop, by Eudoxus, patriarch of Constantinople (about A.D. 356). He wrote about 300 theological treatises, one of which has been pre- served by Epiphanius, who reports that he held that