ee M. de Tillemont, Memoires
Ecclesiast. tom. iv. p. 675, from Basil and Gregory of Nyssa, who were
themselves natives of Cappadocia. Note: Gibbon forgot the conclusion of
this story, that Gregory left only seventeen heathens in his diocese.
The antithesis is suspicious, and both numbers may have been chosen to
magnify the spiritual fame of the wonder-worker.--M.]

[Footnote 157: According to the ancients, Jesus Christ suffered under
the consulship of the two Gemini, in the year 29 of our present aera.
Pliny was sent into Bithynia (according to Pagi) in the year 110.]

[Footnote 158: Plin. Epist. x. 97.]

Without descending into a minute scrutiny of the expressions or of the
motives of those writers who either celebrate or lament the progress of
Christianity in the East, it may in general be observed, that none
of them have left us any grounds from whence a just estimate might
be formed of the real numbers of the faithful in those provinces. One
circumstance, however, has been fortunately preserved, which seems to
cast a more distinct light on this obscure but interesting subject.
Under the reign of Theodosius, after Christianity had enjoyed, during
more than sixty years, the sunshine of Imperial favor, the ancient and
illustrious church of Antioch consisted of one hundred thousand persons,
three thousand of whom were supported out of the public oblations. [159]
The splendor and dignity of the queen of the East, the acknowledged
populousness of Caesarea, Seleucia, and Alexandria, and the destruction
of two hundred and fifty thousand souls in the earthquake which
afflicted Antioch under the elder Justin, [160] are so many convincing
proofs that the whole number of its inhabitants was not less than half a
million, and that the Christians, however multiplied by zeal and
power, did not exceed a fifth part of that great city. How different
a proportion must we adopt when we compare the persecuted with the
triumphant church, the West with the East, remote villages with populous
towns, and countries recently converted to the faith with the place
where the believers first received the appellation of Christians! It
must not, however, be dissembled, that, in another passage, Chrysostom,
to whom we are indebted for this useful information, computes the
multitude of the faithful as even superior to that of the Jews and
Pagans. [161] But the solution of this apparent difficulty is easy and
obvious. The eloquent preacher draws a pa