they were being consumed. Some barbarians inflicted wounds upon
themselves as though their blood had power to extinguish flames,
while many rushed over to the side of the Romans, hoping that
there water might save them."

We cannot better complete these illustrations of pagan credulity
than by adding the comment of Xiphilinus himself. That writer was
a Christian, living some generations later than Dion. He never
thought of questioning the facts, but he felt that Dion's
interpretation of these facts must not go unchallenged. As he
interprets the matter, it was no pagan magician that wrought the
miracle. He even inclines to the belief that Dion himself was
aware that Christian interference, and not that of an Egyptian,
saved the day. "Dion knew," he declares, "that there existed a
legion called The Thundering Legion, which name was given it for
no other reason than for what came to pass in this war," and that
this legion was composed of soldiers from Militene who were all
professed Christians. "During the battle," continues Xiphilinus,
"the chief of the Pretonians , had set at Marcus Antoninus, who
was in great perplexity at the turn events were taking,
representing to him that there was nothing the people called
Christians could not obtain by their prayers, and that among his
forces was a troop composed wholly of followers of that religion.
Rejoiced at this news, Marcus Antoninus demanded of these
soldiers that they should pray to their god, who granted their
petition on the instant, sent lightning among the enemy and
consoled the Romans with rain. Struck by this wonderful success,
the emperor honored the Christians in an edict and named their
legion The Thundering. It is even asserted that a letter existed
by Marcus Antoninus on this subject. The pagans well knew that
the company was called The Thunderers, having attested the fact
themselves, but they revealed nothing of the occasion on which
the leader received the name."[1]

Peculiar interest attaches to this narrative as illustrating both
credulousness as to matters of fact and pseudo-scientific
explanation of alleged facts. The modern interpreter may suppose
that a violent thunderstorm came up during the course of a battle
between the Romans and the so-called barbarians, and that owing
to the local character of the storm, or a chance discharge of
lightning, the barbarians suffered more than their opponents. We
may well question whether the philosophical emperor himself put
any other interpretation than this upon the incident. But, on the
other hand, we need not doubt that the major part of his soldiers
would very readily accept such an explanation as that given by
Dion Cassius, just as most readers of a few centuries later would
accept the explanation of Xiphilinus. It is well to bear this
thought in mind in considering the static period of science upon
which we are entering. We shall perhaps best understand this
period, and its seeming retrogressions, if we suppose that the
average man of the Middle Ages was no more credulous, no more
superstitious, than the average Roman of an earlier period or
than the average Greek; though the precise complexion of his
credulity had changed under the influence of Oriental ideas, as
we have just seen illustrated by the narrative of Xiphilinus.



APPENDIX

REFERENCE LIST, NOTES, AND BIBLIOGRAPHIES



CHAPTER I. PREHISTORIC SCIENCE

Length of the Prehistoric Period.--It is of course quite
impossible to reduce the prehistoric period to any definite
number of years. There are, however, numerous bits of evidence
that enable an anthropologist to make rough estimates as to the
relative lengths of the different periods into which prehistoric
time is divided. Gabriel de Mortillet, one of the most
industrious students of prehistoric archaeology, ventured to give
a tentative estimate as to the numbers of years involved in each
period. He of course claimed for this nothing more than the value
of a scientific guess. It is, however, a guess based on a very
careful study of all data at present available. Mortillet divides
the prehistoric period, as a whole, into four epochs. The first
of these is the preglacial, which he estimates as comprising
seventy-eight thousand years; the second is the glacial, covering
one hundred thousand years; then follows what he terms the
Solutreen, which numbers eleven thousand years; and, finally, the
Magdalenien, comprising thirty-three thousand years. This gives,
for the prehistoric period proper, a term of about two hundred
and twenty-two thousand years. Add to this perhaps twelve
thousand years ushering in the civilization of Egypt, and the six
thousand years of stable, sure chronology of the historical
period, and we have something like two hundred and thirty
thousand or two hundred and forty thousand years as the age of
man.

"These figures," says Mortillet, "are certainly not exaggerated.
It is even probable that they are below the truth. Constantly new
discoveries are being made that tend to remove farther back the
date of man's appearance." We see, then, according to this
estimate, that about a quarter of a million years have elapsed
since man evolved to a state that could properly be called human.
This guess is as good as another, and it may advantageously be
kept in mind, as it will enable us all along to understand better
than we might otherwise be able to do the tremendous force of


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