whose name was Gordianus. In the third year of his reign Bahram son of Hormiz died, and Bahram son of Bahram was enthroned over the Persians for nineteen years.
During that period a Persian man called Mani emerged, proclaimed the Manichaean religion, and claimed to be a prophet. Bahram son of Bahram, the Persian king, seized him and had him sawn in two. He also rounded up two hundred of Mani’s followers and sympathizers, drove their heads into wet clay upside-down, and left them there until they perished in that position.
After this Caesar, Philip became Caesar in Rome and ruled for seven years. He believed in the Lord Christ, but one of his own commanders rose against him and killed him.
He was succeeded by another Caesar named Daqnus—namely Decius—in the tenth year of Bahram son of Bahram’s reign. The Christians suffered prolonged sorrow and severe torture under him; he slaughtered innumerable believers, and a vast multitude of martyrs was put to death during his days. He killed the patriarch of Rome, then marched to the city of Ephesus and built