[307] Genesis xi: 31.
[308] Ibid., 17.
[309] Purgatorio, XXVII, 94–108. Dante but follows the teaching of the Angelic Doctor who, writing on the active and the contemplative life, declares: “Istæ duæ vitæ significantur per duas uxores Jacob: activa quidem per Liam, contemplativa vero per Rachelem; et per duas mulieres quæ Dominum hospitio receperunt: contemplativa quidem per Mariam, activa vero per Martham.” Summ. Theol. Pars II, 2dæ, Q CLXXIX, Art. i.
[310] Cf. The Book of the Bee, p. 95–97, from the Syriac of Mar Solomon, Bishop of Basra (trans. by E. A. W. Budge, Oxford, 1886).
[311] Students of history will remember that the Emperor Carcacalla was assassinated at Haran by one of his soldiers while on a visit to the temple of the Moon. The Roman general Crassus suffered a crushing defeat at the same place and was treacherously slain in the vicinity while in a conference with a Persian satrap.
[312] “Quæ jam a Mithradati regni temporibus, ne Oriens a Persis occuparetur, viribus restitit maximis.” Lib. XXV, Cap. IX.
[313] Cf. Assemani, op. cit., Tom. III, Part II, p. 927, et seq.
Nisibis, “la grand metropole nestorienne, vit naïtre dans ses murs la première Université théologique, les premiers cours publics de théologie. Ce phenomene qui excitait l’admiration et étonnement du quæstor sacri palatii de Justinien ne peut que nous donner une idée avantageuse de la culture du clerge nestorien a cette époque de son histoire.” Le Christianisme dan l’Empire Perse sous la Dynastie Sassanide, (224–632), p. 301 (by J. Labourt, Paris, 1904).
[314] Dion Cassius, History of Rome, Bk. I, XVIII, 26.
[315] Genesis xxxv: 8.