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Primary Source 1.3 and 5.1

LETTER TO HELIODORUS FROM ST JEROME1

Saint (c. 347–420 A.D.) was an extraordinarily learned Christian priest, theologian, and historian in the later years of the . The author of extensive writings, he is best remembered for his translation of the into , the , and for his numerous Biblical commentaries. He also corresponded widely on topics ranging from to personal matters. Below is a well-known letter by Jerome to his friend Heliodorus of Altino (d. c. 390 A.D.), the of Altinum (a small town in Veneto, , also known as Altino) and a companion during Jerome’s extensive journey to the Holy Land. The letter is intended to console his friend over the of his nephew, Nepotian. It offers three distinct forms of consolation. In the first part, Jerome tells his friend that as a Christian, he must rise above the misfortunes of this life, and contrasts the despair surrounding death in with the optimistic afterlife of . The second part, which has been omitted, consists of kind words in praise of Nepotian. The last section is a description of the deteriorating state of the Roman Empire, from which Jerome considered Nepotian blessed to have been removed. Together, the first and final sections provide insight into Jerome’s time. His contrast between paganism and Christianity reflects how the era still witnessed a struggle between the two worldviews, though clearly a major transition was then occurring toward Christianity. He also describes the decline of the Roman Empire and destruction of by invaders. For the full text online, as well as other letters by St Jerome, click here.

LETTER XL

1. Small wits cannot grapple large themes but venturing beyond their strength fail in the very attempt; and, the greater a subject is, the more completely is he overwhelmed who cannot find words to unfold its grandeur. Nepotian who was mine and yours and ours—or rather who was ’s and because Christ’s all the more ours—has forsaken us his elders so that we are smitten with pangs of regret and overcome with a grief which is past bearing. We supposed him our heir, yet now his corpse is all that is ours. For whom shall my intellect now labour? Whom shall my poor letters desire to please? Where is he, the impeller of my work, whose voice was sweeter than a swan’s last song? My mind is dazed, my hand trembles, a mist covers my eyes, stammering seizes my tongue. Whatever my words, they seem as good as unspoken seeing that he no longer hears them. My very pen seems to feel his loss, my very wax tablet looks dull and sad; the one is covered with rust, the other with mould. As often as I try to express myself in words and to scatter the flowers of this encomium2 upon his tomb, my eyes fill with tears, my grief returns, and I can think of nothing but his death. It was a custom in former days for children over the dead bodies of their parents publicly to proclaim their praises and (as when pathetic songs are sung) to draw tears from the eyes and sighs from the breasts of those who heard them. But in our

1 St. Jerome, The Principal Works of St. Jerome, trans. W.H. Fremantle, G. Lewis & W.G. Martley, 6 vols. (New York: Company, 1892), 6:306–11, 318–21. 2 A speech or writing in praise of someone or something. 2 case, behold, the order of things is changed: to deal us this blow nature has forfeited her rights. For the respect which the young man should have paid to his elders, we his elders are paying to him. 2. What shall I do then? Shall I join my tears to yours? The forbids me for he speaks of dead as “them which are asleep.”3 So too in the the Lord says, “the damsel is not dead but sleepeth,” and Lazarus4 when he is raised from the dead is said to have been asleep. No, I will be glad and rejoice that “speedily he was taken away lest that wickedness should alter his understanding” for “his pleased the Lord.” But though loth to give way and combat my feelings, tears flow down my cheeks, and in spite of the teachings of virtue and the of the a of regret crushes my too yielding mind. O death that dividest brothers knit together in , how cruel, how ruthless thou art so to sunder them! “The Lord hath fetched a burning wind that cometh up from the wilderness: which hath dried thy veins and hath made thy well spring desolate.” Thou didst swallow up our ,5 but even in thy belly He still lived. Thou didst carry Him as one dead, that the world’s storm might be stilled and our Nineveh saved by His preaching. He, yes He, conquered thee, He slew thee, that fugitive prophet who left His home, gave up His inheritance and surrendered his dear life into the hands of those who sought it. He it was who of old threatened thee in : “O death, I will be thy plagues; O grave, I will be thy destruction.” By His death thou art dead; by His death we live. Thou hast swallowed up and thou art swallowed up. Whilst thou art smitten with a longing for the body assumed by Him, and whilst thy greedy jaws fancy it a prey, thy inward parts are wounded with hooked fangs. 3. To Thee, O Saviour Christ, do we Thy creatures offer thanks that, when Thou wast slain, Thou didst slay our mighty adversary. Before Thy coming was there any being more miserable than man who cowering at the dread prospect of eternal death did but receive life that he might perish! For “death reigned from Adam6 to Moses7 even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of ’s transgression.” If ,8 ,9 and Jacob10 be in hell, who can be in the kingdom of heaven? If Thy friends—even those who had not sinned themselves—were yet for the of another liable to the punishment of offending Adam, what must we think of those who have said in their hearts “There is no God;” who “are corrupt and abominable” in their self-will, and of whom it is said “they are gone out of the way, they are become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no not one”? Even if Lazarus is seen in Abraham’s bosom and in a place of refreshment, still the lower regions cannot be compared with the kingdom of heaven. Before Christ’s coming Abraham is in the lower regions: after Christ’s coming the robber is in paradise. And

3 Most of the quotations sprinkled throughout the letter are taken from . For complete citations, view the scholarly edition here. 4 rose from the dead after four days thanks to the working of Christ, according to of John. 5 Jonah was a prophet of the and famous for being swallowed by a whale. 6 The first man, according to the Hebrew Bible and the Old Testament in Christianity. 7 is said to have led the from Egypt to the Promise Land and obtained the from God. 8 Abraham is a central figure in the religious texts of the : Judaism. Christianity, and Islam. 9 Isaac was the only son of Abraham and his wife Sarah, the father of and Esau, and one of the three of the Israel, according to the Hebrew Bible and the Quran. 10 Jacob was the third of the Israelites and ancestor of the tribes of Israel named for his descendants. 3 therefore at His rising again “many bodies of the which slept arose, and were seen in the heavenly .” Then was fulfilled the saying: “Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light.” John the Baptist11 cries in the desert: “repent ye; for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” For “from the days of the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence and the violent take it by force.” The flaming that keeps the way of paradise and the cherubim12 that are stationed at its doors are alike quenched and unloosed by the blood of Christ. It is not surprising that this should be promised us in the resurrection: for as many of us as living in the do not live after the flesh, have our citizenship in heaven, and while we are still here on earth we are told that “the kingdom of heaven is within us.” 4. Moreover before the resurrection of Christ God was “known in Judah”13 only and “His name was great in Israel” alone. And they who knew Him were despite their knowledge dragged down to hell. Where in those days were the inhabitants of the globe from India to Britain, from the frozen zone of the North to the burning heat of the Atlantic ocean? Where were the countless peoples of the world? Where the great multitudes? Unlike in tongue, unlike in dress and arms?14

They were crushed like fishes and locusts, like flies and gnats. For apart from knowledge of his Creator every man is but a brute. But now the voices and writings of all nations proclaim the passion and the resurrection of Christ. I say nothing of the , the , and the Romans, peoples which the Lord has dedicated to His by the title written on His cross. The of the soul and its continuance after the dissolution of the body—truths of which Pythagoras15 dreamed, which Democritus16 refused to believe, and which Socrates17 discussed in prison to console himself for the sentence passed upon him—are now the familiar themes of Indian and of Persian, of Goth18 and of . The fierce Bessians19 and the throng of skinclad savages who used to offer human sacrifices in honour of the dead have broken out of their harsh discord into the sweet music of the cross and Christ is the one cry of the whole world. 5. What can we do, my soul? Whither must we turn? What must we take up first? What must we pass over? Have you forgotten the precepts of the rhetoricians? Are you so preoccupied with grief, so overcome with tears, so hindered with sobs, that you forget all logical sequence? Where are the studies you have pursued from your childhood? Where is that saying of Anaxagoras20 and Telamon21 (which you have always commended) “I knew

11 A major religious figure in Christianity who is said to have baptized Jesus Christ. 12 Winged, angelic creatures said to attend to the God of Abrahamic religions. 13 Judah (930–586 B.C.) was a kingdom in the south of modern-day Israel and was centered on Jerusalem. 14 From Virgil’s Aeneid. 15 Pythagoras of (c. 570–c. 495 B.C.) was an Ionian Greek philosopher and mathematician who founded the religious movement that bears his name, Pythagoreanism. 16 Democritus (c. 460–c. 370 B.C.) was a Greek philosopher famous for formulating atomic theory. 17 Socrates (c. 470–399 B.C.) was a preeminent Greek philosophers and a founder of Western philosophy. 18 The Visigoths and Ostrogoths were East Germanic people who helped to undermine the Roman Empire. 19 The Bessi were an independent Thracian tribe of the Balkans on the coast of the Aegean Sea. 20 Anaxagoras (500–428 B.C.), a Pre-Socratic thinker, was the first to bring philosophy from Ionia to . 21 Telamon accompanied Jason as one of the Argonauts on a quest to find the fleece of a gold-hair winged ram. 4 myself to have begotten a mortal”? I have read the books of Crantor22 which he wrote to soothe his grief and which Cicero23 has imitated. I have read the consolatory writings of ,24 Diogenes,25 Clitomachus,26 Carneades,27 Posidonius,28 who at different times strove by book or letter to lessen the grief of various persons. Consequently, were my own wit to dry up, it could be watered anew from the fountains which these have opened. They set before us examples without number; and particularly those of Pericles29 and of Socrates’s pupil Xenophon.30 The former of these after the loss of his two sons put on a garland and delivered a harangue; while the latter, on hearing when he was sacrifice that his son had been slain in war, is said to have laid down his garland; and then, on learning that he had fallen fighting bravely, is said to have put it on his head again. What shall I say of those Roman generals whose heroic virtues glitter like stars on the pages of Latin history? Pulvillus31 was dedicating the capitol when receiving the news of his son’s sudden death, he gave orders that the funeral should take place without him. Lucius Paullus32 entered the city in triumph in the week which intervened between the funerals of his two sons. I pass over the Maximi, the Catos, the Galli, the Pisos, the Bruti, the Scævolas, the Metelli, the Scauri, the Marii, the Crassi, the Marcelli, the Aufidii,33 men who shewed equal fortitude in sorrow and war, and whose bereavements Tully34 has set forth in his book Of consolation. I pass them over lest I should seem to have chosen the words and woes of others in preference to my own. Yet even these instances may suffice to ensure us mortification if our faith fails to surpass the achievements of unbelief. 6. Let me come then to my proper subject. I will not beat my breast with Jacob and with for sons dying in the Law, but I will receive them rising again with Christ in the Gospel. The Jew’s mourning is the Christian’s joy. “Weeping may endure for a night but joy cometh in the morning.” “The night is far spent, the day is at hand.” Accordingly when Moses dies, mourning is made for him, but when Joshua is buried, it is without tears or funeral pomp. All that can be drawn from scripture on the subject of lamentation I have briefly set forth in the letter of consolation which I addressed to Paula at Rome. Now I must take another path to arrive at the same goal. Otherwise I shall seem to be walking anew in a track once beaten but now long disused. 7. We know indeed that our Nepotian is with Christ and that he has joined the choirs of the saints. What here with us he groped after on earth afar off and sought for to the best of his judgment, there he sees nigh at hand, so that he can say: “as we have heard so have we seen in the city of the Lord of hosts, in the city of our God.” Still we cannot bear the

22 Crantor (d. 276/5 B.C.) was a Greek philosopher from . 23 Tullius (106–43 B.C.) is considered to be one of Rome’s greatest orators. 24 Plato (c. 425–348/7 B.C.) was a major philosopher in Classical . He was a student of Socrates, mentor to , and founded the Academy of Athens. 25 Diogenes (412–323 B.C.) of Sinope was a Greek philosopher and one of the founders of Cynic philosophy. 26 Clitomachus (187–109 B.C.), previously Hasdrubal, was a philosopher who came to Athens from Carthage. 27 Carneades (214–129 B.C.) was an Academic skeptic born in Cyrene who taught Clitomachus. 28 Posidonius (135–51 B.C.) was a Greek Stoic philosopher, historian, astronomer, and politician from . 29 Pericles (c. 495–429 B.C.) was a prominent politician, orator, and general from Athens. 30 Xenophon (c. 430–354 B.C.) was a Greek historian and student of Socrates, as well as a soldier. 31 Marcus Horatius Pulvillus was a consul of Rome in 509 and 507 B.C. 32 Lucius Paullus was a Roman statesman during the last years of the and early years of the Empire. 33 These were all prominent families of ancient Rome. 34 That is, Cicero. 5 feeling of his absence, and grieve, if not for him, for ourselves. The greater the happiness which he enjoys, the deeper the sorrow in which the loss of a blessing so great plunges us. The sisters of Lazarus could not help weeping for him, although they knew that he would rise again. And the Saviour himself—to shew that he possessed true human feeling— mourned for him whom He was about to raise. His apostle also, though he says: “I desire to depart and to be with Christ,” and elsewhere “to me to live is Christ and to die is gain,” thanks God that (who had been “sick nigh unto death”) has been given back to him that he might not have sorrow upon sorrow. Words prompted not by the fear that springs of unbelief but by the passionate regret that comes of true affection. How much more deeply must you who were to Nepotian both uncle and bishop (that is, a father both in the flesh and in the spirit), deplore the loss of one so dear, as though your heart were torn from you. Set a limit, I pray you, to your sorrow and remember the saying “in nothing overmuch.” Bind up for a little while your wound and listen to the praises of one in whose virtue you have always delighted. Do not grieve that you have lost such a paragon: rejoice rather that he has once been yours. As on a small tablet men depict the configuration of the earth, so in this little scroll of mine you may see his virtues if not fully depicted at least sketched in outline. I beg that you will take the will for the performance. 8. The advice of the rhetoricians in such cases is that you should first search out the remote ancestors of the person to be eulogized and recount their exploits, and then come gradually to your hero; so as to make him more illustrious by the virtues of his forefathers, and to show either that he is a worthy successor of good men, or that he has conferred lustre upon a lineage in itself obscure. But as my duty is to sing the praises of the soul, I will not dwell upon those fleshly advantages which Nepotian for his part always despised. Nor will I boast of his family, that is of the good points belonging not to him but to others; for even those holy men Abraham and Isaac had for sons the sinners and Esau. And on the other hand Jephthah35 who is reckoned by the apostle36 in the roll of the righteous is the son of a harlot. It is said “the soul that sinneth, it shall die.” The soul therefore that has not sinned shall live. Neither the virtues nor the vices of parents are imputed to their children. God takes account of us only from the time when we are born anew in Christ. Paul,37 the persecutor of the , who is in the morning the ravening wolf of ,38 in the evening “gave food,” that is yields himself up to the sheep Ananias.39 Let us likewise reckon our Nepotian a crying babe and an untutored child who has been born to us in a moment fresh from the waters of Jordan. 9. Another would perhaps describe how for his you left the east and the desert and how you soothed me your dearest comrade by holding out of a return: and all this that you might save, if possible, both your sister, then a widow with one little child, or, should she reject your counsels, at any rate your sweet little nephew. It was of him that I once used the prophetic words: “though your little nephew cling to your neck.” Another, I say, would relate how while Nepotian was still in the service of the court,

35 Jephthah was a judge over Israel for six years and led the Israelites against the Ammonites. 36 That is, St Paul. 37 (c. 5–c. 67 A.D.) spread the gospel of Christ throughout the Roman Empire. 38 Benjamin was the youngest of Jacob’s twelve sons; as a youth he was considered a “ravening wolf.” St Paul was of the ; he persecuted Christians (was like a wolf to them) until his conversion. 39 The Christian who ministered to St Paul after his conversion. 6 beneath his uniform and his brilliantly white linen, his skin was chafed with sackcloth;40 how, while standing before the powers of this world, his lips were discoloured with fasting; how still in the uniform of one master he served another; and how he wore the sword-belt only that he might succour widows and wards, the afflicted and the unhappy. For my part I dislike men to delay the complete dedication of themselves to God. When I read of the Cornelius that he was a just man I immediately hear of his . . . . 16. Some one may say: such is the lot of kings: The lightning ever smites the mountain-tops.41 I will come therefore to persons of private position, and in speaking of these I will not go farther back than the last two years. In fact I will content myself—omitting all others—with recounting the respective fates of three recent consulars. Abundantius42 is a beggared exile at Pityus. The head of Rufinus43 has been carried on a pike to Constantinople, and his severed hand has begged alms from door to door to shame his insatiable . Timasius,44 hurled suddenly from a position of the highest rank thinks it an escape that he is allowed to live in obscurity at Assa.45 I am describing not the misfortunes of an unhappy few but the thread upon which human fortunes as a whole depend. I shudder when I think of the catastrophes of our time. For twenty years and more the blood of Romans has been shed daily between Constantinople and the Julian Alps.46 Scythia,47 Thrace,48 ,49 Dardania,50 Dacia,51 Thessaly,52 Achaia,53 ,54 Dalmatia, the Pannonias55—each and all of these have been sacked and pillaged and plundered by Goths and Sarmatians,56 Quades and Alans,57 Huns58 and Vandals59 and Marchmen. How many of God’s matrons and virgins, virtuous and noble ladies, have been made the sport of these brutes! have been made captive, priests and those in minor orders have been put to death. Churches have been overthrown, horses have been stalled by the of Christ, the of have

40 Wearing coarse sackcloth was a form of penitence. 41 A quotation from the Roman author Horace (65–8 B.C.) 42 Flavius Abundantius (375– c. 400) was a commander in the Roman army who was also a politician. He was exiled by Emperor (r. 395–408) to the town of Pityus on the eastern coast of the Black Sea in 396. 43 St. Rufinus (d. 287 A.D.) was a Christian beheaded in Gaul because of persecution against Christians. 44 Flavius Timasius (d. 396 A.D.) was a general of the Roman Empire. 45 A small town in the south of present-day Morocco. 46 A mountain range that spreads from northeastern Italy to Slovenia. 47 A region of Central Eurasia that encompasses parts of Central and Eastern Europe. 48 A region in southeast Europe containing parts of modern-day Bulgaria, Greece, and . 49 A historic region of northern Greece, now divided between the Republic of Macedonia, Greece, and Bulgaria. 50 A city in Greek mythology founded on Mount Ida, located on the Dardanelles strait. 51 The land inhabited by the Dacians and located on the Danube river in the Balkans. 52 A region of Greece located on the Aegean Sea. 53 A region of Greece on the Peloponnese peninsula. 54 A region in southeastern Europe that consisted of parts of modern-day Greece and . 55 Pannonia was a Roman province located in the Balkans on the Adriatic Sea. 56 The Sarmatians were an Iranian people of classical antiquity from the 5th century B.C. to the 4th century A.D. 57 The Alans, also known as Alani or Halani, were a nomadic tribe of the Sarmatian. 58 The were a nomadic people from Eastern Europe, the Caucasus and Central Asia. 59 The Vandals were an East Germanic tribe originating in southern Poland but expanded to Spain and Africa. 7 been dug up. Mourning and fear abound on every side And death appears in countless shapes and forms.60 The Roman world is falling: yet we hold up our heads instead of bowing them. What , think you, have the Corinthians now, or the Athenians or the Lacedæmonians61 or the Arcadians,62 or any of the Greeks over whom the bear sway? I have mentioned only a few cities, but these once the capitals of no mean states. The East, it is true, seemed to be safe from all such evils: and if men were panic-stricken here, it was only because of bad news from other parts. But lo! in the year just gone by the wolves (no longer of Arabia but of the whole North) were let loose upon us from the remotest fastnesses63 of Caucasus64 and in a short time overran these great provinces. What a number of monasteries they captured! What many rivers they caused to run red with blood! They laid siege to and invested other cities on the Halys65, the Cydnus,66 the Orontes,67 and the Euphrates. They carried off troops of captives. Arabia, Phenicia, Palestine and Egypt, in their terror fancied themselves already enslaved. Had I a hundred tongues, a hundred lips, A throat of iron and a chest of brass, I could not tell men’s countless sufferings.68 And indeed it is not my purpose to write a history: I only wish to shed a few tears over your sorrows and mine. For the rest, to treat such themes as they deserve, Thucydides and Sallust would be as good as dumb. 17. Nepotian is happy who neither sees these things nor hears them. We are unhappy, for either we suffer ourselves or we see our brethren suffer. Yet we desire to live, and regard those beyond the reach of these evils as miserable rather than blessed. We have long felt that God is angry, yet we do not try to appease Him. It is our sins which make the barbarians strong, it is our vices which vanquish Rome’s soldiers: and, as if there were here too little material for carnage, civil wars have made almost greater havoc among us than the of foreign foes. Miserable must those Israelites have been compared with whom Nebuchadnezzar69 was called God’s servant. Unhappy too are we who are so displeasing to God that He uses the fury of the barbarians to execute His wrath against us. Still when Hezekiah repented, one hundred and eighty-five thousand Assyrians70 were destroyed in one night by a single . When Jehosaphat71 sang the praises of the Lord, the Lord gave

60 From Virgil’s Aeneid. 61 Those from Lacedaemonia, or Laconia, a region of Greece located on the tip of the Peloponnese peninsula. 62 Those from the Greek region of the Peloponnese peninsula located in its center. 63 Strongholds. 64 A region at the border between Europe and Asia, located between the Black and Caspian seas. 65 The Halys River is in . 66 The Cydnus River is now called the Berdan River and is located in Asia Minor 67 The Orontes River runs through modern Lebanon, Syria, and Turkey. 68 From Virgil’s Aeneid. 69 Nebuchadnezzar II was a Neo-Babylonian king (r. c. 605–562 B.C.) mentioned multiple times in the Bible. 70 The Assyrians were an ethnic group originating in ancient Mesopotamia and who built up a mighty empire. 71 Jehoshaphat was the fourth king of the Kingdom of Judah. 8

His worshipper the . Again when Moses fought against Amalek,72 it was not with the sword but with prayer that he prevailed. Therefore, if we wish to be lifted up, we must first prostrate ourselves. Alas! for our shame and folly reaching even to unbelief! Rome’s army, once victor and lord of the world, now trembles with terror at the sight of the foe and accepts defeat from men who cannot walk afoot and fancy themselves dead if once they are unhorsed. We do not understand the prophet’s words: “One thousand shall flee at the rebuke of one.” We do not cut away the causes of the disease, as we must do to remove the disease itself. Else we should soon see the enemies’ arrows give way to our javelins, their caps to our helmets, their palfreys to our chargers. 18. But I have gone beyond the office of a consoler, and while forbidding you to weep for one dead man I have myself mourned the dead of the whole world. Xerxes73 the mighty king who razed mountains and filled up seas, looking from high ground upon the untold host, the countless army before him, is said to have wept at the thought that in a hundred years not one of those whom he then saw would be alive. Oh! if we could but get up into a watch-tower so high that from it we might behold the whole earth spread out under our feet, then I would shew you the wreck of a world, nation warring against nation and kingdom in collision with kingdom; some men tortured, others put to the sword, others swallowed up by the waves, some dragged away into slavery; here a wedding, there a funeral; men born here, men dying there; some living in affluence, others begging their bread; and not the army of Xerxes, great as that was, but all the inhabitants of the world alive now but destined soon to pass away. Language is inadequate to a theme so vast and all that I can say must fall short of the reality. 19. Let us return then to ourselves and coming down from the skies let us look for a few moments upon what more nearly concerns us. Are you conscious, I would ask, of the stages of your growth? Can you fix the time when you became a babe, a boy, a youth, an adult, an old man? Every day we are changing, every day we are dying, and yet we fancy ourselves eternal. The very moments that I spend in dictation, in writing, in reading over what I write, and in correcting it, are so much taken from my life. Every dot that my secretary makes is so much gone from my allotted time. We write letters and reply to those of others, our missives74 cross the sea, and, as the vessel ploughs its furrow through wave after wave, the moments which we have to live vanish one by one. Our only gain is that we are thus knit together in the love of Christ. “ suffereth long and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up; beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. Charity never faileth.” It lives always in the heart, and thus our Nepotian though absent is still present, and widely sundered though we are has a hand to offer to each. Yes, in him we have a hostage for mutual charity. Let us then be joined together in spirit, let us bind ourselves each to each in affection and let us who have lost a son shew the same fortitude with which the blessed Chromatius75 bore the loss of a brother. Let every page that we write echo his name, let all our letters ring with it. If we can no longer clasp him to our hearts, let us hold him fast in memory; and if we can no

72 Amalek was the son of Eliphaz according to the Hebrew Bible. 73 Xerxes I of Persia (r. 486–465 B.C.) ruled the Achaemenid Empire and invaded Greece in 480 B.C. but was repelled. 74 Letters. 75 Chromatius (d. c. 406 A.D.) was a friend of Jerome and bishop of Aquileia, a city in Northern Italy. 9 longer speak with him, let us never cease to speak of him.