Page 49 - Edessa, 'The Blessed City'-01, by J. B. Segal (Oxford, 1970). Chapters 1-3

36 EDESSA UNDER THE KINGS
of Edessa. Julius Africanus admired Bardaisan's prowess as archer. He was
converted to Christianity by, we are told, a certain 'Bishop' Hystasp, and
composed polemics against the heresy of Marcion. But Bardaisan's indepen-
dence of mind made it difficult for him to conform to prescribed dogma; and
he was expelled from the Church by 'Aqi, the successor of Hystasp. He is
credited with having subsequently founded his own sect. The Bardaisanites
are said by no less an authority than Jacob of Edessa to have continued at
Edessa until the late seventh or eighth century; Moslem writers allege that
his followers were to be found between Wasit and Basra in southern Iraq
in the tenth century, and even in Khorasan and Chinese Turkestan.
These assertions may be based on misunderstanding, for there was a ten-
dency, particularly among Moslem theologians, to group miscellaneous
heresies under a single ill-defined heading. They show, however, how deep
and lasting was the impact of Bardaisan, not only on his contemporaries, but
also on succeeding generations. During his lifetime—he died in 222—he
composed some religious and philosophical treatises, a treatise on the con-
junction of the planets, a history of Armenia, written when he fled to that
country in the reign of Caracalla, and a history of India. Even his enemies
acknowledged his charm and his keenness of perception. Eusebius, a century
later, calls him 'a most able man' and 'a powerful disputant'. St. Ephraim
writes of 'the dirt of the wiles of Bardaisan', but he was forced to admit that
'Bardaisan is found to speak with subtlety": and showing unwonted mercy
towards a heretic, Ephraim declares, 'Ye sons of the good [God], pray for
Bardaisan, for in his heathenism there went a Legion in his heart but our
Lord in his mouth'.
A prose work attributed to the school of Bardaisan was probably composed
by his disciple, Philip; it is entitled the Book of the Laws of Countries.1
Brief extracts may convey something of the shrewdness and humanity of
Bardaisan; these qualities are evident even though the text may have been
revised by a Christian apologist.
If you want to learn it is helpful to learn from older people .. ., but if [you want] to
teach it is not necessary for you to ask them anything but to persuade them to ask what
you wish. ... It is a good thing to know how to ask questions. . . .
There is nothing that men have been commanded to do which they cannot do. . . . We
are not commanded to carry heavy burdens of stone or timber or other things—which
only those who are strong in body can do, or to build fortresses or found cities—which
only kings can do, or to steer ships—which only sailors know how to steer, or to measure
and divide the earth—which only surveyors know. . . . But we have been given
commandments ungrudgingly according to the bounty of God, which any man who has a
soul can perform with joy. . . .

1 It receives this name because it offers ex- and Britons in the West. See on its contents
arnples of the laws of peoples ranging from the p. 44 below.
'Seres' and Indians in the East to the Greeks

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