Gregory of Neocaesarea had followed his early…

Sun Quan appoints his son Sun He, born to Consort Wang, crown prince in 242.

However, he also favors another son by Consort Wang, Sun Ba, the Prince of Lu, and permits Sun Ba to have the same staffing level as the crown prince—a move to which a number of officials object, as encouraging Sun Ba to compete with Sun He, but Sun Quan does not listen to them.

Cao Fang, a son of Cao Kai, the Prince of Rencheng, who was a son of Cao Zhang, is adopted by Cao Wei's second emperor Cao Rui, a younger brother of Cao Zhang, at a young age, and had been instated as Prince of Qi in 235.

Around 239, when Cao Rui becomes ill, he resolves to pass the throne to Cao Fang.

Initially, he wants to entrust Cao Fang to his uncle Cao Yu, who is to serve as a regent along with Xiahou Xian, Cao Shuang, Cao Zhao, and Qin Lang.

However, Cao Rui's trusted officials Liu Fang and Sun Zi are not on good terms with Xiahou Xian and Cao Zhao, and are apprehensive about them becoming regents.

Eventually, Cao Rui is persuaded to appoint Cao Shuang and Sima Yi.

Cao Yu, Cao Zhao and Qin Lang are excluded from the regency.

A fortnight later, when Cao Rui is on his deathbed, Sima Yi arrives at Luoyang.

Cao Rui holds onto Sima's hand and summons Cao Fang and Cao Xun (another adopted son of Cao Rui) to his bedside.

He pointes out Cao Fang and tells the boy to hug Sima, as he would hug his father.

Cao Rui then instates Cao Fang as crown prince and dies on the same day.

Gregory of Neocaesarea holds a very prominent place among those bishops of Asia Minor in high positions who build up the Christian Church, extend its influence, and strengthen its institutions.

Gregory Thaumaturgus was born at Neo-Caesarea (the capital of Pontus in Asia Minor) around 213.

Little is known of his pastoral work, and his surviving theological writings are in an incomplete state.

This lack of knowledge partially obscures his personality, despite his historical importance, and his immemorial title Thaumaturgus, "the wonder-worker" in Latinized Greek, casts an air of legend about him.

Nevertheless, the lives of few bishops of the third century are so well authenticated; the historical references to him permit a fairly detailed reconstruction of his work.

Originally he was known as Theodore ("gift of God"), not an exclusively Christian name.

His family had not converted to Christianity, and he was introduced to the Christian religion only at the age of fourteen, after the death of his father.

He had a brother Athenodorus, and on the advice of one of their tutors, the young men were eager to study law at the law-school of Berytus (Beirut), at this time one of the four or five famous schools in the Hellenic world.

Their brother-in-law had recently been appointed assessor (legal counsel) to the Roman Governor of Palestine; the youths had therefore an occasion to act as an escort to their sister as far as Caesarea in Palestine.

On arrival in that town, they had learned that the celebrated scholar Origen, head of the Catechetical School of Alexandria, resided there.

Soon both youths had forgotten all about Beirut and Roman law, and had given themselves up to the great Christian teacher, who gradually won them over to Christianity.

It may be supposed that despite the original abandonment of Beirut and the study of Roman law, Gregory had not entirely given up the original purpose of his journey to the East; as a matter of fact, he returns to Pontus seven or eight years later with the intention of practicing law.

His plan, however, is again laid aside, for he is soon consecrated bishop of his native Caesarea by Phoedimus, Bishop of Amasea and metropolitan of Pontus.

This fact illustrates in an interesting way the growth of the hierarchy in the primitive Church; the Christian community at Caesarea is very small, being only seventeen souls, and yet it is given a bishop.

Ancient canonical documents indicate that it was possible for a community of even ten Christians to have their own bishop.

When Gregory was consecrated he was forty years old, and he will rule his diocese for thirteen years.

Roman law abolishes the right of owners to torture enslaved people in 240.

Sun Quan launches the last major assault of his reign against Wei in 241, in light of Cao Rui's death in 239, but he rejects a strategy offered by Yin Zha to attack Wei in a coordinated effort with Shu on four different fronts, and the campaign ends in failure.

The death of the crown prince Sun Deng later in 241 leaves open the issue of succession and appears to mark the start of a precipitous decline in Sun Quan's mental health.

Jiang Wan is a capable administrator, and he continues Zhuge Liang's domestic policies, leaving the government largely efficient.

He is also known for his tolerance of dissension and his humility.

Not having much military aptitude, however, he had soon abandoned Zhuge Liang's policy of waging war against Wei, and indeed in 241 withdraws most of the troops from the important border city of Hanzhong to Fu County (in present-day Mianyang, Sichuan).

From this point on, Shu is generally in a defensive posture and no longer poses a threat to Wei.

(This is in fact misinterpreted by many Wu officials as a sign that Shu is abandoning the alliance and entering into a treaty with Wei, but is read correctly by Wu's emperor Sun Quan as merely a sign of weakness, not an abandonment of the alliance.)

Jiang Wan, growing ill in 243, transfers most of his authority to Fei Yi and Fei's assistant Dong Yun.

Ardashir I and his son and co-ruler Shapur I finally overcome the stubborn fortress of Hatra in 240/41 and destroy the city.

The traditional stories of the fall of Hatra tell of an-Nadira, daughter of the King of Araba, who betrayed the city into the hands of Shapur.

The story tells of how Shapur killed the king and married an-Nadira, but later had her killed also.

Timesitheus, having started his career under the Severan dynasty emperor Elagabalus, has held a number of important provincial postings.

Adept at finances, he had served in Spain as a Promagistrate.

Between 218-222, the emperor had promoted him and appointed him as Procurator of Arabia and from 220 he became a Prefect of the Cohorts and had held procuratorships in Syria, Palestine, Bithynia, Pontus, Paphlagonia, Asia, Germania Inferior, Gallia Belgica, Gallia Aquitania and Gallia Lugdunensis, proving to be an able and efficient official.

In 241, Gordian III, seeking a responsible person to serve as Praetorian Prefect and head of the Praetorian Guard, picks Timesitheus and appoints him to the position.

Timesitheus is to be an important, responsible and prominent figure in the emperor’s reign and through his years of political experience is able to assist Gordian and Gordian’s mother Antonia Gordiana in administering the Roman Empire.

An example of Timesitheus’ suitability in his position is that in May 241, Timesitheus had arranged with Gordian to marry his daughter Tranquillina.

The wife of Timesitheus is unknown.

His daughter becomes a Roman Empress and her marriage to the young Gordian will prove to be a very happy (albeit short-lived) union.

Timesitheus, proving to be a figure that will work with the emperor, not against him, orders the improvements of the empire’s borders in Africa.

The Prefect begins to organize war on Persia, whose King Shapur I had recently invaded Roman Mesopotamia and captured Nisibis and Carrhae.

Mani, born near Seleucia-Ctesiphon, perhaps in the town Mardinu in the Babylonian district of Nahr Kutha, according to other accounts in the town Abrumya, is a Persian of noble descent and a Mithra initiate who has studied early Christian heresies.

Mani's father Pātik, a native of Ecbatana (modern Hamadan, Iran), is a member of the Jewish-Christian sect of the Elcesaites (a subgroup of the Gnostic Ebionites).

His mother, whose name is reported variously, among others Mariam, is of Parthian descent (from "the Armenian Arsacid family of Kamsarakan" (Sundermann, Werner (2009), Mani, the founder of the religion of Manicheism in the third century CE, "...his mother was from the house Jinsajian, explained by Henning as the Armenian Arsacid family of Kamsarakan".)

At ages twelve and twenty-four, Mani had visionary experiences of a heavenly twin of his, calling him to leave his father's sect and teach the true message of Christ.

In 240–41, Mani travels to "India" (i.e.

to the Sakhas, Hindu theological schools that specializes in learning certain Vedic texts, in modern-day Afghanistan), where he had probably been influenced by Greco-Buddhism.

Returning in 242, he joins the court of Shapur I, to whom he dedicates his only work written in Persian, known as the Shabuhragan.

Shapur is not converted to Manichaeanism and remains Zoroastrian.

Mani embarks on a career as an itinerant preacher, declaring himself the “Messenger of Truth,” the Paraclete promised by Jesus.

Traveling throughout the Persian empire, he teaches that salvation requires liberation of the seed of light, the soul, from the material darkness which envelops and binds it, and that this can be achieved through ascetic practices and strict celibacy.

Those who seek perfection must set three “seals” on their lives: on the mouth, to speak only truth and to abstain from meat or impure food of any kind; on the hands, to refrain from war, killing, or injuring life; on the breast, to render impossible the works of the flesh.

These rules apply only to the elect or pure; a less stringent code is described for hearers.

The destiny of the imperfect is continual rebirth in a world of material bodies.

The fifth-century Cologne Mani-Codex and other evidence discovered in the twentieth century establishes Mani as a historical individual.