One of the best known examples of the hagiographic novel, this is the tale of an Indian prince who becomes aware of the world's miseries and is converted to Christianity by the monk Barlaam. Barlaam and Josaphat (Ioasaph) were believed to have re-converted India after her lapse from conversion to Christianity, and they were numbered among the Christian saints. Centuries ago likenesses were noticed between the life of Josaphat and the life of the Buddha; the resemblances are in incidents, doctrine, and philosophy, and Barlaam's rules of abstinence resemble the Buddhist monk's. But not till the mid-nineteenth century was it recognised that, in Josaphat, the Buddha had been venerated as a Christian saint for about a thousand years.

The origin of the story of Barlaam and Ioasaph--which in itself has little peculiar to Buddhism--appears to be a Manichaean tract produced in Central Asia. It was welcomed by the Arabs and by the Georgians. The Greek romance of Barlaam appears separately first in the 11th century. Most of the Greek manuscripts attribute the story to John the Monk, and it is only some later scribes who identify this John with John Damascene (ca. 676-749). There is strong evidence in Latin and Georgian as well as Greek that it was the Georgian Euthymius (who died in 1028) who caused the story to be translated from Georgian into Greek, the whole being reshaped and supplemented. The Greek romance soon spread throughout Christendom, and was translated into Latin, Old Slavonic, Armenian, and Arabic. An English version (from Latin) was used by Shakespeare in his caskets scene in "The Merchant of Venice,"

David M. Lang's Introduction traces parallels between the Buddhist andChristian legends, discusses the importance of Arabic versions, and notes influences of the Manichaean creed.

In this 1914 book, celebrated classicist Harold Mattingly provides a carefully selected yet wide-ranging history of the ancient world, from the Babylonians to the decline of the Western Roman Empire. Illustrated with thirty-five plates of ancient coins and sculptures as well as twelve maps, this text remains a useful overview of ancient history and literature for beginners and experts alike.

A broad-ranging survey of the Roman Empire, outlining the course of events up to the Western Empire's fall in A.D. 476 and discussing political, economic, and cultural life. Dr. Mattingly, for many years in charge of Roman coins at the British Museum, shows throughout the book how the study of coins supplements the gaps in the contemporary historical documents.

"A thoughtful picture of the common man, his beliefs and aspirations, his activities, his resources, and his limitations." —from the Introduction by Alfred R. Bellinger

The Man in the Roman Street looks at the changing attitudes and beliefs of the Roman people throughout the Empire from the accession of Augustus in 27 B.C.E. to the death of Theodosius the Great in 395 C.E. Religion, in which "the human mind found its main activity," is treated in deapth: its distinctive features, the interplay between the traditions of Greece and Rome and the other religions of East and West, the "virtues" or "powers" existing independently of the gods, and the worship of the Emperor. The influence of the philosophers, the Eastern mysteries, Judaism, and Christianity are also discussed, as are literature, art, history, science, and the quality of life for the individual Roman. Mr. Mattingly sees in Roman peace and prosperity the sources of the troubles to come. In complacency and in fear of losing his security, the Roman citizen could only look backward and deep-rooted conservatism became the breeding ground foof the evolutionary forces that were to change the quality of Roman life and usher in a Christian state.