A funerary inscription found in present - day Tunisia honors a Roman provincial gentleman who lived in the third to early fourth century A.D.: «That distinguished physician Marcellus lies here. (discovermagazine.com)
In the early fourth century, when Constantine embraced and sanctioned Christianity, the believers went from suffering servants who were persecuted to those who found themselves living in comfort and security. (religion.blogs.cnn.com)
The first illuminates the Greek understanding of the virtue of poverty, running mainly from Hesiod to Aristotle, though concentrating on the late fifth and early fourth centuries» historical, comedic, and philosophical writings; the second illuminates this understanding's continuation in Diogenes and Cynical thought in general. (firstthings.com)