Read the _History_ of Africanus,[98] who was also the author of the
_Cesti_ in fourteen books.[99] Although his style is concise, he
omits nothing worthy of record. He begins with the Mosaic cosmogony
and goes down to the coming of Christ. He also gives a cursory
account of events from that time to the reign of Macrinus,[100] at
which date, as he tells us, the _Chronicle_ was finished, that is, in
the 5723rd year of the world. The work is in five volumes.
Africanus also wrote a letter to Origen against the authenticity of
the history of Susannah, on the grounds (amongst others) that it is
not included in the Jewish books, and that the play on words (ἀπὸ τοῦ
πρίνου πρῖσαι ... ἀπὸ τοῦ σχίνου σχίσαι)[101] is at variance with the
genuine Hebrew style. Origen answered and refuted these objections.
Africanus also wrote a letter to Aristides,[102] in which he showed
that in reality there was no such difference as was generally
supposed between the genealogies of our Saviour in Matthew and Luke.