In the year 997 from the founding of the City, Philip, the twenty-fourth from Augustus, was created emperor; he made his son Philip partner in the rule and held it for seven years.1
1 Anno ab urbe condita DCCCCLXLVII Philippus uicensimus quartus ab Augusto imperator creatus Philippum filium suum consortem regni fecit mansitque in eo annis septem.
1The manuscripts read DCCCCLXLVII, an impossible numeral; one manuscript spells out 997, the reading taken here (AD 244).
He was the first of all the emperors to be a Christian, and after the third year of his rule the year 1000 from the founding of Rome was completed. Thus this birthday year, the most august of all that had gone before, was celebrated with magnificent games by a Christian emperor.2
2 hic primus imperatorum omnium Christianus fuit ac post tertium imperii eius annum millesimus a conditione Romae annus impletus est. ita magnificis ludis augustissimus omnium praeteritorum hic natalis annus a Christiano imperatore celebratus est.
2That Philip was a Christian is a tradition reported by Eusebius (Ecclesiastical History 6.34); no pagan source knows of it.
Nor is there any doubt that Philip referred the thanks and honour for so great a devotion to Christ and to the Church, since no author shows that there was any procession up to the Capitol, or that victims were sacrificed according to custom.
3 nec dubium est, quin Philippus huius tantae deuotionis gratiam et honorem ad Christum et Ecclesiam reportarit, quando uel ascensum fuisse in Capitolium immolatasque ex more hostias nullus auctor ostendit.
Both of them, however, though in different places, were killed through a military uprising and the treachery of Decius.
4 ambo tamen quamuis diuersis locis tumultu militari et Decii fraude interfecti sunt.