The most important event during the rule of the Romans was the =introduction of Christianity by St. Mark= the Apostle, who, according to tradition, preached the Gospel in Alexandria about A.D. 69. The knowledge of the new religion spread rapidly, and converts multiplied and, though no direct proof is forthcoming at present, there is reason to think that before the middle of the second century an account of the life of Christ and His words and works existed in the Egyptian tongue. Men who had embraced Christianity retired into the desert to lead a life of austerity and contemplation, among whom may be mentioned =Frontonius=, who collected seventy disciples, and withdrew to the Nitrian Desert between A.D. 138 and 161, and =Paul the Anchorite=, who died about A.D. 250, aged 113 years. The life and teaching of =Anthony=, born 250, died 355, induced thousands to become monks. =Pachomius=, in 320, systematized monasticism, but he required the recluses to work for their living whilst they cultivated spiritual excellences. Women as well as men flocked to the desert, and =nunneries= existed in many places in Egypt. The number of such recluses was great; at Nitria alone there were 5,000 monks, and, in addition, 600 lived solitary lives in the neighbouring desert. At Oxyrhynchus there were 10,000 monks, and the bishop had charge of 20,000 nuns. In the monasteries of Nitria and Panopolis, and elsewhere, the Holy Scriptures were translated from Greek into Egyptian (_i.e._, =Coptic=, see pages 35-39) and Syriac, and other Oriental languages; and copies of them were carried by monks and fugitive Christians into Nubia, and even into remote Abyssinia, by way of the Blue Nile. In the Oases of the Western Desert were numbers of Christians in the fourth and fifth centuries; wherever the monk went he took Christianity with him. Still, in spite of the spread of the new religion, the beliefs which the Egyptians had received from their pagan ancestors also flourished in Egypt for centuries after the preaching of St. Mark, and people of all classes clung to their amulets, and words of power, and magical ceremonies, even after they had embraced Christianity. For a very long time the =Cross= was regarded as an amulet possessing the greatest magical power possible, and the =Name= of Christ was held to be the greatest of all words of power. [Illustration: Sepulchral tablet of Plêïnôs, a “reader.” [Southern Egyptian Gallery, Bay 32, No. 1145.]] [Illustration: Sepulchral tablet of David, an Egyptian Christian. [Southern Egyptian Gallery, Bay 30, No. 1160.]]