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'''''Adversus Christianos''''', latin for ''Against Christians'', is a set of fifteen books written in Sicily by pagan philosopher [[Porphyrius]] ([[233]] AD -c.[[303]])<ref>The birthday is given in ''A New and General Biographical Dictionary'', where it's also said he lived about seventy years.</ref>, considered the most able and most bitter adversary the early christians ever knew. These books were burned in [[448]] under emperor [[Teodosius]], after they were banned in the [[Council of Ephesus]].<ref name=blount>[[Thomas-Pope Blount]], ''Censura Celebrorum Authorum'', p.145 [https://books.google.com.br/books?id=yMi2oarWKIsC&pg=PA145&f=false (latin text)]</ref> <ref name=dictionary>''A New and General Biographical Dictionary'', Volume X, p.1 [https://books.google.com.br/books?id=eacDAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA2&f=false (english text)]</ref> <ref name=lynam>Rev. [[Robert Lynam]], ''The British Essayists'', Volume 23, p.48 [https://books.google.com.br/books?id=JTxTAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA48&f=false (english text)]</ref>

'''''Adversus Christianos''''', latin for ''Against Christians'', is a set of fifteen books written in Sicily by pagan philosopher [[Porphyrius]] ([[233]] AD -c.[[303]])<ref>The birthday is given in ''A New and General Biographical Dictionary'', where it's also said he lived about seventy years.</ref>, considered the most able and most bitter adversary the early Christians ever knew. These books were burned in [[448]] under emperor [[Teodosius]], after they were banned in the [[Council of Ephesus]].<ref name=blount>[[Thomas-Pope Blount]], ''Censura Celebrorum Authorum'', p.145 [https://books.google.com.br/books?id=yMi2oarWKIsC&pg=PA145&f=false (latin text)]</ref> <ref name=dictionary>''A New and General Biographical Dictionary'', Volume X, p.1 [https://books.google.com.br/books?id=eacDAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA2&f=false (english text)]</ref> <ref name=lynam>Rev. [[Robert Lynam]], ''The British Essayists'', Volume 23, p.48 [https://books.google.com.br/books?id=JTxTAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA48&f=false (english text)]</ref>

These books were soon refuted by [[Eusebius]] and [[Methodius]], and latter by [[Apollinarius]] (in [[345]]) and [[Philostorgius]] (in [[425]]); but neither the books nor the four replics have survived. Based on [[Hortensius]]'s biography of Porphyrius, it can be inferred that the purpose of these books was to prove that the [[Book of Daniel]] was not a prophetic text, but that it related events that happened to the kings of Syria and Egypt <ref>Respectively, the [[Seleucid]] and [[Ptolemaic]] dinasties that ruled these areas after the Empire of [[Alexander the Great]] was partitioned among his generals.</ref> and was written '''after''' the historical facts.<ref name=erskine>[[John Erskine]], ''Sketches Ad Hints of Church History, and Theological Controversy'', Volume 1, p.187 [https://books.google.com.br/books?id=JOIsAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA187&f=false (english text)]</ref>

These books were soon refuted by [[Eusebius]] and [[Methodius]], and latter by [[Apollinarius]] (in [[345]]) and [[Philostorgius]] (in [[425]]); but neither the books nor the four replics have survived. Based on [[Hortensius]]'s biography of Porphyrius, it can be inferred that the purpose of these books was to prove that the [[Book of Daniel]] was not a prophetic text, but that it related events that happened to the kings of Syria and Egypt <ref>Respectively, the [[Seleucid]] and [[Ptolemaic]] dinasties that ruled these areas after the Empire of [[Alexander the Great]] was partitioned among his generals.</ref> and was written '''after''' the historical facts.<ref name=erskine>[[John Erskine]], ''Sketches Ad Hints of Church History, and Theological Controversy'', Volume 1, p.187 [https://books.google.com.br/books?id=JOIsAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA187&f=false (english text)]</ref>