22. Feriarum die, quem celebrantes mense Januario,
Christiani Epiphania dictitant, progressus, in eorum
ecclesiam, solemniter numine orato discessit. Ammian. xxi.
2. Zonaras observes that it was on Christmas Day, and his
assertion is not inconsistent; since the churches of Egypt,
Asia, and perhaps Gaul, celebrated on the same day (the 6th
of January) the nativity and the baptism of their Saviour.
The Romans, as ignorant as their brethren of the real date
of his birth, fixed the solemn festival to the 25th of
December, the Brumalia , or winter solstice, when the
Pagans annually celebrated the birth of the sun. See
Bingham's Antiquities of the Christian Church, 1. xx. c. 4;
and Beausobre, Hist. Critique du Manicheisme, tom. ii. p.
690-700.