AFRICANUS, SEXTUS IULIUS, a Christian traveller and historian of the 3rd century, was probably born in Libya and lived at Emmaus. He may have served under Septimius Severus against the Osroenians in A.D. 195. He wrote a history of the world (X povoypa4iae, in five books) from the creation to A.D. 221, calculating the period between the creation and the birth of Christ as 5,499 years, and ante-dating the latter event by three years. This method of reckoning, known as the Alexandrian era, was adopted by almost all Eastern Churches. The history, which had an apologetic aim, is no longer extant, but copious extracts from it are to be found in the Chronicon of Eusebius. There are also fragments in Syncellus, Cedrenus and the Paschale Chronicon.
Eusebius also gives a letter to Aristeides, and one to Origen, im pugning the authority of the book of Susanna. The ascription to Africanus of the KEoroi, a work on agriculture, natural history, military science, etc., has been disputed. Neander suggests that it was written by Africanus before he had devoted himself to religious subjects. For a new fragment of this work see Oxyrhyn chus Papyri (Grenfell and Hunt), iii. 36 et seq.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.-Edition in M. J. Routh, Rel. Sac., ii. 219-509; Bibliography.-Edition in M. J. Routh, Rel. Sac., ii. 219-509; translation in Ante-Nicene Fathers (S. D. F. Salmond), vi. 225-40. See H. Gelzer, Sex. lul. Africanus and die byzant. Chronographie (Leipzig, 188o-85) ; G. Kruger, Early Christian Literature, 248-53; A. Harnack, Altchristl. Litt. Gesch., i. 507, ii. 7o.