providing recruits for the Roman army, and with keeping wastelands under cultivation. Religion Catherine makes a public confession of the Christian gospel at a sacrificial feast ordered by Maximinus Daza at Alexandria. A virgin of royal descent, she is tortured on a spiked wheel (later called the "Catherine Wheel") and beheaded; her remains are spirited to Mount Sinai. The Council of Illiberis decrees that priests must be celibate. Additionally, it condemns visiting the homes of Jews and prohibits Christian women from marrying Jews, unless they have converted. Births Yu Yi (or Zhigong), Chinese calligrapher and general (d. 345) Deaths Januarius I of Benevento, Roman bishop and martyr Catherine of Alexandria, Christian martyr and virgin Porphyry of Tyre, Neoplatonist philosopher and writer Proculus of Pozzuoli (or Proclus), Christian martyr Sossianus Hierocles, Roman proconsul and aristocrat Tuoba Yituo, Chinese chieftain of the Tuoba clan Vincent, Orontius, and Victor, Christian martyrs Wang Rong (or Junchong), Chinese politician (b. 234) Zuo Si (or Taichong), Chinese poet and writer (b. 250) References