- Early Christianity, otherwise called the Early Church or Paleo-Christianity, describes the historical era of the Christian religion up to the First Council of Nicaea in 325. Christianity spread from the Levant, across the Roman Empire, and beyond. Originally, this progression was closely connected to already established Jewish centers in the Holy Land and the Jewish diaspora throughout the Eastern Mediterranean. The first followers of Christianity were Jews who had converted to the faith, i.e. Jewish Christians, as well as Phoenicians, i.e. Lebanese Christians. Early Christianity contains the Apostolic Age and is followed by, and substantially overlaps with, the Patristic era.
- Alula Australis (stars.astro.illinois.edu)
ALULA AUSTRALIS (Xi Ursae Majoris). Ursa Major walks on legs identified by three pairs of close but unrelated stars that the ancient Arabs called the “springs (leaps) of the gazelle” that lie north of Leo Minor. From west to east they are Talitha and Kappa UMa, Tania Borealis and Australis, and Alula Borealis and Australis, the last a bright-end-fourth magnitude (3.78) star better known as Xi UMa.