A more complicated fabrication was the story promulgated by Bishop Apollinaris of Hierapolis in Phrygia (Asia Minor) that the Emperor Marcus Aurelius (reigned 161–80) had recently recruited a legion of Christian soldiers, who saved him from defeat not by their military prowess, but by successfully praying for a strategically placed storm on the River Danube (conveniently for Apollinaris, a location a long way away from Phrygia).
