Note 022 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.

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Note to Chapter 22 of DECLINE & FALL by Gibbon