FROM -THE- LIBRARY- OF - - KG N RAD - BURDACH Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2007 with funding from Microsoft Corporation http://www.archive.org/details/apologyofaristidOOarisrich V>£>»T^ Sap&t^^ •:\ai-^,^vx^.i K'ijsarelsw A discourse of Pythagoras, probably the same as is published in Lagarde's Analecta, pp. 195 —201. On fol. 126 a r^^\:sfis» Aj^.1 a)CVAi\\oA.i K'-ws^relsa A discourse of Plutarch, on Anger, for which see Lagarde, Analecta Syriaca, pp. 186 — 195. On fol. 132 b A discourse of Lucius (Lucianus), that we should not receive slander against our friends : Trepl tov firj paBiay^ irLar^vevv BcaffoXfj. Apparently the same as is given in Sachau, Inedita, pp. 1 — 16. On fol. 140 a A discourse made by a philosopher, De Anima : probably the same as is given in Sachau, Inedita, as Philosophorum de anima sententiae. On fol. 143 a or, the Counsel of Theano, a female philosopher of the school of Pythagoras : see Sachau, Inedita, pp. 70 — 75, as Theano : Sententiae \ On fol. 145 6 a collection of Sayings of the Philosophers, beginning with V2«K' T ^*!«.«v»y -^\^ *^ ' (Plato the Wise said). On fol. 151 b ^ijsaX Ills .1 ^cnon.-i reLQ.z.Q^ rdL^sn:%n r^\jyir^jsn A first discourse in explanation of Ecclesiastes, made by Mar John the Solitary for the blessed Theognis. See Wright's Gat. of the Syr. MSS. in the Brit. Mus. p. 996. 1 See Wright's Catalogue, p. 1160. The general contents of this MS. (Brit. Mus. 987) should be compared with those of the MS. here described : it contains e.g. the Apology of Melito and the Hypomnemata of Ambrose, and various Philosophical treatises. 6 THE APOLOGY And from fol. 214 a onward the volume is occupied with translations from the Homilies of Chrysostom on Matthew. The above description will shew something of the value of the MS. It will also suggest that it was the ethical character of the Apology of Aristides that secured its incorporation with the volume. Let us now pass on to discuss the effect which this recovered document has upon our estimate of the Eusebian statements concerning the earliest Church Apologists. Aristides and Eusehius. According to the Chronicon of Eusebius we have the following date for the Apologies of Quadratus and Aristides : 1. The Armenian version of the Chronico7i gives under the year 124 A.D. as follows : 01. A. Abr. Imp. Kom. ^^226 2140 8^ ^i Adrianus Eleusinarum rerum gnarus fuit multaque (dona) Atheniensium largitus est. * Romanorum ecclesiae episcopatum excepit Septimus Telesphorus an- nis XI. Codratus apostolorum auditor et Aristides nostri dogmatis (nostrae rei) philosophus Atheniensis Adriano supplicationes dedere apologeticas (apologiae, responsionis) ob mandatum. Acceperat tamen et a Serennio (s. Serenno) splendido praeside (iudice) scriptum de Christianis, quod nempe iniquum sit occidere eos solo rumore sine inquisitione, neque ulla accusatione. Scribit Armonicus Fundius (Phundius) proconsuli Asianorum ut sine ullo damno et incusatione non damnarentur; et exemplar edicti eius hucusque circumfertur. One of the Armenian MSS. (Cod. N) transfers this notice about the Apologists to the following year, and it is believed that this represents more exactly the time of Hadrian's first visit to Athens (125 — 126 A.D.). With this agrees the dating of the Latin version of Jerome. We may say then that it is the intention of Eusebius to refer the presentation of both these OP ARISTIDES. 7 Apologies to the time when Hadrian was spending his first winter in Athens ; and to make them the reason for the Imperial rescript to Minucius Fundanus which we find attached to the first Apology of Justin Martyr. And since Minucius Fundanus and his pre- decessor Granianus were consuls sufFect in the years 106 and 107, it is not unreasonable to suppose that they held the Asian pro-consulate in the years A.D. 123 and 124, or 124 and 125. If then Aristides and Quadratus presented apologies to Hadrian, it is reasonable to connect these Apologies with his first Athenian winter and not with the second (a.d. 129 — 130). But here we begin to meet with difficulties ; for, in the first place, much doubt has been thrown on the genuineness of the rescript of the emperor to Minucius Fundanus; in the second place there is a suspicious resemblance between Quadratus the Apologist and another Quadratus who was bishop of Athens in the reign of Antoninus Pius, succeeding to Publius whom Jerome affirms to have been martyred ; and in the third place our newly-recovered document cannot by any possibility be referred to the period suggested by Eusebius, and there is only the barest possibility of its having been presented to the Emperor Hadrian at all. Let us examine this last point carefully, in order to answer, as far as our means will permit, the question as to the time of presentation of the Apology of Aristides and the person or persons to whom it was addressed. The Armenian fragment is headed as follows : To the Emperor Hadrian Caesar, fi'om Aristides, philosopher of Athens. There is nothing, at first sight, to lead us to believe that this is the original heading ; such a summary merely reflects the Eusebian tradition and might be immediately derived from it. When we turn to the Syriac Version, we find a somewhat similar preface, to the following effect. Apology made by Aristides the Philosopher before Hadrianus the King, concerning the worship of Almighty God. But this, which seems to be a mere literary heading, proper, shall we say, for one out of a collection of apologies, is immediately 8 THE APOLOGY followed by another introduction which cannot be anything else than a part of the primitive apology. It runs as follows : ...Caesar Titus Hadrianus Antoninus, Worshipful and Clement, from Marcianus Aristides, philosopher of Athens. The additional information which we derive from this sentence is a sufficient guarantee of its genuineness; we have the first name of the philosopher given, as Marcianus; and we have the name of the emperor addressed given at length. To our astonish- ment this is not Hadrian, but his successor Antoninus Pius, who bears the name of Hadrian by adoption from Publius Aelius Hadrianus. Unless therefore we can shew that there is an error or a deficiency in the opening sentence of the Apology we shall be obliged to refer it to the time of the emperor Antoninus Pius, and to say that Eusebius has made a mistake in reading the title of the Apology, or has followed some one who had made the mistake before him. And it seems tolerably clear that if an error exist at all in such a precise statement as ours, it must be of the nature of an omission. Let us see what can be urged in favour of this theory. We will imagine that the original title contained the names both of Hadrian and of Antoninus Pius, his adviser and companion, much in the same way as Justin opens his first Apology with the words, " to the Emperor Titus Aelius Hadrianus Antoninus Pius Augustus Caesar and to his son Veris- simus the Philosopher, and to Lucius the Philosopher, natural son of Caesar and adopted son of Pius.... I Justin... have written the following appeal and supplication." In support of this theory we might urge the apparent dislocation of the opening sentence of our Apology. The Syriac version is clearly wrong in its punctua- tion, for example, since it transfers the expression A^ .tm*t<' (Almighty) to Caesar, by placing a colon after the word KVair^ (God). This is clearly impossible, for that the writer did not attempt to translate, say, avroKpdrcop as if it were iravroKpaTrnp will be evident from his correct use of the Divine attribute later on in his work. But even if the translator had been guilty of such a mistake, the case would not have been bettered, because Antonine would now have been styled Emperor as well as Caesar. But let us imagine if we please that the term Caesar or OF ARISTIDES. V Emperor Caesar belongs to a previous name which has dropped out and supply the connective necessary, so as to read, "To the Emperor Aelius Hadrianus Augustus Caesar and to Titus Hadria- nus Antoninus." In support of this we may urge that the adjectives which follow are marked in the Syriac with the sign of the plural, as if the writer imagined himself to be addressing more persons than one. Supposing then that this is the case we should still have to face the question as to the name given to Antonine ; if he is called Hadrian, this must mean that the Apology is presented at some time subsequent to his adoption, which is generally understood to have taken place in the year A.D. 138, only a little while before Hadrian's death. So that in any case we should be prohibited by our document from dating the Apology in question either in the first visit of Hadrian to Athens or in the second visit, and we should only have the barest possibility that it was presented to Hadrian at all. It would have, so to speak, to be read to him on his death -bed at Baiae. Seeing then the extreme difficulty of maintaining the Hadrianic or Eusebian hypothesis, we are driven to refer the Apology to the reign of Antoninus Pius, and to affirm that Eusebius made a mistake in reading or quoting the title of the book, in which mistake he has been followed by a host of other and later writers. If he followed a text which had the heading as in the Syriac, he has misunderstood the person spoken of as Hadrian the king ; and if on the other hand he takes the opening sentences as his guide, he has made a superficial reference, which a closer reading would have corrected. All that is necessary to make the Syriac MS. intelligible is the introduction of a simple prepositional prefix before the imperial name, and the deletion of the ribbui points in the adjectives. Nor is this all ; for there can be no doubt that the two adjectives in question (reliiaMVsao f<'.'U^^) are intended to represent two of the final titles of Antoninus : f^'.-ViXcto standing for the Greek Xe/Saaro^;, which again is the equivalent of the Latin Augustus; and rtlusajji-sa being the equivalent of the title Pius which the Roman Senate gave to Antoninus shortly after his accession and which the Greeks render by euo-eySr)?. And it is precisely in this order that the titles are usually found, 10 THE APOLOGY viz. Augustus Pius, which the Syriac has treated as adjectives, and connected by a conjunction. Moreover this translation of evae^ri^ on the part of the Syriac interpreter shews that the meaning of the title is ' clement ' or ' compassionate,' rather than that of mere filial duty, which agrees with what we find in a letter of Marcus Aurelius to Faustina ; " haec (dementia) patrem tuum imprimis Pii nomine ornavit\" Now how will this conclusion react upon the companion Apology of Quadratus? We could, no doubt, maintain that it leaves the question where it found it. The mistake made by Eusebius need not have been a double error, and the correct reference to Hadrian for Quadratus's Apology would have furnished a starting-point for the incorrect reasoning with regard to Aristides. On this supposition we should simply erase the reference to Aristides from Eusebius and his imitators. But there is one difficulty to be faced, and that is the fact that we were in confusion over Quadratus before w^e reached any conclusion about Aristides. And our investigation has not helped to any elucidation of the confusion. Read for example the language in which Eusebius {H. E. I v. 3) describes the presentation of the Apology. AtXt09 'ABpiavo<; BtaBe')(^eTaL rrjv T^je/jLoviav' rovrro K.oSpdro'i \6yov 7rpo(T(f)covy(Ta<; avahlBwaiv, airoXoylav (TvvTd^a<; virep Trj<; Kad^ r/fid<; Oeoae/Seia^;' and compare it with the Greek of the Chronicon as preserved by Syncellus, KoS/3aT09 o lepo^ rdov diroaToXcov aKovarrj^ AlXtw 'ABpLavM to) avTOKpdropi \6fyov