apostolicfathers0201clem - Carmel Apologetics

43^ EPISTLE OF S. POLYCARP.
sifting them from the huge heap of falsehood. Of the real Polycarp
we know very little— far too little to satisfy our interest, though somewhat
more than is known of any eminent Christian from the age of the
Apostles to the close of the second century.
The word TroXv/capros, as an adjective, is found as early as the
Homeric poems {Odyss. vii. 122, xxiv. 221). Not unnaturally
it is
applied as an epithet to the goddess Deraeter {Anthol. Graec. 11. p. 95,
ed. Jacobs; comp. Boeckh Corp. Ifiscr. Graec. 2175)^ As a proper
name, it appears not to occur in extant monuments and writings before
Roman times. A graffito on the walls of Pompeii {Inscr. Lat. iv. 2351)
has POLVCARPVS FVGIT. This, so far as I have noticed, is the earliest
extant occurrence of the name (comp.
ib. 2470). It is more common
however in the age of the Antonines and later {Inscr. Att. in. 1122,
1 163, — 1 171, 1 193, 1259). The first of these Attic inscriptions (a.d.
156 158) is nearly coincident with our Polycarp's death, as the Pompeian
inscriptions must have been nearly coincident with his birth. So
far as we may trust the evidence from monuments hitherto discovered,
the name does not appear to have been at all common in Asia Minor
or the East, though
it occurs in an inscription at Parium {Corp. Inscr.
Graec. 3654 e). Its geographical range however is wide;
for it is found
not only in Italy {Inscr. lat. ix. 92, x. 2973) and Sardinia {ib. x. 7523),
but in Spain {Inscr. lat. 11. 4342, 4463)". An epigram also by Automedon,
who appears to have written during the first century of the
Christian era, is aimed at a certain bankrupt banker of Cyzicus who
bore this name {Atithol. Graec. 11. p. 191, ed. Jacobs). Applied to a
person it would describe what the Romans called 'homo frugi'. Hence
it is especially a slave's name, like Carpus, Carpophorus, Chresimus,
Chrestus, Eucarpus, Fructus, Fructuosus, Onesimus, Onesiphorus, Pancarpus,
Symphorus, and the like (see Philippians p. 310). Thus in the
two Spanish inscriptions the persons named are both freedmen. In the
Pompeian inscription also, which is
quoted above, the runaway Polycarp
mentioned there is evidently a gladiator or a slave — if the former,
then probably the latter also. On the whole the name is not very
common, like Onesimus or Chresimus, and (if the known inscriptions
1
\'!\\!i\Q.ActaJoatitiis-^. 129 (ed. Zahn)
name has no reference to our Polycarp.
bearing the name of Prochorus, a woman
-
The Roman inscriptions in the collec-
Phora (Produce) is introduced, who has tion are as yet incomplete and without an
two sons Rhox (Grape, Vintage) and Poly- index. I have not found time to go
carpus (Much-fruit, Harvest). Though through them.
the story is connected with S. John, the