apostolicfathers0201clem - Carmel Apologetics

POLYCARP THE ELDER. 457
this paradox of humanity' would be less disposed
than most rulers to
deal hardly with a movement which he must have viewed with mingled
respect and amusement. The adherents of the new faith had indeed
much less to fear from the man of the world who wrote the satirical
letter to Servianus, than from the student philosopher who penned
the one bitter sentence of condemnation in the Meditations'. It is
stated indeed that Hadrian, while he patronized Roman rites and duly
exercised his functions as chief-pontiff, looked with contempt on
foreign religions^ The statement however can only be received with
much limitation. Spending the larger part of his time in the provinces,
Hadrian is found everywhere encouraging local rites, building temples,
dabbling in magic, and seeking initiation into mysteries. This emperor
had no innate love for war, whoever the enemy might be. He preferred
settling his differences by management and diplomacy, rather than by
therefore that he would
the employment of force. It is not improbable
have made peace with the Christians— the religious foes of his predecessor—
just as he made peace with the Eastern nations on the
frontier— — the miUtary foes of Trajan
if he could have done so on his
own terms. A historian, writing some two centuries later, states that in
divers cities he built temples void of any images, which were called
to his own time ' Hadrian's ',
the emperor having designated them for
Christian worship'. The story in this exaggerated form may well be
questioned.
But he was just the man to have offered a place to Christ
in his pantheon, if there were any chance of his offer being accepted.
Christian writers at all events regard him as anything
but hostile to
quod Domitiano accidit eveniret'; Spar- deos recipere, quod et Hadrianus cogitian.
Ael. Ver. 3 'Fertur... Hadrianum tasse fertur, qui templa in omnibus civi-
Veriscisse genituram...fuisseenim Hadri- tatibus sine simulacris jusserat fieri; quae
anuni peritum matheseos Marius Maximus hodie idcirco, quia non habent numina,
usque adeo demonstrat, ut eum dicat dicuntur Hadriani, quae ille ad hoc parcuncta
de se scisse etc' asse dicebatur. Sed prohibitus est ab is
Hadrian. '&'^zx\\ax\.. 14 'Idem severus, qui consulentes sacra reppererant omnes
^
laetus, comis, gravis, lascivus, cunctator, Christianos futures, si id fecisset.' The
tenax, liberalis, simulator, saevus.clemens, words 'prohibitus est, etc' are commonly
et semper in omnibus varius'. referred to Hadrian; but they seem more
-
For Hadrian's Letter to Servianus naturally to apply to Alexander Severus
see below p. 480 ; for the passage in the himself. Are not these the temples men-
Meditatiotis, p. 533.
tioned in Spartian. Hadrian. 13 'Apud
^ Spartian. Hadr. 22 'Sacra Romana Athenienses dedicavit. ...Jovis Olympii
diligentissime curavit ; peregrinacontemp- aedem et aram sibi; eodemque modo per
sit; pontificis maximi officium peregit'. Asiani iter faciens, templa sui noininis
*
Lamprid. ^/^jr. 43 'Christo templum
facere voluit [Alexander], eumque inter
consecravii'i