apostolicfathers0201clem - Carmel Apologetics

OLYCARP THE ELDER.
4^1
firmness, and moderation of the sovereign saved the empire from the
worst scourges of war and tumult during his reign, yet
it was marked
—
by a succession of overwhelming physical calamities conflagrations,
earthquakes, famines, pestilences, portents of divers kinds'. Proconsular
Asia more especially was scourged by these catastrophes. Only
two or three years before Polycarp's death an earthquake
— exceptionally
violent even for this region — had utterly destroyed Mitylene and
ruined a considerable part of Smyrna itself. The Smyrnaeans were
thrown into the utmost consternation by the disaster ^ We have only
to imagine the recurrence of a shock, however slight, at this crisis, and
the excited populace would demand its victims to appease the angry
deities before it was too late. When the cry Christianos ad leones was
once raised, the result was inevitable. The fate of Polycarp must be
the fate of every faithful servant of Christ. If he were accused, he
must confess. If he confessed, he must be condemned. The law left
no logical standing-ground short of this. No wonder that humane and
far-seeing emperors did their best by indirect means to minimise the
application of the law.
But, if the Christians fared ill under Antoninus Pius, their condition
was still worse under his successor. The traditions, amidst which
he had been brought up, were highly unfavourable to a generous appreciation
of them. His tutor and familiar friend Fronto did not
disdain to give circulation to the most shameful libels against them^
His favourite teacher, whom he loaded with honours, Junius Rusticus,
as city praetor,
condemned Justin and his companions
Rome*. He himself could see nothing but ' sheer obstinacy
'
^
Spartian. Pins 9 'Adversa ejus tern- (nrovTov ceiaixos yev^adai
to death at
{\\ii\-qv
/cat aXXas re
poribus haec provenerunt fames de qua TroKeis KapLuv lax^P^^ ; '^'^^ i^aipirios rriv
diximus ;
circi ruina; terrae motus quo Krj^iKov k.t.X.
Rhodiorum et Asiaeoppidaconciderunt...
^ Aristides Orai. 25 {Op. i. p. 497)
et Romae incendium quod trecentas qua- ''EcpicnoL 8^ /cat ^/xvpvaloi Trap dWyXovs
draginta insulas vel domes absumsit ;
et ^dtov Oopv^ov/xevoi, tj 0^ (xvvixe^o- davfiaari)
Narbonensis civitas, et Antiochense oppi- koL tQv aeia/xQi' Kal tGiv (po^oiv.
For the
dum, et Carthaginiense forum arsit. Fuit date (a.d. 151, 152) see Waddington
et inundatio Tiberis ;
apparuit et stella Manoire sur Aristide p. 242 sq, Pastes
crinita; natus est et biceps puer et uno
; Asialiques -p. 214. This is to be distinpartu
mulieris quinque pueri editi sunt guished from the earthquake which some
etc.', where other prodigies are mentioned; years later, at the close of the reign of
Chronographer of 354 'Hoc imper(ante) M. AureHus, threw down nearly the whole
Circensibus Apollinaribus partectorum of Smyrna.
columna ruit et oppressit homines MCXli ' *
Minuc. Felix Octav. 9, 31 see
; below,
(ed. Mommsen, p. 647) ;
Dion Cass. Ixx. 4 p. 529.
iirlrov 'AuTwvlvov Xiyerai Kal (po^epuxraTOi
* See below, p. 510. For this emnept
TO, p^pT] T^s ^idvvla^ Kal tou "EiWri- peror's relation to Rusticus see Capitol.