apostolicfathers0201clem - Carmel Apologetics

30—2
POLYCARP THE ELDER. 467
the extant literature of the age is strongly imbued with the prevailing
spirit. Phlegon of Tralles the collector of portents, and Artemidorus of
Daldis the interpreter of dreams, are samples of the literature which the
age and country of Polycarp could produce. But more famous than
either of these in his own day was the rhetorician Aristides, himself a
native of proconsular Asia. The credulity of a Papias
is more than
matched by the credulity of an Aristides. As Aristides spent large
portions of his time in Polycarp's city Smyrna, he can hardly have been
ignorant of 'the teacher of Asia', 'the father of the Christians', 'the subverter
of the gods' of heathendom'. Honoured by peoples and flattered
by princes, this self-complacent pedant — the devotee of yEsculapius and
the dreamer of dreams— would doubtless have looked down with scorn
on the despised leader of a despised sect. By a strange stroke of irony
history has reversed their positions. The nerveless declamations of
Aristides are now read solely, or read chiefly, because they throw some
light on the chronology of Polycarp.
In the pagan revival, of which I have spoken, Smyrna seems to
have borne a conspicuous part. The coins and inscriptions give evidence
more especially of the progress of Roman state-worship during this
period. They speak of the goddess Rome, the goddess Senate, the god
Emperor. The Smyrnaeans could boast that they had been the first city
to dedicate a shrine to Rome^ This was during the republican times.
When at a later date eleven cities of Asia contended for the honour of
erecting a temple to Tiberius, to Livia, and to the Senate, the palm was
conceded to Smyrna on the ground of this priority^ Thus Smyrna became
a chief centre of this political
cult. Again and again we read of
the temples of the Augusti at Smyrna. The festivals of the Commune
Asiae— the corporation of which this religion was the special charge
— were
held here with exceptional splendour. Twice after Polycarp had reached
middle Hfe did Smyrna receive fresh honours and privileges in connexion
with the worship of the imperial deities. Her first neocorate dates
from the reign of Trajan ;
her second from that of Hadrian ^ To this latter
emperor the Smyrnseans were largely indebted for besides ;
procuring the
decree of the Senate which conferred the second neocorate on them,
besides instituting sacred games and estabhshing ' theologians ' and
'
choristers ',
he had rendered munificent aid in rebuilding and adorning
1 Marty}-. Polyc. 12. 71I) 7i3i 734! Eckhel Ntim. Vet. 11. p
^ Tac. Ann. iv. 56. 559 sq. ; Lane Smyrnacoriim Res Gestae
^ Tac. Ann. iv. 15, 55, 56; comp. etc. p. 32. The third neocorate dates
Aristid. Orat. 41 >^0p. I. p. 767, Dindorf). from Commodiis or .Severus.
•*
Boeckh Corp. Inscr. Graec. 11. pp.