apostolicfathers0201clem - Carmel Apologetics

488 EPISTLE OF S. POLYCARP.
It is hardly necessary to say that the representation of the policy of M. Aurelius in
this document is
wholly unhistorical. So far from reversing the principles laid down
by Trajan, he treated the Christians with a severity far beyond that of the intervening
sovereigns. We need only point to the persecution at Vienne and Lyons (a.d. 177),
which happened two or three years after this letter purports to have been written, to
convict it as a coarse and palpable forgery.
But though this letter is a manifest forgery, yet the writer shows some acquaintance
with the men of the time. Ti. Claudius Pompeianus was one of Marcus' principal
generals, married the emperor's daughter Lucilla after the death of her first husband
Verus, was twice made consul (for the second time in a.d. 173; see Klein Fasti
Co7isulares p. 79), and commanded in the German wars ;
see Dion Cass. Ixxi. 3, Ixxii.
4, Ixxiii. 3, Capitol. Marcus 20, Pertinax 2, 4, Spartian. Did. Jul. ^, Caracal!. 3.
Vitrasius Pollio married Annia Faustina the first cousin of M. Aurelius, was twice
consul (for the second time in A.D. 176 ;
see Klein I.e. p. 80), held the office of proconsul
of Asia (Aristid. Op.
I.
p. 529), and was appointed prefect of the prsetorium in
succession to Macrinus Vindex who perished in the Marcomannic war (Dion Cass.
Ixxi. 3), having as his colleague in this office Bassreus Rufus; comp. C.I.L. vi. 1540,
Orelli hiscr. 3421, 3574, Henzen Inscr. 5477, Ephem. Epigr. IV. p. 177, and see
Waddington Pastes Asiatiqucs p. 215 sq. It is curious that the inscriptions speak of
statues being erected to him and to his colleague in this very Forum Trajani which is
here mentioned in connexion with his name.
The main incident to which the letter refers took place during the war with the
Quadi about a.d. 174. The Roman soldiers, parched with thirst and faint with heat,
were surrounded by the enemy, and their destruction was imminent. Suddenly
clouds gathered in the clear sky, and a storm burst upon them. The rain poured in
profuse and grateful showers on the Roman army
;
while the enemy was smitten down
with violent hail and lightning. The fire, where it fell on the Romans, was immediately
extinguished ;
the water, where it descended on the Quadi, only added fuel
to the flames, as if it were oil. The Roman soldiers at first with upturned faces and
open mouths received the refreshing streams ;
then they held out their shields and
helmets, themselves drinking and giving to their horses to drink. Marcus obtained a
splendid victory and was proclaimed imperator for the seventh time. Contrary to his
wont, he accepted the title as receiving it from God (ws /cat Trapd OeoO and
\a.fi^a.vtj}v)
wrote to the senate (tt y€pov(7ig. eTr^areiXev) accordingly.
Dion Cassius (Ixxi. 8, 10), the earliest heathen writer who reports this incident
(c. a.d. 220) and from whom I have taken this account, further mentions it as
'
related ' (X070S ^x^ that one Arnuphis, an Egyptian magician, who attended Marcus
on this expedition, had invoked among other deities (dalfiovas) the 'aerial Hermes'
with incantations and thus drawn down the rain. Capitolinus (Marc. 24), writing under
Diocletian (c. a.d. 300), and Themistius (Orat. 15, p. 191), addressing Theodosius
(a.d. 381), attribute the miracle directly to the prayers of the emperor. Themistius
even gives the very words of the prayer ; stretching out his hands he cried, 'With this
hand I invoke and supplicate the giver of life— this hand with which I never took away
life.' Claudian {dc Sext. Cons. Honor. 340 sq), panegyrizing the son of Theodosius
(a.d. 404) as a second Marcus, appears to have had both these accounts of his predecessors
before him and offers his readers the alternative, but himself prefers the
latter ascribing the incident to the direct merits of the emperor ;
Chaldaea mago seu carmina ritu
Armavere deos, seu (quod reor) omne Tonantis
Obsequium Marci mores potuere mereri.