apostolicfathers0201clem - Carmel Apologetics

HADRIAN, PIUS, AND MARCUS. 515
Caracalla apparently was with him. They returned to Rome together a.d. 202
(Herodian. iii. lo. i).
The Acts therefore point to the divided sovereignty of M.
Aurelius and L. Verus. The name of the City Prefect is given as Publius; and
Borghesi seems to have estabHshed the fact that Pubhus Salvius Julianus was prefect
in A.D. 161, 162 (CEiivres viii. p. 548 sq, IX. p. 302 sq), being succeeded in the
office by Rusticus not before A.D. 163^.
This date is further confirmed by other considerations lying
outside the Acts
themselves, (a) The great inundation of the Tiber, followed by a terrible famine, as
recorded by CapitoHnus {Marcus 8), has been shown to have occurred in a.d. 162;
see Borghesi
1. c. p. 549. This would furnish the occasion when the pontiffs declared
'deos nostros sic irasci ut penitus placari non possint'. We have seen that
((3)
De Rossi confidently ascribes the burial chamber of Januarius to the age of the
Antonines. This is disputed by Aube, p. 453 sq. Judging from analogous cases,
I should have thought
it somewhat difficult to assert with confidence that the architecture
and decorations of a building must fix its date about a.d. 160, and would not
allow of its
having been built forty years later. But it is presumptuous in any one
who has not made a special study of the subject to challenge a verdict which is
founded on patient investigation and long experience. (7) Lastly: the — day of the
martyrdom of the seven sons (this does not apply to Felicitas herself) the loth of
July — is a strong point in favour of the earlier date. This day, as we have seen
(p. 514), was a festival under Antoninus Pius and M. Aurelius, and therefore a likely
time for martyrdoms under these emperors but no
;
such coincidence can be found for
the reign of Severus.
(8)
The Galilean Martyrs [a.d. 177].
The history of the persecutions at Vienne and Lyons
is recorded in a contemporary
letter from these churches to 'the brethren in Asia and Phrygia'. The document
itself indeed has been lost, but very large parts of it are preserved by Eusebius H.E.
V. I, 2. In fact so far as regards the actual persecution, Eusebius has probably not
passed over anything of very material importance. The date is fixed definitely to the
17th year of M. Antoninus, a.d. 177 {H.E. v. prooem.).
The persecution was wholesale, so that it was not safe for any Christian to appear
out of doors (§ 5). No difference of age or sex was made. The nonagenarian Pothinus,
the slave girl Blandina, the young lad Ponticus, all were remorselessly slaughtered.
The prisoners were put to the most cruel tortures. All the elements of power combined
to crush the brethren. The multitude was infiiriated against them (§ 7 ^YptW/ueVy
jrK-qdei. ws irpbs exOpoiJs Kal TroXefiiovs (f>i\eX ylvecrdai: comp.
ib. to. airb rod 6xXov Travdrjfxei
crcopTjdbv iTri(pep6fj.€va). Even their very kinsmen and connexions turned upon
them like wild beasts, exasperated by the foul libels disseminated against them (§ 15).
The governor of the province made a public proclamation that all the Christians
should be sought out (§14 dijfioa-lg. eKiXevaev 6 ijye/j.wv dv a i^'ijTeia 6ai -rravTas rjfids).
Lastly, the emperor himself was consulted concerning some of the prisoners, and his
^
The name Publius however, assigned was City Prefect {C. I. L. 11. 2073), and
to the Prefect, is equally consistent with he must have held the office about a. d.
the later date assigned by Aube to the 200 (Doulcet p. 199; comp. Aubepp. 457,
martyrdom. Publius Cornelius Anullinus 464, Borghesi OEiivres ix. p. 333).
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