apostolicfathers0201clem - Carmel Apologetics

536 EPISTLE OF S. POLYCARP.
An objection has also been raised on the ground that we should not expect
to find
a cultivated Latin writer in the ranks of the Christians at this early date. This objection
does not seem serious. The Church of Rome unquestionably was mainly Greek
and Oriental in its origin. But it was already fast emerging from this original condition.
Sixty or seventy years earlier than this date, under Domitian (a.d. it
95), had
adherents in the imperial family itself. Thirty years later it was governed by a Latin
— bishop Victor (a.d. 189 198 or 199).
The Latin element at this time therefore must
have been very considerable, and it would comprise the more educated or at least the
more influential members of the Christian community. Moreover it is not certain
that the work was not written quite as much for Africa as for Rome. Fronto, whom
it refutes, and CiEcilius, who is the heathen interlocutor, are both Africans. Perhaps
the writer also was an African. I find the name L. Minucius Felix among the
inscriptions of Theveste, which is also in Numidia (C. I. L. viii. 1964), and Q. Minucius
Felici [Felicianus ] at Rusicade, likewise in Numidia [C. I. L. viii. 811-2). Nor
is it altogether beside the question to remark that the Numidian inscriptions exhibit
the combination of names Minucius Natalis (C /. L. viii. 2478, 4643, 4676; comp.
II.
4509 — 451 1, Henzen 5450, 6498) in a father and son, both proconsuls of Africa,
the latter in a.d. 139. See Borghesi (Euvrcs viii. p. 46 sq, who gives reasons for
connecting them with Minucius Fundanus (see above, p. 476 sq), the Asiatic proconsul
to whom Hadrian wrote concerning the Christians.
It may be objected also that the severity of the persecutions, as gathered from
passage which I have given above, points to the last years of M. Aurelius rather than
to the comparatively peaceable reign of Antoninus Pius. But we have seen that the
rule of Antoninus Pius was by no means unstained by Christian blood. At all events
Justin Martyr, writing during the same reign, uses equally strong language (see above,
p. 534). Nay, the statement ' pueri et mulierculae nostrae etc.', though doubtless it
would appropriately describe sufferings such as those of Ponticus and Blandina in the
Galilean persecution under M. Aurelius, has a parallel
as early as Clement of Rome
c. 6. On the whole however the freedom of intercourse which the Octavius supposes,
and the general tenour of the dialogue, suggest a period of respite from persecution, as
those critics have seen who place
it under Alexander Severus. So far therefore the
phenomena are more favourable to the year 160, than to a date some twenty years
later.
the
(v)
MeliTO [c. A.D. 170].
Apologia (Euseb. H. E. iv. 26).
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