apostolicfathers0201clem - Carmel Apologetics

540 EPISTLE OF S. POLYCARP.
of him as no persecutor
of the Christians. If therefore he is the person intended,
the story must have been ' improved ' in the course of transmission. Even as it
stands, it betrays an unwiUingness on the part of the proconsul to push matters to
extremities. (3)
One Gaius Arrius Antoninus was proconsul of Asia (Lamprid. Coitmodus
7) about A.D. 184 or 185 (Waddington I.e. p. 239 sq). This is
probably the
person meant (Tillemont Mimoires 11. pp. 170, 572, Keim Rorn. u. Christenthiim
p. 610, Renan Marc-Aiirele p. 62, Goxxes Jahrb./. Protest. Theol. 1884, p. 395 sq,
Aube Les Chretiens ete. p. 29 sq). Waddington (J.c), though preferring this latest
Arrius Antoninus, considers the earliest of the three possible. This latest was a great
friend of Fronto, who addresses him as 'my master and very dear son' ('mi domine
fill carissime ',
Fronto Epist. p. 192, Naber), and was advanced to successive honours
by the 'sanctissimi imperatores' M. Aurelius and L. Verus (Henzen no. 6485 comp.
;
Borghesi CEuvres v. p. 383 sq).
From the nature of some of these offices it would
seem that Marcus had especial confidence in him. He was apparently a very severe
administrator of justice, and made himself many enemies thereby.
Fronto writes to
him, ' Raro umquam tot simul capita de caelo tacta sunt, quot tu condemnasti' (p. 195),
and remonstrates with him for his harsh treatment in one case more especially (p. 192
sq). Unfortunately Fronto's letters to him are much mutilated. This was during
the joint reign of Marcus and Lucius (p. 194 'imperatores nostri'). A sentence
pronounced by Arrius, when proconsul of Asia, was the occasion of a plot against
him which cost him his life (Lamprid. Comm. 7). Thus the character of this Arrius
Antoninus entirely suits the story of Tertullian (Aube p. 31 sq). Our only difficulty
is in placing a persecution so severe as this is represented in the reign of Commodus,
which was a period of general tranquillity for the Church. But possibly the story is
exaggerated. Moreover, as occurring in the early years of the reign it may be looked
upon, like the Madaurian and Scillitan martyrdoms (see above p. 522 sq), as a survival
of the policy
of M. Aurelius. Nor does it seem impossible, having regard to the
data, to place the proconsulship of Arrius Antoninus two or three years earlier than it
is tentatively placed by Waddington.
(ix)
HiERONYMUS [a.D. 392, 397].
(a)
Vir. Illustr. 19.
Quadratus apostolorum discipulus,
Christi fidem martyrio coronato, in locum ejus
Public Athenarum episcopo ob
substituitur et ecclesiam
grandi terrore dispersam fide et industria sua congregat. Cumque
Hadrianus Athenis exegisset hiemem, invisens Eleusinam, et omnibus
paene Graeciae sacris initiatus dedisset occasionem his, qui Christianos
oderant, absque praecepto imperatoris vexare credentes, porrexit ei
librum etc.
Jerome has derived his information from two passages of Eusebius H.
;
E. iv. 3,
which mentions that Quadratus the Apologist addresses his work to Hadrian 'because
certain wicked men were endeavouring to harass our people '
{on 87] iropripoi rtves dvSpes
rovs rjfi.eTipovs evo-xXetv iireipQvTo), and H. E. iv. 23, which relates on the authority
of Dionysius of Corinth that Quadratus Bishop of Athens succeeded Publius and
gathered together the congregation which had been scattered by the persecution.
He