apostolicfathers0201clem - Carmel Apologetics

HADRIAN, PIUS, AND MARCUS. 543
which Hadrian adopted Antoninus; see esp. Dion Cass. Ixix. 21 r6v re Ko/nnodov
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(comp. Spartian. Hadr. 24, Capitol. Pins 4, Marcus 5, Vents 2). The point at issue
however is not very important for our present purpose, as under any circumstances
the words were written by a contemporary. The 'third of them', who shall 'rule
late', is evidently L. Venis. As a matter of fact he died several years before M,
Aurelius; but as he was much younger than M. Aurelius, he seemed likely to survive
him, when the Sibyllist wrote. L. Verus was, as a young man, strong and vigorous,
whereas M. Aurelius had delicate health (Dion Cass. Ixxi. i 6 5^ Aoi^Ktos ^ppwrd re
Kai veuirepos ^v ; see Schiller Romische Kaiserzeit I. p. 637).
The whole of this 5th book of the Sibylline Oracles does not seem to have been the
work of one and the same hand. The writer of the greater part would appear to
have been a Jew. In ver. 221 sq irpQna ixlv Ik rpurcrQiv KecpoKGiv (an obscure and perhaps
corrupt passage) he seems to be denouncing a terrible judgment on the Antonines and
on the world at large, as a punishment for Hadrian's treatment of the chosen people.
On the other hand the praise of Hadrian in the passage before us cannot have
emanated from a Jew, since the erection of yElia Capitolina and the Jewish war of
Hadrian had preceded the adoption of Antoninus.
(b) VIII. 50 — 72.
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