apostolicfathers0201clem - Carmel Apologetics

I
544 EPISTLE OF S. POLYCARP.
The fifteen kings are reckoned from Julius Caesar to Hadrian inclusive. The
'hoary-headed' king
is therefore himself the fifteenth. In the words iratda Oehv SelKvvaiv
we have a reference to the deification of Antinous, which naturally attracted the
notice of Christian writers (Hegesippus in Euseb. //. E. iv. 8, Justin Apol. i. 29,
Tatian ad Graec. 10, Athenag. Suppl. 30, Theophil. ad Antol. iii. 8, etc.). The line
Ai'Xti'os K.T.X. is a play on this emperor's name Al'Xios. The three who rule after him
are said to bear the name of the God of heaven from the similarity of the words
Antoninus, Adonai {
= Antonai; see below, Ti. p. 496 sq).
The expected return of
Nero (^ijrpoK-Toz'os)
is foreshadowed in the last lines.
The Sibyllist
who wrote this eighth book is distinctly a Christian. The passage
before us is the latest chronological notice which it contains. It would therefore
seem to have been written during the reign of Antoninus Pius. It certainly cannot
have been written much later; for this Sibyllist elsewhere (ver. 140 sq) places the
return of Nero and the great catastrophe in A.U.C 948 [
= a.d. 195], the number
corresponding to the name POMH (100 + 800 + 40 + 8).
(c)
XII. 163 — 200.
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