apostolicfathers0201clem - Carmel Apologetics

624 EPISTLE OE S. POLYCARP.
endeavouring at first to rescue him from himself; unless the facts had
actually been so We find no attempt here to pile up horror upon
horror, as in later martyrologies, such for instance as the Acts of Ignatius.
There is an air of truthfulness even in the slight incident of his being
made to dismount from the chariot with such rude haste that his shin
was bruised (§ 8).
What forger would have been satisfied with so
trivial an injury So again, wherever we are able to apply the test of
history or of probability to the persons of the story, the result is strongly
confirmative of the veracity of the narrative. There is the Asiarch
Philip (§§ 12, 2i). Criticism has been highly sceptical about the
description of this person both here and in the chronological appendix.
But recent discoveries in divers quarters, so far from justifying this
scepticism, have confirmed the account in every particular — his date,
his nationality, his office with the twofold title of Asiarch and Highpriest
(see below, p.
628 sq).
Then again there is Nicetes. Here we
know nothing as yet of the actual person. Yet the name at least was a
notable one at Smyrna (see note on § 8).
But Nicetes has a sister Alee
(§ 17). This name likewise is found at Smyrna, as I have shown, and
rarely elsewhere (11. p. 325).
From the mention of Alee in the account
of the martyrdom without any descriptive comment, we should infer
that she was some well-known Christian woman, probably belonging to
Smyrna. Now a person of this name is greeted in affectionate terms by
Ignatius, when writing to the Smyrneans {S/z/yni. 13 "AXktjv to iroO-qrov
fioi ovofia, comp. Fofyc. 8).
Keim alleges this coincidence to show that
the narrator plagiarized from the Ignatian Epistles. But no forger would
have invented this position. Herodes the son of Nicetes, as captain
of the police,
is a main instrument in the martyrdom of Polycarp, and
his father abets him in this matter. What fabricator would have conceived
the idea of representing the one as the brother, the other as the
nephew, of this devout Christian or, having conceived it,
would have
thrown it out incidentally in the words aScXe/xjv 8e "AXkt;, thus leaving
the reader to supply the missing links for himself On this subject I
have already had occasion to remark in reference to the Ignatian
Epistles (i. p. 367, II. p. 325); and its force, in its bearing on this
Letter of the Smyrnaeans, when once pointed out, can hardly be misapprehended.
Again there is Marcianus, apparently the composer of the
narrative (§ 20). This name was borne by one of the more prominent
Christians in the circles in which Polycarp moved; for he is addressed by
Irenaeus (see note ad loc). Whether this was the same Marcianus or not,
we cannot say ;
but the coincidence at least deserves notice. Lastly the
amanuensis of the letter is one Euarestus. Of the individual we can say