apostolicfathers0201clem - Carmel Apologetics

LETTER OF THE SMYRN^ANS. 639
Asclepiades, Macedonia, and Lemnus, Lemnus was a presbyter of the
Catholic Church, but Macedonia was (as we learn at a later point in the
narrative) a Montanist (§ 11). Pionius with Sabina and Asclepiades
employed the evening before ' Polycarp's birthday ' in prayer and fasting ;
and in his sleep he saw a vision which foretold their impending fate.
The sabbath came. After the wonted prayers, when they had tasted
the holy bread, they were apprehended and taken into the forum. As
it was the sabbath, crowds of Jewish women were assembled there,
keeping holiday. The address of Pionius which follows is in large part
addressed to the Jews. When after certain occurrences, which it is unnecessary
to give in detail, they are taken to the prison, they find there
Lemnus and Macedonia already in captivity. At length, after the usual
examination and trial and condemnation, Pionius is
put to death.
Two stakes are erected, to which Pionius and Metrodorus a Marcionist
'
are tied, Pionius on the right hand, Metrodorus on the their
left, eyes
and mind turned toward the east '. So he wins the crown of martyrdom.
A note is
appended to the effect that these things happened in the
proconsulate of Julius Proculus Quintilianus, and in the consulate of
the Emperor Gains Messius Quintus Trajanus Decius and Vitius Gratus
[i.e. A.D. 250], on the fourth before the Ides of March.
These Acts bear every mark of genuineness. The writer is evidently
acquainted with the topography of Smyrna (§§ 10, 11). Though the
chief martyr and his companions are careful to declare themselves
emphatically members of the Catholic Church as opposed to the sects
(§§ 9> 19)' yet one martyr is credited to the Marcionites (§ 21) and
another to the Montanists (§ 11)
— thus testifying to the veracity of the
narrator. The progress through the streets and the gibes of the crowd
are related with a Hfe-like vigour, which bespeaks their truthfulness.
The incidents are frequently such as could hardly occur to a forger ;
as
for instance when Sabina being asked her name says
'
Theodota ',
and
the explanation is given that Pionius had schooled her to say so (' praedixerat
verba ')
lest she should fall into her cruel mistress' hands by
giving her right name (§ 9; see below p. 716). Again a person out
of the crowd says to her, 'Couldn't you die in your own country' (§ 18).
What this means we are not told and can only conjecture. But taking
surmise that she was a
it in conjunction with the other allusion we may
runaway slave. At any rate the absence of any explanation
is an indication
of its truthfulness. Quite incidentally too we learn from her
answer her relationship to Pionius, which is nowhere directly told us :
'What do you mean by my country
I am Pionius' sister' ('Quae
est mea patria
ego Pionii soror sum ').
So again on another