apostolicfathers0201clem - Carmel Apologetics

656 EPISTLE OF S. POLYCARP.
with the proconsulate of Quadratus, and which seemed to Masson to
point decisively to the reign of M. Aurelius, may be explained by
notices of events which occurred under his predecessor Antoninus Pius'.
The way had thus been prepared by Letronne and Borghesi. But
to Waddington belongs the credit of a thorough reconstruction of the
chronology of Aristides on the lines thus indicated, and of the final
overthrow of Masson's system. His investigations appeared in a paper
entitled Vie du Rh'eteur ^Uus Aristide in the Mhnoires de Plnstitut etc.,
Inscriptions et Belles Lettres xxvi. p. 203 sq (a.d. 1867); and he has
since supplemented them in his Pastes des Provinces Asiatiqties. This
latter work forms part of Lebas and Waddington's Asie Mineuj-e; but it
has likewise been reprinted in an octavo form (Paris, 1872). To
M. Waddington's kindness I am indebted for a copy of this reprint, and
to it
my references will be made.
As the question depends partly on the succession to the Asiatic proconsulate,
a few words of explanation will be useful by way of preface
to the review of Waddington's investigations.
By an ordinance of Pompeius, revived by Augustus (a.u.c. 727), the
government of the senatorial provinces could not be undertaken until
five years after the tenure of the city magistracy (Dion Cass. liii. 14;
comp. Sueton. Oct. 36). The two proconsular provinces Asia and Africa,
the blue ribands of the profession, would accordingly have fallen
regularly to the two consuls who — had held oftice five years before the
lot being employed to apportion them between the two. But several
causes tended to lengthen the interval. In the first place the practice
of appointing consoles suffecti gained ground. Thus there might be four
or six or even more consuls in a single year. Again, though the proconsulate
was commonly an annual office, yet the tenure might be
extended at the pleasure of the emperor, where the emergency seemed
to require the continuance of the same ruler (see esp. Marquardt
Rofnische Staatsverivaltimg
i.
p. 404 sq).
We are told that Augustus
(Dion Cass. Iv. 28) in the latter part of his hfe frequently prolonged the
term of office to a second year. So too of Tiberius (Dion Cass. Iviii.
^
Aristides {Op.
i. p. 467), describing
The person intended is
consul A.D. 148.
the first year of his malady, mentions SaXpiov
doubtless his namesake, who held the
T0\) vvv viraTou. The vvv evidently consulship a.d. 175, as Waddington has
refers to the time when Aristides is writing
but Masson ;
explained rod pvv as if it
pointed out.
Borghesi also follows Masson (p. Ixxxix)
were tov tots, thus referring it to the in regarding the year in which Quadratus
time of the incidents recorded. Borghesi entered upon his office as the sixth of the
is misled by this error and identifies the
malady of Aristides.