apostolicfathers0201clem - Carmel Apologetics

662 EPISTLE OF S. POLYCARP.
Tepov) and the hostile king, whom he afterwards names Vologesus,
making peace with one another. In another he had 'an audience witii
the emperor, having been sent to the emperor who was then in Syria'
(eytyvero rj TrpocroSos yj Trpos rov avTOKparopa, iTr€7ro[X(f)iLV 8e o5s tov iv rfj
2u/3ta Tore avTOKparopa). Elsewhere, there is mention sometimes of 'the
emperor' (o avTOKpaTwp) in the singular (p. 451), sometimes of the
emperors (01 avTOKpdTope.. xiv. pp. 613, 647, Eutrop.
viii. 10, Victor Caes. 16, Orosius
Il/st viii. 15, Polyaen. Sirateg. i. i, Lucian Quoin. Conscrib. Hist. 14 sq,
Pscudomantis 27, Fronto pp. 120 sq, 132, 204, 208 sq, 217 sq). This
known fact is the main point in Masson's favour.
As a negative argument on the same side, it is further urged that
there was no incident during the reign of Antoninus Pius to which the
dream of Aristides could refer. Indeed the notices in Capitolinus seem
to exclude it
altogether. He says expressly in one place {Pius 7),
that this emperor ' '
never undertook any expeditions (nee uUas expeditiones
obiit) except to his country house in Campania,
provincials should be burdened with the expenses of his retinue. But
lest the
this statement must not be too literally interpreted. He has plainly in
view here not military campaigns but imperial progresses. Again this
same historian states elsewhere {^Pius 9), that Antoninus ' deterred the
king of the Parthians from the invasion of Armenia by
his letters alone
(Parthorum regem ab Armeniorum expugnatione solis literis repulit).'
But, as Borghesi truly says {CEuvres v. p. 377), Capitolinus speaks 'too
emphatically' here. An inscription is extant at Ssepinum (C.
/. L. ix.
2457) commemorating one L. Neratius Proculus, of whom it speaks as