apostolicfathers0201clem - Carmel Apologetics

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DATE OF THE MARTYRDOM. 663
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MISSO . AB IMP ANTONINO AVG PIO . AD d[e]dVCEn[d]aS . VEx[i]lLA-
TioNES . IN . sYRiAM . OB .
[bJellvm [parJthicvm. This . cmperor, by
whom he was despatched to Syria in command of the troops, can be
none other than Antoninus Pius. Some critics indeed have persuaded
themselves that the sovereign meant is M. Aurelius. But M. Aurelius
never called himself, or was called in his lifetime, Pius. His son and
successor Commodus adopted this name, and thenceforward it
generally
forms one of the imperial designations. At the same time Commodus
seems to have imposed it upon his deceased father, so as to preserve its
genealogy unbroken from its first holder to himself. Thus we read of
DIVVS . M. AVRELIVS . ANTONINVS . PIVS . GERMANICVS . SARMATICVS
{C. T. L. II. 1340). Yet even after his decease he is never called Antoninus
Pius alone, but some other name is added to distinguish him from
his predecessor, the true Antoninus Pius. So far as I have observed, the
prjenomen Marcus is never absent'. Moreover, as the Parthian war
under M. Aurelius was especially entrusted to his co-emperor L. Verus,
it is difficult to explain the omission of the name of the latter,
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were the occasion to which the inscription refers.
if this
From this inscription
Borghesi inferred a conflict with the Parthians under Antoninus Pius,
and appHed it to explain the reference in Aristides. The silence of the
historians is
only a trifling difficulty in a reign for which the extant
accounts are so meagre and fragmentary. But this view has confirmatory
evidence which Borghesi overlooked. John Malalas, a writer
whose gross errors elsewhere I have had occasion to expose (11. p. 438
sq), and whose statements always require sifting and confirmation, but
who sometimes (especially
in relation to Antioch) supplies important
facts, states {Chrotwgr. xi. p. 280 sq, ed. Bonn) that Antoninus Pius
went to quell an uprising of the Egyptians who had murdered Dinarchus,
and after suppressing it proceeded to Alexandria. Immediately after
this incident, and apparently in connexion with it, this chronographer
states that he visited Antioch and erected certain buildings there. The
suppression of a rebellion in EgyjDt is mentioned likewise by Capitolinus
and is found
{Plus 5)-.
As the emperor had not left Rome a.d. 153
person meant is identified by the context. tonin le Pieux p. 149 sq (1888).
1
C.I.L.n. i725[iMP.CAES divi.]an-
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These Eastern expeditions of Antoninus
TONINI . PII . SARMATICI . GERMANICI .
Pius are recognized by most recent
FiLivs . Divi . PII .
NEPOS, belonging to writers on this period of Roman history;
a.d. 182 and referring to Commodus, is e.g. Sievers Stiidien ziir Gesch. d. Roinischc7i
an apparent exception ;
but tlie words in
Kaiser p. 204 sq, Schiller Ge-
brackets are filled in from conjecture and schichte der Rdmischcn Kaiscrzeit I. p.
doubtless incorrectly. Yet even here the 631 sq, 639 (1883), Lacour-Gayet An-