apostolicfathers0201clem - Carmel Apologetics

DATE OF THE MARTYRDOM. 665
army which garrisoned it was cut in pieces and the generals slain (Dion
Cass. Ixxi.
2).
Hence arose the more famous Parthian war under
Marcus and Lucius, which was conducted by the latter.
The superior claims of Waddington's chronology over Masson's
will appear, w^hen tested in several ways.
(i)
The proconsulship of Quadratus then falls into its proper
place in relation to other proconsiilships. Its relationship to that of
Severus has appeared already. But it satisfies this test in the case of
other proconsuls also. Fronto was consul suffectus in July a.d. 143
(Klein's Fasti Considares p. 69); yet he was appointed to the proconsulate
of Asia during the reign of Pius who died a.d. 161 (Fronto
pp. 86, 169, ed. Naber). LoUianus Avitus was consul in a.d. 144;
yet not only he, but his successor Claudius Maximus, were proconsuls of
Africa during the reign of the same emperor Pius (Apuleius de Magia 85,
94). These examples are given by Waddington {V. du R. A. p. 240 sq).
A recent discovery enables us to add also the case of Peducseus
Priscinus. He was consul in a.d. 141 ;
and he too appears as proconsul
of Asia under Pius (Wood's Discoveries at Ephesus Inscr. vi. 7, p. 52)'.
Thus we find the consuls of the years immediately preceding and
immediately following Quadratus appointed to one or other of the
two great proconsulships under Pius ;
and as the rule of seniority
generally prevailed, we must suppose that Quadratus held the office of
proconsul during the same reign.
It harmonizes better with tJie
(ii)
circumstances of Aristides^ and
life,
more especially of his illness. The sickness lasted for seventeen years.
This is clear from the dream related i.
p. 469 sq. The god appeared
to him and '
putting out his fingers and reckoning certain periods of time
(xpoVovs Ttvas) said Thou hast ten years from 7ne and three from Sarapis,
and at the same time the three and ten appeared as seventeen owing to
the position of his fingers.'
This, he adds, was not a dream but a true
vision {ovK ovap o'AA.' inrap). Stress is laid afterwards on the complete
fulfilment of this prediction (pp. 471, 474, 475, 477). Masson infers
from the passage that the sickness only lasted thirteen years in all.
But the 'seventeen' must have some meaning; and Waddington rightly
interprets it as signifying that four years of the malady had already
passed when the vision was seen, so that thirteen had still to run. Now,
if the sickness began, as Masson supposes, in a.d. 159, so that the
*
His name was M. Peducseus Stloga 2966), who was consul in a.d. iio and
Priscinus. In the note on 'Wood's £j>/te- proconsul under Hadrian; see Waddingsus
he is confused with an earlier M. ton Pastes p. 201.
Peducasus Priscinus (mentioned C. I. G.