apostolicfathers0201clem - Carmel Apologetics

666 EPISTLE OF S. POLYCARP.
proconsulship of Quadratus (a.d. 165, 166) was in the sixth year, it
would still have eleven years to run, and would not be ended till a.d.
176. Even on Masson's own showing
it
only terminated a.d. 172.
But Aristides elsewhere (i. p. 474 sq) speaks of the plague as breaking
out at the close of the period which the god had predicted for the
duration of his malady. Now we know that it was spread through the
East and ultimately brought to Rome by Verus' army. In a.d. 166 it
raged in the West so virulently that the Marcomannic expedition was
very nearly prevented by its ravages. Its outbreak in
Smyrna therefore
must be placed during a.d. 162— 165. But this is
many years too
early according to Masson's chronology. On the other hand in
Waddington's scheme the seventeen years would have elapsed at the
end of a.d. 161, and therefore immediately before the time when the
first outbreak of the plague is possible. The notices of the plague
therefore present a second insuperable difficulty in the way of Masson's
view, not less great than the one which has been pointed out previously
(P- 659)-
(iii)
Our third test of the two schemes is the harmony
with the
traditions of Polycarp' s life.
Now the only probable interpretation of Polycarp's
words at the
time of his martyrdom (§ 9; see iii. p. 379) is that he was then eightysix
years of age. If therefore Masson's date of the martyrdom be
adopted, he was born about a.d. 80. But it is not possible to place the
death of S.
John later than about a.d. 100. Yet Irenseus says that he
was not only a disciple of S. John, but that he was appointed bishop of
Smyrna by Apostles {Haer. iii. 3. 4). On the other hand Waddington's
chronology would make him 31 years old in a.d. 100, so that the
tradition of his relations to S. John and the Apostles becomes credible.
Again; Irenaeus speaks of the true tradition as being handed down
by 'the successors of Polycarp to the present time' '^'^^
(01 jxixP'- StaSeheyixi-voL
Tov lioXvKapTTov), meaning, as the context shows, his successors
in the episcopate of Smyrna. This sentence was certainly written
during the Roman episcopate of Eleutherus
(i.e.
between a.d.
— 177 190), for the fact is mentioned in the context; and it may have
been written somewhat early in this period. But, if we take the latest
possible date, a.d. 190, Masson's chronology only leaves an interval of
— twenty-four years a period hardly sufficient to justify such an expression.
The additional eleven years allowed by Waddington's date are a
clear gain and render the language intelligible.
(iv) Lastly; it accords better with other chronological data in the
account of the martyrdoju itself A certain Philip of Tralles is men-