apostolicfathers0201clem - Carmel Apologetics

674 p:pistle of s. polycarp.
letter 'from the emperor himself and his son' (tow tc avTOKpaTopos a-Jrov
Koi Tov TraiSo'g)
is shifted but not removed by Wieseler's modification of
Masson's views. Whereas Masson (p. cxix), and after him Clinton,
place the proconsulate of Severus, during which the letter arrives,
A.D. 1 68, 169, and refer the expression to M. Aurelius and Commodus,
though L. Verus was still living, Wieseler places it a.d. 167, 168, and
refers it to M, Aurelius and L. Verus. He has thus obviated the objections
founded on the omission of Verus' name and on the tender years
of Commodus. But he has introduced new difficulties as great or even
greater. Why should Aristides say ' the emperor himself and his son,'
when M. Aurelius and L. Verus were joint-emperors Why 'his son'
and not 'his brother,' when they were known as the ' fratres Augusti'
It is quite incredible that an independent author like Aristides, writing
long after the events, and referring to a time when they had been
associated in the empire for several years, should have used this language,
which is without a parallel either in extant literature or in the
inscriptions. In the correspondence of the two with their friend and
tutor Fronto this brotherly relation is recognized some thirty times.
Fronto, writing to the one of the other, speaks of 'frater tuus,' and
they in like manner designate each other 'frater mens' (Fronto Epist.
PP- 85, 87, 94, 95, loi, 104, III, 116, 117, 118, 121, 123, 133, 137,
138, 202, ed. Naber). Moreover Fronto several times mentions Antoninus
Pius as 'pater vester' and Hadrian as 'avos vester.' In like manner
Julian {Caesares 312) speaks of rrj-i
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