apostolicfathers0201clem - Carmel Apologetics

678 EPISTLE OF S. POLYCARP.
the correct reading Maprtcov. This reading had been conjecturally
restored by Valesius (on Euseb. H. E. iv.
15), by Noris {de Anno et
Epochis Syromaced. p. 29, Lips. 1696), by Ideler {Haiidb. d. Chron. i. p.
419), by Waddington {Vie du Rhet. Arist. p. 236), and by several others,
before there was known to be direct authority for it in our text. This
restoration was made chiefly on the ground that the universal tradition
of the Greek Church places the festival of Polycarp's martyrdom on
Feb. 23.
The discovery of m has placed, or ought to have placed, this
reading beyond the reach of doubt. The corruption Mauov however
was earlier than the Latin translation, which for /x.r/i'os
'B.o.vQikov...
(Ta/3(3dTw /xeyaAo) substitutes, ' mense Aprilio, vii Kal. Mail, mnjore
sabbato.' On the other hand the Chronicon Fasc/ia/e\). 480 (see above,
p. 569) gives the date of the martyrdom 'the 7th before the Kalends of
April, on the great sabbath' (ttj Trpo ^' /caXavSw 'AvrpiXiW, Tw/AeyaXo)
crafS/Sdroi), omitting all mention of the month Xanthicus. The
reasons for this substitution of April for March will be considered
hereafter.
Building upon these data, different modern writers have supported
four several days for the martyrdom of Polycarp, February 23, April 6,
March 23, and March 26, while in the Latin Calendar the festival has
for centuries past been kept on Jan. 26.
(i) February 23.
This day, the traditional festival of Polycarp,
is
adopted by the vast
majority of critics and historians.
In the Medicean Library in the ms Plut. xxviii. Cod. xxvi (see
Bandini Catal. Cod. Graec. Bibl. Lanr. 11.
p. 46 sq)
after the Commentary
of Theon on the Tables of Ptolemseus, amidst other astronomical
and chronological matter, is a Henierology of the Months of Differ e tit
Cities
('H/xepoXdytoi/ jxiqvMv 8Lac}>6po)v TroAeojv),
which contains thirteen
other calendars compared with the Roman. It was first discovered
by Masson about a.d. 17 15, but not then published by him. Among
these thirteen calendars is one called ' of the Asiatics ' (Aa-iavwv) and
another 'of the Ephesians.' Subsequently a Leyden ms (Graec. n. 78)
was discovered with substantially the same contents, but instead of the
Cretan, Cyprian, and Ephesian calendars, it substitutes those of Gaza,
Ascalon, and the Pierian Seleucia. All the seventeen are included in
an article of Sainte Croix in Man. de FAcad, dcs Inscr. XLVii. p. 66 sq
(1809). Their contents will be found in Ideler (i. p. 410 sq).
The ' Asiatic ' and ' Ephesian ' calendars agree in the limits and