apostolicfathers0201clem - Carmel Apologetics

DATE OF THE MARTYRDOM.
7M
troubles in Palestine under Hadrian, persuaded the Jews
of those
parts to adopt a nineteen years' cycle of his own construction ;
that
its intercalary months were so arranged that in the year 155 the 14th or
15th Adar fell on February 23;
and that this calendar continued still
in use till after the middle of the third century. We might thus find
an explanation of the fact that this same day of the solar calendar,
which was a 'great sabbath' in a.d. 155 when Polycarp was martyred,
was likewise a 'great sabbath' in a.d. 250 when Pionius was apprehended;
for the interval is an exact multiple of nineteen (19x5). The
Feast of Purim would on the assumed hypothesis
fall on the same day
in these two years. No commemoration in the Jewish calendar was so
likely to excite the fanaticism of the more bigoted Jews, as we find it
excited in the accounts of the last hours of Polycarp and Pionius.
But the martyrdom of Polycarp not only synchronized with a Jewish
high-day. It occurred likewise during a heathen festival. What was
this festival
The three celebrations, of which we hear most at Smyrna
at this
epoch (though chiefly in connexion with gymnastic contests), are the
games of the Asiatic Confederation (kolvo. 'Acrtas), the Olympia (OXvfx-
TTia),
and the Hadrianian Olympia {'ASpiavd or 'ASptaVeia 'OAu'/ATria)'.
At a later date a festival in honour of Commodus is added /.
(C G.
^
CI. A. III. 129 '0\6fxwia iv "Zixvpvrj koI ttjs iepas rpi-qpovs fwipareveiv Tre'^Tre-
P','ASpiava 'OXiifiTTia ev liixipvQ /3', kolvo. rat yap rts pLTjifl 'AvdeffTijpiuiPi. fierapaia
'Acrt'as iv 'Lp.vpvrj (comp. ib. 127, 128), TpLrjpT]s is dyopav, rjv b tov i^iovvaov upev^,
dating soon after A.D. 248; C.I.G. 5913 olov Kv^epvr)T7)s, evdvuei ireiV/xara eK Oa-
Z/xupvav e kolvo. 'Aaias 5h to devrepov ott/- Xdrrrji \vovaav. This Polemon seems
aas Tovs avTaywvLCTTds, 6/xoiws iv Z/xupv-rj to have been instrumental in estabhshing
'0\viJ.TrLaKai'A8pLdvia'0\vfj.wLa. See also the Hadrianian Olympia (Boeckh C.I.G.
ib. 3208 ^jxvpvav 'OXufiiria rg eKTrj Kal II. p. 713; see above, p. 468, note i).
5eKdTr]...1,/j,vpvav kolvov 'Actas :
comp. He ib. is also mentioned by Philostratus in
1720, where again these same two festivals connexion with the Olympia at Smyrna
are mentioned together. The Olympia (/ c. § 9). Philostratus' account of him
and Hadrianian Olympia occur together throws considerable light on the conin
Wood's Ephcsus Inscr. vi. 20 (p. 70); dition of Smyrna in the age of Polycarp.
the KOLvhv (or Koivd) 'Ao-t'as alone, C.I.G. The pageant of the trireme formed part
247, 2810 b Add., 3910, 5804, 5918; the of the Dionysia (Aristid. Op. I. 373 ripo%
'OXv/jLTTLa alone, ib. 3201; the 'A8p. dipq. Trpibrri Aiovvaiois Tpirjprjs k.t.X.). The
'OXt'MTio, //'. 3148. Dionysia therefore took place in Anthe-
Speaking of the honours showered sterion; and it is possible that Polycarp
upon the Sophist Polemon by the Smyr- suffered during them. But 'the beginnseans,
Philostratus {ViL Soph. i. 25 § i) ning of spring' suggests a somewhat later
writes, irpoKadrjadai yap twv
'
AopLovwv day than Feb. 23.
^OXv/xiriuv ^Socrav tQ dv5pl Kal eyybvoLS,