apostolicfathers0201clem - Carmel Apologetics

714 EPISTLE OF S. POLYCARP.
1720 Ko/i,oO€tu). Of these three we most naturally turn to the kolvol
'Ao-tas— the great anniversary of Ceesar-worship
— as the most renowned
(see above, p. 467, and below, in. p. 404). The presence of both
Proconsul and Asiarch suggests this occasion. The air likewise is
redolent of C^sar (§§ 8, 9, 10). We may observe also that on vii Kal.
Mart., the date of Polycarp's martyrdom, the festival had been going
on for some days (§ 12); and that in an inscription belonging to the
neighbouring city of Ephesus dated a.d. 104 (see above, p. 683) the
preceding day, viii Kal. Mart, is styled 'Augustus' Day' (Se/Jao-TT/)'.
But if there is
any connexion between these two facts which I have
thus put in juxtaposition, both the Olympia and the Hadrianian
Olympia are excluded, as not yet existing in a.d. 104; the former
having been instituted, as the inscriptions suggest, at a more recent
date and probably by Hadrian's influence (see above, p. 633 sq), the
^
The meaning of SejSao-TT is difficult
to determine, and the suggestion in the
text can only be taken as tentative.
The following are the occurrences of the
word, (a) In the Ephesian inscription,
with which we are immediately concerned,
it is Anthesterion 2 = viii Kal. Mart.
(j3)
An inscription at Trajanopolis given
in Lebas and Waddington no. 1676 is
dated ^tods aie', /x(7jv6s) Aaia[!.]ov, ^e^acrrfi
The Syllan year 215 is a.d. 130, and
j'.
therefore in the reign of Hadrian. The
6th Dresius according to
the calendar of
Proconsular Asia (see above, p. 679)
would be April 28; but we do not know
what calendar is intended. (7) We meet
with 'Sebaste' again in two Egyptian inscriptions
{C.I.G. 4715, 5866 c. Add.),
and with 'Julia Sebaste 'in a third (C.I.G.
4957). In 4715, belonging to the 31st year
of Augustus, we have QoixiO 2e/3acrrrj, which
(if it had stood alone) would have been easily
explicable, since the birthday of Augustus
(Sept. 23) fell on the 26th of the month
Thoth. But in Add. .s866 c, belonging to the
27th year of the same reign, we read (pap-
Hovd[(\ "Le^aar-Q, as if some one particular
day in eacli month bore this name. In
4957 the date is given FdX/Sa avroKparopos,
(f)ao}(f>l a, 'lovXig. Xe^aary. If the reckoning
is according to the fixed Egyptian
calendar, this would be iv Kal. Oct. (Sept.
28). This is not, as Boeckh(iii. p. 451), following
Letronne, supposes, the birthday
of Livia, whose title was Julia Augusta.
Her birthday fell towards the end of
January (see C.I.L. vi. 2024), though I
do not see why Henzen it places definitely
on iii Kal. Feb. (Jan. 30).
Usener (see above, p. 679), finding the
letters SEBAS opposite the first
day in
several months in the Lycian calendar of
the Leyden Hemerology, infers that the
first of each month in the calendar of Proconsular
Asia (corresponding always to ix
Kal. of the Julian calendar) was called
(7e/3a(TT,
because it was the monthly
commemoration of the birthday of Augustus.
This is
probable in itself and
gains support from the Pergamene inscription
(see above, p. 688 sq) but some
;
of the facts are still unexplained.
It should be mentioned that Unger
(Fleckeisen's Nciie Jahrbiichcr 1884, p.
569) believes that Sept. 23, as the birthday
of Augustus, was according to the
old Roman calendar before the Julian reform.
This however is a matter of no
moment for our present purpose, since
confessedly after the introduction of the
Julian calendar it was always celebrated
on Sept. 23 of this latter.