apostolicfathers0201clem - Carmel Apologetics

72 2 EPISTLE OF S. POLYCARP.
of these Acts; and I cannot conceive any scheme of interpolation
which would bring them into harmony with the times of M. Aurelius
and yet preserve anything worth preserving. I am constrained therefore
to hold Eusebius guilty of an error in this case.
The Western Churches keep the day of Pionius on Febr. ist, and
this is found as early as the Old Roman Martyrology (see above, p. 570).
though under Kal. Feb. we find the name 'Poenis' [Pionii] twice,
But the Hicronymian Martyrology preserves traces of the correct day.
Under iv Id. Mart, we read 'Smyrnae Pionis Metrodi' [1. Pionii, Metrodori];
and in conjunction with a Polycarpus (see above, p. 570). There
seems therefore to be a confusion of two persons bearing the name;
and Feb. ist would belong originally not to the Smyrnsean martyr, but
to his namesake.