A discourse of Lucius (Lucianus), that we should not receive slander against our friends: peri\ tou~ mh_ r(a|di/wj pisteu&ein diabolh~| .
Apparently the same as is given in Sachau, Inedita, pp. 1-16. On fol. 140 a [syriac]
A discourse made by a philosopher, De Anima:
probably the same as is given in Sachau, Inedita, as Philosophorum de anima sententiae.
On fol. 143 a , [syriac]
or, the Counsel of Theano, a female philosopher of the school of Pythagoras:
see Sachau, Inedita, pp. 70-75, as Theano: Sententiae .
On fol. 145 b a collection of Sayings of the Philosophers, beginning with [Syriac] (Plato the Wise said).
On fol. 151 6 [Syriac]
A first discourse in explanation of Ecclesiastes, made by Mar John the Solitary for the blessed Theognis. See Wright's Cat. of the Syr. MSS. in the Brit Mus. p. 996. |6
And from fol. 214 a onward the volume is occupied with translations from the Homilies of Chrysostom on Matthew.
The above description will shew something of the value of the MS. It will also suggest that it was the ethical character of the Apology of Aristides that secured its incorporation with the volume. Let us now pass on to discuss the effect which this recovered document has upon our estimate of the Eusebian statements concerning the earliest Church Apologists.
Aristides and Eusebius.
According to the Chronicon of Eusebius we have the following date for the Apologies of Quadratus and Aristides:
1. The Armenian version of the Chronicon gives under the year 124 A.D. as follows:
Ol. A. Abr. Imp. Rom.
226 2140 8 d Adrianus Eleusinarum rerum gnarus fuit multaque (dona) Atheniensium largitus est.
Romanorum ecclesiae episcopatum excepit septimus Telesphorus annis xi.
Codratus apostolorum auditor et Aristides nostri dogmatis (nostrae rei) philosophus Atheniensis Adriano supplicationes dedere apologeticas (apologiae, responsionis) ob mandatum. Acceperat tamen et a Serennio ( s. Serenno) splendido praeside (iudice) scriptum de Christianis, quod nempe iniquum sit occidere cos solo rumore sine inquisitione, neque ulla accusatione. Scribit Armonicus Fundius (Phundius) proconsuli Asianorum ut sine ullo damno et incusatione non damnarentur; et exemplar edicti eius hucusque circumfertur.
One of the Armenian MSS. (Cod. N) transfers this notice about the Apologists to the following year, and it is believed that this represents more exactly the time of Hadrian's first visit to Athens (125-126 A.D.). With this agrees the dating of the Latin version of Jerome. We may say then that it is the intention of Eusebius to refer the presentation of both these |7 Apologies to the time when Hadrian was spending his first winter in Athens; and to make them the reason for the Imperial rescript to Minucius Fundanus which we find attached to the first Apology of Justin Martyr. And since Minucius Fundanus and his predecessor Granianus were consuls suffect in the years 106 and 107, it is not unreasonable to suppose that they held the Asian pro-consulate in the years A.D. 123 and 124, or 124 and 125. If then Aristides and Quadratus presented apologies to Hadrian, it is reasonable to connect these Apologies with his first Athenian winter and not with the second (A.D. 129-130).
But here we begin to meet with difficulties; for, in the first place, much doubt has been thrown on the genuineness of the rescript of the emperor to Minucius Fundanus; in the second place there is a suspicious resemblance between Quadratus the Apologist and another Quadratus who was bishop of Athens in the reign of Antoninus Pius, succeeding to Publius whom Jerome affirms to have been martyred; and in the third place our newly-recovered document cannot by any possibility be referred to the period suggested by Eusebius, and there is only the barest possibility of its having been presented to the Emperor Hadrian at all. Let us examine this last point carefully, in order to answer, as far as our means will permit, the question as to the time of presentation of the Apology of Aristides and the person or persons to whom it was addressed.
The Armenian fragment is headed as follows:
To the Emperor Hadrian Caesar, from Aristides, philosopher of Athens.
There is nothing, at first sight, to lead us to believe that this is the original heading; such a summary merely reflects the Eusebian tradition and might be immediately derived from it.
When we turn to the Syriac Version, we find a somewhat similar preface, to the following effect.