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Apology of Justin itself; it must be acknowledged that none occurs there, which is very distinct and definite yet what there are rather favour the supposition that it was presented early in the reign of Antoninus, than the contrary. With respect to the persons, addressed in the opening sentence, Titus Ælius Hadrianus Antoninus Pius Augustus Cæsar, or emperor, and Verissimus his son the Philosopher, and Lucius the Philosopher, the son of Cæsar by nature, and of Pius by adoption; all the difficulty respecting them is done away, if by the Cæsar who is spoken of as naturally the father of Lucius, we understand L. Ælius Verus Cæsar, deceased; whom Hadrian adopted about U. C. 889 or 890, and upon his death, January 1, U. C. 891, adopted Antoninus Pius; on condition that Antoninus Pius himself should adopt Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus; the former the son of Annius Verus, the brother of Annia Galeria Faustina, the wife of Antoninus Pius; the latter the son of Ælius Verus Cæsar, deceased. Such is the true account of these several adoptions; as it might be proved from the testimony of contemporary writers, Aristides, Galen, Dio, and others *: though Capitolinus in his Life of Marcus Antoninus Philosophus, and of Verus Imperator, supposes Marcus adopted by Pius, and Verus by Marcus. But Spartian in his Life of Hadrian 5, if not of

* To these we may add Marcus Antoninus himself, De Rebus suis, i. 14. 17, and apud Frontonis Opera Inedita, Epp. ad Marcum Cæsarem, i. 5: the emperor Julian, in Cæsaribus, Operum 312. A: ¿meieλbovσns δὲ αὐτῷ τῆς τῶν ἀδελφῶν ξυνωρίδος,

Βήρου καὶ Λουκίου, κ. τ. λ; Zosimus, lib. i. ἡ τῶν ἀδελφῶν ξυνωρίς, Bĥpos kaì Aoúκtos: Aurelius Victor, De Marco: Ammianus Marcellinus, xxvii. 6: and the Letters of Verus and Fronto, e libro citato : Ep. 3. p. 85: 4. p. 87, 89: 6. p. 96 : 7. p. 96, 97.

e Vide the coins of Sinope, Eckhel, ii. 393. and Spartian, Hadrianus, 26. 1. f Antoninus, 5. Verus, 2. Cf. however, Antoninus, 7. Verus, 3.

Severus, 20. Verus Cæsar, 5, 6, 7. Capitolinus, Antoninus Pius, 4.

g 24. Cf. also

Ælius Verus Cæsar, and Capitolinus himself in that of Antoninus Pius, are more agreeable to the truth. The precise year of this double adoption may be uncertain, whether U. C. 891 or 892h. The coins of Marcus Aurelius, as Cæsar, appear first, U. C. 8921.

The name of Verissimus, by which Marcus is designated in the above passage, was given to him by Hadrian before he assumed the toga virilis k*; which he did, U. C. 888, in his fifteenth year. And though after that assumption, Hadrian is said to have called him Annius Verus; yet there is extant a coin of Tyra, a city of Sarmatia Europea, which has upon it the head of M. Aurelius, and the name Verissimus Cæsar; consequently after the time of his adoption itself, U. C. 892.

At the end of the Apology, Hadrian's rescript to Minucius Fundanus is quoted, and given at full length": a rescript, which Jerome, in Chronico, dates in the tenth of Hadrian, and Eusebius, Chronicon ArmenoLatinum, in the eighth. In one passage, we have a general allusion to some existing law against castration which Domitian, Nerva P, and Hadrian, each at different times forbade in another to the death and deification of Antinous, spoken of as Toû vûv yeyevnuévou, the time of which, as I shall have occasion to prove hereafter, came between the eleventh and the

* Dio or Xiphilinus, lxix. 21. implies that he gave him the name when he caused him to be adopted by Antoninus. According to Herodian, i. 1, the name of Verissimus was given to one of Marcus' sons-Annius Verus,

as I should suppose-no mention being made of any other son of Marcus, but this one so named, and Commodus. Marcus is called Verissimus Cæsar, by Jerome, in Chronico, ad annum Abrahami 2162. Antonini Pii ix.

h See Capitolinus, Antoninus Ph. 1. 5. 7. linus, Vita, 1, 4. 1 Ibid. m Eckhel, ii. 4. o P. 47. 1. 6-14.

i Eckhel, vii. 44. k Capiton Page 99. line 13-100. 1. 23.

p Cf. Dio, lxvii. 2. lxviii. 2: Cassiodorus, Chronica, the first of Domitian: Ammianus Marcellinus, xviii. 4: Eusebius and Jerome, Chronica, ad annum Abrahami 2098 or 2099.

q P. 47. l. 19.

fifteenth of Hadrian: in other passages, to the Jewish war, &c. Barchochab's persecution of the Christians; the destruction of Jerusalem; and the consequences of the war to the Jews; all as still recent events". That war was brought to a close U. C. 888, or 889.

In other passages, the heretic Marcion of Pontus is spoken of as still living, and still disseminating his doctrines, when Justin was writing the Apology. He speaks also of a work of his own against all the heresies, which up to that time had appeared in the Christian world, to which he refers the emperors t. That Marcion's heresy was included among the rest, may very probably be collected both from the title of the work, and because Justin's treatise against Marcion is quoted pnôs by Irenæus ".

The precise time of the rise of the heresy of Marcion, may be doubtful; further than that the most ancient authorities make it contemporary with the reign of Antoninus Pius, and with the bishopric of Hyginus, whom Eusebiusw places in the first of Antoninus, and supposes to have sate only four years. Tertullian, Contra Marcionem x, i. 19, says indeed: Quoto quidem anno Antonini Majoris de Ponto suo exhalaverit aura canicularis, non curavi investigare: de quo tamen constat, Antoninianus hæreticus est, sub Pio impius. Yet just before he says: Anno xv. Tiberii Christus Jesus de cœlo manare dignatus est, spiritus salutaris; Marcionis salutis, qui ita voluit: (where he is speaking according

r P. 49. 1. 27: 70. 31-71.8: 78. 15. s P. 43. l. 1: 85. 15-30. Cf. Eusebius, E. H. iv. 11. 125. B. t P. 44. I. u Lib. iv. xiv. 300. 14. Cf. v. xxvi. 441. 21. which Eusebius, E. H. iv. 18. 141. A. shews to be a quotation from it also. Vide also Tertullian, Operum ii. 149. Adversus Valentinianos, 5: Hieronymus, de SS. Ecclesiasticis, cap. 23: Photius, Bibl. Codex 125. w E. H. iv. 10. 11. 125. A. y Cf. Irenæus, i. xxviii. 103. xxix. 104: iii. iii. 204 : iv. 206. 1. 9: Clemens Alex. ii. 898. Strom. vii. 17: Cyprian, Operum 211. Ep. lxxiv. Cf. Ep. lxxv. p. 219: Epiphanius, i. 299. C: 303. D. 364. C. D: Theodorit, Operum iv. 314. Hæreticarum Fabularum i. xxiv: Eusebius and Jerome, Chronica, ad annum Abrahami 2156. Antonini Pii iii.

x Operum i. 33.

to the opinions of Marcion; as we learn from lib. iv. 7. p. 197: Anno quintodecimo principatus Tiberii, proponit eum descendisse in civitatem Galilææ Capharnaum: which was probably the beginning of St. Luke's Gospel according to Marcion.) Immediately after, he continues: A Tiberio autem usque ad Antoninum anni fere CXV et dimidium anni, cum dimidio mensis: tantumdem temporis ponunt inter Christum et Marci

onem.

I think this computation is intended to bear date from Tiberii xv. U. C. 781-782, the time of the manifestation of Christ according to Marcion; in which case, 116 current years bring us to U. C. 896-897: as the age most probably intended by Tertullian for Marcion himself. For, as this interval of time cannot possibly hold good between the beginning of the reign of Tiberius and that of Antoninus Pius; nor between the close of the one, and the beginning or the end of the other, respectively-of what must it be understood, if not of the manifestation of the Christ on the one hand, and the appearance of Marcion on the other? On this principle, there would still be time for Justin to have written against Marcion, though he presented his Apology U. C. 899: especially as the doctrines of Marcion were broached at Rome, where the Apology was presented*, and where, according to Epiphanius, loc. cit. Marcion became the disciple of Cerdo, immediately after Hyginus' death, which Eusebius places U.C.895.†

* For some more particulars concerning Marcion, see Tertullian, Operum ii. 35. De Præscriptione Hæreticorum, p. 30. It is however to be observed, that Jerome, De Scriptoribus Ecclesiasticis, loco citato, distinguishes the work against Marcion from that against heresies in general.

There is no reason, therefore, why the former might not have been written after the latter.

+ Both Eusebius in his Ecclesiastical History, and Jerome, De Scriptoribus Ecclesiasticis, mention a multitude of writers against Marcion; the time of all of whom accords to the suppo

In the second Apology of Justin, as it is commonly called, there are fewer notes of time than in the first. Jerome, and Photius, speak of this as presented to the successors of Antoninus Pius, which means, to Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus: but Justin himself, in one passage of it, apostrophizes the reigning emperor, in the second person; and consequently shews it to be some one person, in particular, who was king, even though others in some sense might be associated with him in which case the Apology was presented either to Antoninus Pius, or to Marcus Aurelius after the death of Verus; that is, not before the ninth or tenth year of his reign *.

There is no allusion in this second Apology, to the first; which may justly be considered surprising if it was really written after it: for we find Justin referring in the Dialogus, (a work which was probably composed in the reign of Hadrian b,) to some address of his, which had been presented to the reigning emperor -who in that case must have been Hadrian; in which he had not spared his own countrymen the Samaritans. I should be disposed to believe that this Apo

sition that the heresy in question first appeared under Antoninus Pius. These writers flourished principally in the reign of his successor, the first of them, next to Justin Martyr, being Theophilus bishop of Antioch. The heretic Marcion was known to Celsus the Epicurean; the date of whose work, answered by Origen, was early in the reign of Antoninus Pius. The anecdote

recorded by Irenæus, of Polycarp and him, if true, proves that Marcion's heresy was older than Polycarp's martyrdom, A. D. 164, and probably than his visit to Rome, under Anicetus. Irenæus, iii. сар. iii. 204, &c.

*Eusebius, E. H. iv. 18. 140. A. accordingly supposes it to be addressed to Antoninus Verus, the successor of Antoninus Pius.

z Photius, Codex 125. p. 94. Hieronymus, Operum iv. pars iia. 110. De SS. Ecclesiasticis, 23. Cf. 656. ad principium. a P. 109. 1. 3. b Cf. Pars ia. 137

21. 155. 6. 169 2. Add to which, that, 153 3. 436. 32. the work is dedicated to Marcus Pompeius; whom Grabe conjectures to be the same Marcus who was the first Gentile bishop of Jerusalem; that is, after the close of the Jewish war. See Eusebius, E. H. iv. 6. 119. A. v. 12. 176. D. c Page 397. 4.

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