to a fact which had happened under the mayoralty of Urbicus, not long before, x¤ès dè kai πpóŋv. At what time any Urbicus was Urbis Præfectus unfortunately is not exactly known*. A Lollius Urbicus is spoken Jerome in Chronico, places the acme of a writer (whom he calls Musanus, and Eusebius' Chronicon Armeno-Latinum Musianus, and Syncellus Movσiavòs, i. 670. 1.) in the twelfth of Severus. His true name indeed was Musanus. But he was a Christian writer, not a Gentile philosopher; and besides would be too late for Justin Martyr, were it not that Jerome, De Scriptoribus Ecclesiasticis, xxxi. Operum iv. Pars ia. 111, enumerates him among those who wrote against the Encratitæ, or followers of Tatian, (a disciple of Justin :) sub Imperatore M. Antonino Vero. Cf. Eusebius, E. H. iv. 21. 28: and Theodorit, Hæreticarum Fabularum i. 21. Operum iv. 313. His acme, according to these testimonies, would certainly be the reign of M. Aurelius, Commodus, or Severus. The Musonius, contemporary of Nero and Vespasian, or the Musonius, who flourished in the reign of M. Aurelius, is most probably the one alluded to by name, in Himerius, Oratio xxiii. §. 21. p. 802. *The name of Lollius Urbicus, as Urbis Præfectus, or mayor of the city of Rome, occurs in the extant Oratio of Apuleius, De Magia, (Opera, vol. ii. p. 5.) and he is spoken of there as V. C. Vir Consularis, also, at the time when that oration was delivered. It would take up too much VOL. III. time, and after all would probably prove a very uninteresting discussion to the reader, were I to enter upon a detailed analysis of this speech. It is sufficient to observe, respecting it, that it was delivered by Apuleius in answer to the charge of having gained the affections of one Pudentilla, a rich widow, of Ea in Africa, by magical charms and incantations, and so persuaded her to marry him. The time of this marriage, it might be made to appear, was the year after Apuleius' coming to Ea, on his way to Alexandria; Pudentilla having then been thirteen years complete a widow; and being about forty years of age. The proconsul of Africa, at the time of the marriage, was Lollianus Avitus; and Apuleius was once heard before this proconsul, upon the charge preferred against him by the surviving relations of Pudentilla's first husband-at Carthage-a short time after his marriage; consequently in the same year with that event. The extant Oratio de Magia was delivered at a second hearing of the same accusation and defence, before Claudius Maximus, who it seems succeeded Lollianus Avitus in the proconsulate. This it appears was in the third year, since Apuleius first arrived at Ea; consequently, it was in the year after his marriage; and Claudius Maximus must have followed Avitus directly in the h Page 106. 1-107. 21. Q q of by Capitolinus, as Antoninus' legate in Britain', during a war which does not appear to have extended government of Africa. That the proconsulate of Africa was an annual office at this time appears further from the Florida of Apuleius, vol. ii. 123, 124. Whether Claudius Maximus here mentioned is the same person with Gavius Maximus, præfectus prætorii under Antoninus Pius, according to Capitolinus, (Vita, 8.) is doubtful; especially as this last is said to have been twenty years in office as præfectus prætorii, under Antoninus Pius. The name of Cavius Maximus occurs in Frontonis Opera inedita, Epp. ad Antoninum, iv. pars i. p. 10, and a letter to Lollianus Avitus, ibid. 131. Epp. ad Amicos, ii. Avitus and Maximus, however, who thus succeeded each other in the proconsulate of Africa, it seems from the Fasti Consulares were consuls ordinarii together U. C. 897. A. D. 144. in the seventh of Antoninus Pius. It appears too from the oration that they were personal friends. How long after their consulate the first of them was in office as proconsul, is matter of uncertainty. The oration before Maximus was pronounced when Pius was still emperor; as appears from an allusion to his statue, before which the proceedings took place. Anciently, we know that the usual interval between the consulate and the proconsulate was five or six years at least; and it could scarcely be less at this time of day. If so, Avitus was probably not in office before U. C. 904 or 905 at least. It is not easy to ascertain the precise interval of time which would probably intervene between the consulate and proconsulate in a given instance. It was liable to vary, and doubtless did vary, at different periods of Roman history. I should be inclined, however, to think that as it had once been five or six, it was now about seven or eight years. We may arrive at this conclusion on probable grounds as follows. In Tacitus' Life of Agricola, cap. 42. an allusion occurs to the time, when, in the due course of things, Agricola who was consul U. C. 830, (cap. 9. and vide the Fasti Consulares) Proconsulatum....sortiretur. This time may not be exactly defined; but it seems it was later or not earlier than the date of Agricola's return from Britain, U. C. 838 or 839. (see capp. 9. 18. 20-25. 28-33. 39, 40.) and from cap. 45, we may infer it was not less than four years before Agricola's death, which (cap. 44.) bore date U. C. 846. For my own part, I should apprehend that the time in question was this very year of Agricola's return, U. C. 838 and that one reason of his resigning the command in Britain, was that he might Ex more provinciam sortiri, by returning home. The life of Agricola is not very exact in point of chronology. The context of capp. 41, 42. compared with Dio, lvii. and Suetonius' Domitian, will imply that the year of the sortitio in question i Vita, 5. beyond the third year of his reign. An Orphitus is mentioned as præfect sometime under the same empe was as probably U. C. 838, as any. If so, Agricola's turn for the proconsulate either was, or should have been, just eight years after the expiration of his consulate. The same conclusion may be generally inferred from Herodian vii. 10: where it appears that Gordian the elder was proconsul of Africa, A. D. 237. The Fasti shew that he was consul suff. once ex kalendis Martiis A. D. 213, and again, A. D. 229. If so, he was serving the office of proconsul in Africa, either twenty-four years after his first consulate, or eight years after his second; the latter of which is much the more probable supposition: Cf. Capitolinus, Gordianus, 2.4. 5. In any case, he was serving the office of proconsul a certain number of years, eight or a multiple of eight, after the date of his consulate. The same rule existed in the time of Nero. Marcus Junius Silanus was serving the office of proconsul of Asia, post consulatum, U. C. 807, when he was poisoned by order of Agrippina immediately after Nero's accession: Oct. 13. U. C. 807. Pliny, H. N. vii. 11. Tacitus, Annales, xiii. 1. Now M. Junius Silanus was consul ordinarius, U. C. 7 · 799, whence to U. C. 807, is just eight years, exclusive of the year of the consulate. Avitus' year of office coincided, as it appeared, with the date of Apuleius' marriage, as that of Maximus did with the date of his extant oration, de Magia. Before this oration was delivered, the principal party in bringing forward the accusation against which it is directed, Sicinius Æmilianus, (a brother in law of Pudentilla, that is, the brother of her former husband,) is charged by Apuleius with having attempted to set aside the will of his avunculus, or maternal uncle, at Rome, on the pretence of forgery; the cause having been heard and determined before Lollius Urbicus, at that time urbis præfectus. This allusion certainly proves the mayoralty of Urbicus to have come before the proconsulate of Maximus, and we may justly presume of Avitus; but how long, appears uncertain. I cannot help thinking, however, that as the son of Pudentilla, Pontianus, (whose name is often mentioned in the course of this oration, first as the personal friend and acquaintance of Apuleius, by whose advice and entreaty he was persuaded to marry his mother, and then, as one of his adversaries or accusers, who took part in the charge against him,) appears to have been at Rome at the very time when Pudentilla, his mother, in the fourteenth year of her widowhood, had conceived the determination of marrying again, (as it is supposed, because her health required it,) and was summoned thence by a letter of his mother to Ea; he was there upon this business, connected with the will of his mother's brother in law's maternal uncle. k Eckhel, vii. 14. Cf. Capitolinus, Vita, 5. 6. ror, and as superseded at his own request1: which might be by Urbicus. The mention of Urbicus by name may, perhaps, imply that he was præfect not only when the incident in question happened, but when the Apology was written; and had not yet been superseded by any other, in that office; whether he was so afterwards or not. If the Acta of Justin are to be credited, when he himself suffered, one Rusticus was præfect and in this respect the Acta are confirmed by Epiphanius m *. And this is not improbable for this maternal uncle of Sicinius Emilianus in point of age would be a contemporary of his own avus, or grandfather; and this grandfather was only just dead, when Pudentilla determined to marry again. Now this determination, as we have seen, was formed not long before Apuleius came to Ea; and that was, only in the third year before the oration was delivered. If so, the inquiry at Rome, before Urbicus, into the authenticity of the will, was going on only three or four years, at the utmost, before the Oratio de Magia was pronounced: and if this oration was pronounced when Claudius Maximus was proconsul, not long after U. C. 905, perhaps Urbicus was actually in office, in or before U. C. 901. This is the nearest approximation to the date of his mayoralty, that I am able to make. We have him mentioned by name, it is true, in the Opera inedita of Fronto, pars ii. 301, 302. in the fragment of the Oratio pro Volumnio Sereno, there preserved-as having been governor of the Regio Veneta, some time before Arrius Antoninus, to whom that oration is addressed -some time before the death of the emperor Verus (page 301.) and probably within five years of the time when that oration was penned (see page 308.) But all this belongs no doubt to the reign of Marcus Aurelius. As Capitolinus, Vita Antonini Pii, 8. mentions that Antoninus made it a rule not to supersede any magistrate or officer of state, under him, so long as he continued to acquit himself well in the discharge of his duties, this is another reason for supposing that Urbicus succeeded to Orphitus, as urbis præfectus; and more probably early in the reign of Antoninus, than late. It would also imply that, once appointed to that office, he might continue to exercise it until late in the emperor's reign. * Dio or Xiphilinus, lxxi. 35and Capitolinus, Vita, 3. mention a Junius Rusticus, as one of the emperor Marcus' teachers in philosophy: and eminently honoured by him. He might be this 1 Capitolinus, Vita, 8. m Acta Martyrum 58. 1. 59. 2. Epiphanius, i. 391. A. B. Tatiani, i. There is a presentiment in this Apology that the death of the writer would some time or other be brought to pass through the machinations of Crescens, his enemy"; which misgiving the Oratio of Tatian, ad Gentes, (a contemporary and disciple of Justin's,) shews to have been in all probability realized by the event. Yet Tatian speaks in the same work of philosophers, who received an annual pension of six hundred gold pieces from the emperor and as he mentions only one emperor, it is possible he may mean Antoninus Pius; particularly as Capitolinus tells us of this emperor, Rhetoribus et philosophis per omnes provincias honores et salaria detulit P*. urbis præfectus, and he would flourish under Antoninus Pius. The same person, apparently, is thrice mentioned by Marcus Antoninus, De Rebus suis, as one of his instructors; lib. i. 7. and 17. It appears from Capitolinus, loco citato, that he died before Marcus, and as we may collect, in the year when he was designated by him consul the second time. His first consulate was A. D. 162. in the second of Marcus. He had probably been urbis præfectus before this time: in which case, if Justin suffered under him in that capacity, he suffered in the reign of Antoninus Pius. Lucian, Operum ii. 352. Eunuchus, 3, speaks of a salary appointed by the emperor then reigning, for philosophers of all the sects, indiscriminately, of 10,000 drachmæ per annum ; which is two thirds of Tatian's sum of 600 aurei. Some of n P. 120. 6. Lucian's commentators suppose this emperor was M. Aurelius; but he might just as well be Antoninus Pius; for Lucian flourished under both. Marcus Aurelius certainly made the same allowance; but it might be only in imitation of what Antoninus had done. From an obscure allusion in Suidas' account of Aristocles, a sophist of Pergamus, whom he describes as having flourished under Trajan and Hadrian, it might be inferred that some provision for the maintenance of the sophists and philosophers, out of the privy purse, existed in the time of the latter. Jerome, in Chronico, ad Domitiani viii. tells us that Quintilian was the first of the professors of Rhetoric at Rome, Qui salarium e fisco accepit, and that in the reign of Domitian : as indeed it were easy to collect from various passages in his own Institutiones, o Cap. 32. Cf. 31. Cf. Eusebius, E. H. iv. xvi. 136, 137. p Vita, 11. See also 10. and Dio, lxxi. 35. |