Though Tatian is described in ecclesiastical history as an hæresiarch, and as the founder of the sect of the (see iv. Prooemium, 2,) must have been the case. A public provision for the sophists, philosophers, and learned of the age, in general, though not necessarily in the shape of an annual salary, yet of a daily maintenance, was, in fact, of much earlier date than the reign of either of the Antonines. Philostratus, in his Life of Dionysius of Miletus, Vita Sophistarum, i. 524. C. D. tells us that among other honours conferred upon him by Hadrian, his contemporary, one was his incorporating him with τοῖς ἐν τῷ Μουσείῳ σιτουμένοις. τὸ δὲ Μουσεῖον, he proceeds, τράπεζα Αἰγυπτία, ξυγκαλοῦσα τοὺς ἐν πάσῃ τῇ γῇ ἐλλογίμους. The same distinction was awarded by Hadrian to the sophist Polemo also; Vita Sophistarum, i. 532. B. C. This allusion to the Museum, and to the privilege in question, is illustrated by Spartian, Hadrianus, 20: Suetonius, Claudius, 42. §. 7: and Strabo, xvii. 1. §. 8. 503. whence it appears to have been an institution as old as the time of the Ptolemies. The Museum was situated in Alexandria, in that part of the city which went by the name of the Bruchium; a distinguished college or seminary of learned men in every department. Cf. Ammianus Marcellinus, Lib. xxii. 16, 343, who calls it Diuturnum præstantium hominum domicilium. Eusebius and Jerome, in Chronico, record its destruction in the first of Claudius, A. D. 268 or 269, probably in consequence of the war between the Romans and Zenobia, to whom Egypt was subject pre viously. Ammianus, loco citato, perhaps more correctly places its destruction under Aurelian. Philostratus, Vitæ Sophistarum, i. 526. C. the first to preside over the Sophists' throne at Athens, was Lollianus: though whether for a stipend or not, does not appear. From what is afterwards related of Theodotus, a pupil of his, the latter is more probable. It appears, however, from the same authority, ii. 565. A. B., that the first of the emperors who made provision for the payment of the sophists at Athens, in particular, was Marcus Aurelius. It appears too, that the salary appointed there for the public instructors of the youth, was just this sum of 10,000 drachmæ, expressed in Greek by μυρίαι, or ἐπὶ μυρίαις: in reference to which we meet with the following allusions in Philostratus; first, Vitæ Sophistarum, ii. 565. A. de Theodoto: προέστη δὲ καὶ τῆς τῶν ̓Αθηναίων νεότητος πρῶτος ἐπὶ ταῖς ἐκ βασιλέως μυρίαις : and again, ibid. 588. A. de Chresto: oux αἱ μυρίαι τὸν ἄνδρα. The ellipsis in each instance is Spaxuais or δραχμαί ; the time of the first of these allusions being, as it appears, the reign of Marcus, and that of the second in particular, early in the reign of Commodus. In the reign of Severus, Apollonius of Athens is mentioned by Philostratus, as presiding over the θρόνος πολιτικὸς ἐπὶ ταλávτo: ii. 597. A. B. C. If the office thus designated was the same as that of the sophist in Encratita; yet it is also agreed that he did not fall away before the death of Justin, his master. Epiphanius supposes Justin to have suffered in the time of Hadrian; (which is palpably false;) and in the thirtieth year of his age-which probably is not less erroneous 9: but what he further supposes, viz. that Tatian his disciple founded his sect in the neighbourhood of Antioch in Syria, about the twelfth of Antoninus Pius; may possibly be true. The twelfth of Antoninus would begin, U. C. 902, at which time, or soon after it, Justin might be dead. We know no more on this subject, from Tatian's Oratio ad Gentes, than that it was written after the death of Justin, when the writer himself either then was, or had been previously at Rome". Prosper in Chronico places Justin's martyrdom, U. C. 911, and the heresy of Tatian, U. C. 924. Eusebius in Chronico places the former event about the fifteenth of Antoninus, U.C. 905 *. Jerome in the time of Marcus, the salary of the office had been diminished by the reign of Severus; for one talent was scarcely two thirds of 10,000 drachmæ. It would be easy to illustrate the continuance of the office of sophist, in the principal cities of the empire, and of a salary, greater or less, attached to it, through the reigns of succeeding emperors down to the time of Constantine. We find mention made of the payment of a talent, or ini pupiais, by individuals, for the privilege of hearing particular sophists; as, for instance, by Damianus of Ephesus, in order to become the disciple of Ari stides of Smyrna, and Hadrian of Ephesus: Philostratus, ii. 602. A. B. In later times, many curious particulars might be collected from Eunapius' Lives of the Sophists, to illustrate the above observations. See especially, his Proæresius, 74. 79. 89. Cf. Julianus, 68. 69. 73. Maximus, 52: and Suidas, in Aidería. * Yet in his Ecclesiastical History he dates the martyrdom of Justin about the same time with that of Polycarp; viz. the seventh of M. Aurelius: E. H. iv. xvi. 136. B. Cf. also iv. xxix. XXX. which places the acme of Tatian in the reign of M. Aurelius. a Operum i. 391. A—D. Tatiani, i. Cf. Theodorit. Operum iv. 311. Hæreticarum Fabularum i. 20. r Cap. 56. Chronico places the death of Justin in the thirteenth of Antoninus Pius, and Tatian's heresy in the twelfth of Marcus Aurelius, in which year Eusebius on the contrary, places the rise of Montanism, or the Cataphrygian heresy. Notwithstanding this difference of dates, for the time of the death of Justin, or for that of the rise of the sect of the Encratitæ, I see no reason to question our original position; which is the supposed date of Justin's first Apology, U. C. 899. IRENEUS That our Lord was baptized at thirty; that the preceding thirty years of his life were spent in inactivity; that his ministry lasted one year; are opinions repeatedly ascribed by Irenæus to the Valentinians. See lib. i. cap. i. p. 9. 1. 5: p. 15. l. 16: p. 16. 1. 24. lib. ii. cap. x. 130. 1. 16: cap. xv. 134. 1. 28, &c. With respect to this last opinion however; the absolute length of time between the commencement of our Lord's ministry, and the ascension into heaven, must have been considered by these followers of Valentinus, an interval of two years and eight months; which very nearly implies a ministry of three years' duration *. I ground this assertion on the following pas * It would equally nearly approach to the period of the three years in question, if the statement which occurs in Ambrose, Operum ii. 951. A. B. Epistolæ, xl. §. 16. in his letter to the emperor Theodosius, that the Valentinians recognised thirtytwo Eons, might be implicitly taken for granted: Licet gentiles duodecim deos appellent, isti triginta et duos Æonas co lant, quos appellant deos. It is true, our other authorities for the opinions of the Valentinians, Irenæus, Tertullian, Epiphanius, Theodorit, represent the number of Eons, recognised by them, to be thirty and the editors of Ambrose think the other two may be accounted for by supposing him to include among the rest, the Sige and Bythus, out of which the Eons of the Va s Cf. De SS. Ecclesiasticis, xxix. Operum iv. Pars iia. 111. Jerome dates the rise of Montanism the year before. sages: καὶ τοὺς λοιποὺς δεκαοκτὼ Αἰῶνας φανεροῦσθαι διὰ τοῦ μετὰ τὴν ἐκ νεκρῶν ἀνάστασιν δεκαοκτὼ μησὶ λέγειν διατετριφέναι αὐτὸν σὺν τοῖς μαθηταῖς. Cf. p. 112. 1. 22. cap. xxxiv. where the same statement is repeated: Rememoratum autem eum post resurrectionem xviii. mensibus, et sensibilitate in eum descendente didicisse quod liquidum est: et paucos ex discipulis suis, quos sciebat capaces tantorum mysteriorum, docuit hæc, et sic receptus est in cœlum, &c. The most authentic accounts of Valentinus, the founder of this sect, represent him as contemporary with Hyginus, the ninth bishop of Rome; and to have flourished in the reign of Hadrian, or early in that of Antoninus Piust. Clemens Alexandrinus tells us that he was said to have been an hearer of Theodadis, Theodas, or Theudas, who had personally known St. Paul". Notwithstanding, therefore, the errors of doctrine into which he fell, the circumstance of his coming so near to the apostolical times must give weight to his opinions concerning facts-which he might have learned, by only one intermediate link, from the testimony of St. Paul himself. And as to his errors of faith or lentinians took their rise. The number of the Eons, in any case, has respect to the number of months in the duration of the personal ministry of the Christ, between his baptism and his ascension into heaven. If the number of Æons was thirty, so was the number of months. If the former was thirty-two, so was the latter. It is however to be observed, that others of the school of Valentinus, as Ptolemæus and Secundus, added to the number of his Æons; yet according to Tertullian, De Præscriptionibus Hæreticorum, 49. Operum ii. 73. not simply two but eight more than he supposed. Cf. Adversus Valentinianos, 33-38: Ibid. 183-188. Also, Irenæus, i. 5, 6. p. 49-55. s Lib. i. v. 16. 10. t Irenæus, iii. iv. 206. l. 18: Tertullian, ii. 35. De Præscriptionibus Hæreticorum, 30: also 147. Contra Valentinianos, 4: Eusebius, E. H. iv. 10, 11. 22. 30: Epiphanius i. 164. A. Valentiniani 2: Theodorit, iv. 296. Hæreticarum Fabularum i. 7. Eusebius and Jerome in Chronico, ad Antonini Pii vi. u Opera, ii. 898. 1. 12. Strom. vii. 17. doctrine, Tertullian informs us he did not become an hæresiarch, until he had been disappointed of a bishopric. It may be inferred, also, from the following passage, that they thought our Lord was born at the same time in one year, at which he was baptized and suffered in another: Illam enim, quam circa duodecimum Eonem dicunt accidisse passionem, conantur ostendere, quod Salvatoris passio a duodecimo apostolorum facta sit, et in duodecimo mense. uno enim anno volunt eum post baptismum prædicasse *. I consider this to mean the twelfth month of his ministry; though Irenæus understands it of the twelfth month in the year, and charges the Valentinians with an absurdity accordingly. There is an end of the analogy for which this sect contended, if the ministry in question was either more or less than a year in duration. The same thing follows, if our Lord was supposed to have been baptized at more or less than the age of thirty. As they supposed him, therefore, to have been baptized at thirty complete, so they supposed him to have suffered at thirtyone complete; and consequently to have been born at the same time of the year, at which he was baptized and suffered. I cannot dismiss this subject, without taking notice of a very extraordinary opinion of Irenæus' own; viz. that though he believed our Lord to have been baptized in his thirtieth year, he did not consider him to have entered on his ministry, until he was forty or fifty. The reasons of his opinion are thus stated: Triginta quidem annorum existens cum veniret ad baptismum, deinde magistri ætatem perfectam habens, venit Hierusalem, ita ut ab omnibus juste audiretur (leg. audiret) magister magister ergo existens, x Irenæus, ii. xxxvi. 156. l. 24. ... y Lib. ii. xxxix. 160. l. 30. |