230 AURELIUS, MARCUS AUSONIUS, DECIMUS MAGNUS

speaks (Euseb. H. E. iv. 26) directly authorizingnew measures of repression. It was accordinglyan era of Apologies; Justin had led the wayunder Antoninus Pius, and the second treatisethat bears his name was probably written justbefore his own martyrdom under Aurelius. Tothe years 177 and 178 are assigned those whichwere written by Melito, Tatian, Athenagoras,Apollinaris, and Theophilus, perhaps also that ofMiltiades. The causes of this increased rigourare not difficult to trace. (1) The upward pro-gress of Christianity brought its teachers intorivalry with the Stoic philosophers, who up tothis time, partly for good and partly for evil,had occupied the position of spiritual directorsin the families in which there was any effort torise out of the general debasement. They nowfound themselves brought into contact with menof a purer morality and a nobler fortitude thantheir own, and with a strange mysterious powerwhich enabled them to succeed where othersfailed. The opposition of the Cynic Crescens toJustin (ApoL ii. 3) may fairly be looked on as arepresentative instance of what was going onthroughout the empire. Just in proportion,therefore, as the emperor was true to his Stoicism,surrounded by Stoic teachers, was he likely tobe embittered against their rivals. (2) A traceof this bitterness is found in his own Meditations(xi. 3). Just as Epictetus (Arrian, Epict. iv. 7)had spoken of the “ counterfeit apathy ” whichwas the offspring not of true wisdom, but “ ofmadness or habit like that of the Galilaeans,” sothe emperor contrasts the calm considerate pre-ference of death to life, which he admired, withthe “mere obstinacy (jrapdrai-ii) of the Chris-tians. “The wise man,” he says, “shouldmeet death aepvws ical arpayyScas” The lastword has, there seems reason to believe, a specialsignificance. Justin, towards the close of hissecond Apology, presented to this emperor, hadexpressed a wish that some one would stand up,as on some lofty rostrum, and “ cry out with atragic voice , Shame, shame on you who ascribeto innocent men the things which ye do openlyyourselves. . . . Repent ye, be converted to theways of purity and wisdom (Merddeo-fle, cr&></>po-vl<rdnre)” If we believe that his acts were inharmony with his words, or that what he wrotehad come under the emperor’s eye, it is naturalto see in the words in which the latter speaks soscornfully of the “ tragic airs ” of the Christians,a reference to what had burst so rudely uponhis serene tranquillity. (3) The period was oneof ever-increasing calamities. The earthquakeswhich had alarmed Asia under Antoninus werebut the prelude to more serious convulsions.The Tiber rose to an unprecedented height andswept away the public granaries. This wasfollowed by a famine, and the famine by a pesti-lence, which spread like the famous plague ofAthens, from Egypt and Ethiopia westward.Everywhere on the frontiers there were murmursof insurrection or invasion. The year 166 waslong known as the “ annus calamitosus,” and itwas in that year that the persecution broke outand that Justin suffered. These calamities hadat once a direct and a reflex action. They rousedthe superstition of the great mass of the people,and a wild fanaticism succeeded to an epicureanatheism. The gods were wroth, and what hadroused their anger but the presence of those who

denied them ? “ Christianos ad leones ” seemed theremedy for every disaster. The gods mightaccept that as a piacular offering. And, on theother hand, the Christians saw in them signs otthe coming judgment, and of the end of theworld; and now in apocalyptic utterances, nowin Sibylline books, uttered, half-exultantly, theirpredictions of the impending woe (Comp. Tertull.ad Scap. c. 3). All this, of course, increased theirritation against them to the white heat offrenzy (Milman’s History of Christianity , B. ii.ch. 7). They not only provoked the gods, andrefused to join in sacrifices to appease them, butthey triumphed in the miseries of their fellow-citizens.

Two apparent exceptions to this policy ofrepression have to be noticed. (1) One editionof the edict Trpbs rb Kotrbr T7)s 5 A alas, thoughascribed by Eusebius (if. E. iv. 13) to AntoninusPius, purports, as given by him, to come fromAurelius. As the edict is unquestionably spu-rious (this variation being one indication ofthe spuriousness) it does not enter into thehistory of the period except as showing thewish of some Christians, at a later stage in theconflict, to claim the authority of the philosopherin favour of his brethren. (2) There is thedecree mentioned by Eusebius ( H . E. v. 5) onthe authority of Tertullian ( ApoL c. 5, ad Scap.c. 4, p. 208) and appended to Justin’s firstApology, which purports to be addressed to theSenate, informing them how, when he and hisarmy were in danger of perishing for want otwater in the country of the Marcomanni, theChristians in his army had prayed to their God,and refreshing rain had fallen for them, and a de-stroying hail on their enemies, and bidding themtherefore to refrain from all accusations againstChristians as such, and ordering all who so ac-cused them to be burnt alive. The decree ismanifestly spurious. The history of the factsconnected with it will be found under LegioFULMINATRIX.

An interesting monograph, entitled M. AureliusAntoninus als Freund und Zeitgenosse des RabbisJehudas ben Nasi, bvDr. A. Bodek (Leipzig, 1868),may be noticed as maintaining that this emperoris identical with the Antoninus ben Ahashuerus,who is mentioned frequently in the Talmud, andwhom the writer shows to have been on terms ofintimacy with one of the leading Jewish teachersof the time. If this hypothesis be accepted, itsuggests another possible element in his scornof Christianity. [E. H. P.j

AURELIUS, Martyrs. (1) A reader, andconfessor, at Carthage under St. Cyprian, who itappears could not write (Cypr. Epist. xxxviii.Fell), and who is said to have been martyred,but possibly he is confounded with (2) an Asiaticbishop who wrote against the Cataphryges (Euseb.H. E. v. 19), placed by Baeda (Nov. 12) in Africa:see Baron. Nov. 12. [A. W. H.]

AUSONIUS, DECIMUS 8 MAGNUS, wasthe son of Julius Ausonius, a physician of Cos-siurn (Bazas), in Aquitania (Aus. Idyll, ii. 2),a man eminent for his professional skill no less

a The nomen and praenomen of the poet are not foundin the earlier authorities. One MS. has Becius, a manifesterror. In others the name Paeonius is added, probablyfrom a confusion between the poet and his father, who, aaa physician, might have been so styled.