thentic, Hadrian had not long left Egypt, on some recent occasion, before the adoption of Verus; the time of which was either U. C. 888, or U. C. 889: though Eckhel, on the faith of an inscription in Gruter, prefers the latter; and, according to Spartian, whensoever he adopted him, it was peragrato jam orbe terrarum d As Eusebius, Chronicon, loc. cit. supposes Hadrian to be in Egypt in his eleventh year, so he supposes him to be passing the winter at Athens in his thirteenth, A. D. 129 or 130. Spartian, in his account of Hadrian's journeys, mentions two visits of his to Athense: the first of which was later than a visit to Asia, and the second than some visit to Africa. But Spartian is here at direct variance with Dio: who also mentions two visits to Athens or Greece, one in Hadrian's way to the East, when he was initiated in the mysteries £, and another on his return back, when he presided at the Dionysia, and consecrated the Olympium 5. To be there at the time of the mysteries, he must have been in Greece in September; and to be present at the Dionysia, he must have been there in February or March. Spartian supposes his presence at the mysteries and at the Dionysia, upon his first visit, and as he was returning from Asia to Rome; and his dedication of the Olympium on his second visit, when he was making another progress into the East. flxix. II. There is consequently great uncertainty as to the e Tom. vi. 524. d Verus, 2. e Cap. 13. g Ibid. 16. Prosper, in Chronico, 709. supposes Hadrian to be wintering at Athens, U. C. 878. Cf. Cassiodorus, Chronicon. This last Chronicon, in fact, as it stands at present, asserts or implies Hadrian's being at Athens, under the following consuls: Verus and Ambiguus (Ambibulus) A. D. 126: Gallicanus and Titianus, A. D. 127: Pompeianus and Commodus, A. D. 136: under which last it places his dedicating of various buildings there, and presiding as agonotheta, &c. Three years earlier, under Hibertus (Hiberus) and Silanus, A. D. 133, it places the cessation of his persecution of the Christians; which would imply the presentation of the apologies of Aristides and Quadratus to him and his rescript to Fundanus, about that time. At this time too Hadrian might be returning from or going to Egypt. true time and order of these different visits to Athens or Greece to discuss which, at any length, is not my intention. I will observe only, it is equally probable that Hadrian would stop at Athens, whether on his way to, or on his return from, the East; and therefore, it is equally probable that he might be initiated in the mysteries, as Dio supposes, on his way into the East; or as Eusebius and Spartian suppose, when he was coming back to Rome. On the same occasion, and after the initiation in question, Quadratus and Aristides, if Eusebius and Jerome are to be believed b, must have presented their apologies to Hadrian *: and it is a singular coincidence that the letter, above referred to from Vopiscus, certainly exhibits sentiments not unfavourable to Christianity. The effect of those apologies was to stop an incipient persecution: and the time when they were presented might be between the eleventh and the fifteenth of Hadrian. Philostratusi tells us that Hadrian consecrated the Olympium at Athens, δι' ἑξήκοντα καὶ πεντακοσίων ἐτῶν ἀποτελεσθέν. Now, Harpocration, under the article * Eusebius, it is true, Chronicon Armeno-Latinum, falls into the absurdity of supposing a double initiation of Hadrian's; once in his eighth, and again in his thirteenth. The same is true of Jerome in Chronico also. And they place both the apologies in question at the time of the former. But, so far as regards the circumstance of their being presented when Hadrian was initiated, they might just as well be placed after the latter. † See also the life of Alexander Severus, by Lampridius, 43: whence it appears that some time or other Hadrian thought of deifying Christ. His rescript to Minucius Fundanus, proconsul of Asia, forbidding the punishment of the Christians out of deference to mere popular clamour, is quoted by Justin, Apologia Prima, ad finem; Cf. Eusebius, E. H. iv. viii. ix: and by Eusebius and Jerome (in Chronicis) is placed in the same year when he received the apologies of Quadratus and Aristides. Xiphilinus reckons Hadrian and Antoninus Pius among distinguished protectors of Christianity, lxx. 3. Eusebius, Chronicon Armeno-Latinum, Ad annum 2140: Hieronymus, iv. iida, 109. De SS. Ecclesiasticis, xix. xx. Ibid. ad principium, Epist. 83. Cf. Eusebius, E. H. iv. 3. i Vitæ Sophistarum, i. 532. C. Polemo. TрожÚλαια, mentions from Philochorus that the propylæa, at Athens, were begun, èπì Ev0vμévovs, B. C. 437. It is well known that the Peloponnesian war k interrupted, by its occurrence, the progress of these or similar undertakings. The same passage of Harpocration quotes the first book of Heliodorus, Teρì Tis Αθήνησιν ἀκροπόλεως, to shew that the propylæa were finished in five years; (Cf. Suidas, in πporúλaia;) consequently B. C. 432, having cost 2012 talents: which so far agrees with Thucydides. It is not improbable that the Olympium was begun immediately after the completion of the former work; and had therefore been going on one year, when it was stopped by the war *. If Philostratus' date is to be depended on, the completion of the temple, 560 years after B. C. 431, would fall out A. D. 129 or 130 in the thirteenth of Hadrian, when Eusebius supposes him to have been wintering at Athens, and at the same time building or dedicating various public works there. So likewise Jerome, in Chronico, under the same date or the sixteenth. It is not unlikely that Hadrian's first visit to Egypt might be paid about the time of that visit to Africa, which Spartian placed between the two visits to Athens. We may probably infer that he did not visit Africa for the first five years of his reign, if it be *This conjecture derives some support from the testimony of Dio Chrysostom, Oratio ii. Tepi Bavideías, 85. 10-15, who classes them both together; unless indeed by Ολύμπιον he means the statue of Jupiter Olympius. But that was made at the expense of the Eleans, see Oratio xii. 399. 39.412. 35. * Thucydides, ii. 13. Strabo speaks of the Olympium as still unfinished in his time, ix. i. §. 17. 364. So also Dicaarchus, in his βίος Ελλάδος, where he is describing Athens: 'Oλúpπιον, ἡμιτελὲς μὲν, κατάπληξιν δ' ἔχον τὴν τῆς οἰκοδομίας υπογραφήν γενόμενον δ ̓ ἂν βέλτιστον εἴπερ συνεTeλéσon: p. 22, ex editione Gulielmi Manzi, Romæ 1819. 1 Vita, 22. true that Ad adventum ejus post quinquennium pluit : nor, if we consider how many other places he had visited meanwhile, not until much later. From Spartian, 5-11. 15, and Dio, lxix. 1, 2. 7. 18, 19, we may collect that he could not have visited Britain before the fourth year of his reign; and the course of his journeyings afterwards will lead to the inference that it would be four or five years more before he would be in Africa. And Spartian supposes him to come into Egypt out of Arabia, as Dio does out of Judæa m. The duration of the second Jewish war is certainly found represented at three years and six months. But so is the first; and by the same authority, the Hebrew expositors of the seventy weeks. Jerome, loc. cit.: Nec ignoramus quosdam illorum dicere quod una hebdomada, de qua scriptum est: Confirmabit pactum multis hebdomada una; dividatur in Vespasiano et in Hadriano: quod juxta historiam Josephi, Vespasianus et Titus tribus annis et sex mensibus pacem cum Judæis fecerint. tres autem anni et sex menses sub Hadriano supputantur, quando Jerusalem omnino subversa est; et Judæorum gens catervatim cæsa: ita ut Judææ quoque finibus pellerentur *. That the war was a long and a severe one is distinctly attested by Dio": that different commanders must have been employed in it, on the side of the Romans, Titus Annius, or Vinnius, Rufus, according to the rabbinical traditions *, Julius Severus, brought for that purpose, from Britain, according to Dio, is also on record. Yet Hadrian himself must sometime have been with the army, or in its neighbourhood: if, as Dio relates, in consequence of the losses sustained, he omitted in writing to the senate, the usual preamble of his epistles°; ἐγὼ καὶ τὰ στρατεύματα ὑγιαίνομevt. Now, at what time could this be, except after his first presence in Egypt or Judea? If so, it indicates some subsequent visit to the same neighbour of the Jews of Cyrene, under Trajan. The same anachronism occurs in the Paschal Chronicon, i. 474. l. 3. sqq. 475. l. 3. which places the destruction of Jerusalem in the third of Hadrian, yet his visit to Egypt, Coss. Aviola et Pansa, U. C. 875, in his sixth. * In the Armenian Chronicon of Eusebius this name is strangely corrupted; Tycinio filio Rufi, there occurring, for Titus Vinnius Rufus. Unless, indeed, the orthography of the name in full, was Titus Annius Velius Rufus. The name of Velius Rufus, as that of a well-known public character before his own time, occurs in Antoninus, De Rebus Suis, xii. 27. though, Gataker, in his notes upon the passage, throws no light upon it. Yet it might be the name of one of the Roman commanders, in the Jewish war under Hadrian; for Rufus appears to have been a military character. In the pas n lxix. 12-14. sage, quoted from Jerome, supra p. 90, he was called Titus Annius Rufus. In Chronico, ad annum Hadriani xvi. he calls him Tenius Rufus, which may be a corruption for Titus Annius Rufus, written in brief, viz. T. Annius Rufus; or simply for Vinnius Rufus. A similar corruption of the name occurs, Operum iii. 1117. ad medium, in Dan. ix. where Elius Hadrianus, it is said, rebellantes Judæos Timo Ruffo magistro exercitus pugnante superavit. + Frontonis opera inedita, pars ii. 321. De Bello Parthico: Quid avo vestro Hadriano imperium obtinente ... quantum militum a Judæis, quantum ab Britannis cæsum. We may infer from this passage, also, that the Jewish war was followed by the revolt in Britain; and therefore that, as the latter was going on, or beginning, at the accession of Antoninus, so the former was not over much before the same time. o lxix. 14. |