Abercius

ON ST. ABERCIUS, BISHOP OF HIERAPOLIS IN PHRYGIA,

ABOUT THE YEAR 167

PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.

Abercius, bishop of Hierapolis, in Phrygia. (S.)

BY B. B.

§ I. Tillemont censures the Acts of St. Abercius from Metaphrastes more severely than is just. In what years the holy Prelate lived, and in what years he presided over the see of Hierapolis.

The Acts of St. Abercius, hitherto unpublished in Greek, we give from Symeon Metaphrastes; for among his genuine

writings they are, Acts written both by Metaphrastes in the judgement of Leo Allatius Diatribe on the writings of the Symeons, pp. 124 and 130. Paris, 1664, to be numbered. In Latin they appeared in print both from Lippomano and from Surius. But since these rendered word for word, being not much solicitous for elegance of speech, we have set our own version beside the Greek text. We had in hand manuscript codices, nine in all, agreeing with one another almost exactly everywhere: namely a transcript from manuscript num. 13 of the Queen of Sweden, which exists in our hagiographical Museum; another from the Coislin collection at Paris, in the royal, today imperial, Library, cod. 1480, fol. 171 verso, which in Montfaucon's judgement was written in the tenth or eleventh century; the remaining codices are found in the same Paris library among the Old Greek manuscripts, namely codd. 1484, 1494, 1495, 1501; all these belong to the eleventh century; likewise cod. 1503, fol. 140 recto, and cod. 1543, fol. 172 recto, each of which is noted as belonging to the twelfth century. Besides these codices I saw two others in the aforesaid library, which contain the Acts of St. Abercius, almost wholly agreeing in the facts both with one another and with ours, but different in diction or style, whether from one another or from ours. One codex is found among the Old Greek manuscripts, num. 1540, fol. 129 verso – fol. 151 verso, and seems to have been written in the thirteenth century; it begins: Ἐν ταῖς ἡμέραις ἐκείναις; the other is kept in the Coislin collection, num. 110, fol. 105, and belongs, if Montfaucon is to be believed, to about the eleventh century; it begins: Οὐκ ἀγώνων ἐνστάσεις μόνον μαρτυρικῶν. The Acts of St. Abercius were lately published from this latter codex by J. Fr. Boissonade in his Anecdota Graeca Vol. V, pp. 462–488. Paris, 1833, under the title Μετάφρασις εἰς τὸν Βίον καὶ τὰ θαύματα τοῦ ἑν ἁγίοις πατρὸς ἡμῶν Ἀβερκίου, Metaphrasis on the life and miracles of our holy father Abercius. The editor notes Ibid.: From the name μετάφρασις everyone will at once think that this little work was written by Symeon Metaphrastes; yet the beginning of the life which Symeon composed is different, namely Μάρκου Ἀντωνίνου καὶ Λουκίου βήρου τὴν αυτοκράτορα Ῥωμαίοις διεπόντων ἀρχὴν in Allatius. From which it is understood that our Acts had not been read through by Boissonade, otherwise he would not have said that only the Beginning was different, but also the conclusion and the whole tissue of the words. For the rest, the slight diligence he used on this matter appears from the following words: I could not consult the Latin translation which exists in Lippomano and Surius. We have, therefore, three Acts of St. Abercius from Greek manuscript codices, agreeing in the facts, different in style. Two are hitherto unpublished in Greek; Boissonade printed the other, namely the Μετάφρασις, by which word we shall hereafter designate it.

[2] and written by others, Now the question arises, which Life surpasses the others in age. It is certain, moreover, and strikes the eyes of anyone who compares the text of each, that some have shone before the others as models: for in each the same facts are narrated, and indeed in the same order or series, but in words constantly different. The μετάφρασις is shorter than our Acts; the diction is everywhere contracted, but especially when direct speech is used. Likewise in the μετάφρασις an exordium is prefixed and a conclusion follows; neither occurs in Symeon. Again, in the Acts from codex 1540 the facts are the same, the diction different, more prolix than in the μετάφρασις, more contracted than in Symeon, at least where direct speech recurs. See among the Annotations fragments from each of the three Acts. To me it is far more probable that the Life from manuscript codex 1540 is of a more recent age: for the codex itself is referred to the thirteenth century, nor have I found traces of the same text anywhere else. As regards the two other codices in which the same Life is contained, if Montfaucon is to be believed, one is not much distant from the other in age: for the one life, which begins Μάρκου Ἀντωνίνου and is Symeon's, he says is contained in a parchment codex of the tenth or eleventh century Bibliotheca Coisliniana, pp. 210 and 211; the other, which is the already often-mentioned μετάφρασις, in a codex of about the eleventh century Ibid., p. 185; which I have seen only in this one parchment. The age of the codices therefore favours Symeon Metaphrastes somewhat. Then, since, in the judgement of Leo Allatius Diatribe on the writings of the Symeons, p. 73, Symeon in general, whether the lives showed forth their author or deterred the reader by having been put together in a rude style, clothed them in his own style, the matter always remaining unchanged, so that he might attract all the faithful to the reading of them with the same beauty and one spirit, I do not well see what could have induced him to reduce the Acts of St. Abercius to another form, if the μετάφρασις, which certainly is not put together in a rude style, had been known to him. Does not the very word μετάφρασις too warn of itself that the writer had in hand Acts of which he changed only the diction, keeping the facts and their order? And such were the Acts of St. Abercius composed by Symeon. It is not improbable, therefore, that these precede the μετάφρασις in age. If, however, it should seem to anyone that the writer of each Life drew and arranged his material from more ancient acts, now lost or unknown, I should not altogether oppose it. Something similar is noticed to have happened with the Acts of St. Andrew in Crisi on the 17th of October, taken from the same Metaphrastes and the same Coislin codex 110 Compare Acta SS., vol. VIII of Oct., p. 126, nums. 8 and 9.

[3] which we publish from the former. The same Acts are found in the Paradise of Agapius, monk of Crete Παραδεισος, pp. 147–162. Venice, 1683, some things being cut off or contracted, and the diction changed according to the form of the more recent idiom of the Greeks, or, as he himself has it, μεταφρασθεὶς ἐκ τῆς τῶν ἑλλήνων εἰς τὴν κοινὴν διάλεκτον. This edition will be able to be of use for elucidating our text of Symeon, which we give from the Colbert codex of the greater library of Paris, 1484. Pierre Halloix, S.J., also prepared a Life of St. Abercius [Lives and documents of the illustrious writers of the Eastern church, vol. II, p. 1 and following. Douai, 1636]; whose material, as he himself teaches us Ibid., p. XXV, is taken chiefly from the ancient acts (say, those of Symeon Metaphrastes; our Halloix neither saw nor knew others), the Roman martyrology, the Menaeum and Menologium of the Greeks, and the annals of Baronius. This Life is illustrated with many learned notes, mention of which will more than once fall in the course of this commentary, as also in the Annotations.

[4] Tillemont hisses off, Tillemont rejects, nay hisses off, the Acts [Mémoires pour servir à l'histoire ecclésiastique, vol. II, p. 21 and following. Paris, 1701], first of all because they were written by Metaphrastes, and consequently, like the other things of the same author, they are, he says, a farrago of incredible miracles and prodigies, unless they rest on a weightier testimony than that of Metaphrastes; in particular he disapproves the Epitaph, of which he says neither the content nor the words befit a holy and aged bishop, now on the point of dying; for a similar reason he judges that it could not have happened that Abercius allowed himself to be declared by Barchasanes and the assembly of the faithful ἰσαπόστολον, or equal to the apostles: for this seems to Tillemont to be very far indeed from Christian simplicity and humility. As regards Lucilla, the daughter of Marcus Aurelius, possessed, and restored to health so prodigiously by St. Abercius, certainly one cannot stand by the sole assertion of Metaphrastes; besides, what is related of her is not so easily reconciled with the facts of contemporary history; and the same is to be said of the Letter of the same emperor to Euxenianus. Finally, there seems to be no room for Abercius between Papias and Claudius Apollinaris, bishops of Hierapolis; and if this be so, the Acts will be plainly supposititious. And from these things, adds Tillemont, it is proved enough and more than enough that Baronius rightly pronounced that there are many things in those Acts which ought to be rejected; nay, according to Tillemont, nothing at all is found in them worthy of credence. These things are now to be discussed part by part.

[5] Baronius censures less severely. First, Baronius's censure is much more benign Annals at the year 163, nums. 11–15, vol. II, pp. 214–217. Lucca, 1788. He says indeed that he contracted the Acts with the greatest brevity, since many things are known to have crept into them which are by no means approved by him; but he does not seem to doubt the holy Prelate's journey to Rome, nor the three thousand modii of corn to be furnished, and furnished, every year to the Christians of Hierapolis by the liberality of Marcus Aurelius on account of the benefit received from Abercius, who had freed Lucilla from the demon, until the times of Julian the apostate. Having received the royal diploma for this largess, to be repeated, he says Ibid., num. 14, p. 216), every year, Abercius returned to his country, and, having chosen a successor for himself, rested by a holy end; he too being taken away rather quickly, the most learned man Apollinaris … took up the administration of that church, the same Marcus Aurelius Antoninus still reigning. Baronius also recites the Letter of the same emperor to Euxinianus as it is found in the Acts. Indeed he greatly regrets that there slipped out of his hands the letter written by Abercius to Marcus, which Cardinal Sirleto had given him; which afterwards neither Baronius nor anyone else (so far as I know) recovered.

[6] Tillemont's cavils are weighed. And to return to Tillemont's censure; certainly I too would not make myself the guarantor of each and every thing that Metaphrastes has. Nor yet shall I convict of falsity any prodigy or miracle whatever because it is such and is related by Metaphrastes. Be it that it is not sufficiently proved; but it does not at once follow from this that it is a pure and simple invention or lie. As regards the Epitaph, its moral interpretation, so to speak, depends almost entirely on the mind of the reader; according as he is disposed, he will find it arrogant and smelling of vanity, or will lay down with Halloix Lives and documents of the writers, vol. II, p. 140 and following that the Epitaph or Epigram proposed is so far from being unbecoming to the gravity and holiness of the Man, that it rather commends it in the highest degree, and most plainly shows his remarkable wisdom; this he says by way of a conclusion or proposition, which he undertakes to prove at length. From things of this kind little or nothing is proved on either side. And let this be said here about the Epigram, of which mention will return below. Of no greater weight to me is Tillemont's remark that the holy Prelate, having refused money, consented to be called ἰσαπόστολον. Certainly, if the fact were established from elsewhere, it would enter no one's mind to hold it fictitious because he could not accept a designation of this kind without injury to Christian simplicity and humility. According to Suicer [Ecclesiastical Thesaurus from the Greek Fathers, in alphabetical order, vol. I, col. 1459. Amsterdam, 1682], with this title are distinguished among the Greeks both men and women eminent in piety… Thus

Constantine and Helena are called ἰσαπόστολοι … and St. Mary Magdalene ἰσαπόστολος, equal to the apostles, which is to be referred not so much to age as to works worthy of the apostles. See the Acts of St. Abercius, chap. 3. Still less valid is what is objected about Publius, governor of Lesser Phrygia: for, says Tillemont, that is a forename, and is never set down alone; then in that age there does not seem to have been anyone governor of Lesser Phrygia, which then depended on the proconsul of Asia. Let us grant both. What follows? Surely a Greek author, writing in Greek in the tenth century, could, without loss of genuineness, not keep so exactly the custom of the Latins in rendering names. Then who would assert that the man's cognomen has not dropped out? Finally Tillemont asserts too confidently that Publius is a forename; indeed it is also both a cognomen and a gentile name. From this forename, says Panvinio In Graevius, Thesaurus antiquitatum Romanarum, vol. II, col. 2032, the gens of the Publii flowed. And Pitiscus Lexicon antiquitatum Romanarum, under the word Publius: Although this forename was most common, yet the stones indicate that it was sometimes also in place of a gentile name, and hence of a cognomen, and he cites examples. But if Publius is not necessarily a forename, it is plain that Tillemont's remark collapses from its foundations. As regards the other point: is it impossible that, although Phrygia depended on the proconsul of Asia, it should yet have someone to preside over it, but with lesser authority, whom the writer of the Acts calls ἡγεμονεύοντα, and that this was Publius? Certainly Joseph Eckhel, whose equal in learning and erudition you would not easily find, about to treat of Proconsuls, Propraetors, Legates and Governors (these in Greek ἡγεμονες), prefaces in this manner [On Magistrates, sect. 2, §3. Doctrina Numorum, vol. IV, p. 229. Vienna, 1828]: Here is ample material for disputation, and that very confused and uncertain; since these names of magistrates which we have set at the head seem indeed to differ from one another, as they do differ, yet not so that one was not often put for another, whether arbitrarily or for an uncertain cause. And again Ibid., p. 238: Yet it happened that … several provinces were subjected to the authority of one man, and that over one, divided into several parts, several rulers were set; of which indeed writers and marbles offer examples here and there. And in another place Ibid., p. 245: Perhaps … someone might not vainly conjecture that the Greek cities of Thrace called their governors, who properly ought to have been called legates pro praetore, in general ἡγεμονας, in the way in which we see magistrates of every kind, who certainly had their own fixed and proper names, called both by writers and on marbles by the generic name ἀρχοντας or ἐπαρχους. From these things it is certainly clear that Tillemont's remark is not of such weight that anything can be inferred from it against the genuineness of our Acts. To this too pertains what Fr. Patrizi has on St. Luke, where he treats of the enrolment of the world ordered by Augustus On the Gospels, book III, pp. 162 and 163. Freiburg im Breisgau, 1853: ἡγεμονευοντος της Συριης Κυρηνιου, which is to be rendered without a preposition, Quirinius being governor of Syria, or, when Quirinius presided over Syria with power, certainly extraordinary power. Extraordinary power, I say, for looking after the census of citizens and allies, not the ordinary power with which the legate of Caesar pro praetore was accustomed to preside over Syria, and with which Cn. Sentius Saturninus then presided …; and in truth Luke did not call him ἡγεμονα, as he is generally accustomed to call ordinary governors Acts XXIII, 24, 26, 33, 34; XXIV, 1, 10; XXVI, 30, but ἡγεμονευοντα, by which appellation it is manifest that not only an ordinary magistrate but also an extraordinary one, and one who under whatever title exercises some power, can be designated. Compare the Annotations on chap. 2, where it will be seen that the name of that Publius is rendered in different ways in various codices.

[7] likewise the difficulties Somewhat more serious are the difficulties sought from historical concordance, yet greatly exaggerated; indeed they are easily explained. Certainly what Tillemont objects Mémoires, vol. II, p. 622 again has the appearance of a cavil, that it was first agreed between the emperors, Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus, that the former should bring his daughter Lucilla into Syria and there give her in marriage to Verus. And in very truth: He (Verus) returned to Ephesus, says Capitolinus In Verus, Historia Augusta, p. 173, to receive his wife Lucilla, sent by her father Marcus; and for this reason chiefly, lest Marcus should come with her into Syria and come to know his shameful doings: for Marcus had told the senate that he would bring his daughter into Syria. Be it so. But Tillemont himself asserts from the same Capitolinus and others Histoire des Empereurs, vol. II, p. 145. Brussels, 1732 that the marriage was promised about the year 161, and celebrated at Ephesus Ibid., p. 148 in the year 165 or 164. With these things the Acts certainly in no way conflict, nay rather agree exactly, as will become more manifest still from the solution of another difficulty proposed by the same critic, namely that in the Acts it is related that Marcus Aurelius had set out from Rome for the German war when St. Abercius arrived in the city and was staying in it. This, therefore, Tillemont convicts of falsity: for, he says Mémoires, vol. II, p. 622, it is established from the historians that M. Aurelius did not leave Rome, nor wage any war, as long as Verus was occupied against the Parthians; and the German war was put off until the return of Verus from the East and the year 166. But first, from what is presently to be said it will be plain that it is falsely asserted that Aurelius did not leave Rome during that whole time; then from coins it is shown that the Parthian war was finished in the year 165, and the Marcomannic begun in the same year (of which, however, there neither is nor can be mention in our Acts), although the emperors set out only in the following year [Eckhel, Doctrina Numorum, vol. VII, p. 48 and following. Likewise Tillemont, Histoire des Empereurs, vol. II, p. 150]. But these things must now be treated somewhat more at length, so that it may appear more clearly that the contemporary history is easily reconciled with St. Abercius's Roman journey and the marriage of Lucilla.

[8] from contemporary history, Annia Lucilla, as the coin of the Byzantines calls her, was born Eckhel, Doctrina Numorum, vol. VII, p. 98 in the year of the City's founding 900, or a little before… Betrothed by her parents, namely Aurelius and the younger Faustina, to L. Verus, and in the year of the City 917 sent to her betrothed, at the time when he was distracted by the Parthian war, her father escorting her as far as Brundisium, and Verus hastening from Syria to Ephesus to receive her. Her husband having died in the year of the City 922, to whom rumour said she had administered poison, she was married off by her father to Claudius Pompeianus, etc. Lucilla, therefore, by the more common reckoning, was born in the year of Christ 147, married in the year 164; Verus died in the year 169 L'Art de vérifier les dates, in the Chronology of the Consuls, pp. 328 and 329. And these things agree exactly with the Acts, where in chap. 3 one reads thus: Lucilla, sixteen years old, had been betrothed to Lucius Verus … whom M. Aurelius Antoninus had already sent into the East… And it had been agreed between them that on a fixed day Lucius from the East and Antoninus from Rome should come to Ephesus, where … he should hand over the girl to Lucius… When, therefore, Lucius, as had been agreed, was sailing in haste to Ephesus, Antoninus, his daughter having been seized by a demon, not knowing which way to turn, protracted the time, an excuse being given, writing to Lucius: that the Germans, having crossed the Rhine, were laying waste the cities and towns of the Romans; that he could not therefore, as had been agreed, come now with his daughter to Ephesus, but only in the following year. Having received these letters from the emperor in the middle of his voyage, Lucius, affected with great grief, bore it most hardly, and returned to Antioch. Would you not say that Metaphrastes had had under his eyes the words which I have copied from Eckhel? Nor need one labour either about the setting out of M. Aurelius into Germany, since this was not seriously in question, but was only used by the emperor Aurelius for the sake of protracting the time and by way of excuse. Certainly in this place there is nothing in the Acts that is not most rightly reconciled with the monuments of contemporary history. But below the difficulty returns, at the end of the same chapter 3; where, after the arrival of St. Abercius in the City has been narrated, it is said that the holy Prelate was first brought to the prefect Cornelianus; and it is added: He (Cornelianus), since the emperor Antoninus had undertaken an expedition against the barbarians who, having crossed the Rhine, were laying waste the lands of the Romans, brings him to Faustina Augusta. Standing by these things which I have recited above from the same Acts, it could be admitted that M. Aurelius, when St. Abercius arrived, was indeed not at Rome, and yet had not for that reason set out into Germany; since he had only alleged that he was to undertake this expedition (an excuse being given) in order to conceal Lucilla's calamity from Verus. For the rest, in the year 162 Germany was disturbed by the Chatti breaking in Eckhel, vol. VII, p. 49, against whom Aufidius Victorinus was sent Tillemont, Histoire des Empereurs, vol. II, pp. 145 and 146. And when L. Verus had set out into Syria, M. Aurelius first stayed at Rome, then, having learned that Verus, having undertaken the journey against the Parthians, was ill at Canusium, hastened to see him. So Eckhel from Capitolinus Doctrina Numorum, vol. VII, p. 49. I should think that from these things the difficulty objected by Tillemont altogether falls, and that the Acts are rather, and not a little, confirmed by it. Compare Baronius Annals at the year 163, vol. II, pp. 214–216.

[9] and the letter of M. Aurelius, With better right Tillemont censures the letter of Marcus Aurelius to Euxinianus contained in the Acts, by which St. Abercius is called to Rome to bring help to Lucilla. In it there is question of the calamity which had befallen Smyrna from an earthquake; but this did not happen before the year 176 Histoire des Empereurs, vol. II, p. 164, when consequently Verus had long since been dead. Pierre Halloix admits Vol. II, p. 117 that the letter treats of the fall of Smyrna and its restoration by Marcus Antoninus, which calamity Aristides and Dio Cassius mention. Eusebius ties it to the year 179 according to Tillemont Histoire des Empereurs, vol. II, p. 164, the Paschal Chronicle to the year 178 Vol. I, p. 489. Bonn, 1821. In the Chronicle of Eusebius, in the recension of Scaliger and of Angelo Mai, one reads under the year of Christ 180: Smyrna, a city of Asia, fell in an earthquake, for whose restoration an immunity from tributes for ten years was given; and in the same year the death of M. Aurelius is noted: Antoninus perishes of a fever in Pannonia. Vallarsi has the following year, namely 181. Tillemont thinks, as I have already said, that it did not happen before the year 177. But whichever of these years be assumed, that calamity of Smyrna can in no way be referred to the beginnings of the reign of M. Aurelius,

which nevertheless is what is found in the letter; whence its credibility too totters greatly, nay, it must be called fictitious. Fabricius also Bibliotheca Graeca, vol. V, p. 507. Hamburg, 1795 calls it probably feigned and spurious. For my part I know that frequent earthquakes are recorded in Asia under Tiberius Eckhel, Doctrina Numorum, vol. VI, p. 192 and other Roman emperors, by name Titus Antoninus Histoire des Empereurs, vol. II, p. 130 and M. Aurelius. A letter of the latter to the Commune of Asia is recited in the Paschal Chronicle Vol. I, p. 485 at the year 169, in which it says thus: Of the tremors of the earth, moreover, which you have felt or are feeling, it would be inept to remind you, that you indeed, when they happen, are in despair; but they (the Christians), if we compare their state with yours, are filled with even greater hope towards their God. Yet from all these things the letter of the same emperor to Euxenianus, as it is found in our Acts, is not vindicated; since the calamity of Smyrna is too expressly indicated in it: what you lately did at Smyrna by our order to relieve the calamity that arose from the earthquake. For we nowhere learn that that city suffered anything more grievous from the preceding shakings of the earth.

[10] and sought from the series of the bishops of Hierapolis. Finally Tillemont objects that there is scarcely, nay not even scarcely, a place for Abercius in the series of the bishops of Hierapolis. On the witness, he says Mémoires, vol. II, p. 622 and following, of St. Jerome, St. Irenaeus (who died at the beginning of the third century) was a disciple of St. Papias, bishop of Hierapolis. The latter, therefore, must be said to have lived when the second century was not a little advanced. It must also be supposed that St. Abercius, when he came to Rome in the year 163, had already held the mitre for some years. But from elsewhere it is established from Eusebius that St. Apollinaris sat at Hierapolis in the year 171, and that therefore Halloix was compelled to ascribe the death of St. Abercius to the year 165: for between his episcopate and that of St. Apollinaris a place must be found for another Abercius, who according to the Acts succeeded the former. How, Tillemont subjoins, are these things to be reconciled with the history of St. Abercius? Who came to Rome before the marriage of Lucilla, celebrated about the year 163; and on his return preached in Syria and Mesopotamia, and, having returned to Hierapolis, taught the faithful there for some time, wrought many miracles, composed a book, etc. After this no one would easily believe that he ended his life in the year 163. Finally, how could he preach in Syria and Mesopotamia in the two years immediately preceding, since the Parthian war was then chiefly blazing? So Tillemont, whose argumentation certainly wavers on more than one head. And first indeed, since, in Tillemont's own judgement Ibid., vol. III, p. 79, Irenaeus was born in the year 120 (Du Pin alone, but altogether wrongly, set down the year 140 Ceillier, Auteurs ecclésiastiques, vol. VII, p. 629), an ample space is found in which he could have been a disciple of St. Papias without its interfering in the least with the episcopate of St. Abercius. Suppose that Irenaeus, at twenty years of age, heard Papias, bishop of Hierapolis; we shall come to the year 140. There is certainly nothing in this which is not most rightly reconciled with the age of St. Abercius. Hence it follows also that the latter, when he came to Rome, could already have presided over the see of Hierapolis for several years. Next, Eusebius in the Chronicle according to Vallarsi Migne's Patrologia Latina, vol. XXVII, p. 629 writes, not at the year 171, as Tillemont has it, but at the year 175: Apollinaris of Asia, bishop of Hierapolis, is held distinguished. Scaliger and Mai set down the year 172; Samuel the Armenian 173 [Chronicle of Eusebius, by Angelo Mai and John Zohrab. Milan, 1818. At the end, p. 59]. Elsewhere we have already seen that the copies of the Chronicles of Eusebius and Jerome depart not a little from one another in the series of years, so that nothing at all certain can be established from them for our subject. Compare the Acts of St. Mark. Besides, from the fact that Apollinaris was called bishop in the year 171, the death of St. Abercius will not therefore necessarily be set in the year 165. Why should it not be put off two or three years? For there is no need to give the other Abercius five or six years, since any space, nay even of one year or one month, suffices for the Acts to keep their credit on this side. These things being granted, nothing certainly prevents the holy Prelate, returning from Rome, from having travelled through Syria and Mesopotamia. Nor does the fury of war, however savage, of itself keep bishops from instructing and exhorting the faithful. Add that Abercius was in favour with the emperors, and could therefore more easily penetrate wherever he wished. The objections of Tillemont, therefore, are not such as greatly to shake the credibility of the Acts as to their substance; rather they are not a little confirmed by their remarkable agreement, which we have built up, with the monuments of contemporary history.

[11] Of the episcopate Certainly I consider the episcopate of St. Abercius placed beyond all doubt. Baronius Annals, vol. II, p. 214 and following, although he censures some things in the Acts, numbers St. Abercius among the prelates of Hierapolis; so too the Menaea of the Greeks, the Menologium of Basil, the Roman Martyrology; likewise Le Quien, who besides adds this conjecture Oriens Christianus, vol. I, col. 834 and 835: Since, therefore, Abercius flourished under Marcus Antoninus and Lucius Verus, as is related at the beginning of his life, why should he not be the Abercius Marcellus to whom Apollinaris of Hierapolis dedicated the book against the Cataphrygians, written at his command? So that consequently Apollinaris was then only a presbyter of Hierapolis, who at the command of his bishop drew his pen against those sectaries: Ἐκ πλείστου ὅσου καὶ ἱκανωτάτου χρὸνου, ἀγαπητὲ Ἀβέρκιε Μάρκελλε, ἐπιταχθεὶς ὑπό σου συγγράψαι τινὰ τὸν λόγον. He calls Abercius beloved, according to the custom of that time, in which presbyters were not so very much inferior to bishops. Nothing occurs to me that forbids supposing so, unless we say with Tillemont that the heresy of the Cataphrygians or Montanists first arose in the year 171 Mémoires, vol. II, p. 623. But from another place of the same writer Ibid., p. 666, where he treats expressly of the origin of that sect, it seems that nothing certain can be established about it, and that there are not lacking those who tie the beginnings of the Cataphrygians to the year 126, or the year 142, or 156. However that may be, it is plain that to Le Quien the episcopate of St. Abercius was by no means doubtful; but in what or how many years he presided is not ascertained.

[12] and of the years of the life of St. Abercius. Yet that we may say something about the time in which St. Abercius either lived or presided, we may use these chronological marks. First, from the Epitaph we have it that the holy Man lived seventy-two years; next, that he, and that while he was bishop of Hierapolis, was at Rome in the year of Christ 161 or 162 (see above num. 6); finally, that Apollinaris already presided over the same see, from the Chronicle of Eusebius, (according to Tillemont) in the year 171, (according to Scaliger and Mai) in the year 172, (according to Vallarsi) 175. Compare num. 8. Besides, a place must be given for another Abercius, between ours and Apollinaris. If, therefore, with Mai we assume the year 172, and with Halloix Second century, p. 53 give five other years to the second Abercius, the death of our holy Prelate will fall in the year of Christ 167, and consequently he will have been born in the year of the Lord 98; but each number will have to be changed a little if we prefer other years of Eusebius, or do not attribute so much to that other Abercius. St. Abercius, therefore, would have come to Rome in the 65th or 66th year of his age. As regards the years of the episcopate, it is more difficult to fix any limits, because its beginning lies almost entirely hidden. The hinge of the whole matter turns on the year of the death of St. Papias, of which Henschenius writes on the 22nd of February Acta SS., vol. III of February, p. 287: How long (Papias) presided as bishop over the church of Hierapolis, or in what year of his age, of his see, and of Christ he died, we do not read. St. Abercius was afterwards bishop of the same see, who flourished chiefly under the emperors Marcus Antoninus and Lucius Verus. According to Tillemont Mémoires, vol. II, p. 299, St. Papias did not long survive the year of Christ 150, if any credence is to be had in the Acts of St. Abercius. Eusebius in the Ecclesiastical History relates [Book III, chaps. 34, 35 and 36. Patrologia Graeca, vol. XX, col. 286 and following] that, of the Roman pontiffs, Clement departed this life in the third year of the aforesaid emperor (Trajan) (the hundredth of Christ Tillemont, Histoire des Empereurs, vol. II, p. 70);… Symeon too … having died, a certain Justus, a Jew, took up the see of the bishopric of Jerusalem… At the same times Polycarp flourished in Asia… Papias too, bishop of Hierapolis, was celebrated in the same age. And of these, in the Chronicle of the same Eusebius, Mai being editor, at the year of Christ 108, of Trajan 10, one reads: Simon … who had held the bishopric at Jerusalem, is crucified, whom Justus succeeded. And at the year of Christ 111, of Trajan 13: After Justus, Zacchaeus took up the bishopric of the church of Jerusalem. Compare the Acts of St. Mark on this day, where we said that the numbers of the Chronicle are not much to be trusted, since they are marked variously in various editions, and those the more approved; yet if they do not indicate the years accurately, at least they determine the age. Finally, the martyrdom of St. Polycarp is set by some about the year of Christ 166 Ceillier, Auteurs ecclésiastiques, vol. I, p. 675, by Eusebius in the Chronicle at the year 168, by Bolland at the year 169; who adds Acta SS., vol. II, 26 January, p. 693: Polycarp was great in age and not much less than a hundred when he suffered martyrdom. Those, therefore, who are related in Eusebius's History to have flourished at the same times as Papias died in very different and distant years. And since nothing suggests that Papias reached the long age of Polycarp, this at least follows from what has been said, that no small space of time is left for the episcopate of St. Abercius, and that there is nothing to forbid his having ascended the chair of Hierapolis either in the year of Christ 150 or even earlier. Compare Baronius and Pagi, who treat of St. Papias, the former at the year 118, the latter at the year 116 Annals, vol. II, p. 78. Lucca, 1738. Let it be permitted, therefore, to conclude from what has been disputed so far that the Acts of St. Abercius are of far better mark than repute, since in them (if, however, you except the letter of M. Aurelius) there is nothing which is not most easily reconciled with contemporary history, nay agrees with it most rightly. Be it that some wonders are either to be cut off or to be established by firmer testimony; but the body of the narrative, so to speak, I should not think will be so easily repudiated by men of sense.

§ II. The memory of St. Abercius in the Menologies, Synaxaries and Martyrologies. His writings and Epitaph.

His memory in the Menologium of Basil, In the Menologium of Basil these things are read on this day, the 22nd of October: The commemoration of the holy and equal-to-the-apostles

father Abercius, bishop of Hierapolis. Our holy father Abercius flourished under the emperor Marcus, bishop of Hierapolis ordained by the holy apostles (which everyone sees is certainly chronologically absurd), a most celebrated worker of miracles. And when the demon wished to tempt him, entering into the emperor's daughter, he brought it about that she sought the Saint, that she might be healed by him. Summoned, therefore, by letter from the emperor, he came to Rome. And he commanded his servant to put vinegar, fish-sauce and oil into one and the same skin, from which, if the Saint ordered anything to be drawn for him, each (flowed) separately and by itself; but if the servant dared to take for himself by stealth, they flowed mingled. When, therefore, he had come to Rome, the emperor's daughter having been freed, he commanded the demon to carry to Hierapolis a stone altar which lay in sight: You, he said, were the cause of my so long a journey as far as Rome; and I command you to take up the stone and set it upon my tomb. Which also came to pass. And the Saint, having passed the rest of the time of his life most holily, departed to the Lord. Almost the same things are found in the Menaea, except that (and rightly indeed) no mention is made of his ordination made by the apostles. The narrative is also contracted: He also ordered that a very great stone be carried by the demon from the city of Rome into Phrygia, which he also fixed on his tomb in place of a column. And it is added: The same (Abercius) also by praying drew forth hot waters from the bowels of the earth. In the manuscript Menologium from the library of Friedrich Lindenbrog, which seemed to Papebroch to have been of the church of Constantinople, there is also announced τοῦ ἐν ἁγίοις πατρὸς ἡμῶν Ἀβερκίου. Again in the Menologium of the Greeks of Sirleto, which Canisius published Thesaurus Monumentorum, vol. III, p. 481. Amsterdam, 1725, it is found thus: The birthday of St. Abercius, bishop of Hierapolis. He, being bishop of Hierapolis of Phrygia Salutaris, in the reign of the emperor Marcus Antoninus, a worker of miracles and of many cures, illustrious in life and holiness, departed to the Lord. But this Menologium does not exist in Greek, but was excerpted from the printed and manuscript Menaea, as Papebroch says in very many places, and that with slight labour. For the rest, what has been recited so far agrees altogether with the Acts, except those things which concern his ordination.

[14] the Menaea and Synaxaries, In the Menaea the following little verses are read:

Εἰκάδι δευτερίῃ Ἀβέρκιος ᾤχετο γαίης

On the twenty-second Abercius departs from the earth;

two others are more obscure:

Δοὺς Ἀβέρκιος χοῦν χοΐ θνητῶν νόμῳ, Θεὸς θεῷ πρόσεισι, τῷ φύσει, θέσει,

which Halloix, namely so as to render the Greek iambic senarii into Latin in the same metre, translates thus Vol. II, p. 146:

Abercius, giving dust to dust by the law of mortals, A God passed to God and stood near, But a God by adoption, to a God by nature.

The former little verse is rendered clearly and almost word for word; the latter would be translated more briefly and more clearly: A god by adoption (θεὸς θέσει, for I do not see what else this latter word could signify) hastened to God by nature. Halloix also notes that, to satisfy the metre, the former must be arranged thus: Ἀβέρκιος δοὺς χοὺν χοἳ, θνῃτῶν νόμῳ. Similarly the little verse too which I put in the first place, that it may be heroic, needs the addition of the Article, in this way: Εἰκάδι δευτερίῃ ὁ Αβέρκιος ᾤχετο γαίης. In the Synaxaries or Menologies of Jerusalem and of Chalcopolis, both of which Augustin Scholz published, one also reads on this day: τοῦ ἐν ἁγίοις πατρὸς ἡμῶν ἀβερκίου, ἐπισκόπου ἱεραπολεως, of our holy father Abercius, bishop of Hierapolis. Scholz notes, however [Commentary on the Menologies of two Greek codices of the royal library of Paris, pp. 4 and 5. Bonn, 1823]: These Menologies praised above are kept at the end of the Greek codices of the royal library of Paris which are numbered 53 and 79. I have taken care to have printed all the feast-days of the Menologium of codex 53 in the text, and those of the Menologium of codex 79, where they differ from the former, in the lower margin. Since, therefore, nothing is noted in the margin at the 22nd of October, it is plain that the two agree with one another. In the Typicon of St. Sabas Abercius, bishop of Hierapolis, is also marked. In the Synaxary of the Ruthenians, which is peculiar to the diocese of Kiev and also used by the Muscovites, in the translation of George David, missionary S.J. residing at Moscow in the year 1688, there is announced on the same day: Of our holy father ἰσαποστόλου Ἀβερκίου, bishop of Hierapolis, wonder-worker. Likewise in another shorter Synaxary, common to the whole Ruthenian church, which the same Fr. George David procured for Papebroch: Of our holy father Avercius (Αβέρκἳα), bishop of Hierapolis. Finally in a third, longer Synaxary, submitted later, namely on the 30th of May 1712, to the hagiographers, one reads: Of the holy and apostle-like Averkius, wonder-worker, living in the year 5656, namely of the era of Constantinople, which the Muscovites used up to the times of Peter the Great L'Art de vérifier les dates, p. XIV. Further, the year 5656 of the aforesaid era corresponds to the year of Christ 148 Ibid., p. 3. In the chronological table. The three Synaxaries praised are kept today, with other manuscripts once collected in great number by the Bollandists, in the royal Library at Brussels, num. 11329.

[15] the Martyrologies, The more ancient and classic Martyrologies of the Latins touch nothing about St. Abercius, except the Roman, where it says thus on this day: At Hierapolis in Phrygia, of St. Abercius, bishop, who was renowned under the emperor Marcus Antoninus. In the additions to Usuard in Molanus occurs this announcement: On the twenty-second day (of October), of St. Abercius, bishop of Hierapolis, who was renowned for miracles in the time of the apostles. These latter words have been badly added: For all the apostles had died many years before, as Halloix rightly notes Vol. II, p. 145, Abercius began to be renowned for miracles: since he was scarcely born when blessed John the Evangelist, the last of all to survive, departed this life. Perhaps Molanus wrongly interpreted the word ἰσαπόστολος, equal to the apostles; which certainly is not to be understood of equality of age or time, but of likeness of virtues and prodigies, especially of journeys; whence too in the Menaea, in Eulogy 4 or troparion (ῼδὴ θ᾽.), one reads: τὸν σύνδρομον τῶν θείων μαθητῶν, equal in course to the divine disciples; so indeed Halloix Ibid.: but in the Venetian edition of the Menaea of the year 1845, in place of σύνδρομον one has σύνθρονον, equal in throne In the month of October, p. 133. We saw above that in the Menologium of Basil St. Abercius is said to have been ordained by the apostles; Molanus, therefore, might seem to have followed this reading; but it is almost certain that he (he died in the year 1583) did not have in his hands that Menologium, which was brought to light much later.

[16] in some places he is called Martyr, but wrongly. It is singular that in the Graeco-Muscovite Calendars published by Papebroch at the head of vol. I of May Acta SS., vol. I of May, pp. I–LXXII: in the figured October of the Muscovites at the 22nd one has: Abercius, bishop, martyr; Papebroch adds Ibid., p. XLIX: in Possevino, ineptly enough, "Arechmus." When Papebroch thus censured Possevino, he did not yet have in his hands the greater Synaxary of the Ruthenians translated into Latin by Fr. George David, S.J., and sent to Antwerp. For in this, in place of Abercius is written Irauni (Ιραλνα): which latter word indeed could be called no less inept than Arechmus. For the rest, in the margin in the same place it is noted that it is rendered in Greek Ἀβερκίου ἰσαποστόλου. See the preceding number. But a little before, in the metrical October of the Greeks at the same day, one reads (as above, since the metrical calendar is excerpted from the Menaea):

Εὶκάδι δευτέριῃ Αβέρκιος ᾤχετο γαίης

The twice-eleventh day sets Abercius among the stars.

And Papebroch adds, not with sufficient reflection: He is also inserted in today's Roman, as bishop of Hierapolis in Phrygia and martyr under Marcus Antoninus. We have Greek Acts. This indeed is in every respect false, that our St. Abercius is called a Martyr in the Roman. Nor do I find this title given to him anywhere else except in the aforesaid Calendars. Most probably it is a confusion of names. In the Menaea on the fifth day of December P. 29 there is commemorated the holy martyr Abercius, who was consummated by the sword; where, for the rest, besides the usual two little verses, nothing more is said of him. All the more I should think he was transferred in the Calendars to the 22nd of October because in the same, on the 5th of December, mention is made of St. Sabas alone. Nor is there anything about Abercius the martyr in the Menologium of Basil.

[17] His writings That St. Abercius wrote some things is beyond doubt. But what? It is not sufficiently established today. An express memory has been left of only two; but the writings themselves are believed to have perished. And they are these: a Letter to the emperor M. Aurelius Antoninus, and a Book on Discipline. Baronius mentions the Letter, as I have already touched on above, in the Notes on the Roman Martyrology: There exists, he says, a letter of the most holy Man to the emperor M. Aurelius Antoninus, which breathes the apostolic spirit. We present it entire in the Ecclesiastical Annals, received from the most illustrious and most reverend Lord Guglielmo Sirleto, a most eminent cardinal, who keeps it, written in Greek in an ancient manuscript codex, as a pearl of great price. Which, however, is not found in the Annals. How this happened Baronius himself narrates thus Annals, vol. II, at the year of Christ, p. 163: We greatly regretted that there slipped out of our hands, we know not how, that letter written by Abercius to Marcus, which Cardinal Sirleto of pious memory … had granted us as a great gift. But if it come into our hands again, and if anyone who perhaps received it for copying shall return it, we shall put it in an appendix or in a second edition. I should not think it has been found hitherto; whence it is to be feared that it has utterly perished. Le Quien does not set out the fate of this letter quite exactly; whence it appears that he had not seen Baronius's annals. Baronius, he says Oriens Christianus, vol. I, col. 833, says in the Notes that he has presented the letter of the same Abercius to Antoninus received from Cardinal Sirleto, of course from his life, which is frequent in Greek manuscript codices, especially in the collections of Metaphrastes. Which, however, is a mere supposition, nay even a false one. For in all the Acts we have seen that letter is not found, nor is mention made of it. As regards the other writing of St. Abercius: The book, says Halloix Vol. II, p. 41, was entitled Βίβλιος διδασκαλίας, Book of discipline, or on discipline; or at any rate it was a book which contained very useful teachings, its title being now unknown. Of which the Acts speak thus: Συνθεὶς δὲ καὶ βίβλιον διδασκαλίας, πάνυ ὠφελίμως ἔχουσαν, καταλείπει τοῖς ὑπ᾽ αὐτὸν πρεσβυτέροις ἅμα καὶ διακόνοις, ἵνα καὶ μετὰ θάνατον φθέγγηται δἰ αὐτῆς καὶ τρόπον τινὰ μηδέποτε ὠφελῶν παύηται, he also composed a very useful Book on doctrine or discipline, which he left to his presbyters and deacons, that through it he might speak even after death and in some manner never cease to profit them. On which words the said

Halloix rightly notes Ibid.: From which it seems to be gathered that that book contained instructions useful to presbyters and deacons concerning the due performance of their office and the instruction of the people by word and example. Such are those books which are now entitled: Instruction of priests, Pastoral Care, and others like them, through which their authors, though dead to the earth, live in the minds of men and speak with the living, and through them profit many in common. Whether St. Abercius himself wrote his Epitaph, which is presented in the Acts, is not clear enough to me. Above I touched on some things about this subject only in passing, but now it must be treated more fully, since there has very lately been some question about the Inscription of St. Abercius [Civiltà Cattolica, year 1856, vol. I, p. 685 and following; likewise vol. II, p. 83 and following].

[18] and the Epitaph, That it may be seen what things are called into question, it is necessary to write down the Epitaph as it is rendered by the learned man Dom Jean-Baptiste Pitra in the Spicilegium Solesmense Vol. III, p. 533 and following; since the controversy arose from this. I shall give other readings below in the Annotations to chap. 4 of the Acts.

Ἐκλεκτῆς πόλεως τόδε (μνῆμ᾽) ἐποίησα πολίτης Ζῶν, ἵν᾽ ἔχω καιρῷ σώματος ἔνθα θέσιν. Τοὔνομ᾽ Ἀβέρκιος εἰμι, μαθητὴς ποιμένος ἁγνοῦ, [4] Ὅς βόσκει προβάτων ἀγέλας ὄρεσιν πεδίοιστε, Ὁφθαλμοὺς ὅς ἔχει μεγάλους, κατὰ πάνθ᾽ ὁρόωντας. Οὗτος γάρ μ᾽ ἐδίδαξε (τὰ ζωῆς) γράμματα πιστά, Εἰς Ῥώμην ὅς ἐπεμψέ με (τὴν) βασιλείαν ἀθρῆσαι [8] Καὶ βασίλισσαν ἰδεῖν χρυσόστολον, χρυσοπέδιλον· Λαὸν δ᾽ εἶδον ἐκεῖ λαμπρὰν σφραγῖδα ἔχοντα. Καὶ Συρίης πέδον εἰσεῖδον καὶ ἄστεα πάντα, Νίσιβιν, Εὐφράτην διάβας· πάντας δὴ ἕωθεν [12] Ἔσχον (ἐμοὶ) συνομηγυρέας. Πίστις δὲ προσῆγε Καὶ παρέθηκε τροφὴν ἰχθὺν (δὲ μιῆς) ἀπὸ πηγῆς, Παμμεγέθη, καθαρὸν, ὅν ἐδράξατο παρθένος ἁγνῆ. Καὶ τοῦτον ἐπέδωκε φίλοις ἔσθειν διὰ παντὸς, [16] Οἶνον χρηστὸν ἔχουσα, κέρασμα διδοῦσα μετ᾽ ἄρτου. Ταῦτα παρεστὼς εἶπον Ἀβέρκιος ὧδε γραφῆναι, Ἑβδομηκοστὸν ἔτος καὶ δευτέρον ἦγον ἀληθῶς. Ταῦθ᾽ ὁ νοῶν εὔξατο ὑπὲρ μου πᾶς ὁ συνῳδὸς, [20] Τύμβον (μή) τις ἐμοῦ ἕτερον ἐπάνω θήσειε· Εἰ δ᾽ οὖν, Ῥωμαίων ταμείῳ δισχίλια χρυσᾶ, Καὶ χρηστῇ πατρίδι Ἱεροπόλει χίλια θήσει.

Which the said Dom Jean-Baptiste Pitra translates into Latin thus Ibid., p. 534:

A citizen of a chosen city, I made this monument while living, That I might have here in time a resting-place for my body. By name I am Abercius, who am also a disciple of the chaste shepherd, [4] Who feeds the flocks of sheep on mountains and plains; And he has great eyes, with which he beholds all things. He indeed taught me the faithful words of life; He sent me to Rome, to see that royal city [8] And the empress, clad in golden garments and shoes. And there I beheld a people wearing splendid rings on the hand; Then I saw the plain of Syria and all its towns, Having crossed Nisibis and the Euphrates: moreover all from the east [12] I had with me of one mind in the sacred rites: for faith led forth for each And set before them food, from one fountain a fish Very great, undefiled, which the immaculate Virgin grasped And handed to her friends to eat entire: [16] And the same having good wine, and offering it mixed, with bread. These things I, Abercius, standing by, ordered to be inscribed, Being truly in my seventy-second year. Whoever attends to this will pray for me, whoever is of one mind with me. [20] Let no one place another tomb upon him who holds my bones; But if he does, he shall pay to the Roman treasury twice ten thousand gold pieces, And to my sweetest country Hierapolis a thousand.

[19] refuted by Tillemont, The Epitaph, as I have said, Tillemont disapproves and denies to St. Abercius, because neither its content nor its words befit a holy and aged bishop on the point of dying. But it may be replied that its moral interpretation, so to speak, depends almost entirely on the mind of the reader. Compare what was said at num. 5. In particular Tillemont censures the little verses in which Abercius records that he was sent by Christ to Rome to see the Empress proudly clothed and indeed shod, and the people wearing shining rings; which indeed sound of the levity and vanity of a curious man rather than of a holy man. Halloix answers Lives of the writers, etc., vol. II, p. 140: The Christians, from the fact that he said he was sent to Rome by God, saw well enough how what he added was to be taken: to see the palace of the empire or the empress, namely (to use the terms of the philosophers and theologians) not causally but consecutively, that is: since the cause was the cure of the empress's daughter, it followed thence that he saw both her and her mother Faustina the empress, and the other things that he there records. And below Ibid., p. 141: But among the heathen that declaration of the things he had seen at Rome, and that exposition of Roman magnificence in garments and rings, could not but be pleasing and acceptable. For the rest, no one is unaware that such things are of use in a poem. Nor is it clearly said in the Acts that the Inscription was composed by St. Abercius himself: And a certain squared stone (so Metaphrastes introduces it), equal in length and breadth, he makes into a tomb for himself; and the altar, which at his command had been carried there by the demon, he places on the stone, cutting on it such an epigram, τοιὸν δὲ τι ἐπίγραμμα αὐτῷ ἐγχαράξας, which certainly do not altogether show that it was not written by another, but in the name of St. Abercius; all the more because it is customary in hundreds of epigraphs of this kind for the dead man to address the passer-by, without its following on that account that the little verses were made by him. Nor does what is read at the beginning of the Inscription prove anything more: τόδ᾽ ἐποίησα ζῶν, ἳν᾽ ἔχω καιρῷ σώματος ἐνθάδε θέσιν, τοὔνομα Ἀβέρκιος, I made this while living, that in the event of death I might have a seat for my body, I by name Abercius. Which indeed are understood differently by different people, and, in Dübner's judgement Spicilegium Solesmense, vol. III, p. 533, open a wide field of guessing. Yet this is certain, that the particle τόδε, this, refers in its obvious sense to the monument, not to the epitaph. Whence in the Roman Ephemerides Civiltà Cattolica, as above, vol. II, p. 83, jesting somewhat at those who thought one should read: Τόδε (γρὰμμ᾽) ἐποίησα πολίτης: as though Abercius had prepared for himself the place of his last sleep ἐν γράμμασι: τόδε γράμμ᾽ ἐποἰησα ἱν᾽ ἔχω σώματος ἔνθα Θέσιν! Finally the words can be interpreted in the same sense: Ταῦτα παρεστὼς εἶπον Ἀβέρκιος ὧδε γραφῆναι, ἑβδομηκοστὸν ἔτος καὶ δεύτερον ἄγων ἀληθῶς: these things I, Abercius, standing by, caused to be so written, being in my seventy-second year: for it suffices, for these to be true, that Abercius took care that this epitaph, whether written by himself or by another, should be cut on his sepulchre. However that may be, it matters little enough.

[20] about which also a dispute has recently arisen. I said above that some question had arisen in our days about this Epitaph. Namely, Dom J. B. Pitra, in the Spicilegium Solesmense, where he treats of the symbolic Fish (ΙΧΘΥ) Vol. III, p. 533. Paris, 1855, published separately, from Boissonade's Acts, the Inscription or epitaph of St. Abercius, and illustrated it with notes pertaining to epigraphic and symbolic matters; and passed a judgement on the Acts (namely according to Boissonade's recension; for he had not read the Metaphrastic ones) not greatly differing from ours. In the text of the Inscription he thought certain things should be supplied or changed, with his most skilful Dübner. Our Garrucci did not approve each and every conclusion of the learned Benedictine. First of all, he adheres to Tillemont, and in my opinion more than is right, and altogether rejects the Acts Civiltà Cattolica, year 1856, vol. I, p. 688, and vol. II, p. 84, which I certainly should not dare, especially since from what was disputed at num. 10 I think it is established that the difficulties objected by Tillemont, except that which concerns the letter of M. Aurelius, are of lighter and scarcely any moment. Garrucci, therefore, separates the Epigraph altogether from the Acts, nay supposes, or rather asserts, that the latter were fabricated by Symeon from the former. Consequently he subjects the Epitaph to criticism without any account taken of the Acts; pronouncing it, as it now is, unworthy of a holy prelate, for almost the same considerations as Tillemont has, and concludes that it was corrupted and interpolated by Metaphrastes; whence he also subjoins a new reading, in which some little verses are cut out, and a text is presented different both from that which is found in the manuscript codices and from that which Dübner, Dom Pitra and others proposed. (See the Annotations to chap. 4.) And indeed he strikes out five little verses in all: namely the fourth and fifth; the former because they are words and sounds; the latter because great eyes were seen in the wall paintings of churches in the age of Metaphrastes, the tenth century, but not in the age of St. Abercius, the second or third century; likewise he strikes out the eighth, because it is unbecoming to a holy bishop; the eleventh and twelfth, because they offend against ecclesiastical discipline, etc. The emendations proposed and used by Garrucci are many, but the chief are contained in the following little verses:

Καὶ συνομηγυρέας Πέτρον καὶ Παῦλον ἔσωθεν Μαρτυρίου πέδον εἰσεῖδον. Πιστὶς δὲ προῆγε…

Which indeed depart entirely from the reading of most of the codices I have seen, and agree with none; nor is it any wonder; since Garrucci undertakes to restore the text from conjectures. For the rest, those two little verses (in Dom Pitra part of the eleventh and the twelfth) are rendered thus in the Acts: πάντας δ᾽ ἔσχον συνομηγύρους, Παῦλον ἔσωθεν· πίστις δὲ παντὶ προῆγε, I had all standing round me, Paul within; and faith was everywhere my guide. Which are certainly obscure and more or less corrupted. It is no wonder, therefore, that they are variously explained and changed or restored by various people. Further, see these and other things of that kind in the Annotations to chap. 4, where we shall give in full the readings of the Epigraph as they are variously proposed by various people. Let it suffice here to have remarked that in all the Paris codices the Epigram is found almost as it is read in the Acts to be printed below. In particular codex Colbert 1540, although, as I have already noted elsewhere at num. 2, it differs in style from Symeon, agrees for by far the greatest part in the Epigram, and nowhere favours Garrucci. So also codex Coislin 110, in which is the Μετάφρασις published by Boissonade, has the Epigram indeed mutilated, but brings forward those little verses which Garrucci rejects, and on the other hand omits some which he praises above the rest, for example λαὸν δ᾽ εἶδον ἐκεῖ λαμπρὰν σφραγῖδα ἔχοντα. But as regards the symbolic interpretation proposed by the same Garrucci, it is not for this place either to defend or to attack it; we shall touch on some things in the Annotations.

[18] yet it is approved by all as most ancient. This, however, is admitted on both sides, that the epitaph of St. Abercius is most ancient, nay belongs to the primitive

ages. It is consequently a most precious monument of tradition (for in this part, by the consent of all, it has come down to us entire) concerning the most holy sacrament of the Eucharist:

And faith went before, And set on the table the FISH (the most pure Virgin Grasped the choice one from the pure fountain of life) And gave it to her beloved to eat for all time, Having serviceable wine, ministering the drink with bread.

So, namely, it is rendered into Latin in Garrucci's dissertation. Metaphrastes is certainly to be praised, at least on this head, that he preserved the epigram for posterity by inserting it in the Acts of St. Abercius: for it is found nowhere else, so far as I know, whence no common merit arises for the Acts themselves too. To be praised also is the most diligent man Dom J. B. Pitra, who was the first to bring it out, as it were from the hiding-places of the Acts, into the public light; to be praised too is Fr. Garrucci, who, according to his custom, disputed very many things learnedly and acutely about the Abercian Inscription. Let me add the words of that excellent and above all learned man J. B. de Rossi in a letter given at Rome on the day before the Kalends of July 1855 to the same Dom J. B. Pitra, who was the first, and that again a few years ago, to make public the celebrated Inscription of Autun: And here, says de Rossi, treating of the eucharistic Fish Spicilegium Solesmense, vol. III, p. 567, there offers itself of its own accord that remarkable epigram of yours from Autun, which agrees so amicably with these excellent painted monuments of the Roman church, and floods their interpretation with so much light, that I plainly do not see what more could be required and desired. For in it, after mention has been made of baptism, these words about the eucharist are read, by the unanimous consent of all interpreters:

Σωτῆρος δ᾽ ἁγίων μελιηδέα λάμβανε βρῶσιν, Ἔσθιε, πινε… ΙΧΘΥΝ ἔχων παλαμαις

"Take the sweet food of the Saviour of the saints, eat and drink … holding the FISH in your hands." Now who could doubt that the ἰχθὺν, whether it bears bread and wine on its back, or is placed on the table with loaves, or is painted under the very hand of the consecrating priest, is Christ in the eucharist, etc. In the Pentameter a word is lacking through a defect of the stone, which is variously supplied by various people. See the Spicilegium Solesmense Vol. I, p. 557 and following, likewise the Archaeological Miscellanies of Frs. Charles Cahier and Arthur Martin, where there is inserted a very learned dissertation on this inscription of Autun, by François Lenormant Mélanges d'Archéologie, vol. III, pp. 114–137. Paris, 1853.

ΒΙΟΣ ΚΑΙ ΠΟΛΙΤΕΙΑ ΤΟΥ ΕΝ ΑΓΙΟΙΣ ΠΑΤΡΟΣ ΗΜΩΝ ΑΒΕΡΚΙΟΥ ΕΠΙΣΚΟΠΟΥ ΙΕΡΑΠΟΛΕΩΣ.

THE LIFE AND CONVERSATION of our holy father Abercius, bishop of Hierapolis.

From the Colbert codex num. 1484, folio 168 verso, in the royal Library of Paris, by Symeon Metaphrastes.

Abercius, bishop of Hierapolis, in Phrygia. (S.)

BY METAPHRASTES, FROM MANUSCRIPTS.

CHAPTER I.

St. Abercius turns the people away from impious sacrifices, breaks the images of the gods. The multitude being thereupon stirred up, he calms it, having wrought many miracles, and converts it to Christ.

Μάρκου Ἀντωνίνου, καὶ Λευκίου Βήρου, τὴν αὐτοκράτορα Ῥωμαίοις διεπόντων ἀρχὴν, δόγμα ἐπὶ πᾶσαν ἐφοίτα τὴν γῆν, ὅση τότε Ῥωμαίοις ὑπήκουε, δημοτελεῖς κελεῦον τοῖς λεγομένοις θεοῖς σπονδάς τε καὶ θυσίας ἐπιτελεῖν. Τοῦ γοῦν τοιούτου δόγματος καὶ αὐτῷ Ποπλίῳ τῆς μικρᾶς Φρυγίας ἡγεμονεύοντι τότε καταπεμφθέντος, ἦν ὁρᾶν τὴν ὑπὸ Ῥωμαίους πᾶσαν ἑορτάς τε ἄγοντας καὶ θυσίας, καὶ σπουδῇ τῷ τῶν αὐτοκρατόρων προστάγματι διακονουμένους· ἥτε βουλὴ τῶν Ἱεραπολιτῶν καὶ ὁ δῆμος, οὐδὲ οὗτοι τῆς κοινῆς ἐκείνης ἀπελιμπάνοντο τελετῆς. Αὐτὸς δὲ οὗτος ὁ νῦν ὑπόθεσις ἡμῖν ὑπάρχων Ἀβέρκιος, τὴν Ἱεραπολιτῶν ἐπισκοπὴν ἐγκεχειρισμένος, λευχειμονοῦντάς τε τοὺς πολίτας, καὶ τὰς ἀνεόρτους ἐκείνας ἑορτὰς ἐπὶ καταστροφῇ φεῦ τῆς ἑαυτῶν ψυχῆς ἐπιτελοῦντας ἰδών· καὶ τὸν μὲν ἀληθῆ Θεὸν ἀθετούμενον, εἴδωλα δὲ κωφὰ προσκυνούμενα, ψευδῆ φαντασίαν εἶναι, ἵνα τὸ τοῦ θείου Ἀμβακοὺμ φθέγξωμαι, καὶ πλάνης ἀχλὺν ἐπὶ πολλοὺς διαχεομένην· χαλεπὸν τὸ πρᾶγμα καὶ δεινῶς ἄτοπον ἡγησάμενος, καὶ οἷα ὑπὲρ ἀδελφῶν πληγεὶς τὴν ψυχὴν ἐν δάκρυσι τῷ θεῷ καταμόνας προσηύχετο· Θεὲ, λέγων, τῶν αἰώνων, καὶ κύριε τοῦ ἐλέους, καὶ δημιουργὲ τοῦ σύμπαντος τοῦ δε καὶ συνοχεῦ· ὁ ἐνανθρωπῆσαι τὸν μονογενῆ σου παῖδα δι᾽ ἡμᾶς εὐδοκήσας, ἔπιδε καὶ νῦν ἐφ᾽ ὃν ἐδημιούργησας κόσμον· μηδὲ τὴν σὴν ταύτην πόλιν, ἐν ᾗ με ποιμένα τῶν σῶν ἔθου προβάτων, καἰ ἧς τῷ ἀναξίῳ ἐμοὶ τὴν ἐπισκοπὴν ἐνεχείρισας, χειροποιήτοις οὕτω περΐιδης βδελύγμασι προσκειμένην· ἀλλἀ τοῦ ἐπισκοτοῦντος αὐτῇ τῆς ἀπάτης νέφους ἀπαλλάξας, τῷ σῷ φωτὶ προσοικείωσον.

[2] Ταῦτα ἐπὶ πολὺ τῆς ἡμέρας προσευξάμενος, καὶ ὕπνῳ δοὺς ἑαυτὸν, ὁρᾶ νεανίαν ὡραῖον τὲ καὶ καλὸν τὸ εἶδος, ῥάβδον αὐτῷ ἐγχειρίζοντα, καὶ ἐν τῷ ὀνόματί μου Ἀβέρκιε, λέγοντα, πορεύθητι νῦν, καὶ σύντριψον τῇ βακτηρίᾳ ταύτῃ τοὺς τῆς πλάνης αἰτίους. Διϋπνισθεὶς οὖν, καὶ ὅτι κύριος ἦν ὁ φανεὶς αὐτῷ καλῶς ἐννοήσας, εὐθὺς διανίσταται, καὶ θάρσους ἐμπίπλαται· καὶ παμμέγεθές τι ξύλον ἁρπάσας, ἄπεισι πνέων ζήλου καὶ ὀργῆς ἐκεῖνος παρὰ τὸ τοῦ Ἀπόλλωνος ἱερὸν, ἔνθα αἱ πλεῖσται σπονδαί τε καὶ θυσίαι διετελουντο· ἦν δὲ περὶ που τὴν ἐνάτην ὥραν ἡ νὺξ, καὶ τῇ θείᾳ πεποιθὼς ἐμφανείᾳ, πρῶτα μὲν αὐταῖς χερσὶ τὰς τοῦ νεὼ πύλας ἀθεῖ· καὶ ἐπεὶ αἵ τε κλεῖδες αὐτῷ καὶ οἱ μοχλοὶ συνετρίβησαν, καὶ αἱ πύλαι ἀνεπετάσθησαν· εἰς μέσον τὸν ναὸν εἰσδραμὼν, τὸ ἑστὼς ἑκεῖσε τοῦ Ἁπόλλωνος εἴδωλον κατέαξέ τε καὶ εἰς λεπτὰ διεῖλεν, εἶτα καὶ τὰ τῶν ἄλλων θεῶν περιελθὼν, ἐπίσης διέθηκε, καὶ οἱ θεοὶ οὐκ ἠμύναντο, καὶ τὰ κωφὰ καὶ μάταια· κωφὰ οὕτω καὶ ἄφωνα ἦν· φωνὴν μεγίστην ἀπὸ τῶν ἔργων ἀφιέντα, ὅτι μεμήνασιν ἄνθρωποι τοιούτοις οὖσι προσέχοντες, καὶ θεοὺς αὐτοὺς ὀνομάζοντες· καὶ ὅτι ταῦτα ἃ πάσχει νῦν, δικαίως ἐκεῖνα πάσχει καὶ λίαν ἐπαινετῶς. Οἱ μὲν τοι θεραπευταὶ τῶν θεῶν καὶ τοῦ νεὼ ὑπηρέται, τὰ γεγενημένα ταῦτα κατὰ πολλὴν τόλμαν ἰδόντες, μεστοὶ ἐκπλήξεως καὶ ἀπορίας εἱστήκεισαν· ὁ δὲ πρὸς αὐτοὺς ἐπιστραφεὶς, ὁργῇ τὲ δικαίᾳ ὁ δίκαιος ἀπιδὼν· ἄπιτέ, φησι, τῇ βουλῇ καὶ τῷ δήμῳ παντὶ ἀπαγγείλατε, ὡς οἱ θεοὶ ὑμῶν τῇ παρατεθείσῃ χθὲς αὐτοῖς εὐωχίᾳ καὶ αὐτῷ κώμῳ μεθύσαντες, συνέτριψάν τε ἀλλήλους, καὶ εἰς ἔδαφος οὕτω κατέσπασαν· ἀλλ᾽ ὑμεῖς εἴγε δὴ καὶ ὀλίγα φρενῶν μετέχετε, τὰ συντρίμματα τῶν εἰδώλων ταῦτα καμίνῳ παράδοτε καὶ πυρί· τάχα γὰρ ἂν οὕτως ὑμῖν οἱ θεοὶ χρήσιμοί που ὀφθεῖεν, διὰ τῆς ἀσβέστου φημὶ, τῆς εξ αὐτῶν ἐκείνων γενησομένης.

[3] Ταῦτα πράξας Ἀβέρκιος καὶ εἰπὼν, οἴκαδε ἐπανῆκε, καθάπέρ τις ἀριστεὺς κοινοὺς ἀνελὼν πολεμίους, πολλῶν ὄντως ψυχῶν ἀπωλείας αἰτίους· ἐπανελθὼν δὲ, τοὺς πρὸς αὐτὸν συῤῥεόντας ἐδίδασκεν ὄχλους, θεοσεβείας ἀληθοῦς ἔχεσθαι, καὶ βίου σώφρονος ἐπιμελεῖσθαι· ὑπὸ δὲ τὴν αὐτὴν νύκτα, οἵ τε θύται καὶ οἱ νεωκόροι προσίασι τῇ βουλῇ, καὶ προσαγγέλλουσι μὲν Ἀβέρκιον ἀναδιδάσκουσι δὲ τὰ γεγενημένα· καὶ ἅμα φωτὶ, λόγος εὐθὺς διὰ πάντων ἐχώρει, ὡς μεγάλῃ μὲν Ἀβέρκιος περιπέσοι πλάνῃ, κατεπαρθείη δὲ τῶν θεῶν, κἀντεῦθεν οὐχ ὅπως αὐτὸν, τοῖς θεοῖς καὶ τοῖς αὐτοκράτορσι μόνον, ἀλλὰ καὶ τῷ δήμῳ καὶ τῇ πόλει πάσῃ δίκας ὀφείλειν. Σπουδῇ τοίνυν πάντες ἐπὶ τὸν ναὸν ἀθροισθέντες, ἐσκέπτοντό τε καὶ ἀλλήλοις περὶ τοῦ ἀνδρὸς ἐκοινοῦντο· οἱ μὲν οὖν βελτίους τῶν πολιτῶν καὶ πολὺ τῶν ἄλλων διενεγκόντες, τοὺς δημοσίους συνεβούλευον ὑπηρέτας πέμψαι καὶ τὸν Ἀβέρκιον ἀγαγεῖν, ὑφέξοντα λόγον ὅτου χάριν τοιαῦτα τολμήσοι, καὶ τίνας αὐτῷ τοὺς συναραμένους ἔχοι· ὀυδὲ γὰρ ἐστι τῶν εἰκότων φησὶ τηλικούτοις ἐπιχειροῦντα, μὴ καὶ πλείονας ἔχειν τοὺς συνεργούς· κἀκείνους οὖν κατασχόντες, δεσμίους τῷ ἡγεμόνι σὺν Ἀβερκίῳ ἀποστελοῦμεν, ὅπως ἁξίαν γε δῶσι τὴν δίκην, ὧν εἴς τε τοὺς θεοὺς αὐτοὺς, καὶ τοὺς αὐτοκράτορας ὕβρισαν. Τοῖς μὲν οὖν συνέσει τῶν πολλῶν διαφέρουσιν, ὥσπερ ἔφημεν, τοῦτο λυσιτελεῖν ἐδόκει, καὶ οὕτω ποιητέα ἡμῖν, ἔφασαν, ἔσται· ὁ δὲ δῆμος, τὰς τε χεῖρας καὶ τοὺς πόδας καὶ τὰ πρόσωπα τῶν θεῶν ἐῤῥιμμένα κατὰ γῆς θεασάμενοι, σφόδρα τὲ κινηθέντες, ἀνόητοι (φαίη τίς) ὑπὲρ ἀνοήτων· καὶ ξύλα καὶ λίθους ἁρπάσαντες (τοιοῦτον γὰρ ὄχλος ἅπαξ εἰς ὀργὴν κινηθεὶς, καὶ οὕτως ἀλογίστῳ τῇ ὁρμῇ χρώμενος) ἴωμεν, πρὸς ἀλλήλους ἐβόων, ἴωμεν· πῦρ κατὰ τῆς αὐτοῦ βάλωμεν οἰκίας, καὶ ταύτην ὅτι τάχος ἀνάψωμεν, ὡς ἂν μὴ ἐκεῖνος μόνον, ἀλλὰ καὶ πᾶς ὅστις σύνοικος αὐτῷ καὶ ὁμόφρων κακῶς ἀπώλονται. Ἠ μὲν τοι βουλὴ δείσασα μὴ τῆς Ἀβερκίου οἰκίας ἐμπρησθείσης, αἵ τετῶν γειτόνων καὶ πολλῶν ἄλλων ἀναιτίων συμμετάσχωσι τοῦ κακου, εἶτα δίκας οὗτοι Ποπλίῳ ὑπόσχωσι, τῷ πλήθει ἑαυτοὺς διανείμαντες, κατέχαν τε ἀγριαίνοντας καὶ φλεγμαινούσας καταστέλλειν αὐτοῖς τὰς ψυχὰς ἐπειρῶντο.

[4] Ἐν τούτῳ τοίνυν διατριβῆς οὐ μικρᾶς γενομένης, αἰσθόμενοί τινες τῶν τὴν εὐσέβειαν ἤδη καταμαθόντων, ἐν πολλῷ τῷ τάχει πρὸς τὸν τοῦ Ἀβερκίου οἶκον ἐφίστανται· καὶ τοῦτον καταλαβόντες τῇ τῆς εὐσεβείας διδασκαλίᾳ τοὺς παρόντας ὡς ἥδιστα ἐν ἡμέρῳ τὲ τῇ ὄψει καὶ φαιδρᾷ δεξιούμενον, ὥσπερ οὐδενὸς καινοῦ γενομένου, φράζουσιν αὐτῷ τὴν ἐπιβουλήν· καὶ ἀντιβολοῦσι μικράν τινα χώραν δοῦναι τῇ ἀτάκτῳ ῥοπῇ, καὶ τῆς πόλεως αὐτίκα ὑπεξελθεῖν· ὡς μὴ δύο τὰ καιριώτατα, πατέρα τὲ ζημιωθῶσι καὶ ἀδελφούς· αὐτὸν δηλαδὴ τὸν θεῖον Ἀβέρκιον, ὃν εἰς πατρικὴν μοῖραν αὐτοῖς τὸ Πνεῦμα τὸ ἅγιον ἔταξε, καὶ ἀδελφοὺς ἐκείνους, οὓς εἰ οὗτος ἐπιβιώη προσάξοι τῇ εὐσεβείᾳ. Ὁ δὲ· δραπέται μὲν, ἔφη, πάντως ἂν τῶν ὑπὲρ Χριστοῦ παθημάτων ἀδελφοὶ νομισθείημεν, εἰ τὸ δι᾽ αὐτῶν παθεῖν ἀγεννῶς οὕτως ἐκφύγοιμεν· καὶ ταῦτα, τοῖς ἱεροῖς ἀποστόλοις ἐκείνου κελεύσαντος κηρύττειν σὺν παῤῥησίᾳ τὸν τῆς ἀληθείας λόγον τοῖς ἔθνεσι μηδὲ φοβεῖσθαί τι τῶν ἀβουλήτων ἕνεκεν τοῦ ὀνόματος αὐτοῦ, ἐν καιρῷ τῆς τῶν ἐπηρεαζόντων ἐπαγωγῆς· τότε γὰρ κακοπαθεῖν δι᾽ αὐτὸν, ἡδύ· καὶ τὸ ὑπὲρ ἐκείνου ἀποθανεῖν, ζωῆς πάσης ἀληθῶς ἥδιον· πλὴν ἀλλὰ πειστέον ὑμῖν οὕτω βουλομένοις, καὶ τοὺς ἑπιόντας καθ᾽ ἡμῶν φευκτέον· ἐπεὶ καὶ τοῦτο νόμος Χριστοῦ, φεύγειν ἀτεχνῶς τοὺς διώκοντας. Ταῦτα ἔφη, καὶ ἅμα σὺν αὐτοῖς ἐξελθὼν, ἄπεισι κατὰ μέσην τὴν πόλιν παρὰ τὴν ἀγοράν· ἔνθα δὴ καὶ εἰς τόπον ὃς οὕτω παρ᾽ αὐτοῖς Φραγέλλιον ἐκαλεῖτο καθίσας, τὸ κήρυγμά τε τῆς ἀληθείας ἐδίδασκε τοὺς παρόντας, καὶ τῆς τοῦ θεοῦ γνώσεως ἠξίου, ὡς ἐκείνους ἀξιοῦσθαι δυνατὸν ἦν· καὶ δεῖν ἔλεγε τὸν τῷ θείῳ βαπτίσματι τελειωθέντα, καὶ χριστιανὸν ἀξιωθέντα ἤδη καὶ εἶναι καὶ ὀνομάζεσθαι, τῶν μὲν παρόντων ἡδέων καταφρονεῖν· ἐπίκαιρα γάρ· ὀρέγεσθαι δὲ μόνης τῆς ἀθανάτου ζωῆς· ἐπεὶ καὶ μόνη ὡς ἀληθῶς αὕτη ζωὴ, ἣν τοῖς

ἀγαπᾶσιν αὐτὸν ἡτοίμασεν ὁ θεός. Ἐν ὅσῳ οὖν ταῦτα οὕτως πρὸς αὐτοὺς διελέγετο, τὸ κατ᾽ αὐτοῦ φερόμενον πλῆθος τὸ πρᾶγμα μαθόντες, καὶ ὅτι οὐκ ἠγάπησεν οἴκοι περὶ τῆς οἰκείας διεξιέναι πίστεως· ἀλλὰ καὶ δημοσίᾳ κηρύσσει καὶ παῤῥησιάζεται τὴν εὐσέβειαν, εἰς πλείονα τὴν μανίαν παροξυνθέντες καὶ θερμοτέρῳ ζέσαντες πνεύματι, οὐκ ἔτι καθεκτοὶ ἔμενον, οὐδὲ τοῖς βελτίστοις τῆς πόλεως ὑπεῖξαι οἷοί τε ἦσαν· ἀλλὰ σὺν θορύβῳ καὶ κραυγῇ κατ᾽ αὐτοῦ ὥρμων, μονονοὺ τοῖς ὀδοῦσιν αὐτὸν τε καὶ τοὺς σὺν αὐτῷ διασπαράξαι βουλόμενοι.

[5] Ἐπειδὴ δὲ ὡς αὐτόν τε ἤδη ἐγένοντο, καὶ ὄσον οὔπω τὰς χεῖρας ἐπιβαλεῖν αὐτῷ ἔμελλον, ἰδοὺ τρεῖς νεανίσκοι, πονηρῶν πάλαι δαιμόνων εἰς τὰς ψυχὰς αὐτῶν ἐνσκηψάντων, ἐκ τοῦ αἰφνιδίου περἰῤῥηξάμενοι τὰς ἐσθῆτας ἐκθέουσι τοῦ ὄχλου, τὰς οἰκείας αὐτῶν χεῖρας δάκνοντές τε καὶ στρεβλοῦντες, τοὺς ὀφθαλμοὺς διαστρέφοντες, ἀφρὸν τοῦ στόματος ἀποπτύοντες, ἄσημόν τινα καὶ ἀλλόκοτον φωνὴν ἀφιέντες· οἵ καὶ προσδραμόντες τῷ Ἀβερκίῳ· ὁρκοῦμέν σε κατὰ τοῦ ἀληθινοῦ καὶ μόνου θεοῦ ὃν σὺ κηρύττεις, ἰσχυρῶς ἐβόων, μὴ πρὸ καιροῦ βασανίσαι ἡμᾶς. Τοῦτο τῷ μὲν πλήθει τὴν ἄλογον ἐκείνην ἐπέσχεν ὁρμήν, τοῖς νεανίσκοις δὲ πέρας ἐγένετο τοῦ κακοῦ· μᾶλλον δὲ εἰ δεῖ ἀληθέστερον εἰπεῖν, ἀμφοτέροις ἔστησε τὴν μανίαν· τοῖς μὲν, τὴν ἐκ τῶν δαιμόνων· τῷ πλήθει δὲ, τὴν ἐξ ἀπαιδεύτου φύσεως κατὰ τοῦ ἁγίου κεκινημένη. Ἵσταντο οὖν πάντες ἀτενὲς αὐτὸν βλέποντες, μόνῃ τῇ κοσμιότητι τοῦ ἀνδρὸς, καὶ τῇ τῶν ἠθῶν γαληνότητι τὰς ὁρμὰς πεδηθέντες, καὶ τὸ μέλλον εἰς ὅτιοῦν ἐκβῇ περιμένοντες. Ὁ μὲν τοι θεῖος Ἀβέρκιος οὐδὲν μελήσας, εἰς εὐχὴν ἑαυτὸν τρεψάμενος· ὁ τοῦ ἁγίου παιδός σου Ἰησοῦ πατὴρ, εἶπεν, ὁ κἂν μυρίακις ἁμάρτωμεν αὐτὸς τὰ πρὸς σωτηρίαν οἰκονομῶν, δέομαι καὶ ἱκετεύω σε, λῦσαι τοῖς νεανίσκοις τὴν ἐκ τῶν δαιμόνων ἐπήρειαν, ἵνα καὶ αὐτοὶ τὸ λοιπὸν κατὰ τὸ σὸν ὦσι θέλημα πορευόμενοι, καὶ πολλοὺς ἄλλους τῷ περὶ αὐτοὺς θαύματι προστεθῆναί σοι παρασκευάσωσιν· ὥστε πάντας γνῶναι ὅτι σὺ εἶ θεὸς μόνος, καὶ οὐκ ἔστιν ἕτερος πλὴν σοῦ. Ταῦτα εὐξάμενος τῷ θεῷ καὶ εἰς τοὺς νεανίσκους ἰδὼν, πλήττει τούτων τῇ μετὰ χεῖρας ῥάβδῳ τὰς κεφαλάς· ἐν ὀνόματι τοῦ ἐμοῦ Χριστοῦ, εἰπὼν, ἐξέλθετε ἐκ τῶν νεανίσκων τούτων δαιμόνια πονηρὰ, μηδὲν αὐτοὺς λυμηνάμενα· καὶ τὰ μὲν δόξαντά τινα μεγίστην ἀφεῖναι φωνὴν, εὐθὺς ἀπηλάττοντο· οἱ δὲ τὴν κατέχουσαν αὐτοὺς τέως ὑπὸ δαιμόνων ἀχλὺν ἀποβεβληκότες, διαβλέψαντές τε μικρὸν καὶ οἷον ἀνενεγκόντες, τοῖς ἁγίοις ἐκείνου ποσὶν ἑαυτοὺς διδοῦσι, καὶ ἄφωνοι τούτων ἐπὶ πολὺ ἔχονται, ὥστε καὶ θανεῖν αὐτοὺς νομίζεσθαι παρὰ πάντων· αὐτὸς μὲν τοι λαβόμενος ἑκατέρου τῆς δεξιᾶς, νήφοντας αὐτοὺς διανίστησι· καὶ οἱ μὲν ἐσθῆτας ἐπιζητήσαντες καὶ ταύτας ἐνδύντες, εἱματισμένοι τὸ λοιπὸν ἑωρῶντο καὶ σοφρονοῦντες, καὶ Ἀβερκίου μηδ᾽ ὁπωσοῦν ἀφιστάμενοι.

[6] Ὁ δὲ ὄχλος ταῦτα ἰδόντες, ὥσπερ ὑπὸ μιᾷ πάντες γνώμῃ καὶ γλώττῃ· σὺ εἶ ὁ μόνος ἀληθινὸς θεὸς, ὁ διὰ τοῦ σοῦ κηρυττόμενος Ἀβερκίου, μέγα εφθέγξαντο. Μαρτυρεῖ τῷ πράγματι καὶ ἡ ἀθρόα τοῦ πλήθους ἐκείνου μεταβολή· οὕτω κατ᾽ ἄκρας ἁλόντων τῷ θαύματι, ὡς μηδένα τούτων ἀπολεφθῆναι τῆς ἐπιγνώσεως, ἀλλὰ τῷ θείῳ πάντας βαπτίσματι προσδραμεῖν· καλὸν πάρεργον τῆς Ἀβερκίου ἐπιβουλῆς τὴν ἑαυτῶν σωτηρίαν ποιησαμένους. Πλὴν εἶναι τι τὸ μάλιστα θορυβοῦν αὐτοὺς ἔλεγον· δεδοικέναι γὰρ καὶ τρέμειν, μήποτε διὰ τὴν πολλὴν αἰσχύνην, ἣν τὸ τῶν ἁμαρτιῶν πλῆθος τῆς ψυχῆς αὐτῶν κατεσκέδασεν, ἀπρόσδεκτοι οὕτω παρὰ θεῶ διαμείνωσιν· ἀμέλει καὶ προσιόντες· δίδαξον ἡμᾶς, ἔλεγον, ἄνθρωπε τοῦ θεοῦ, εἰ ἀνεξίκακον ἡμιν ὁ θεὸς ἐπιβλέψει, ἢ ἀποδιδοὺς ἔσται ἐφ᾽ οἷς εἰς αὐτὸν ἐν ἀγνοίᾳ πεπλημμελήκαμεν, ὃ καὶ φρίττομεν, ὑπὲρ οὗ φοβούμεθα καὶ δεδοίκαμεν. Ὁ δὲ προσχὼν μεγάλῃ ὡς δυνατὸν καὶ λαμπρᾷ τῇ φωνῇ· ἄνδρες οἱ νῦν πιστεύσαντες, ἔφη, εἰ μὴ ἐπιμείνητε τοῖς παλαιοῖς ὑμῶν ἔργοις καὶ ταῖς πατρικαῖς παραδόσεσιν, ἀλλὰ πάσης ἀποστῆτε κακίας, φθόνου φημὶ καὶ μίσους, ἀκαθαρσίας, καὶ τῶν ἄλλων ὅσα πρότερον ἐν αγνοίᾳ ὄντες ἐπράττετε, ἵλεως ὑμῖν αὐτὸς ἔσται, εἰς ὃν γνησίως νῦν πεπιστεύκατε, ὃς καὶ προσκαλούμενος τοὺς ἀμαρτίαις βεβαρημένους· δεῦτε πάντες, φησιν, οἰ κοπιῶντες καὶ πεφορτισμένοι κἀγὼ ἀναπαύσω ὑμᾶς· ἔχομεν μυρία τῆς αὐτοῦ χρηστότητος ὑποδείγματα· διόπερ εἰς αὐτὸν πιστεύσαντες, αὐτῷ καὶ τὰς ψυχὰς ἀνάθεσθε πάντες, καὶ τῶν ἑλπίδῶν οὐχ ἁμαρτήσετε. Ἀλλὰ πληγὰς, εἶπον, ἐλάβομεν χαλεπὰς, ὅλους ἑαυτοὺς πρὸς ἀτόπους τοῦ βίου ἡδονὰς πάντα τὸν ἔμπροσθεν χρόνον ἀνέντες, καὶ πολλὰ ταῖς τοῦ σώματος ἐπιθυμίαις δουλεύσαντες, καὶ τὴν πονηρὰν ἔτι συνήθειαν τυραννοῦσαν ἐν ἑαυτοῖς ἔχοντες. Ἀλλὰ δράμετέ, φησιν ὡς τάχος ἐπὶ τὸν ἰατρόν καὶ νηστείαν, πόνους, προσευχὰς, δάκρυα· τὸ τὴν ἁμαρτίαν ἐξαγορεύειν, καὶ αὐτοὺς ἐκείνους τοὺς ἐνοχλοῦντας ὑμῖν λογισμοὺς καὶ πρὸς τὴν τοῦ κακοῦ πρᾶξιν ὠθοῦντας· ὃ καὶ διὰ Ὠσηὲ τοῦ θείου πολλοῖς πρότερον ὁ θεὸς χρόνοις ὀνειδίξει τοὺς Ἰουδαίους· ἵνα τί, λέγων, παρεσιωπήσατε ἀσέβειαν καὶ τὸν καρπὸν αὐτῆς ἐτρυγήσατε. Ταῦτα δὴ τὰ ἀνυσιμώτατα φάρμακα αὐτοὶ ἑαυτοῖς ἐπίθετε, καὶ οὐδὲ ἴχνος ὑμῖν τῶν τραυμάτων ὑπολειφθήσεται.

[7] Ωὕτως τοῦ θείου πρὸς αὐτοὺς Ἀβερκίου διεξιόντος, ἡ ἐνάτη τῆς ἡμέρας ὥρα πρὸς τὸ τέλος ἤδη γενομένη, τέλος αὐτῷ καὶ τῷ τῶν λόγων ἐπάγει, καὶ διέλυσεν ἐν τούτοις τὴν ὁμιλίαν· τῆς συνήθους αὐτὸν προσευχῆς ἑλκούσης εἰς ὁμιλίαν ἄλλην τοῦ ποθουμένου· ὁ μὲν οὖν ἀνέστη καὶ τὰς ἱερὰς ἐκείνας χεῖρας τοῖς κακῶς ἔχουσιν ἐπιθεὶς, ἔσβεσέ τε αὐτοῖς τὰς ὀδύνας, καὶ πρὸς τελείαν ὑγίειαν ἐπανήγαγεν. Εἶτα πᾶσιν ἐπευξάμενός τε καὶ εὐλογήσας, ἀλλὰ μὴν καὶ τοῦ ἐν Κυρίῳ φιλήματος μεταδοὺς καὶ οἷόν τινα σφραγῖδα τοῦτο αὐτοῖς ἐπιθεὶς, ὥστε καλῶς φυλαχθῆναι παρὰ τούτοις τὰ εἰρημένα, οἴκαδε σὺν τοῖς ἀδελφοῖς ἐχώρει. Τὸ δὲ πλῆθος ἐπηκολούθουν, καὶ βαπτισθῆναι ὑπ᾽ ἐκείνου ἐδέοντο· ὁ δὲ ἀποδέχεται μὲν τὸ πρόθυμον ὥσπερ εἰκὸς πολλῷ πλείονα καὶ αὐτὸς ἔχων ἐν τούτῳ τὴν προθυμίαν· ἐπεὶ δὲ μὴ καὶ τὰ τὴς ὥρας συμβαίνοντα ἦν, εἰς τὴν αὔριον τὸ βάπτισμα ἀνεβάλετο· οἱ μὲν οὖν πολλοὶ τούτων τῷ θερμῷ ἔρωτι τοῦ βαπτίσματος, οὐδὲ τὴν οἴκαδε ὑποστροφὴν ὑπομείναντες, αὐτοῦ που παρὰ τὸ δωμάτιον ἐκοιμήθησαν. Ἐπειδὴ δὲ ἦν ἐκ μέσων νυκτῶν, ὁ τοσοῦτον ἐν χάριτι λάμψας Ἀβέρκιος προσευξάμενος τῷ θεῷ, ἔξεισι τῆς οἰκίας· καὶ τὸν ὄχλον περιεστῶτάς τε καὶ ὑπομένοντας θεασάμενος, τὰ ὄμματα εἰς οὐρανοὺς ἀνασχὼν· εὐχαριστῶ σοι δέσποτα καὶ θεὲ, εἶπεν, ὃτι με τὸν ποιμένα τῶν σῶν λογικῶν προβάτων ἠλέησας, καὶ τὸν ἀγρυπνοῦντα καθ᾽ ἡμῶν λύκον, κεχηνότα μάτην ἀπέδειξας, καὶ τὴν διασπασθεῖσαν ἀπὸ τῆς ἀληθείας τοῦ ποιμνίου μοῖραν ἀνεκαλέσω, καὶ τῆς διὰ τοῦ βαπτίσματος υἱοθεσίας ἤδη καταξιοῖς. Ταῦτα τῷ τῶν ὅλων θεῷ διαλεχθεὶς, ἀκολουθεῖν αὐτῷ πρὸς τὴν ἐκκλησίαν τὸ πλῆθος προτρέπεται· ἐπειδὴ δὲ αφίκοντο ἤδη, τὰς συνήθεις αὐτοῖς εὐχὰς ἐπειπὼν, τελειοῖ τῷ βαπτίσματι ἄνδρας πεντακοσίους τὸν ἀριθμόν.

For the people sacrificing to idols Abercius prays, When Marcus Antoninus ^b and Lucius Verus held the Roman empire, a decree ^c came into the whole earth then subject to the Romans, by which it was provided that public sacrifices and libations should be offered to the Gods, as they themselves call them ^d. When, therefore, this decree had been sent to Publius ^e, who at the time presided over Lesser Phrygia, one could see the whole nation subject to the Romans celebrating feasts and sacrifices, and promptly obeying the commands of the emperors. The senate and people of Hierapolis too, neither did they omit to take part in those sacrifices. And this same Abercius ^f, of whom we are now speaking, having obtained the bishopric ^g of the Hierapolitans ^h, seeing the citizens, clothed in white garments, celebrating those ill-omened feasts to the ruin, alas! of their own souls, and the true God held in contempt, while deaf images were adored; a false image ⁱ (to speak with the divine Habakkuk) and a darkness of error poured out over many, judging the thing grievous and very absurd, and as though wounded in soul for his brethren, with tears he besought God apart, saying: God of the ages and Lord of mercy, who both didst fashion and dost hold together all things; whom it pleased also that thy only-begotten Son should become man for us; look now too upon the world which thou didst found; and do not despise this thy city, in which thou hast set me as shepherd of thy sheep, and whose bishopric thou hast committed to me, unworthy, given over thus to abominations made with hands; but, freeing them from the cloud of error that overshadows them, join them to thy light.

[2] and having entered the temple he breaks the images: When he had prayed thus for a great part of the day, and had then given himself to sleep, he saw a beautiful and comely youth handing him a rod and saying: In my name, Abercius, go now, and with this rod break the authors of error. So, roused from sleep, and well understanding that the Lord had appeared to him, he rises quickly and, full of confidence, having seized a certain very large piece of wood, breathing zeal and anger he goes off to the temple of Apollo [ib], in which most of the sacrifices and libations were performed. It was about the ninth hour of the night. Relying on the divine apparition, first he thrusts at the doors of the temple with his hands, and when the keys and bars had been shattered and the gates lay open, running into the middle of the temple he threw down and broke the image of Apollo which stood there. Then, going round the other images of the other gods too, he laid them low in like manner ^k; nor did the gods defend themselves; but those deaf and empty images (for they were plainly deaf and dumb), by the very fact nevertheless proclaimed magnificently ^l that men are mad who worship such things and call them Gods; and that what now befalls them is done rightly and very praiseworthily. And the worshippers of the gods and the ministers of the temple, having beheld these things done with much audacity, stood full of stupor and perplexity. But he, turning to them and looking upon them, a just man with just anger: Go, he said; announce to the senate and the whole people that your gods, drunk from yesterday's banquet and revelling, have broken one another and so thrown one another to the ground. But you, if there be any sense in you, commit these fragments of the images to the furnace and the fire: for so your gods may perhaps be useful to you, namely by the lime that will be had from them when burned.

[3] a tumult thereupon arising, When Abercius had done and said these things, he returned home, like a most valiant man, having slain the enemies who had plainly been the authors of the ruin of many souls. Having returned, he taught the crowds flowing together to him to follow the true religion of God and to take care of a sober life. And about that very

and denounce Abercius, narrating what had been done. When day dawned, the report spread everywhere that Abercius had fallen into a great error, had risen up against the gods, and that for that reason he ought to pay the penalty not to the gods alone and to the emperors, but also to the people and to the whole city. All, therefore, having hastily gathered in the temple, disputed and conferred among themselves about these things. Those who were first among the citizens and far surpassed the others advised sending public officers to bring Abercius, to render account why he had dared these things, and whom he had to help him: for it is not likely, they said, that one who undertakes such things has not several helpers. When, therefore, we have seized these too, we shall send them bound together with Abercius to the governor, that they may pay the merited penalty of the injury committed against the Gods and against the emperors. And to those who excelled the rest in prudence, as we have said, this seemed expedient, and: So, they said, we shall have to do. But the people, seeing the hands and feet and the very faces of the Gods thrown down on the ground, was vehemently stirred; nay, you would say, out of their minds on behalf of things without minds. Having seized, therefore, sticks and stones (for such is every multitude stirred to anger and using an inconsiderate impulse): Let us go, they cry to one another, let us go; let us throw fire on his house and quickly set it alight, that not only he, but whoever dwells with him and thinks with him, may perish miserably. But the senate, fearing lest, the house of Abercius being set on fire, the houses of the neighbours and of other innocent persons too should share in the fire, and also because, if it had joined itself to the multitude, it too would have to pay the penalty to Publius, soothing each of the most savage, tried to calm their seething minds.

[4] the holy Prelate refuses to leave the city; No small delay having been made, therefore, certain of those who had already learned piety, perceiving the matter, come with great speed to the house of Abercius; and when they had found him with a calm and cheerful countenance teaching ^m those who were present the doctrine of piety, as if nothing new had happened, they warn him of the ambush prepared, and ask him to give way for a little to the disorderly tumult, and to leave the city at once, lest they should lose two chief things, a father and brothers; namely the divine Abercius himself, whom the Holy Spirit had given them in the place of a father; and those brothers whom he, surviving, would bring to piety. But he said: We should be thought altogether strangers to undertaking labours for Christ ⁿ if in meeting them we so basely shrank from suffering anything; since he commanded the sacred apostles to preach freely to the Gentiles the word of truth ^o, and, when the onslaught of persecutors should rush in, not to fear any evils for his name: for to suffer for Christ is sweet; to die for him, sweeter than all life; nevertheless you, since you so wish, must be obeyed, and those who attack us must be fled from; for this too is the law of Christ, namely to flee those who persecute us. * Having said this, he went out together with them and went off through the middle of the city to the forum. There, sitting in the place which was called Fragellium [p], he taught those standing by the proclamation of the truth, and, as far as could be done, the right knowledge of God; and he said that one who had been initiated by divine baptism, and held worthy to be and to be named a Christian, ought to despise the pleasantness of present things, as being brief and perishable; and to seek only the immortal life; since this alone is truly life, which God has prepared for those who love him. Meanwhile, while he was saying these things to them, the crowd of men which was stirred up against him, hearing that the holy Man was not content to speak of his doctrine within the inner rooms of his house, but even preached it publicly and with much freedom, driven by greater madness and boiling with a more ardent spirit, were no longer restrained, nor were able to obey their chief men. But with tumult and shouting they burst in, almost ready to tear in pieces with their teeth both him and the others who were with him.

[5] as the crowd rushes in, he heals three possessed persons, When they had come to him, and were now about to lay hands on him; behold, three youths, whom an evil demon had long since invaded, suddenly tearing their garments, rush forth from the middle of the crowd, biting and tearing their own hands, their eyes too twisted and drawing foam from their mouths, and uttered a confused and unaccustomed voice. They run to Abercius, crying out vehemently: We adjure thee by the true and only God whom thou preachest, not to torment us before the time. Thereupon both the commotion of the people and the fury of the youths was quieted; or, to speak more truly, the madness of both was checked; of the latter, cast into them by the demons, of the former, arising from their savage onslaught against the holy Man [pb]. All therefore stood gazing at him with fixed eyes; calmed only by the modesty of the man and the gentleness of his manners, they waited to see what the outcome would be. Then the divine Abercius, turning to prayer, said: Father of thy holy son Jesus, who, even if we have sinned a thousand times, dispensest to us the remedies of salvation [q], I ask and beseech thee to free the youths from the assault of the demons, that they too may thereafter walk according to thy will, and by the miracle that shall be wrought in them may prepare many others to be joined to thee; and thus all may acknowledge that thou alone art God, and that there is no other beside thee. After he had prayed God thus and had turned his eyes on the youths, he struck their heads with the rod which he held in his hands, and said: In the name of my Christ, go out of these youths, evil demons, and do them no harm. And forthwith they departed, uttering as it were a great cry. They, the darkness with which they had been possessed by the demons being driven away, when they had looked about a little and recovered their breath somewhat, falling at his holy feet remained a long while without voice, so much so that all thought them dead. But he, taking each one's right hand, raises them up whole [r]. And they, having sought out and put on their garments, were seen thereafter covered with their own clothing, and restored to a sound mind, and not departing in the least from the side of the holy bishop Abercius.

[6] at which sight the multitude of the people is converted to the faith, When the crowd saw these things, all, as with one mind and mouth, cry out with a loud voice: Thou alone art the true God, who art preached by thy servant Abercius. This too is attested by the sudden conversion of that multitude, which was so captivated by the miracle that not even one remained who did not acknowledge the truth, nay all ran up asking for baptism; having certainly obtained from the ambush laid for Abercius an excellent profit, namely their own salvation. Yet they said there was something that troubled their minds: for they greatly feared lest, on account of the huge disgrace which the multitude of their sins had poured over their souls, they should remain hateful to God. Coming up, therefore, they said: Teach us, Man of God, whether the Lord will look upon us propitiously, or rather will repay evils for the sins which we have committed against him through ignorance; this we detest, on account of which we fear and shudder [s]. He, coming nearer, said with as loud and clear a voice as he could: Men who have now believed, if you do not persevere in your old works and the traditions of your fathers, but depart from all malice, from envy, I say, and hatred, uncleanness and the other evils which you did before in ignorance, he in whom you have now believed will be propitious to you; who calls even those who are weighed down with sins: * Come, he says, all you that labour and are burdened, and I will refresh you. We have innumerable examples of his kindness. Wherefore, believing in him, dedicate your minds to him, and you will not be disappointed of your hope. But we have received grievous wounds, they said, giving ourselves wholly during all past time to the obscene pleasures of the flesh and serving greatly the desires of the body, nay and still bearing in ourselves the depraved habit by which we are subjugated [t]. To whom he said: Run, as quickly as you can, to the physician, and to fasting, labours, prayers, tears; to the confession of sins too, nay even of the very thoughts which vex you and drive you to evil. Because they did not do this, God already in ancient times reproaches the Jews [u] through the divine Hosea: Why, he says, have you kept silence about impiety [v] and gathered its fruit as a vintage? Apply to yourselves these most salutary medicines, that not even a trace of your wounds may remain.

[7] and on the following day five hundred are baptized. While the divine Abercius was saying these things to them, the ninth hour of the day, now past, brought an end to his words, and the assembly was dismissed [x]. And the time of his accustomed prayer called him to hold another discourse with him for whom he was filled with longing. He rose up, therefore, and laying his sacred hands on those who were ill, extinguished their pains and led them to perfect health. Then, when he had prayed well for all and had blessed them, and moreover had imparted the kiss in the Lord and had set as it were a certain seal upon them, that what had been said might be rightly kept by them, he returned home with the brethren. Many followed, asking to be baptized by him. He assented, as was fitting, to the pious desire, with which he himself burned much more ardently. Since, however, the time was not suitable, he put off the baptism to the following day; yet many of them, on account of their ardent desire for baptism, unwilling to return home, spent the night there near the little building. At midnight Abercius, shining with so great grace, having prayed to God, goes out of his house; and beholding the multitude spread round and waiting, with eyes raised to heaven: I give thee thanks, he said, O Lord and God, that thou hast had mercy on me, the shepherd of thy rational sheep, and hast made vain the ambushes of the wolf gaping for us, and at the same time hast called back to thee this part of the flock torn from the truth, and through holy baptism hast granted it the adoption of sons. Having prayed thus to the Lord of all things, he bids the multitude go with him to the church. When they had come there, he recites the accustomed prayers, and initiates by baptism men to the number of five hundred.

ANNOTATIONS.

ἐπιμαρτύρεσθαι; which, rendered into Latin according to the sense, sound roughly thus: Not only the illustrious contests of the martyrs, their victories and triumphs, merit the proclamations of praise, but also the life by which, the flesh being kept down, one strives towards heavenly things along the arduous path of virtue; and if this shines also with apostolic works and ministries and supernatural prodigies, it will surely bring excellent glory to a man. I noted in the Preliminary Commentary, num. 1, that this Life of St. Abercius was published by Boissonade from Coislin codex 110, which codex indeed seems unique, as appeared to us formerly, when we were concerned with writing the Acts of St. Andrew in Crisi Acta SS., vol. VIII of October, p. 124 and following, in searching almost all the catalogues of the Libraries of Europe; certainly most of the lives which it contains are found nowhere else. They are, for the most part, encomia or panegyrics. Codex num. 1540, of which again in the Preliminary Commentary num. 1, begins thus: Ἐν ταῖς ἡμέραις ἐκείναις τὴν προεδρείαν καὶ ἐπισκοπὴν τῶν χριστιανῶν τῆς Ἱεραπολιτῶν πόλεως τοῦ ἁγίου Ἁβερκίου ἐγκεχειρισμένου, δόγμα τῶν αὐτοκρατόρων, Μάρκου καὶ (sic) Ἀντωνίνου καὶ Λευκίου Βήρου ἐφοίτησεν εἰς πᾶσαν τὴν ὑπὸ Ῥωμαίους ἡγεμονίαν, ψηφίζων δημοτελεῖς θυσίας καὶ σπονδὰς τοῖς θεοῖς επιτελεῖσθαι· τὸ οὖν τοιοῦτον δόγμα κατεπέμφθη καὶ Ποπλιῳ Δολαβελλα, ἡγεμονεύοντι τῆς Φρνγῶν Σαλουταρίων ἐπαρχίας; In those days, St. Abercius holding the chair and bishopric of the city of Hierapolis, an edict of Marcus Antoninus and Lucius Verus, the Augusti, came into the whole earth subject to the Romans, by which it was provided that public sacrifices and libations should be made. This edict, therefore, was sent also to Publius Dolabella, who presided over Phrygia Salutaris. From these one may see what manner of writing was used in the different Acts.

of inconvenience does the air bring, which at the time of the new moon is clear of that darkness and keeps itself within the railing. But any animal approaching inside death seizes at once: bulls indeed, led in, are dragged out dead. And we sent in sparrows, which immediately fell lifeless; but castrated cocks approach without harm, even right up to the opening, and look into it, and for a while come under it with their breath greatly held in: for from their appearance we detected the form of a certain suffocating affection. Whoever wishes to compare this with the text used by Halloix Vol. II, p. 809 will find that it was either truncated or greatly corrupted. Today Hierapolis of Phrygia is utterly destroyed. It was situated not far from the place called by the Turks Bambuk-Kalasi, as d'Anville writes Géographie ancienne abrégée, vol. II, pp. 51 and 52. Paris, 1768, or Pambuk-Kalessi, as Ritter has it Erdkunde, vol. IX, p. 811, and vol. X, p. 1057. Berlin, 1840, and it signifies Cotton-Castle, because, says d'Anville, the neighbouring rocks by their whiteness bear a likeness to cotton.

ib. Spon, in the ruins of Hierapolis, saw written above the gate of the theatre: ΑΠΟΛΛΩΝΙ. ΑΡΧΗΤΕΤΕΙ, To Apollo Archegetes. See Eckhel Doctrina Numorum, vol. III, p. 154. And elsewhere Ibid., vol. I, p. 248: Ἀρχηγετης, in Doric Ἀρχαγετας, was the same to the Greeks as the founder of a Colony to be established, and in this sense Pindar called the same Apollo Ἀρχαγεταν, because he was the author to Battus of leading out the Colony of Cyrene. Appian mentions his altar in Naxos: Octavian, he says, put in at the Archegetes, having prayed to the god, about to attack Tauromenium after pitching camp there. And the Archegetes is a small statue of Apollo, which the Naxian colonists sent into Sicily first dedicated. So Eckhel. Apollo, therefore, was venerated as founder of Hierapolis.

p. What the origin or etymology of this word is is nowhere declared, not even in Halloix himself, who nevertheless, according to his custom, inquired most diligently into each word of the Abercian life. In codex 1450 it is found thus: εἰς τόπον λεγομένον παρ᾽ αὐτοῖς Φρούγιν, into the place called by them Phrugin.

pb. In codex 1450 there is added an amplification by way of simile: Καὶ καθάπερ παῖδες ἀπὸ διδασκαλείου ἀθρόον ἀπολυθέντες, ἀτάκτος τρέχουσι καὶ πρὸς ἀλλήλους μάχονται καὶ θορυβοῦνται· εί ποθεν δὲ ἐξ ἀφανοῦς τόπου, ἀπροσδοκήτως ἐπιφανεῖ ὁ διδάσκαλος αὐτῶν, αἰφνίδιον βλέποντες ἀποφιμοῦνται καὶ εἰς γῆν νεύουσιν, οὕτως καὶ τότε οἱ πολλοί τῆς ταραχῆς ἔληξαν καὶ ἠρέμα εἰς τὸ πρόσωπον τοῦ ἁγίου Ἀβερκίου ἀπέβλεπον; and just as boys dismissed in crowds from school run about in disorder and fight and make an uproar among themselves; but if from some hidden place their master unexpectedly appears, seeing him they at once shut their mouths and cast their eyes on the ground; so then the crowd ceased from its tumult, and silently looked into the face of St. Abercius.

q. Who … thyself dispensest those things which pertain to salvation. So Surius. The sense is: that God, though more often offended by man, is yet so good and kind that he himself grants us all the things that serve for conversion and the recovery of salvation.

r. What is narrated here of the three possessed youths recalls the deaf and dumb man of the gospel, Mark chap. 9.

s. The sense is: We now sincerely detest the sin on account of which we fear. Surius has: Teach … whether God will look on us patiently, or will repay us evils for those sins which we have done in ignorance, which also we shudder at, for which we grieve, which we fear and dread…

t. Literally: Having the habit exercising tyranny in us, συνήθειαν τυραννοῦσαν ἐν ἑαυτοῖς ἔχοντες.

u. In our codex one reads: ὀνειδίξει τοὺς Ἰουδαίους; in the other one has: τοῖς Ἰουδαίοις.

v. So according to the Septuagint version, Hosea chap. 10, ℣ 15. In the Vulgate one reads: You have ploughed wickedness, you have reaped iniquity, you have eaten the fruit of lying, because thou didst trust in thy ways, in the multitude of thy strong ones.

x. After the example of the apostles Abercius had dedicated the ninth hour of the day to sacred prayers, as is gathered from here and from other places. Of the Apostles indeed their Acts testify, chap. 3, ℣ 1: "Now Peter and John went up into the temple at the ninth hour of prayer." And the ninth hour of the day is the same as the third in the afternoon. So Halloix Vol. II, pp. 70 and 71, where he attacks at length Baronius, who calls the ninth what we call the sixth. Nor is it to be passed over that this passage, namely from the words Οὕτως τοῦ θείου πρὸς αυτοὺς Ἀβερκίου διεξίοντος up to οἴκαδε σὺν τοῖς ἀδελφοῖς ἑχώρησε, is recited in a certain Treatise on the Fasting of the Greeks. Which treatise, hitherto unpublished, is found in the Paris manuscripts, num. 1133, fol. 321, as Dom Pitra wrote back to me on the 24th of December 1857, and is to be inserted in the next volume, namely the fourth of the Spicilegium Solesmense. For the rest, in that manuscript codex, perhaps of the twelfth century, the treatise is attributed to a certain St. Nicholas of Constantinople: who, if he were the Mystic, would give a testimony to the Acts of St. Abercius older than Metaphrastes, since it would belong to the ninth century. But it is very difficult to determine whether Nicholas the Mystic is meant, or Nicholas Chrysoberges, or even the Grammarian. Besides, the same treatise is elsewhere ascribed to John of Antioch, who flourished in the twelfth century. And so much from the letters of Dom Pitra, who will perhaps put forward something more certain in the new volume, soon, as I for my part hope and desire, to be printed. See Annotation h to the following chapter.

* Matth. X.

* Matth. XI, v. 28.

CHAPTER II.

Abercius restores sight to Phrygella, a noble matron, and converts her; then he disputes about religion with Euxenianus, Phrygella's son. Various miracles.

Πολλοὶ οὖν παρὰ τὸν ἄνδρα τὸ ἀπ᾽ ἐκείνου συνέῤῥεον οὐ τῆς μεγάλης μόνον Φρυγίας καὶ τῆς περιχώρου πάσης, ἀλλὰ καὶ ὅσοι τὴν Ἀσίαν ᾤκουν, ὅσοι τε τῇ Λυδίᾳ καὶ ὅσοι τῇ Καρίᾳ ταῖς ἐπαρχίαις ἐπεδήμουν· καὶ γὰρ διὰ πάσης πόλεως περὶ αὐτοῦ λόγος ἐχώρει, οὐ κενὸς ὤν καὶ μάταιος καὶ διὰ τοῦτο καὶ σβεσθῆναι τὸ τάχος δυνάμενος, ἀλλὰ πολλὴν ἔχων τὴν ῥώμην ἀπὸ τὴς ἀληθείας· συνέῤῥεον τοίνυν παρ᾽ αὐτὸν, οἱ μὲν ὥστε τὰ σωτήρια διδαχθηναι, οἱ δὲ καὶ τῶν ἐνοχλούντων ἀπαλλαγηναι· ὅσους δηλαδὴ νόσος ἐπίεζέ τις, ἤ τι καὶ ἄλλο κατεῖχε κακόν· ἦν γὰρ διδάξαι τὸν τὴς ἀληθείας λόγον δεξιώτατος, καὶ οἰκειώσασθαι τοὺς προσίοντας διὰ Χριστὸν ἑτοιμότατος, καὶ ἀπαλλάξαι κακῶν ὀξύτατος. Ὀλίγαι γοῦν παρῆλθον ἡμέραι, καὶ τοὺς πρεσβυτέρους καὶ διακόνους πρὸς δὲ καὶ τὴν λοιπὴν ἀδελφότητα παραλαβὼν, πρόεισι· καὶ καθίσας εἰς ὅν περ εἰώθει τόπον, ὥσπερ ἔκ τινος ἡδίστης πηγῆς τὰ γλυκύτατα τῆς διδασκαλίας ῥεῖθρα προΐει τοῦ στόματος.

[9] Ἐν τούτῳ δὲ προσῆλθέ τις ὑπὸ χειραγωγῷ γυνὴ τῶν ἐπιφανῶν ἐκκεκομμένη τοὺς ὀφθαλμοὺς, ὄνομα Φρύγελλα, Εὐξεινιανοῦ μήτηρ Ποπλίωνος· ὁ δὲ ἦν τῶν παρὰ τῷ αὐτοκράτορί τε καὶ τῇ πόλει πάσῃ, τὰς πρώτας ἐχόντων τιμὰς ὁ Ποπλίων· χειραγωγῷ οὖν ὥσπερ ἔφημεν ἡ έκείνου μήτηρ χρωμένη· ἐπειδὴ τὸν μέγαν Ἀβέρκιον αὐτοῦ τὲ ἤδη καθῆσθαι καὶ διδάσκειν ἐπύθετο, σπουδῇ αὐτῷ προσδραμοῦσα, καὶ τῶν ἐκείνου λαβομένη ποδῶν, πολλή τις ἦν δεομένη· καὶ οἴκτειρον, ἀνθρώπων ἐμοὶ τιμιώτατε καὶ τῷ μόνῳ καὶ ἀληθεῖ Θεῷ φίλε, τὴν ἱκέτιν, ἔλεγεν, οἴκτειρον· ἀπόδος μοι πάλιν τοὺς ὀφθαλμούς· τὸ μέγα τοῦ θεοῦ κτίσμα, τὸν γλυκὺν ἥλιον ἰδεῖν ἐμὲ παρασκεύασον· μηδὲ οὕτως ἔχουσαν ἐλεεινῶς περιΐδης· παραμύθησαί μοι τὴν συμφοράν· τὸ τῆς ἐμῆς περιφανείας μέγεθος δυσωπήθητι· ἔστι μοι Ποπλίων υἱὸς, μέγα παρὰ βασιλεῖ καὶ τῇ πόλει δυνάμενος· ἐγὼ δὲ αὐτὸν οὐχ ὁρῶ· ἔστι μοι πλοῦτος παντοδαπὸς, οἰκέται, χρήματα, κτῆσις ὅση· ἐγὼ δὲ μᾶλλον τῶν ἐνδεῶν πρὸς ταύτην ἔχω κακῶς· τοῖς μὲν γὰρ καὶ δυνατόν ἀπολαύειν τῆς θέας τῶν ὀλίγων ὧν ἔχουσι, καὶ διατίθεσθαι τὰ ὄντα, ὥσπερ ἂν βούλωνται· ἐγὼ δὲ οὐδὲ ὁρᾶν ἔχω ταῦτα, ὦν εἶναι κυρία πιστεύομαι· ὄφελόν γε τούτων πάντων ἀφηρημένη, τοὺς ὀφθαλμοὺς εἶχον μόνους. Διὰ τοῦτο δέομαί σου, τῆς φιλανθρώπου ψυχῆς πάνυ δέομαι, καὶ ἱκέτις ἡ ἀθλία γίνομαι, διανοῖξαι τοὺς ὀφθαλμοὺς τοὺς ἐμους καὶ τῇ σῇ πρὸς τὸν ἀληθῆ θεὸν παῤῥησίᾳ τὴν τοῦ βλέπειν αὐτοῖς δύναμιν ἐνθεῖναι.

[10] Ὁ δὲ· ἀλλὰ κἀγὼ ἁμαρτωλὸς ἔφη, γύναι, καὶ ἐλέου μᾶλλον δεόμενος, καὶ τῆς τοῦ ἀγαθοῦ φιλανθρωπίας ἐμαυτὸν ἀναρτήσας· εἰ δὲ ἐφ᾽ ὃν ἐγὼ πέποιθα καὶ σὺ πιστεύεις θεὸν, δυνατὸν αὐτῷ πάντως ὥσπερ δὴ τῷ ἐκ γενετῆς τυφλῷ, καὶ σοὶ τὸ βλέπειν χαρίσασθαι· ἡ δὲ· πιστεύω φησὶν εἰς τὸν ἀληθῆ δεσπότην Χριστὸν, καὶ πιστευούσης τῶν ἐμῶν ἁψάμενος ὀφθαλμῶν, τὸ ποθεινὸν τούτοις χάρισαι φῶς. Ταῦτα οὐ λόγοις μόνον ἐφώνει ψιλοῖς, ἀλλὰ καὶ τῷ ἤθει καὶ ταῖς τῶν δακρύων πηγαῖς ἐπιστοῦτο·

σπλαγχνισθεὶς οὖν ὁ ἅγιος καὶ εἰς οὐρανοὺς ἰδὼν, ὁ τῶν οὐρανῶν ὄντως ἄξιος· ἐλθὲ τὸ ἀληθινὸν, ἔφη, φῶς Ἰησοῦ Χριστὲ, καὶ διάνοιξον ταύτης τοὺς ὀφθαλμούς. Εἶτα ἐπιστραφεὶς, καὶ τῶν ὀμμάτων αὐτῆς ἁψάμενος· εἰ ἀληθῶς, εἶπεν, εἰς Χριστὸν ἐπίστευσε Φρύγελλα, παραχρῆμα ἀναβλεψάτω. Οὕτως εἰπόντος, ἥτε πήρωσις αὐτῇ διελύετο, καὶ ἡ πρὸς Χριστὸν πίστις ἀληθὴς ἐδείκνυτο· ἡ γὰρ τῶν σωματικῶν ὀφθαλμῶν ἀνάβλεψις, τῆς ψυχῆς ἐδήλου πεφωτίσθαι τοὺς ὀφθαλμούς.

[11] Ἀμέλει καὶ εὐγνώμων περὶ τὴν δωρεὰν ἐγνωρίζετο· εὐχαριστῶ σοι Κύριε, λέγουσα, ὅτι μοι διπλῆ τὸ φῶς ἐχαρίσω· τῶν γὰρ ὁρωμένων τούτων τοῦ σώματος ὀφθαλμῶν, πολλῷ πλέον ἐμοὶ τοὺς τῆς καρδίας διήνοιξας· ὅθεν μοι καὶ προσήκει τὰ τοῦ Δαβὶδ τοῦ σοῦ φθέγγεσθαι· ὃτι ἐῤῥύσω τοὺς ὀφθαλμούς μου ἀπὸ δακρύων, καὶ τοὺς πόδας μου ἀπὸ ὀλισθήματος· ἐῤῥύσθην γὰρ ἀληθῶς τοῦ προσκόπτειν οὐδὲν ἧττον τῶν σωματικῶν, καὶ τὰ τῆς ψυχῆς διαβήματα. Ἐντεῦθεν καὶ θερμῷ τῷ εἰς Χριστὸν ἔρωτι ληφθεῖσα, καὶ ὅλη τῶν ἐντολῶν αὐτοῦ γενομένη· ἰδού, φησι, πάτερ, εἰς τὸν ἅγιον ἀποβλέψασα, συντίθημί σοι ὑπὸ πολλοῖς μάρτυρσι τούτοις, τὸ ἥμισυ τῆς οὐσίας διαδοῦναι τοῖς ἐνδεέσιν. Ὁ τοίνυν περιεστηκὼς ὄχλος τὸ καινὸν τοῦ θαύματος ἐκπλαγέντες· μέγας εἶ, καὶ οὗτοι, ὁ τῶν χριστιανῶν θεὸς, ἀνεβόησαν· ἐπεὶ καὶ μεγάλων ὄντως ἀπολαύουσι τῶν χαρίτων, οἱ τὸ σὸν ἐπικαλούμενοι ὄνομα. Ἐν τούτῳ δἐ ὁ θεῖος Ἀβέρκιος· ἰδοὺ γύναι, φησὶν, ἔγνως ὅπως ὁ ἐμὸς δεσπότης ἀμείβεται φιλοτίμως τοὺς ἐλπίζοντας ἐπ᾽ αὐτόν. Πορεύου τοιγαροῦν εἰς εἰρήνην, ἑαυτῇ τε προσέχουσα, κἀκείνῳ προσήκουσαν τὴν εὐχαριστίαν ἀποδιδοῦσα. Ταῦτα ὁ μὲν ἔλεγεν, ἡ δὲ πρὸς μἐν τὸ παρὸν ἀφίστατο· πάλιν δὲ ἐπανήρχετο, καὶ κατὰ πολὺ τὸ σέβας αὐτοῦ εἴχετο, καὶ οὐδαμῶς τὸ μετὰ ταῦτα διΐστατο.

[12] Ἥπτετο μὲν οὖν Ἀβέρκιος αὖθις τῆς συνήθους διδασκαλίας· τοῦ δὲ κατὰ τὴν Φρύγελλαν θαύματος εἰς πολλὰ τῆς γῆς μέρη διαδοθέντος, προσέρχονται αὐτῷ πρεσβύτιδες τρεῖς, τὰς ὄψεις καὶ αὗται πεπηρωμέναι· πιστεύομεν λέγουσαι, καὶ ἡμεῖς εἰς τὸν ὑπὸ σοῦ κηρυττόμενον Ἰησοῦν· φανήτω τοιγαροῦν ἡ εὐσπλαγχνία τοῦδε καὶ ἐφ᾽ ἡμᾶς, καὶ δεῖξον, ὦ θαυμάσιε καὶ ἡμῖν, ὥσπερ ἄρα καὶ Φρυγέλλῃ τὸ φῶς· ὁ δὲ· εἰ ἡ πίστις ὑμῶν πρὸς τὸν ἀληθῆ θεὸν ἀληθής ἐστιν ὡς φατὲ, τοῖς νοητοῖς αὐτὸν τῆς καρδίας ὄψεσθε ὀφθαλμοῖς. Ταῦτα τε εἴρηκε καὶ τοὺς ὀφθαλμοὺς ἀνατείνας· Κύριε Ἰησοῦ Χριστὲ, δέομαί σου, ἔφη, ἰδέτωσαν καὶ αὗται τὸ φῶς τῆς σῆς ἐπιγνώσεως, καὶ τῆς ἐπικειμένης αὐταῖς ἀχλύος ἀνενεγκοῦσαι, διαβλεψάτωσαν, δέσποτα, πρὸς τὰς σὰς τῆς ἀληθείας αὐγάς. Οὕτως ηὔξατο, καὶ ἰδοὺ τὸν τόπον ἔνθα δὴ καὶ εἱστήκεσαν, φῶς ἄνωθεν περιαστράπτει μέγα, καὶ πάντας εἶχε πεσόντας ἡ γῆ, τῷ παραδόξῳ τῆς θέας καταπλαγέντας· τὸ δὲ φῶς οὐχ οἷον ἐξ ἡλίου καὶ ἀστραπῆς ἔρχεται, ἀλλὰ καινὸν ἄλλως καὶ φρικτὸν καὶ ἀσύνηθες. Ἵσταντο τοίνυν ἀκλινεῖς αὗται, πάντων τῷ ἐδάφει καταπεσόντων, καὶ τὸ φανὲν ἐκεῖνο φῶς πολὺ ταῖς ὄψεσι τούτων ἐγκατασκῆψαν, ἀναβλέψαί τε αὐτὰς ἐποίησε παραχρῆμα, καὶ τὸ ἡλιακὸν τοῦτο φῶς τὸ γλυκὺ καὶ φίλον ἀνθρώποις ἰδεῖν. Ὁ δὲ ὡς οὕτως ὑγιως τῶν ὀμμάτων ἐχούσας εἶδε· τί ἄρα τὸ φανὲν ὑμῖν, ἤρετο, καὶ τί πρῶτον διαβλέψασαι εἴδετε; Ἡ μὲν οὖν· πρεσβύτην ἔφη, τὸ εἶδος, ἄῤῥητον τὴν ὥραν, φαιδρόν. Ἡ δὲ· νεανίσκος ὤφθη μοι. Ἡ δὲ ἑτέρα· παιδάριον κομιδῆ, φησιν, ἥψατό μου τῶν ὀφθαλμῶν. Τούτων ἀκούσας Ἀβέρκιος, καὶ τῷ τῶν θαυμασίων χάριν ὁμολογήσας θεῷ, διέλυσε τὴν διδασκαλίαν. Ἐκ δὲ τῶν παρόντων τοὺς συνήθεις παραλαβὼν οἴκαδε ἐπανῆκε, καὶ τοὺς τῆς ἐνάτης ὥρας ὕμνους ἀποδοὺς· τοῦτο γὰρ αὐτῷ ἔθος οἱονεὶ κατὰ πάρεργον καὶ πρὸς τῷ τέλει τῆς ἡμέρας ποιεῖσθαι καὶ τοῦ σώματος λόγον· βραχύ τι ἄρτου μεταλαμβάνει.

[15] Τούτων τοίνυν ὑπ᾽ αὐτοῦ γενομένων, τῆς περιχώρου πολλοὺς ἦν ὁρᾶν πρὸς τὸν ἄνδρα συῤῥέοντας, καὶ εἰς ὄνομα Πατρὸς, Υἱοῦ καὶ Πνεύματος ἁγίου βαπτιζομένους. Ἐν τοσοὐτῳ δὲ τὰ κατὰ τὴν μητέρα γνοὺς Εὐξεινιανὸς, ὅπως τε χειραγωγουμένη προσέλθοι τῷ ἁγίῳ, καὶ ὅπως πεπηρωμένων αὐτῇ τῶν ὀφθαλμῶν ἀναβλέψειεν· ἀκριβῶς πάντα ἐξ αὐτῆς πυθόμενος, ἄπεισι παρὰ τοῦτον, καὶ ἀσπασάμενος· εἴ σε ἤδειν πάτερ ἐγώ, φησιν, ἡδέως εἰς χρήματα βλέποντα, οὐκ ὀλίγον ἄν σοι μέρος ἀπένειμα τῆς οὐσίας, ἀνθ᾽ ὧν μοι χάριτος εἰς τὴν μητέρα τοιαύτης ὑπεῖρξας. Ἐπεὶ δὲ μετὰ τῶν ἄλλων ὧν ἐδωρήσατό σοι θεὸς, καὶ κρείττονά σε χρημάτων διέθηκε, τί ἄν σε τῆς δωρεᾶς ταύτης ἀμειψαίμεθα κατὰ λόγον· τί ἄλλογε, ἢ ἀνάγραπτά σοι τὰ τῆς εὐχαριστίας κείσεται παρ᾽ ἡμῖν; Ταῦτα ὁ μὲν εἰπὼν, τῶν ποδῶν ἥψατο τοῦ ἁγίου· ὁ δὲ τῆς δεξιᾶς λαβόμενος· ἐμὲ μηδενὸς ἔφη, χρήζοντα ἴσθι, ὦ βέλτιστε, παρὰ σοῦ· ἢ ὅπως οὕτω συνετὸς ὢν, πιστός τε ἐξ ἀπίστου γένοιο, καὶ τῆς δυσσεβοῦς θρησκείας μεταβαλὼν, εἰς ἐπίγνωσιν ἔλθοις τῆς ἀληθείας· βούλομαι γὰρ πιστόν σε εἶναι πένητα μᾶλλον, ἣ ἄπιστον περιφανῆ τε καὶ πλούσιον.

[14] Καὶ ὁ Εὐξεινιανός· οὐκοῦν, ὦ ἱερά κεφαλὴ, εἴπερ βούλει, ζητητέον ἡμῖν περὶ τούτου· πολλάκις γὰρ ἤκουσα παρακαθήμενος τῇ μητρὶ, ὡς ὑπὸ σοῦ διδαχθείη τὸν θεὸν, νῦν μὲν φιλάνθρωπόν τε καὶ ἀγαθόν· νῦν δὲ, φοβερὸν εἶναι καὶ δίκαιον· καὶ τοὺς μὲν ὡς σφόδρα ἀγαθὸν, ἀγαθοῖς ἀμείβεσθαι, τοὺς δὲ οἷα δίκαιον, ἀμύνεσθαι καὶ κολάζειν. Εὶ τοίνυν ἐξ ἀγάπης μὲν ἡ εὐεργεσία καὶ τὸ ἀμείβεσθαι· ἡ τιμωρία δὲ καὶ τὸ κολάζειν ἐκ μίσους, πῶς ἔνι τὸν αὐτὸν ἀγαθόν τε εἶναι καὶ δικαίας ἐπάγειν τιμωρίας. Ὅτι, φησὶν ὁ μέγας Ἀβέρκιος, τοῦ κατ᾽ ἀξίαν ἑκάστῳ συντηρομένου, τοὺς μὲν τὰ ἀγαθὰ πράσσοντας, οἷα φύσει ἀγαθὸς ὢν εὐεργετεῖ, τοὺς δὲ τὰ φαῦλα μετιόντας, ἅτε δικαίως πάντα ποιῶν, τιμωρεῖται· μηδενὸς αὐτοῦ τὴν γνῶσιν ὧν ἡμεῖς πράττομέν τε καὶ μόνον εἰς νοῦν λαμβάνομεν, διαφεύγοντος· αὐτὸς γάρ ἐστι καὶ τῶν ἐν βάθει τῆς διανοίας ἐξεταστὴς ἀκριβέστατος, δοκιμάζων καρδίας καὶ νεφροὺς, διἳκνούμενος ἄχρι μερισμοῦ ψυχῆς καὶ πνεύματος· ἁρμῶν τε καὶ μυελῶν καὶ κριτικὸς ἐνθυμήσεων, καὶ ἐννοιῶν καρδίας.

[15] Καὶ ὁ Εὐξεινιανός· τοῦτο μὲν οὖν ὀρθῶς ἐπιλέλυται· πλὴν ἀλλ᾽ ἐκεῖνό με δίδαξον· εἰ τοῖς ἀγαθοῖς ὁ θεὸς ἥδεται, διατί μὴ τὴν ἀρχὴν τοιοῦτον ἐποίει τὸν ἄνθρωπον, ὥστε τὸ μὲν ἀγαθὸν ἐργάζεσθαί δυνατὸν εἶναι· πονηρὸν δὲ μηδοτιοῦν πρᾶξαι δύνασθαι· οὕτω γὰρ ἂν τά τε κατὰ γνώμην αὐτῷ πράττοντες ἦμεν, καὶ ἀπαθεῖς πάσης διεμένομεν τιμωρίας. Ὁ δὲ καὶ τοῦτο σφοδρῶς κηδομένου, ἔφη, καὶ τὸ ἡμέτερον ἀγαθὸν ἐκ παντὸς θέλοντος. Εἰ γὰρ μὴ τὰ φαῦλα πράττειν δυνατῶς ἔχομεν, οὐδὲν ἂν, οὐδὲ ἀπὸ τοῦ τὰ ἀγαθὰ ποιεῖν ἐκερδαίνομεν· οὔτε γὰρ ἐπαίνου παρὰ τοῦτο πάντως, οὔτε ἁποδοχῆς ἦμεν ἄξιοι· τότε γὰρ οὐ παρὰ τὴν ἡμετέραν ἐγίνετο τὸ πραχθὲν προαίρεσιν, ἀλλὰ παρὰ τὴν τοῦ πράγματος φύσιν· οὐ γὰρ ὁ μὴ ποιεῖν τὸ κακὸν δυνάμενος, οὗτος μὴ πράττων ἐπαινετός· ἀλλ᾽ ὁ πράττειν μὲν δυνατὸς ὢν, ἀπεχόμενος δὲ διὰ τὴν πρὸς τὸ καλὸν ἔφεσιν. Ἐπειδὴ δὲ ἀμφότερα παρ᾽ ἡμῖν, καὶ εἴτε ἀγαθοί ἐσμεν εἰ βουλοίμεθα, εἴτε φαῦλοι (ἐὰν θέλητε γὰρ φησι, θεοὶ ἔσεσθε) καὶ τῆς εὐδοκιμήσεως τὴν πρόφασιν ἀναιρεῖς, καὶ τῶν στεφάνων ἐκβάλλεις τὰς ἀφορμάς; Πρὸς ταῦτα ὁ Εὐξεινιανός· ἀκριβῶς πέπεισμαι τὸν ἄνθρωπον ἔφη, αὐτόνομόν τε εἶναι καὶ αὐτεξούσιον, καὶ κατὰ γνώμην ἐπὶ τὸ ἁμαρτάνειν ἔρχεσθαι. Τοιαῦτα πρὸς ἀλλήλους διαμιλλωμένων αὐτῶν, ἡ ἐνάτη πάλιν καταλαβοῦσα, διέλυσε τὰς ζητήσεις. Ἀναστὰς γὰρ ὁ θεῖος Ἀβέρκιος ἀσπάζεται τοὺς περιεστῶτας· καὶ εὐλογήσας, οἴκαδε σὺν Εὐξεινιανῷ πέμπει.

[16] Ὀλίγαι τὸ μετὰ ταῦτα διῆλθον ἡμέραι, καὶ τὰς πέριξ κώμας καὶ πρό γε τῶν ἄλλων τὰς ἐν γειτόνων, ἅμα τοῖς ἀδελφοῖς περιήει. Ἐμάνθανε γὰρ ἤδη πολλοὺς ἐκεὶ διαφόροις πιέζεσθαι νόσοις. Περιελθὼν οὖν καὶ θεραπεύσας εὐχῇ καὶ χειρῶν ἐπιθέσει, ἐπεὶ βαλανείου ἄπορον ἑώρα τὸν τόπον (πρᾶγμα νοσοῦσι δεξιὸν παραμύθιον) εἴς τινα χῶρον ἐλθὼν, ᾧ Ἀγρὸς μὲν ἡ κλῆσις, ποταμὸς δὲ αὐτῷ παραῤῥέει, τὰ γόνατα τῷ θεῷ κλίνας, τοῦ ἐδάφους γίνεται· καὶ ἰδοὺ βροντὴ μὲν ἐξ ἀκριβοῦς καταῤῥήγνυται τῆς αἰθρίας· ἀναδίδωσι δὲ πηγὰς θερμῶν ὑδάτων ἡ γῆ, καὶ διὰ πάντων ὑμνεῖτο θεὸς, ἐπήκοος οὕτω δικαίων ἀνδρῶν γινόμενος. Ἡ μὲν τοι μακαριά ἐκείνη γλῶσσα, λάκκους ὀρύξαι τοῖς παροῦσιν ἐντειλαμένη, ὥστε σύῤῥοιαν ἐν τούτοις γίνεσθαι τῶν θερμῶν ὑδάτων, καὶ εἰς ἀνάκτησιν αὐτὰ σωμάτων εἶναι πεπονηκότων, ἐπανήκει πρὸς τὴν οἰκίαν.

[17] Ἐν τούτῳ οὖν ὁ τῶν πειρασμῶν καὶ τῆς ἀπάτης πατὴρ, ὁ πονηρὸς δαίμων, γυναικείαν ὑποκριθεὶς μορφὴν, πρόσεισι τῷ ἁγίῳ, εὐλογίας τυχεῖν δῆθεν παρ᾽ αὐτοῦ βουλομένης· ὁ δὲ ἐπιβαλὼν ἐκεῖνῳ τοὺς ὀφθαλμοὺς, καὶ τὸν εἴσω κρυπτόμενον λύκον οὐκ ἀγνοήσας, εἰ καὶ τὴν προβάτου δορὰν περιέκειτο, εὐθὺς μετασρέφεται, καὶ λίθῳ προσπταίει τὸν πόδα τὸν δεξίον. Περιαλγὴς οὖν γενόμενος, ἅπτεται τῇ χειρὶ τοῦ ἀστραγάλου· αὐτὸν γὰρ ἦν πεπληγώς· καὶ ὁ πονηρὸς εἰς ἑαυτὸν πάλιν μεταβαλὼν, ἡδιστόν τε καὶ θερμὸν ἀνεγέλα, καὶ ἀπὸ τῆς φίλης εὐθύς ὐπερηφανίας· μήτοι με νόμιζε, λέγει, τῶν ταπεινῶν εἶναι ἐκείνῶν δαιμονίων, ἃ σὺ πολλάκις φυγαδεύειν οἶδας καὶ μόνῳ τῷ ῥήματι, ἀλλ᾽ αὐτός εἰμι αὐτὸς ἑκατόνταρχος, οὗ δὴ καὶ νῦν εἰς πεῖραν ἐλθὼν, ὁρᾶς πῶς χαλεπαῖς βέβλησαι περιωδυνίαις, ὁ πολλοῖς ἑτέροις λυσάμενος τὰς ὀδύνας.

[18] Οὕτως ἀπὸ τοῦ βλάπτειν ὁ μιαρὸς, οὐδέποτε δὲ ἀπὸ τοῦ ὡφελεῖν οὐδενὰ, ἑαυτῷ τὸν ἔπαινον περιτίθησι. Ταῦτα τοίνυν πρὸς τὸν θαυμαστὸν Ἀβέρκιον εἶπε· καὶ τινι τῶν περιεστηκότων αὐτὸν νεανίσκων ἐπιπηδᾶ, ὃν χαλεπῶς σπαράξας τὲ καὶ διαταράξας, μεταξὺ πάντων ἐλεεινῶς καταβάλλει· ὁ μέν τοι μέγας Ἀβέρκιος ἔλεον αὐτίκα τοῦ νεανίσκου λαβὼν καὶ δεηθεὶς τοῦ θεοῦ, λύσιν τὲ αὐτῷ δίδωσι τοῦ κακοῦ, καὶ τὸν μιαρὸν ἐκεῖνον δαίμονα ἐκποδῶν τίθησιν· ἔργῳ δηλώσας, τίς ὁ τοῦ ἀγαθοῦ μαθητὴς καὶ ἀγαθύνειν δεδιδαγμένος, καὶ τίς ὁ ἐξ ἀρχῆς πονηρὸς, καὶ τοῦ πράττειν ἄλλους τὰ πονηρὰ διδάσκαλος. Ἐκεῖνος δὲ ἀλλ᾽ οὐ μέχρι τούτου ἔστη, οὐδὲ ἐπὶ μονῃ τῇ τοιαύτῃ ἔμεινεν ἥττῃ· ἀλλὰ καὶ ἐτέραν αὐτῷ προκηρύττει πάλην, οὗ μηδὲ τὴν πρώτην ὑπενεγκεῖν ἴσχυσεν. Ἐπειδὴ γὰρ καὶ ἄκων ἀπήει τὸν νεανίσκον ἀπολιπὼν, τραχείᾳ ὡς εἶχε καὶ ἀναιδεῖ χρησάμενος τῇ φωνῇ· ταχύ σε, ἔφη, Ἀβέρκιε καὶ ἄποντα, παρασκευάσω τὴν Ῥωμαίων ἰδεῖν. Τὸ δὲ ἄρα οὐ πολλῷ ὕστερον ἐξέβη, ὡς τὰ ἑξῆς τοῦ

λόγου δηλώσει.

A multitude flowing together to the holy Man from every side, Thereafter many flowed together to him, not only from Greater Phrygia ^a and the whole neighbouring region, but those also who inhabited Asia, as also those who dwelt in the provinces of Lydia and Caria: for the talk about him spread through the whole city, and that not vain or empty, but such as would not easily be extinguished, nay rather borrowing great efficacy from the truth. They flowed together to him, therefore, some to learn the words of salvation, others to be freed from the troubles clinging to them; namely those whom either disease oppressed or some other evil held. For Abercius was most apt for teaching the word of truth, most ready for cherishing the Christians ^b, most excellent for driving away evils. A few days having elapsed, he went forth with the presbyters, deacons and the other brethren, and, sitting in the place where he was accustomed, as from a most sweet fountain he poured forth from his mouth the sweetest streams of doctrine.

[9] the matron Phrygella is brought before him, Meanwhile there is brought before him a certain illustrious woman, deprived of her eyes, Phrygella by name, mother of Euxenianus ^c Poplion, who held the first place both with the emperor and in the whole city. His mother, therefore, as we have said, is brought, who, having heard that the great Abercius was now sitting and teaching here, at once running up and clasping his feet, besought him in many words: Have pity, she said, O Man most honoured by me among mortals and beloved of the only and true God, have pity on me, a suppliant; give me back my eyes ^d; make me see the great work of God, make me look again upon the pleasant sun. Do not despise me, so wretched; console one in calamity. Let the dignity of my condition move you. I have a son, Poplion, of very great influence with the emperor and in the city, whom yet it is not given me to look upon. I have riches, both many and various: servants, money, estates; which yet I enjoy less than if I were numbered among the poor. For these rejoice in the sight of the few things they have, and dispose of them at their pleasure; but I see nothing of the things I am said to have. Would that, having lost all other things, I might rejoice in the light of my eyes alone. Wherefore I ask your clemency, I ask you vehemently and supplicate you, wretched as I am, to open my eyes, and by your confidence with the true God to impart to them the power of seeing.

[10] to whom Abercius restores her sight; But he said: I too, woman, am a sinner, and rather in need of mercy, and I depend wholly on the clemency of God. If, however, you believe in Him in whom I trust, he is certainly able, as once for the man blind from birth, to give sight to you too. Then she said: I believe in the true Lord Christ: do you therefore, touching the eyes of me who believe, restore to me the light I long for. When she not only uttered this in words but confirmed it by gestures and tears, the holy Man, having pity on her and looking up to heaven, of which he was plainly worthy, said: Come, true light, Jesus Christ, and open the eyes of this woman. Then, turning to her, he touched her eyes and said: If Phrygella has truly believed in Christ, let her forthwith receive her sight. At these words both the blindness vanished and the woman's sincere faith in Christ was manifestly shown: for the light restored to her bodily eyes indicated that the eyes of her mind also had been enlightened.

[11] and she, grateful, believes in Christ; Forthwith she showed a grateful mind for the gift received, exclaiming: Lord, I give thee thanks that thou hast given me a twofold light: for thou hast opened to me not only the eyes of the body, which are seen, but, what is far greater, the eyes of the mind also, whence it befits me also to say with thy David: Thou hast delivered my eyes from tears and my feet from falling ^e; for truly I have been delivered from stumbling ^f, no less in spiritual than in bodily steps. Hence, seized with a vehement love of Christ, and wholly devoted to his commandments: Behold, she said, looking at the holy man, Father, before these many witnesses I commit to you the half of my possessions, that you may distribute them to the poor. Astonished at this new miracle, the multitude standing round exclaims: Great art thou, God of the Christians; since those who call upon thy name are truly endowed with great graces. Then the divine Abercius said: Behold, woman, you have come to know how magnificently my Lord rewards those who hope in him. Go, therefore, in peace, attending to yourself, and rendering to him the thanks that are fitting. So he. She then indeed withdrew; but she returned afterwards, and never thereafter ceased to attend him with the greatest and perpetual veneration.

[12] likewise three other women are freed from blindness. Abercius, therefore, set about afresh, according to his custom, to impart the heavenly doctrine. As the report of the miracle wrought on behalf of Phrygella spread through the regions, there come to him three women advanced in age, they too deprived of their eyes, saying: We also believe in Jesus whom you preach. Let his clemency, therefore, appear towards us too, and do you, admirable Man, show us the light, as to Phrygella. To whom he said: If your faith in the true God is sincere, as you say, you will see him with the inner eyes of the heart. Having said this, when he had raised his eyes: I ask thee, he said, Lord Jesus Christ, may these too see the light of the knowledge of thee, and, snatched from the darkness lying upon them, may they behold, O Lord, the rays of thy truth. While he was praying thus, behold, a great light shone round from above the place in which they stood, at which, astonished by so unexpected a spectacle, all fell to the earth. That light was not such as proceeds from the sun or from lightning, but altogether new and amazing and unaccustomed. And the women stood unmoved, all the others being prostrate on the ground; and that light which had appeared, penetrating right into their eyes, suddenly restored their sight, so that they beheld the light of the sun, so pleasing and delightful to men. When Abercius saw them sound in their eyes: What, he asked, appeared to you ^g; what did you first behold when your sight was recovered? The first answers: I saw an old man, whose face bore an ineffable beauty and pleasantness; the second: A youth appeared to me: the third: A little boy, she said, touched my eyes ^h. Having heard these things, and having given thanks to God, the author of the prodigies, Abercius dismissed the assembly, and returned home with his own, and, the hymns of the ninth hour having been said, ate a little bread: for he was accustomed towards the end of the day ⁱ, but as one doing something else, to take care of his body.

[13] Euxinianus, Phrygella's son, After this one could see many from the neighbourhood flowing together to him, and being baptized in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. In the meantime, when Euxianianus had learned what had happened to his mother, namely that she, brought to the holy Man deprived of her eyes, had recovered her sight, having questioned her diligently about everything, he came to him, and, having given greeting, said: If I knew, Father, that you desired money, I should have given you no small part of my possessions for the benefit you have conferred on my mother. But since, besides the other things with which God has endowed you, he has made you superior to earthly things, what could we render you worthy of the benefit conferred? What else but the thanks which we owe you? When he had said this he embraced the holy Man's feet. He, taking his right hand, said: Know, excellent man, that I have need of nothing of yours; but since you are so prudent, become from an unbeliever a believer, and, your impious religion being changed, come to the knowledge of the truth; for I would rather see you a believer and poor than illustrious and rich, but an unbeliever.

[14] with Abercius about God as just Then Euxinianus said: Nay, holy Man, if it please you, let there be a question between us on this matter. For more often, sitting beside my mother, I have heard that she learned from you that God is at one time clement and good, at another terrible and just; that some, inasmuch as he is wondrously good, he endows with rewards, others, inasmuch as he is no less just, he rejects and punishes; since, therefore, rewards and gifts proceed from love, but punishments and penalties from hatred, how can it be that he who is good inflicts just punishments? To whom the great Abercius said: Because, rendering to each according to his merits, he rewards those who have done good things, because he is good by nature; and again punishes those who have done evil things, because he is just: for nothing of what we do, nay of what we only think, is hidden from him. He is the most exact examiner of all that is done in the depth of the mind, searching hearts and reins, penetrating even to the division of soul and spirit, judge also of the joints and marrow, of thoughts and affections.

[15] and as good he disputes. Then Euxinianus said: That indeed is rightly solved: but teach me this too: if God takes delight in the good, why did he not from the beginning so make man that he could do good, but by no means evil? For so we should both have done the things that are pleasing to him, and have remained exempt from punishment. And this too, replies Abercius, is an indication of the excellent solicitude on God's part, who desires to procure our happiness in every way: for if we were incapable of committing evil, by that very fact we should have no merit from good works either, since thence we should be judged worthy of neither praise nor commendation; because what was done so would not proceed from our own choice, but from the necessity of nature; nor is he who cannot do evil to be praised because he has not done evil; but he rather who, though he could do otherwise, abstains from evil out of love of the good. And since both depend on us, whether we be good or evil (if you will, he says, you shall be gods), why do you take away the occasion of doing well, and remove the matter of crowns ^k? To this Euxinianus said: I am plainly persuaded that man is of his own right and choice, and comes to sin of his own accord. While they were treating these things between them, the ninth hour again came on, and put an end to the disputation. The divine Abercius, therefore, rising, salutes those standing round, and bids them return home with Euxinianus.

[16] Abercius brings forth a spring from the earth, A few days after, he began with the brethren to go round the villages round about, especially the nearer ones: for he had learned that many there were labouring with various diseases. When, therefore, he had gone round and healed the sick by prayers and the laying on of hands, seeing that the region needed a bath (which is a convenient solace to those who are suffering), going forward to a certain place whose name is Ager ^l, and which lies beside a river flowing past, bending his knees to God, he prostrated himself on the ground: and behold, lightning fell from a clear sky, and the earth sends forth springs of hot waters; that God may be praised in all things, who so hears the just. When that blessed tongue had bidden those standing by to dig cisterns, to be receptacles of the hot waters, which should be a solace to suffering bodies, he returns home.

[17] and the demon insolently proud Meanwhile the contriver of temptations and the father of deceit, namely the malignant demon, having put on the form of a woman, approached the blessed Man, asking to be blessed by him. When he had cast his eyes upon him, and

was not unaware what wolf lurked within, although it was covered with a sheep's skin, turning away at once, he struck his right foot against a stone. Affected with pain, he touches his ankle with his hand: for there he had been hurt. Then the demon, having taken again his own appearance, with all his strength ^m and from his inmost breast laughed; then, moved by his accustomed pride, he said: Do not think me one of those lowly demons whom you have frequently seen flee even at a word alone, but I am that very centurion, of whom, now that you have made trial, you see with how grievous pains you are affected, you who have freed so many others from troubles.

[18] he overcomes. Thus indeed that wicked one boasts of evil, but never of good, which he has done. These things, therefore, he said to the great Abercius, and leaped upon a certain one of the youths standing by, and, having torn him atrociously and miserably, threw him into the middle. Abercius, at once having pity on the youth and praying to God, frees him from the evil and drives the execrable demon far away; showing by the very fact who it is that both knows good and has learned to bestow it on others; and who he is who, being evil from the beginning, teaches others also to do evil. The demon, however, did not rest, nor was he content with this single blow; but he declares a new fight against him, since he had not been able to sustain the first. For when, having let the youth go, he departed unwillingly, using, as is his wont, a harsh and impudent voice, he said: Shortly, Abercius, I will make you see the city of the Romans, even against your will. Which came to pass not long after, as will be seen from what follows.

ANNOTATIONS.

* ἐκάστου

* τἰ

CHAPTER III.

Abercius, invited by M. Aurelius, comes to Rome; he frees the emperor's daughter, and is loaded with many benefits by Faustina Augusta.

Ο μὲν γὰρ θεῖος Ἀβέρκιος εἰς τὴν ἑαυτοῦ οἰκίαν ἐπανελθὼν ἑπτὰ ὅλας εἷλκεν ἡμερας ἐν νηστείαις καὶ πανυχίσιν ἅμα τοῖς ἀδελφοῖς, δεόμενος μὴ τοιαύτην γενέσθαι κατ᾽ αὐτοῦ ἰσχὺν τῷ ἐχθρῷ, ὡς ἤπερ ἂν ἐκεῖνος ἄγῃ καὶ αὐτὸν ἕπεσθαι· ὑπὸ δὲ τὴν ἑβδόμην νύκτα, ὄναρ αὐτῷ τὸν Κύριον ἐπιστάντα, καὶ· εἰς Ῥώμην· φάναι· Ἀβέρκιε οἰκονομίᾳ τῇ ἐμῇ ἀφίξη, ὥστε δὴ καὶ τοὺς ἐν αὐτῇ τὸ ἐμὸν ὄνομα ἐπιγνῶναι. Θάῤῥει τοιγαροῦν, ἡ γὰρ χάρις μου μετὰ σοῦ ἔσται. Τότε διϋπνισθέντα τὸν ἅγιον· γένοιτο φάναι τὸ θέλημά σου Χριστὲ· καὶ τὴν θείαν ἐκείνην ἐμφάνειαν τοῖς ἀδελφοῖς ἀπαγγεῖλαι. Ἀλλὰ τῷ μὲν οὕτω καὶ παρὰ τὴν Ῥωμαίων πόλιν ἀφικέσθαι προείρητο.

[20] Ὁ δὲ πονηρὸς δαίμων ἐκεῖνος ὁ μικρῷ πρόσθεν τῷ ἁγίῳ τὴν ἄφιξιν ταύτην ἐπισείσας, οὐδὲν ἀναβαλόμενος εἰς Ῥώμην φοιτᾷ, καὶ τὴν τοῦ βασιλέως Ἀντωνίνου παῖδα, ἐπίγαμόν τε ἤδη καὶ ἐκκαιδεκέτιν οὖσαν (ἥ Βήρῳ μὲν Λευκίῳ ἀνδρὶ κατηγγύητο, Λουκίλλα δὲ ἐκαλεῖτο) κάλλει καὶ μεγέθει τὰς κατ᾽ αὐτὴν ὑπερενεγηοῦσαν, εἰσδύεται, καὶ αὐτίκα ἐκμαίνει, ὡς σπαράττεσθαί τε καὶ καταβάλλεσθαι, καὶ ὀδοῦσιν τῶν χειρῶν ἅπτεσθαι, καὶ τὰς αὐτῆς σάρκας διαμασᾶσθαι· Ἡ οὖν μήτηρ Φαυστίνα· τοῦτο γὰρ ἦν ὄνομα τῇ αὐγούστῃ· λύπῃ σύν Ἀντωτίπῳ καὶ ἀπορίᾳ δεινῶς εἴχοντο, καὶ συμφορὰν ἐσχάτην τὸ πρᾶγμα ἐτίθεντο. Ἦν δὲ τὸ μάλιστα αὐτοῖς ἐπιτεῖνον τὴν ἀθυμίαν, ἡ πρὸς τὸν Λεύκιον τῆς κόρης μνηστεία. Τοῦτον γὰρ ἀπεστάλκει μὲν Ἀντωνῖνος ἤδη πρὸς τὴν ἑώαν πόλεμον συμβαλοῦντα τῷ βασιλεῖ Βουλγέσσῳ. Ὑπῆρχε δὲ ἀλλήλοις σνγκείμενον κατά τινας ῥητὰς ἡμέρας· τὸν μὲν ἀπὸ τῆς ἕω τὸν Λεύκιον· τὸν δὲ ἀπὸ Ῥώμῆς, τὴν Ἕφεσον καταλαβεῖν· καὶ ἐν τῷ κατ᾽ αὐτὴν ναῷ τῆς Ἀρτέμιδος τὸν μὲν ὑπὸ μάρτυρι τῇ θεῷ καταθέσθαι Λευκίῳ τὴν παῖδα, τὸν δὲ δέξασθαι.

[21] Col. 505D Ἐπεὶ οὖν ὁ Λεύκιος κατά τὰς συνθήκας ἔπλει πρὸς τὴν Ἔφεσον ἐπειγόμενος· οὐκ ἔχων ὅτι χρήσαιτο ἑαυτῷ Ἀντωνῖνος, δαιμονώσης αὐτῷ τῆς παιδὸς, προφάσει διακρούεται τὸν καιρόν, γράψας Λευκίῳ ὡς τὸ Γερμανῶν ἔθνος διαβὰν τὸν Ρῆνον, τὰς τε πόλεις Ῥωμαίων καὶ τὰς κώμας ληΐζεται· κἀντεῦθεν μηδὲ κατὰ τὰ συγκείμενα δύνασθαι νῦν εἰς Ἔφεσον μετὰ τῆς παιδὸς συνδραμεῖν, ἀλλ᾽ εἰς τὸ ἐπιὸν ἔτος. Τῷ δὲ ἐπειδὴ κατὰ μέσον τὸν πλοῦν τὰ παρὰ βασιλέως ὑπήντα γράμματα, σφόδρα τε ἀθυμήσας καὶ χαλεπῶς ἐνεγκὼν, εἰς τὴν ἐν Δάφνῃ Ἀντιόχειαν ὑποστρέφει. Βασιλεὺς δὲ Ἀντωνῖνος, τοῦτο μὲν καὶ τοῖς οἰκείοις σπλάγχνοις περὶ τὴν τῆς παιδὸς φροντίδα πολὺς ὤν· τοῦτο δὲ καὶ ὑπὸ τῆς συζύγου παροξυνόμενος, πάντα τὲ ἐποίει, καὶ οὐδενὸς ἀπείχετο τῶν λόγον ἐχόντων. Τοὺς Ῥωμαίων τοίνυν καὶ Ἰταλῶν ἱερεῖς συναγαγὼν, καὶ οἰωνοσκόπους ἀπὸ Τυῤῥηνίας μεταστειλάμενος, ἐξώρκιζέ τε τὸν δαίμονα δι᾽ αὐτῶν, καὶ οὐδὲν ὅτι οὐκ ἐπενόει, πρὸς τὴν τοῦ κακοῦ θεραπείαν.

[22] Τὰ δὲ κενά τε ἠλέγχετο καὶ ἀγριώτερον ἐποίει τὸν πονηρὸν δαίμονα τῇ κόρῃ. Ἀμέλει καὶ τοίανδέ τινα διὰ τῆς παιδὸς ἐκείνης ἠφίει φωνήν· ὡς εἰ μὴ Ἀβέρκιος ὁ τῆς ἐν τῇ μικρᾷ Φρυγίᾳ τῶν Ἱεραπολιτῶν ἐπίσκοπος ἔλθοι,

οὺκ ἂν ἀπὸ τοῦ σκηνώματος ἐξέλθοιμι τοῦδε. Ὡς οὖν ἐπὶ συχνἀς ἡμέρας ταῦτα ἐβόα, διηπορεῖτο καθ᾽ ἑαυτον Ἀντωνῖνος, τί ἂν εἴη τοῦτο σκοπούμενος· καὶ ποτε εἰσκαλέσας τὸν ἔπαρχον τῆς αὐλῆς Κορνηλιανὸν, ἀνεπυνθάνετο εἴπου τίς Ἱεράπολις ὑπὸ μικρὰν Φρυγίαν ἐστίν. Ὁ δὲ· καὶ μάλα, δέσποτα, ἔφη, καὶ ἀπ᾽ αὐτῆς Εὐξεινιανὸν ὁρμᾶσθαι, ᾧ πολλάκις περὶ δημοσίων ἐπέστειλας πραγμάτων. Τοῦτο ἀκούσας Ἀντωνῖνος, ἥσθη τε οἷα τῆς φροντίδος ἀπολυθεὶς, ὅτι περ Εὐξεινιανὸς ἐκεῖ διατρίβων, δεξιὸς αὐτῷ ἔσται τοῦ πράγματος οἰκονόμος. Καὶ Οὐαλέριον καὶ Βασσιανὸν μαγιστριανοὺς εὐθὺς εὐτρεπισθῆναι κελεύσας, ἐπιστέλλει αὐτῷ ταῦτα.

[23] Ἀντωνῖνος αὐτοκράτωρ, σεβαστὸς, Εὐξεινιανῷ Ποπλίωνι χαίρειν. Ἐγὼ εἰς πεῖραν τῆς σῆς ἀγχινοίας ἔργοις αὐτοῖς καταστάς, καὶ μάλιστα οἷς ἔναγχος προστάξει τοῦ ἡμετέρου κράτους διεπράξω κατὰ τὴν Σμύρναν, ἐπικουφίσας Σμυρναίοις τὴν ἐκ τοῦ κλόνου τῆς γῆς ἐπιγενομένην αὐτοῖς συμφορὰν, ἥσθην τὲ ὥσπερ εἰκὸς, καὶ σε τῆς τῶν πραγμάτων ἐπιμελείας ἐπήνεσα. Ἔμαθον γὰρ ἅπαντα μετὰ ἀκριβείας, ὥσπερ ἂν εἰ παρών. Ἥ τε γὰρ παρὰ σοῦ πεμφθεῖσα ἀναφορὰ, ὅτε ἀποδιδοὺς ταύτην, καὶ Κέλιος ὁ ἐπίτροπος ὑμῶν, ἅπαντά μοι σαφῶς διηγήσατο. Ἐπὶ δὲ τοῦ παρόντος γνωσθὲν τῷ ἡμετὲρῳ κράτει, Ἀβέρκιόν τινα τῆς Ἱεραπολιτῶν ἐπίσκοπον παρὰ σοὶ διατρίβειν, ἄνδρα εὐσεβῆ οὕτω τὰ τῶν χριστιανῶν, ὡς δαιμονῶντας τέ ἰᾶσθαι, καὶ νόσους ἄλλας εὐκολώτατα θεραπεύειν. Τοῦτον * κατὰ τὸ ἀναγκαῖον ἡμεῖς χρήζοντες, Οὐαλέριον καὶ βασσιανὸν μαγιστριανοὺς τῶν θείων ἡμῶν ὀφφικίων ἐπέμψαμεν, τὸν ἄνδρα μετ᾽ αἰδοῦς καὶ τιμῆς ἁπάσης ὡς ἡμᾶς ἀγαγεῖν. Κελεύομεν οὖν τῇ σῇ στερότητι, πεῖσαι τὸν ἄνδρα σὺν προθυμίᾳ πάσῃ πρὸς ἡμᾶς ἀφικέσθαι εὖ εἰδότι, ὡς οὐ μέτριός σοι κείσεται παρ᾽ ἡμῖν καὶ ὑπὲρ τούτου ὁ ἔπαινος. Ἔῤῥωσο.

[24] Ταύτην τοῖς μαγιστριανοῖς δοὺς τὴν ἐπιστολὴν, ἀπέπεμψεν ἀπὸ Ῥώμης, εἰπών· ὅτι πολλαπλάσιον ὑμῖν θήσει τὴν εἰς ἐμὲ θεραπείαν τὸ Ἀβέρκιον ἐνεγκεῖν, προστεθὲν καὶ τὸ τάχος. Οὶ δὲ λαβόντες, οὐδὲν τάχους καὶ συντονίας ἐνέλιπον, ἀλλὰ δυσὶ τὸ Βρεντίσιον ἡμέραις καταλαβόντες, πλοίου τὲ ἐπὶ τούτῳ παρεσκευασμένου παρὰ τοῦ ὑπάρχου Κορνηλιανοῦ ἐπιβάντες κατὰ πρύμνην αὐτοῖς τοῦ πνεύματος ἱσταμένου, τῇ ἑβδόμῃ τὸν Ἰόνιον διαπλεύσαντες, καταίρουσι ἐν Φελοποννήσῳ· ἐκεῖθεν δὴ δημοσίοις ἵπποις χρησάμενοι, ἀφικνοῦνται τῇς πεντεκαιδεκάτης εἰς τὸ Βυζάντιον· εἶτα πρὸς τὴν Νικομηδέων αὐθημερὸν περαιωθέντες, καὶ αὖθις δημοσίῳ χρησάμενοι δρόμῳ, εἰς Σύναδα μητρόπολιν ἥκουσι τῆς Φρυγίας, ἡγεμόνας τὲ τῆς ὁδοῦ παρὰ τοῦ ἡγεμονεύοντος ἐκεῖ Σπινθῆρος λαβὸντες· οἷα προστεταγμένον αὐτῷ παρὰ Κορνηλίου τοῦ ἐπάρχου· περὶ του τὴν ἐνάτην ὥραν τὴν Ἱεραπολιτῶν καταλαμβάνουὶν. Εἰσιόντες τοιγαροῦν τὴν πὁλιν, ὑπαντῶσι τῷ Ἀβερκίῳ, καὶ ταῦτα ἀπὸ τοῦ παρήκοντος. Εἰώθει γὰρ κατὰ τὴν ἐνατην ὥραν ἐκ τῆς διδασκαλίας οἴκαδε ἀναστρέφειν, τὰς συνήθεις ὰποδώσων εὐχὰς τῷ θεῷ.

[25] Οἱ μὲν οὖν ὑπαντήσαντες αὐτῷ ἀνεπυνθάνοντο, ποῦ ποτε ὑπάρχοι Εὐξεινιανὸς, καὶ ὅπη γενόμενοι ἐντύχοιεν τῷ ἀνδρί. Ὁ δὲ ἐπειδὴ καὶ αὐτὸς, τίς τε ἡξήτησις τοῦ ἀνδρὸς καὶ ἐφ᾽ ὅτῳ ἥκοιεν ἤρετο, τὴν ἐκείνου ἐρώτησιν χαλεπῶς ἐνεγκὼν Οὐαλέριος, ὅτι μὴ ταχὺ ἀπεκρίνατο, τολμᾶ τι καὶ θρασύτερον, ἴσως ὑπὸ τοῦ πονηροῦ κινηθείς· καὶ ἀνατείνει κατὰ τοῦ ἁγίου τὴν δεξιὰν, πλῆξαι τοῦτον τῇ μάστιγι βουληθείς. Καὶ εὐθὺς ἡ φρουροῦσα χεὶρ ἄνωθεν οὖκ ἠμέλει, καὶ ἡ τολμηρὰ ἐκολάζετο, καὶ ἀκίνητος ἦν, ὡσπέρ τινι προκατασχεθεῖσα πέδῃ. Λαμβάνει τὸν ἕτερον δέος, ἐπὶ τῷ καινῷ τούτῳ θεάματι καὶ ἀποβάντες ἄμφω τῶν ἱππων, προσπίπτουσί τε τοῖς τοῦ ἁγίου ποσὶ, καὶ ἱκέται γίνονται ταπεινοὶ λίαν, ὥστε τὴν ἀπομαρανθεισαν χεῖρα καὶ οἱονεὶ τεθνηκυῖαν, ἀναθῆλαι πάλιν καὶ ἀναζῆσαι, μηδὲ οὕτως ἀπολειφθῆναι νεκράν. Ὁ δὲ τῆς συνήθους κἀν τούτῳ γίνεται συμπαθείας, καὶ ἅπτεται μὲν τῆς πηρωθείσης, ὑγιᾶ δὶ αὐτὴν εὐθὺς δείκνῦσιν. Εἶτα τὴν αἰτίαν καὶ πάλιν τῆς τοῦ ἀνδρὸς χρείας ἐρόμενος, καὶ μαθὼν ὅτι βασιλικὰ πρὸς αὐτὸν κομίζοιεν γράμματα ὁδηγὸς γίνεται τῶν ἀνδρῶν, καὶ εἰς τὸν Εὐξεινιανοῦ οἶκον τὸ τάχος ἐπάγει. Ἐκεῖνος μὲν τοι τὰ γράμματα, εἰς χεῖρας λαβὼν, καὶ τὰ ἐγκείμενα ἐπανελθὼν, μεταδίδωσι τὴν ἐπιστολὴν εὐθὺς τῷ ἁγίῳ καὶ ἠξίου μηδὲν ὑπερθέσθαι, ἀλλ᾽ ὥσπερ αὐτὴ ἠβούλετο, τὴν ταχίστην ἅπτεσθαι πορείας. Ὁ δὲ καὶ αὐτὸς ἀναγνοὺς· ἐλεύσομαι ἔφη, καὶ οὐκ απροθύμως τὴν πορείαν ἀνύσω· ἐπεὶ κατὰ γνώμην θεοῦ τὸ γινόμενον, ὡς κἀμοὶ ἤδη παρὰ τοῦ Κυρίου μου ἐδηλώθη.

[26] Οἱ μὲν οὖν μαγιστριανοὶ λαμπρῶς παρ᾽ Εὐξεινιανῷ ξενισθέντες, δύο τέ τινας ἡμέρας παρ᾽ αὐτῷ μείναντες, τὴν πορείαν τὲ πᾶσαν αὐτῷ καὶ τὸν πλοῦν ἀπαγγείλαντες, τῇ τρίτῇ ἀντίφραγα λαβόντες, ἀπῄεσαν, ὑπεσχημένον αὐτοῖς ὑπὸ τοῦ θαυμαστοῦ Ἀβερκίου, μετὰ τεσσαράκοντα ὅλως ἡμέρας κατὰ τὸν λεγόμενον Πόρτον, ὃς ἐχόμενα Ῥώμης ἐστιν, ἀλλήλοις ἐντυχεῖν· καἰ οὕτως ἅμα ἐκείνοις τῆς πόλεως ἐπιβῆναι. Οί δὲ ἀπιστεῖν οὐκ ἔχοντες· ἔκρινον γὰρ ὀρθῶς ἐξ ὧν ἔπαθόν τε καὶ οἶδον, ὅτι ἀδύνατον ἄνδρα τοιούτων ἠξιωμένον, τότε συνειδὸς καὶ τὴν γλωτταν ἔχειν οὑχ ὑγιᾶ· τοῖς δημοσίοις καὶ αὖθις ἐπιβάντες ἵπποις ἐπανήεσαν. Ἀβέρκιος δὲ ὁ θεῖος, οἶνον τὲ καὶ ὄξος καὶ ἔλαιον εἰς ἕνα καὶ τὸν αὐτὸν ἀσκὸν ἐμβαλὼν, πρὸς δὲ καὶ ἄρτους ὀλίγους λαβὼν, εἶτα τοῖς ἀδελφοῖς διαλεχθεὶς τὰ εἰκότα, τὴν ἐκείνου τε ἀποδημίαν ἐλεεινῶς ἀποδυρομένους δεξιώτατα παραμυθησάμενος, ὀχήματος πολικοῦ ἐπιβαίνει καὶ τῆς πόλέως ἔξεισι.

[27] Βραχύ δὲ τῆς ὁδοῦ προελθὼν, ὁρᾶ τινὰ ἀμπελουργὸν σκάπτοντα, καὶ περὶ τὰς ἀμπέλους ἐπιμελῶς ἔχοντα· ὄνομα τῷ ἀνδρὶ Τροφιμίων· τοῦτον ὀνομασττὶ καλέσας· δεῦρο, φησὶν, ἀδελφὲ συνδιάνυσόν μοι τὴν ἐπἰ Ῥώμην ὁδὸν. Ἤκουσεν ἐκεῖνος καὶ τὴν δίκελλαν εὐθὺς καὶ τὸ σκαφεῖον ἀπολιπὼν, τὴν οἰκείαν τὲ ἁρπάσας ἐσθῆτα· ἣ διὰ τὸν ἐν τῆς ἐργασίας κόπον τῇ γῇ καταθεὶς ἦν· εἵπετο τῷ ἁγίῳ. Ἐπειδὴ δὲ συνώδευον ἤδη. Ἀλλὰ νῦν ὅτι μάλιστα προσέχειν ὑμᾶς ἀξιῶ· θαῦμα γὰρ ἀκούσεσθε σύμμικτον ἡδονῇ. Καὶ γάρ ὁπότε μὲν ὁ Τροφιμίων εἰς κοινὴν ἤδη χρείαν, ἐπιστρέψαντος τοῦ ἁγίου, τὸν τοῦ ἀσκοῦ πόδα λύσειεν, αὐτὸ δὴ τὸ πρὸς τὸ παρὸν συντελοῦν μόνον, ἀμιγὲς ἐξῄει· οἶνος τυχὸν ἢ ὄξος ἢ ἔλαιον, τῶν ἄλλων κατὰ χώραν μενόντων· ὁπότε δὲ πάλιν ἐκεῖνος ἐν χρείᾳ τινὸς καταστὰς, οὐ κατὰ γνώμην τοῦ ἁγίου λύσειε τὸν ἀσκὸν, τἀναντία ἢ αὐτὸς ἠβούλετο, θαυμαστῶς ἐξῄει· ὄξος μὲν καὶ ἔλαιον, εἰ δίψῃ τυχὸν ληφθεὶς πειρῶτο πιεῖν· εἰδὲ καὶ ἔμπαλιν αὐτῶν δεηθείη, οἶνος ἀκραιφνὴς τοῦ ἀσκοῦ ἀπέῤῤει· οὕτως ὁ ἑκοντὶ δολερὸς, ἄκων ὑπῆρχε πιστός· οὐδενὸς ὧν ἠβούλετο, κατὰ χρείαν ἁπτόμενος· σαφῶς αὐτὸν τοῦ πράγματος ἐκδιδάσκοντος ὀρθῶς ἔχειν καὶ ἀκεραίως, καὶ μηδὲν παρὰ τὴν τοῦ χρησαμένου γνώμην ποιεῖν. Τοιούτων Ἀβέρκιος τῶν παρὰ Θεοῦ θείων ἀπέλαυε χαρισμάτων. Πᾶσαν οὖν εὐμαρῶς ἀνύσαντες τὴν ὁδὸν, ἐν Ἀτταλείᾳ τῆς Παμφυλίας κατάγονται, ἐν ᾗ πλοίου τινὸς τῶν ἐπὶ Ῥώμην ἀναγομένων ἐπιβάντες, εἰς τὀν ὡρισμένον καταίρουσι τόπον· πέρας ἄρτι καὶ τοῦ τῶν ἡμερῶν λαβόντος συνθήματος.

[28] Τῶν οὖν μαγιστριανῶν τρισὶν ὕστερον ἡμέραις καὶ αὐτῶν καταθέντων· πολὺν γὰρ αὐτοῖς ἐτρίβη χρόνον ὁ πλοῦς διὰ τὸ τῆς ὥρας χειμέριον· καὶ πολλὰ σφίσιν αὐτοῖς μεμφομένων τῆς βραδυτῆτος οὕτω τε οἰομένων ὡς, εἰ μὴ τῷ ἁγίῳ κατὰ τὰς συνθήκας ἐντύχοιεν, ἢ ἑαυτοὺς ὠμῶς διαχρήσασθαι, ἢ τῷ αὐτοκράτορι κεναῖς ὃ δὴ λέγεται χερσὶν ἐμφανισθεῖεν ὑπ᾽ ἐκείνου ἀναιρεθῆναι. Ταῦτα τούτων καθ᾽ ἑαυτοὺς διασκοπουμένων, ἐπειδὴ ἀπέβησάν τε τῆς νηὸς ἤδη καὶ τὰς καταγωγὰς ἀνηρεύνων, καὶ τὴν ἀκτὴν περιῄεσαν, ἐντυγχάνουσι τῷ ἁγίῳ· ὁ μὲν οὖν τὴν δεξιὰν προτείνας, καὶ αὐτοὺς ἀσπασάμενος, προσφιλές τε εἶδὲ τοὺς ἄνδρας, καὶ πράως τοῦ συνθήματος ὑπεμίμνησκεν· οἱ δὲ ἄσμενοι τοῦτον ὡς οὐκ ἄν ἤλπισαν ἰδόντες, προσεκύνουν εὐθέως, περιεπτύσσοντο, περιέβαλλον, πάντα τ᾽ ἄλλα ἐποίουν, ὅσα ψυχῆς ὑπὸ περιχαρείας κεκινημένης ἐστὶ σύμβολα. Εἶτα παραλαβόντες, εἰσίασί τε τὴν Ῥώμην, καὶ ὡς τὸν ὕπαρχον ἄγουσι Κορνηλιανόν.

[29] Ὁ δὲ· ἐπειδὴ τὸν αὐτοκράτορα Ἀντωνῖνον ἡ κατὰ τῶν βαρβάρων εἶχεν ἐκστρατιά, τὸν Ῥῆνον τὲ διαβάντων, καὶ τὴν Ῥωμαίων λεηλατούντων· τὸν ἄνδρα πρὸς τὴν αὐγούσταν ἄγει Φαυστίναν· ὃν ἐκείνη θεασαμένη γεραρὸν οὕτω καὶ σεμνὸν, καὶ τὸ εὔκοσμον οἷον καὶ γαληνὸν ὑποφαίνοντα, αἰδοῦς ὑπόπλεως γίνεται, καὶ σὺν πολλῇ αὐτὸν ἀσπάζεται τῷ σεμνοπρεπείᾳ· καὶ ὅτι μὲν ἀγαθοῦ καὶ πάντα δυναμένου, λέγει, Θεοῦ δοῦλος εἶ, δῆλον ἐξ ὧν ἄλλοι τὲ πολλοὶ πρότερον, καὶ νῦν ἀπήγγειλαν ἐπανελθόντες οἱ μαγιστριανοί· καὶ γὰρ ἤδη καὶ παρ᾽ αὐτῶν ἡ Φαυστίνα τὰ κατὰ τὸν ἄνδρα ἐμεμαθήκει· δέομαι οὖν μηδὲν ἀναβαλέσθαι, καὶ βασιλέων εὐεργέτης ὀφθῆναι, καὶ τὸ ταπεινὸν ἡμῶν σῶσαι καὶ θεραπεῦσαι θυγάτριον· οὕτω γάρ σοι μεγάλαι τιμαὶ παρ᾽ ἡμῶν καὶ δωρεαὶ τὴν χάριν ἀμείψονται. Ταῦτα μετὰ πολλῆς ὑπηγόρευε τῆς περιπαθείας· ἔκαμπτον γὰρ αὐτὴν αἱ τῆς φύσεῶς ἀνάγκαι, καὶ βοηθὸν ἔποίουν ἐκεῖνον ἐπιζητεῖν, ὃν κατὰ τὸν θεῖον φάναι Δαβὶδ δωρεὰν ἐμίσουν, καὶ ὡς ἀληθῆ προσκυνεῖν οὐκ ἠνείχοντο. Ὁ δὲ· ἀπόδεκτα μὲν τὰ τῆς προαιρέσεως, ἔφη, τῆς σῆς· πλὴν οὐδενὶ τούτων ἡμεῖς τῶν παρ᾽ ὑμῖν τιμίων ἡδόμεθα, πάλαι τὴν κενὴν ταύτην διαπτύσαντες φαντασίαν. Ἄλλως τε δὲ, οὐδὲ ἐμμίσθους τὰς παρὰ θεοῦ δοθείσας ἡμῖν παρέχομεν χάριτας, δωρεὰν λαβόντες, καὶ δωρεὰν διδόναι κεκελευσμένοι.

[30] Ἀλλὰ ποῦ σοι, φησὶν, ἡ θυγγάτηρ; καὶ ἡ Φαυστίνα ὡς εἶχε τάχους, εὐθὺς εἰς τὸν θάλαμόν τε εἰστρέχει, καὶ τῆς παιδὸς αὐτὴ λαβομένη, ἐφέλκεται πρὸς τὸν ἅγιον, μεθ᾽ ὅσης ἂν τῆς θερμότητος εἴποις καὶ τῆς σπουδὴς. Ὁ μέν τοι ἐνοικῶν τῇ παιδὶ πονηρότατος δαίμων, ἐπεὶ πρὸς αὐτὸν ἀπαγόμενος ἔγνω, οὗ καὶ πρότερον ἐγίνωσκεν ἡττηθεὶς, ἐσπάραττε τὴν παῖδα, κατέβαλλε· δεδοικέναι, ταράττεσθαι, τρέμειν, ἰλιγγιᾶν ἐποίει. Εἶτα καὶ φωνὴν ἐκ ταύτης ἠφίει· ἰδοὺ Ἁβέρκιε λέγουσαν, καὶ εἰς Ῥώμην σε ἤγαγον ὥσπερ ἄρα ἐπηγγειλάμην. Ὁ δὲ· ναί, φησιν, ἀλλ᾽ οὐ χαιρήσεις τούτου γε ἕνεκεν. Οὕτως ἔφη, καὶ τὴν κόρην εἰς ὕπαιθρον ἀχθῆναι κελεύει. Ἤχθη οὖν ἀνὰ τὸν ἱππόδρομον ἡ παῖς, ὑπασπιστῶν τε βασιλικῶν πρότερον καὶ φρουρῶν τὸν τόπον διαλαβόντων. Ἐν τούτῳ δὲ τοῦ ἀναιδοῦς ἐκείνου καὶ μιαροῦ δαίμονος, σπαράττοντός τε καὶ καταβάλλοντος τὴν κόρην, καὶ οὐδὲν ἄλλο βοῶντος ὅτι μὴ τὰ ὀφρῦν καὶ κόμπον δηλοῦντα μόνον, ἐφ᾽ ὧ τόν ἅγιον τοσαύτην θάλασσάν τε καὶ γῆν δι᾽ αὐτὸν ἀγάγοι. Τὸ ὄμμα εἰς οὐρανοὺς ἐπάρας Ἀβέρκιος καὶ προσευξάμενος τῷ θεῷ, δριμύ τε τῂ κόρῃ ἐμβλέπει· καὶ ἔξελθέ φησι ταύτης, πονηρὲ δαῖμον· ἐπιτάσσει σοι Χριστὸς ὁ ἐμὸς· μηδὲν αὐτὴν λυμηνάμενος. Ὁ δὲ

εὐθὺς τὸ λεόντειον ἐκεῖνο θράσος εἰς δειλίαν ἀλώπεκος μεταβεβληκὼς· ὁρκίζω σε κἀγὼ, ἔφη, κατὰ τοῦ αὐτοῦ Χριστοῦ, μὴ εἰς ἐρημίαν με, μὴ εἰς ἕτερον ἀποπέμψαι τόπον, ἀλλ᾽ ἔνθα δὴ καὶ πρότερον ᾤκουν.

[31] Καὶ τὸν ἅγιον· ἀπελεύση μὲν οὐκ εἰς ἐρημίαν, ἀλλ᾽ εἰς τὸν τόπον τὸν πατρικόν· ἀνθ᾽ ὃτου δὲ με καὶ τὴν Ῥώμην ἰδεῖν ἐποίησας, ἐπιτάττω σοι καὶ αὐτὸς πάλιν ἐν τῷ ὀνόματι Ἰησοῦ, τὸν βωμὸν τοῦτον ἆραι· δείξας αὐτῷ τῇ χειρὶ βωμὸν λίθινον· μέχρι τὲ Ἱεραπόλεως τῆς ἐμῆς ἐνεγκεῖν, καὶ παρὰ τῇ νοτίῳ φέροντι παραστῆσαι πύλῃ. Ἤκουσεν ὁ δαίμων, καὶ εὐθὺς οἷα δοῦλος φοβερῷ δεσπότῃ πάντα ὑπείκειν πεπαιδευμένος, ἀπαλλάττεται μὲν τῆς κόρης, μηδοτιοῦν αὐτὴν δράσας κακόν· εἶτα μυρίων ὁρώντων ὀμμάτων (ὤ τίς μὴ θαυμάσει σου πάντα Χριστὲ βασιλεῦ;) ὑπέρχεται τὸν βωμὸν καὶ ἀναιρεῖται, βαρὺ στενάξας, καὶ δίεισι διὰ τοῦ ἱπποδρόμου· καινὸν δὴ τοῦτο θέαμα Ῥωμαίοις· καὶ τῷ ὡρισμένῳ φέρων ἐναποτίθησι τόπῳ κατὰ τὴν Ἱεράπολιν. Ἡ δὲ κόρη τοῦ ἐνοχλοῦντος ἀπαλλαγεῖσα δαίμονος, ἄφωνος ἐπὶ πολὺν χρόνον τῶν ποδῶν εἴχετο τοῦ ἁγίου· ὃ καὶ μάλιστα τὴν μητέρα καὶ τοὺς παρόντας ἐθορύβει, δεδοικότας μὴ καὶ τὴν ψυχὴν ὁ δαίμων ἀφείλετο τῆς παιδός.

[32] Τὴν μέν τοι Φαυστίναν μὴ δυνηθῆναι σιωπῇ τοῦτο διενεγκεῖν, ἀλλὰ μεστὴν ἀγωνίας ἔχουσαν τὴν καρδίαν, πρὸς τὸν ἅγιον φάναι· ἦπου μετά τοῦ δαίμονος ἀπήλλαξας τὴν παῖδα καὶ τῆς ζωῆς. Ὁ δὲ οὕτως αὐτὴν διακειμένην ἰδὼν, καὶ οἰκτείρας, τὴν χεῖρα τῇ παιδὶ προτείνας, ὥσπερ ὑπὸ βαθεῖ ὕπνῳ κατειλημμένην, νήφουσαν ἐγείρει καὶ σωφρονοῦσαν. Καὶ πρὸς τὴν Φαυστίναν ἐπιστραφεὶς· ἰδού, φησι, παρέστηκέ σοι ἡ παῖς, οὔτε τῆς ζωῆς στερηθεῖσα, καὶ τῆς τοῦ δαίμονος ἐπηρείας ἀπαλλαγεῖσα. Ὡς οὖν οὕτω τὴν παῖδα ἡ μήτηρ εἶδε, περιβαλοῦσα ταύτην, καὶ δάκρυα χαρᾶς αὐτῇ καταχέασα, παρειάν τε παρειᾷ ἐπετίθει, καὶ στόματι στόμα, χερσί τε ἐνέβαλλε χεῖρας· καὶ ὤσπερ ἔνδον λαβεῖν, καὶ γυμνῇ αὐτῇ συγγενέσθαι τῇ ψυχῇ γλιχομένη, οὐκ εἶχεν ὅτι καὶ γένοιτο. Ἐπειδὴ δὲ ἱκανῶς αὐτῇ ἤδη τὰ πρὸς τὴν παῖδα εἶχεν, ἠζίου τὸν θεῖον Ἀβέρκιον θερμότατα λίαν ἡ βασιλὶς, μὴ παραιτήσασθαι παρ᾽ ἐκείνης λαβεῖν ἀμοιβὴν, ἥτινι μεγάλης οὕτως αὐτὸς καὶ ἀναγκαίας ὑπῆρξε χάριτος.

[33] Ὁ δὲ χρημάτων μὲν οὐδὲ μνήμην ἀτεχνῶς ἠνεσχετο, εἰρηκὼς ὅτι τί δεήσοι χρημάτων, ᾧπερ ἄρτος καἰ ὕδωρ πολυτελὴς ἄριστος· οἰκοδομηθῆναι δὲ βαλανεῖον αἰτεῖ, ἐπὶ τῷ παρὰ ποταμὸν Ἀγρῷ, ἔνθα κλίνας αὐτὸς τὰ γόνατα ηὔξατο, καὶ ἡ γῆ πηγὰς ὑδάτων ἀνῆκε θερμῶν· σιτηρέσιόν τε τοῖς ἐν τῇ πόλει αὐτοῦ πτωχοῖς, εἰς τρισχιλίους μοδίους ἀποταγῆναι. Τούτων ἡ βασιλὶς ἅμα τὲ ἤκουσε, καἰ ἀσμένως ἁρπάζει τὸ αἰτηθὲν, Κορνηλιανόν τε τὸν ἔπαρχον ὡς τάχος μετακαλεῖται, καὶ σπουδὴν πᾶσαν εἰσενεγκεῖν πρὸς τὰ αἰτηθέντα κελεύει, ὥστε μὴ ἀμβλῦναι τὴν χάριν τῶν ταχέως ὑποσχεθέντων, βραδυτῆτι διακονίας. Οὕτω φύσει καὶ πάθει ψυχῆς οἱ ἄνθρωποι, τοῖς ὀκνοῦσι τὰς δωρεὰς μᾶλλον, ἢ τοῖς πρὸς τὸ λαβεῖν ἑτοίμοις ἡδόμεθα χαριζόμενοι· τοὺς μὲν διὰ τὸ ἥττους ὁράσθαι τῶν διδομένων περιφρονοῦντες, τῶν δὲ τὸ ὑψηλὸν ἀσπαζόμενοι. Ὁ ἔπαρχος μέντοι μελλήσας οὐδὲν, τὸν ἀρχιτέκτονα πρὸς τὸν κατ᾽ ἐκεῖνο καιροῦ ἄρχοντα Φρυγίας ἐκπέμπει, ἐφ᾽ ᾧ χρήματα λαβεῖν παρ᾽ αὐτοῦ πρὸς τὴν τοῦ βαλανείου οἰκοδομὴν, ὅσον δέοιτο· καί μοδίους τοῖς ἐν τῇ Ἱεραπόλει πένησι τρισχιλίους ἀπονέμει. Ἐπειδὴ δὲ καὶ τὸ βαλανεῖον οἰκοδομούμενον τέλος εἶχεν, οὐκ ἔτι τὸ ἀπ᾽ ἐκείνου παρὰ ποταμὸν Ἀγρὸς, ἀλλ᾽ Ἀγρὸς θερμῶν τῷ τόπῳ τὸ ὄνομα· καὶ το σιτηρέσιον δὲ διέμεινε χορηγούμενον, ἕως τῶν Ἰουλιανοὺ χρόνων τοῦ δυσσεβοῦς. Ἐκεῖνος δὲ καθάπερ τῶν ἄλλων ἀγαθῶν πάντων, οὕτω δὴ καὶ τούτου φθονήσας Χριστιανοῖς τὴν χορηγίαν εὐθὺς ἵστησιν.

Christ appears to St. Abercius, The divine Abercius, therefore, having returned to his house, passed seven whole days together with the brethren in fasts and night vigils, praying that the power of the enemy over him might not be so great that he should be compelled to follow him wherever he wished. On the seventh night the Lord, appearing in his sleep, said: To Rome, Abercius, you will come, but led by my providence; that those who are in it may come to know my name. Be of good heart, therefore; my grace will be with you. To whom the holy Man, awaking, said: Thy will be done, O Christ; and he announced the divine manifestation to his brethren. And thus it was foretold to him that he would go to Rome.

[20] who, that to Lucilla, daughter of M. Antoninus, The evil demon, who a little before had threatened the blessed man with a journey to the City, without any delay came to Rome, and invades the daughter of the emperor Antoninus, now of marriageable age. She, Lucilla by name, sixteen years old, had been betrothed ^a to Lucius Verus, and surpassed the other girls of her age in beauty and excellence of body. The demon, therefore, suddenly stirs her to such fury that she tore herself, threw herself on the ground, lacerated her hands too with her teeth and chewed her own flesh. Her mother Faustina ^b (this was the name of the Augusta), with Antoninus, were tormented in mind, and were greatly in doubt and perplexity, and reckoned this the supreme calamity. And this increased their grief most of all, that the girl had been betrothed to Lucius. For Antoninus had already sent him into the East, to the war against king Bulgessus ^c; and it had been agreed between them ^d that on a fixed day Lucius from the East and Antoninus from Rome should come to Ephesus, where in the temple of Artemis ^e Antoninus, the Goddess being witness, should hand over the girl to Lucius, and he should receive her.

[21] When, therefore, Lucius, as had been agreed, was sailing in haste to Ephesus ^f; vexed by a demon Antoninus, his daughter having been seized by a demon, not knowing which way to turn, protracts the time, an excuse being given ^g, writing to Lucius: that the Germans, having crossed the Rhine, were laying waste the cities and towns of the Romans; that he could not, therefore, as had been agreed, come now with his daughter to Ephesus, but only in the following year. Having received these letters from the emperor in the middle of his voyage, Lucius, affected with great grief, bore it most hardly, and returned to Antioch ^h. But the emperor Antoninus, both of his own accord greatly anxious about his daughter and also urged on by his wife, left nothing undone, nor spared any remedy that seemed able to profit. Gathering, therefore, the priests of the Romans and of the Italians, augurs too being summoned from Etruria ⁱ, he adjured the demon through them, leaving nothing untried for the safety of his daughter.

[22] may bring help, is called to Rome, But all things were found vain, nay they rendered the demon more savage against the girl. And he gave forth through her utterances of this kind: Unless Abercius, bishop of the Hierapolitans in Lesser Phrygia, comes, I will not depart from this station. When he had cried out these things for many days, Antoninus remained in doubt what they meant; wherefore, having called Cornelianus ^k, prefect of the praetorium, he asked whether there was any Hierapolis in Lesser Phrygia? There is indeed, said he; and from it comes Euxinianus, to whom you have rather often written about public affairs. Having heard this, the emperor, as though freed from a heavy care, rejoiced that Euxinianus, living there, would skilfully see to the matter. Having ordered, therefore, Valerius and Basianus, magistriani ^l, to be at hand at once, he writes to him in this manner ^m:

[23] letters having been sent by the emperor Antoninus, emperor, Augustus, to Euxinianus Poplion, greeting ⁿ. Since I have learned by experience what your skill is, especially in those things which you lately did at Smyrna by our order to relieve the calamity that arose from the earthquake; as was fitting, I rejoiced and praised your diligence in managing affairs. For I know everything accurately, as if I had been present. For both the report sent by you, and he who brought it to us, as also Coelius ^o our procurator, set out everything to me clearly. At present it has become known to me that a certain Abercius, bishop of the Hierapolitans, is staying with you, a man so pious among the Christians that he heals the possessed and cures other diseases most easily. Since his help is necessary to us, we have sent Valerius and Bassianus, magistriani of our divine offices, to bring him to us with all honour and reverence. We therefore command your highness to persuade him to come to us with much alacrity, and know that no small praise will be yours with us on this account. Farewell.

[24] and by messengers, When he had given this letter to the magistriani, he dismissed them from Rome, saying: You will have done me a thing in many ways pleasing if you bring Abercius here as quickly as possible. They, having received the letter, sparing no speed and diligence, in two days [p] reached Brundisium, where, embarking on a ship prepared by the prefect Cornelianus, and having a favourable wind, and having crossed the Ionian sea, on the seventh day they put in at the Peloponnese. Hence, carried by public horses, they reach Byzantium on the fifteenth day [q], and on the same day continue their journey as far as Nicomedia. Then, again using the public post, they come to Synnada, which is the metropolis of Phrygia; where, having received guides for the road from the governor Spintherus (as he had been ordered by the prefect Cornelianus), about the ninth hour they arrive at Hierapolis. Entering the city, therefore, they meet Abercius, and that not altogether by chance [r]. For he was accustomed at that hour, the office of teaching being fulfilled, to return home, to say his accustomed prayers to God.

[25] the arm of one of whom grows rigid. They, therefore, having met him, asked where Euxinianus was, and where one should go to find him. Abercius asks in turn why they seek that man, and for what reason they have come. But Valerius, taking his question ill, because he did not answer so promptly, attempts something rather bold, moved perhaps by the malignant spirit: for he stretches out his right hand against the holy Bishop, ready to strike him with a whip. But there was not lacking a hand guarding him from above; for that rash right hand is punished, and remains immovable and as though bound with a fetter. Fear seizes the other at this new spectacle. Both, therefore, dismounting from their horses, fall at the feet of the holy Man, and suppliantly and very humbly ask that the hand which had withered and was as it were dead might bloom again and revive, and not remain thus immovable. He, using his accustomed mercy, touches the sick hand, which at once is made whole. Then, having again inquired why they sought Abercius, and having heard that they were bringing him letters from the emperor, he offers himself as guide for the way, and quickly leads them to the house of Euxinianus. He, having received the letters, when he had read what was contained in them, at once hands the letter to the holy Man, and asks him, without any delay, but as the emperor wished, to commit himself to the journey as soon as possible. When he too had read it, he said: I will come, and undertake the journey with a ready and eager mind; since it has come about by the will of God, as has already been indicated to me by my Lord.

hospitality, and having stayed with him two days, they explained their journey and the manner of their voyage; on the third, having received letters from him, they departed. Moreover, the wonderful man Abercius had promised them that after forty full days they would meet him at the Port [s] which is near Rome, and would enter the City together. They, since they had no reason to distrust him (for they judged rightly, from what they had perceived and seen, that it could not be that a man adorned with such graces should have a conscience and tongue not sound), mounting the public horses again, returned. The divine Abercius, having poured into one and the same skin [t] wine, vinegar and oil, and having taken besides some loaves, and having finally spoken to his brethren the things that suited the time, whom also, as they bitterly lamented his departure, he most aptly consoled, got up into a public carriage and goes out of the city.

[27] and takes a certain vine-dresser as companion of his journey; And when he had gone some way along the road, he sees a certain vine-dresser digging and diligently tending the vines. The man's name was Trophimion, whom, addressing him by name, he said: Come, brother, make the journey to Rome with me. As soon as he heard this, leaving his mattock and rake [u], and taking up his garment, which on account of the labour of his work he had laid on the ground, he followed the holy Bishop. Together, therefore, they made the journey. But now I wish you to be as attentive as possible: for you will hear a thing as wonderful as it is charming [v]. Whenever Trophimion, at the bidding of Abercius, loosed the cover of the skin for common use, only that liquid flowed out, without mixture, of which there was then need: say wine, or vinegar, or oil, the others remaining within; but whenever he, wanting something, removed the cover beyond the holy Man's command, there flowed out wondrously those things which Trophimion did not want; namely vinegar or oil, if, suffering perhaps from thirst, he wished to drink; but if he had need of these, pure wine flowed. Thus he who of his own will was fraudulent was faithful even against his will; since he obtained none of the things he wished. Excellently taught by experience to behave rightly and sincerely, and to do nothing beyond the will of him who had lent the skin. Such gifts had Abercius obtained from God. When, therefore, they had easily measured out the whole journey, they come to Attalia, a city of Pamphylia [x], where, having embarked on a ship which was setting out for Rome, they put in at the place appointed for them, the end of the days which had been agreed now drawing near.

[28] having entered Rome The Magisteriani themselves also arrive on the third day after: for their voyage had made a long delay on account of the unfavourableness of the wind. They bore this tardiness most hardly; because they thought that, unless they found Abercius as agreed, either they would have to inflict a violent death on themselves, or it would be given them by the emperor, if they came before him with empty hands, as the saying is. Turning these things over in their minds, when they had now come down from the ship and were searching the inns and going round the shore, they find the holy Man, who, stretching out his right hand and giving greeting, looked calmly at the men and gently recalled to them the agreement for the month. And when they gladly, beyond what they had hoped, saw him, at once, full of veneration, they kissed and embraced him, and gave other signs by which the highest joy of mind is shown. Then, taking him, having entered Rome, they lead him to the prefect Cornelianus.

[29] he meets Faustina Augusta; He, since the emperor Antoninus had undertaken an expedition against the barbarians [y] who, having crossed the Rhine, were laying waste the lands of the Romans, brings him to Faustina Augusta; who, when she had beheld him so venerable and grave in appearance, and displaying a certain supreme moderation and tranquillity, is filled with shame, and greets him most honourably. And, she said, that you are a servant of the best and almighty God is manifest, both from the things which others long ago, and which now the magistriani returning from the journey (for from these too Faustina had already heard of him), have reported to me. I ask, therefore, that you put off nothing in deserving well of the emperors by saving and curing our wretched little daughter. We shall show ourselves grateful, heaping on you great honours and gifts. These things she uttered with much feeling: for the necessity of nature constrained her and drove her to ask the help of him whom, to speak with the prophet David, they hated without cause, nor could bring themselves to adore the true God. Your good will, he said, is certainly pleasing to us; but in the honours that are among you we take no delight whatever, as men who have long since spurned their vain show. Nor do we fail to communicate to others the graces given us by God, after the manner of hirelings; but what we have received freely we are commanded also to give freely.

[30] he commands the demon to go out of Lucilla's body, Nevertheless, where, said Abercius, is your daughter? Then Faustina hastens as quickly as possible to the chamber, and, having seized the girl with all the ardour and zeal she can, drags her to the holy Bishop. But the most wicked demon who inhabited the girl, when he knew that he was being brought to him by whom he knew he had long since been overcome, tearing her threw her to the ground, so that she was terrified, troubled, trembled, and was darkened in sight. Then through her he also gave forth these utterances: Behold, Abercius, I have brought you to Rome, as I promised. To whom he said: So it is; but you will by no means rejoice on that account. He said this, and orders the girl to be led out of doors. She is carried, therefore, into the hippodrome [z], the emperor's guards and keepers having first occupied the place. Meanwhile the impudent and wicked demon did not cease to tear and prostrate the girl, nor did he cry out anything else except that by which he signified that he was boasting, as though he himself had brought the holy Man there through so great a space of land and sea. But Abercius, raising his eyes to heaven and pouring out a prayer to God, gazes sharply at the girl, and said: Go out of her, malignant spirit, harming her in nothing: so my Christ commands you. He, therefore, his lion-like audacity suddenly changed into the timidity of a fox, said: And I adjure you by this very Christ of yours, not to send me away into the desert or into any other place except that in which I dwelt before.

[31] and to carry an altar to Hierapolis; And St. Abercius said: You shall go, not into the desert, but into my country. Because you have compelled me to come to Rome, for that reason I command you again in the name of Jesus to take up that altar (pointing out to him with his finger a stone altar), and carry it all the way to Hierapolis, and set it up beside the southern gate. The demon heard the voice, and suddenly, like a slave who has learned to be subject in all things to a terrible Master, withdraws from the girl, doing her no harm at all; then, before innumerable eyes beholding the thing (O who would not marvel at all thy works, Christ the King?), he gets under the altar and, groaning heavily, takes it up, and passing through the middle of the hippodrome (a new spectacle indeed for the Romans) sets it down at Hierapolis in the place designated [aa]. The girl, freed from the demon by which she was vexed, becoming dumb, held the holy Man's feet for a long time; so that the mother and the others standing by were very greatly troubled, fearing lest the demon had snatched away the girl's soul.

[32] and he restores the girl whole to her mother. Which Faustina, not being able to bear in silence, but with a heart full of sadness and anguish, addresses the holy Bishop, exclaiming: Surely, together with the demon you have taken away my daughter's life too. When he saw her so prostrate, moved with mercy, holding out his hand to the girl, he wakes her, as though weighed down by deep sleep, whole and fully in possession of her mind. Then, turning to Faustina, he said: Behold, your daughter stands before you; nor has she been deprived of life, but freed from the possession of the demon [bb]. When the mother saw her thus, she embraced her at once, and, bathing her with tears of joy, laid cheek to cheek, mouth to mouth, and joined hands with hands; desiring to have her as it were within herself and to join soul to soul, she did not know what to do [cc]. When, therefore, she saw her daughter in good health, the empress most ardently besought the divine Abercius not to refuse in turn to receive a recompense from her, since he had conferred on her so great and so longed-for a grace.

[33] Faustina's gratitude towards Abercius. He, not suffering even mention to be made of money, said: What need have I of that, to whom bread and water make a sumptuous banquet. He asks, however, that a bath be built in the Field beside the river, where he had prayed on bended knees and the springs of hot waters had burst forth; and besides that there be given to the poor of his city three thousand modii of corn. As soon as the empress heard these things, she gladly assented to the requests; and at once summons the prefect Cornelianus, whom she orders to fulfil the requests with all zeal, lest tardiness in carrying out promises should obscure their merit. For so are men made by nature and disposition: we more willingly gratify those who are slower than those who are more prompt to receive gifts: these indeed we despise, as cheaper than the gifts themselves, while we love the greatness of soul of the others. The prefect, therefore, without any delay, sends an architect to him who then presided over Phrygia, from whom he should receive as much money as was needed for building the baths, and at the same time should distribute three thousand modii of corn to the poor of Heraclea. Further, when the bath had been made, that place began to be called no longer, as before, the Field beside the river, but the Field of hot waters [dd]. And the distribution of corn continued until the age of the impious Julian; who, grudging the Christians this too, as also other goods, stopped the supply [ee].

ANNOTATIONS.

baser, history relates; and there was in that age a constant rumour that Commodus himself had been conceived by a Gladiator. She was also believed to have been the cause of the sudden death of L. Verus, and a sharer too in the designs of Avidius Cassius conspiring against her husband. These disgraces of his wife, made public, moved her husband so little that even to those who urged him at least to divorce her, if he would not kill her, he answered: If we put away our wife, let us give back the dowry too, namely the empire. That indulgence, however atrocious and ill-advised, could in some measure have been borne, had he not also wept for her when dead and, defiled with every infamy, brought her into the council of the gods.

o. Καὶ

Κέλιος. Surius translates into Latin Caecilius; so too Halloix. And rightly indeed: for the words are to be joined, so that one reads Καικέλιος. Hence in other codices one has: Κεκίλιος, Κικίλιος, Κεκίλλιος, etc.

p. Δυσί, in two days. This word is omitted in Surius: But when they had come to Brundisium, a ship, etc. The Romans were accustomed, when they made for Greece from the City, to head straight for Brundisium, and to embark from there. When, says Tully Philippic I, I had not without cause avoided Brundisium and that road which is the beaten one into Greece, etc. Brundisium, commonly Brindisi, is distant from Rome three hundred thousand paces. From this one may conclude with what speed the magistriani made the journey, since they measured it out in two days. Three hundred thousand paces are equivalent to eighty of our Brabant leagues, a hundred French, so that consequently they made a journey of 40 or 50 leagues a day. It is true that they spared no speed and diligence; nor certainly did they halt anywhere. Besides, it is not necessary that the word δυσι be so taken that nothing at all may be added to those two days. For the rest, in Boissonade's Abercius this passage is rendered more briefly, and no mention is made of two days: Δεξάμενοι οὖν μαγιστριανοὶ τὰ τοῦ αὐτοκράτορος, γράμματα καὶ ἐκβάντες πλοίῳ κατὰ τὸ Βρεντήσιον κ. τ. λ.

q. On the fifteenth day. Surius has: they come quickly to Byzantium.

r. Καὶ ταῦτα ἀπὸ τοῦ παρήκοντος, as though the best occasion had been given. Surius.

s. This passage is not easily rendered into Latin. Surius has it thus word for word: Since the admirable Abercius had promised them that after forty days they would meet one another in the Port, as it is called, which indeed is near Rome, and so he would enter Rome together with them. Halloix rightly notes Vol. II, p. 118 that here is meant the city of Etruria called Portus Romanus, sixteen miles distant from the City and set opposite Ostia (commonly called by the Latins Ostia Tiberina). Halloix adds: Both were once great cities; now they think it enough to preserve some traces, however small, of their greatness. From this one may conclude that in the author's mind the Magisteriani returned by the same way by which they had come, namely making for the Peloponnese by Nicomedia and Byzantium, and sailing thence towards the shores of Italy.

t. The Menaeum of the Greeks, says Halloix Vol. II, p. 119, mentions expressly wine indeed and vinegar, but not oil, only a certain third liquid; then he subjoins the Greek text: Οἴνου γὰρ καὶ ἐλαίου μετὰ καὶ ἑτέρου: for wine and oil and another liquid he put into the same little vessel, so that one would scarcely believe one's eyes, when one sees Halloix in the same place affirming once and again that no mention is made of oil in the Menaea. For the rest, Halloix's Greek text agrees with the recent Venetian edition of the Menaea in the year 1845. In the Menologium of Basil fish-sauce is put in place of wine: προσετάξε δὲ τῷ ὑπουργῷ αυτοῦ βαλεῖν εἰς ἀσκὸν ἕνα ὄξος καὶ γάρον καὶ ἐλαίον, vinegar, garum and oil. Now garum, according to Pliny, is a kind of exquisite liquid, from the intestines of fishes and the other parts which were to be thrown away, steeped in salt, so that it is the gore of things putrefying. It was formerly made from a fish which the Greeks called garos Gesner, Thesaurus. In these three monuments, therefore, a different enumeration of the liquids is had. But since both the Menaea and the Menologium mention that fact, one may conclude that its fame was fairly celebrated among the Greeks.

u. Leaving the mattock and the shovel. So Halloix, and he adds: Rutrum from ruere Vol. II, p. 119.

v. For you will hear a miracle mingled with pleasure. Surius. And Halloix notes Ibid.: This is a new miracle, and one to which I have not yet found the like, that out of three liquids shut up in one skin and not mingled, at the will of the holy Man that liquid alone and pure flowed out which he wished; but if his servant wished to misuse it, the contrary of what he wished befell him. He then proves at length that a miracle of this kind is not incredible. Which, speaking absolutely and in general, needs no proof; another view is to be taken where the question is of a particular case: then the rules of criticism are to be applied, according to which the firmer the proof required, the greater the circumspection which the matter in question by its nature recommends.

x. So also Strabo and Ptolemy. Stephen of Byzantium calls Attalia, but wrongly, a city of Lydia Halloix, vol. II, p. 120. Hence it appears that St. Abercius measured out a far greater part of the way by ship than the magisteriani. Nor consequently is it to be wondered that he, although he set out later, yet put in in Italy before them.

y. See the Preliminary Commentary, num. 7 and 8, where we said that from the contemporary historians it is rather proved that M. Aurelius had not then set out into Germany. Halloix, who undertakes to defend our Acts in all things and against all, comments on this passage thus Ibid.: He (M. Aurelius) was therefore occupied at the beginning of this (German) tumult, but a little after, having committed it to his generals, he returned to Rome, and escorted his daughter, healed by Abercius, as far as Brundisium. How these things can be sustained let him see.

z. I should not think that here a hippodrome or public circus is meant, but the circus of the palace. And that there were formerly, and are still, hippodromes in the palaces of emperors and kings is a thing that needs no proof. Certainly Petrus de Natalibus in the Acts of St. Sebastian has this about Diocletian: Then the emperor ordered him to be led into the hippodrome of the palace, etc. Ibid.

aa. Mention of this fact too is made in the Menologium of Basil; likewise in the Menaea, both in the compendium of the Life and in the Acrostic. In this latter place one reads thus: Βωμὸς τῷ τάφῳ σου κείμενος, ὄν ἐκ τῆς Ῥωμαίων μετηνέγκατο πόλεως, τὸ πονηρὸν εξελαθὲν πνεῦμα, Αβέρκιε: The altar placed on thy sepulchre, which the malignant spirit, being expelled, carried over from the greatest city of the Romans, O Abercius.

bb. That things of this kind can happen and have really happened the Gospel narrative itself makes credible. It would therefore be impious to reject them a priori. Yet they are not to be admitted unless they are supported by a fit testimony, such as is not forthwith had from legends alone.

cc. When, therefore, the mother had so seen her daughter, embracing her, and shedding tears for joy, she laid cheek to cheek and mouth to mouth, and joined hands to hands, and as though desiring to grasp her inwardly and to meet with the bare soul itself, she did not know what she was doing. So it is translated in Surius.

dd. See the Annotations to chap. II, letter l.

ee. Of this distribution Baronius writes thus: Further, however many persecutions grew more frequent against the church, yet it is established that an annual allowance of corn of this kind never ceased until the times of Julian the apostate, who entirely abolished it, as the same Acts (of St. Abercius) also testify. See the place in the Annals At the year 163, num. XIV.

* τούτου

CHAPTER IV.

St. Abercius, having travelled through Syria, returns to Hierapolis. His last labours. Finally, a tomb with an epitaph having been prepared for himself, he dies most holily.

Ο θεῖος τοιγαροῦν Ἀβέρκιος, ἵν᾽ ἐπ᾽ αὐτὸν ἐπανίωμεν, Ῥωμαίοις χρόνον ἱκανὸν συγγενόμενος, καὶ τὸν ὑγιαίνοντα τῆς πίστεως λόγον χριστιανῶν παραδοὺς ἐκκλησίαις, ὄναρ ποτὲ τὸν Κύριον ἐπιστάντα ὁρᾶ· καὶ δεῖ σε Ἀβέρκιε, λέγοντα, καὶ τῶν ἐν τῇ Συρίᾳ φροντίσαι μερῶν. Ἀνεθείς οὖν τοῦ ὕπνου, αἰτεῖ τὴν βασιλίδα μεθεῖναι αὐτόν· περιείχετο γὰρ τέως ἰσχυρότατα τοῦ ἀνδρός, δεδοικυῖα μὴ μετὰ τὴν ἐκείνου ἀποδημίαν ἀδείας τυχὸν τὸ δαιμόνιον, ἐμπηδήσῃ πάλιν τῇ θυγατρί· ὁ δὲ θαῤῥεῖν τούτου γε ἕνεκεν εἰρηκὼς, ἐδεῖτο καὶ αὖθις ναῦν αὐτῷ παρασκευασθῆναι, δι᾽ ἧς ἐπὶ τὰ τῆς Συρίας πλεύσειε μέρη· μόλις οὖν ποτε καὶ τῇ πολλῇ προσθεῖσα προσεδρείᾳ, κελεύει Κορνηλιανῷ, πλοῖον τε αὐτῷ εὐτρεπίσαι καὶ τὰ ἰπιτήδεια ὅτι τάχος ἐνθέσθαι.

[35] Καθορμισθείσης οὖν αὐτῷ τὴς νεὼς ἐμβὰς, ἑβδόμῃ τῇ πρὸς τὸν πλοῦν ἡμέρᾳ, τὴν Συρίαν καταλαμβάνει, καὶ πρῶτα μἐν τῇ Ἀντιοχέων έπιδημεῖ, εἶτα δέχεται τοῦτον Ἀπάμεια, κἀκεῖθεν ἐπὶ τὰς λοιπὰς μεταβαίνει πόλεις, καὶ στασιαζούσας διαλλάττει τὰς ἐκκλησίας· πάνυ γὰρ τότε τὸ τῆς αἱρέσεως τοῦ Μαρκίωνος κακὸν ἐνέμετο ταύτας· τὸν Εὐφράτην δὲ διαβὰς, ταῖς κατὰ Νίσιβίν τε καὶ πᾶσαν τὴν Μεσοποταμίαν ἐκκλησίαις ἐπιφοιτᾶ, κακείνας τὸν ἴσον διατίθησι τρόπον. Ἐντεῦθεν χρήματα αὐτῷ κομίζεται παρὰ πάντων· ἀμοιβὴ μετρία, τῆς πολλῆς αὐτοῦ δῆθεν περὶ τὰς ἐκκλησίας κακοπαθείας· ἠγνόουν δὲ ὅμοίον τι ποιοῦντες, ὥσπερ εἴ τινι τῶν τρέχειν ὀξύτατα δυναμένων πέδας παρεῖχον, γέρας τί τῆς εὐκινησίας· εἰ βούλει δὲ, καθάπερ οἱ τὸν γυμνὸν ἤδη παλαίειν πεπαιδευμένον πειρώμενοι ἐνδιδύσκειν, ὥστε λαβὰς ἔχειν ἐπ᾽ αὐτὸν τὸν ἀντίπαλον.

[36] Ἐπεὶ οὖν ὁ μὲν ἀνένευε τὴν ἀνάληψιν, τὰ τῆς βασιλίδος πλείονα εἰρηκὼς εἶναι καὶ εὐλογωτέρας ἐχόμενα πρὸς τὸ λαβεῖν ἀφορμῆς, οἱ δὲ προσκείμενοι πείθειν οὐκ εἶχον· εἰς μέσον τίς αὐτῶν καταστὰς Βαρχασάνης ὄνομα· ἀνὴρ τὸ γένος λαμπρότατος, τὸν πλοῦτον διαφορώτατος· βιάζεσθαι μὲν ἀδελφοὶ τὸν ἄνδρα χρημάτων ἕνεκα, ἔφη, οὔτε αὐτῷ πρέπον, οὔθ᾽ ἡμῖν ὅλως λυσιτελές· ὃ δὲ οὐκ ἔστι διδόμενον ἀποθέσθαι· καὶ ὅπερ αὐτῷ μᾶλλον αἱ πράξεις διδόασιν, ἐκεῖνο δὴ καὶ ποιητέον ἡμῖν· καὶ ψηφισώμεθα τοῦτον Ἰσαπόστολον ὀνομάζειν· ἐπεὶ μηδὲ περιελθόντα ἕτερον ἴσμεν γῆν τοσαύτην καὶ θάλατταν ἐπὶ προνοίᾳ τῶν ἀδελφῶν· ὅτι μή τοὺς κορυφαίους ἐκείνους τοῦ Χριστοῦ μαθητὰς, οἷς περ δὴ καὶ οὗτος ὤφθη ἑπόμενος. Ταῦτα ὁ μὲν εἶπε, τοῖς δὲ δεῖν ἐδόκει, καὶ τὸ ἀπ᾽ ἐκείνου ταύτην ἔλαχε τὴν ἐπωνυμίαν, ὁ καὶ πρὸ τῆς ἐκείνων ψήφου, τοῖς ἔργοις αὐτὴν κληρωσάμενος· ἀναζεύξας τοίννν ἐκεῖθεν, ἑν ἑκατέρᾳ τὲ Κιλικίᾳ γενόμενος, καὶ τῇ Λυκαονίᾳ καὶ Πισιδίᾳ ἐπιδημήσας, εἰς Σύναδα τῆς μικρᾶς Φρυγίας μητρόπολιν ἥκει· ἐπιξενωθεὶς δὲ τισι τῶν ἐκεῖ χριστιανῶν· καὶ μικρὸν ἑαυτὸν ἀναπαύσας, πρὸς τὴν οἰκείαν ὥρμησε πόλιν.

[37] Τὸ χωρίον οὖν ὅπερ Αὐλὼν ἐκαλεῖτο θέρους καταλαβὼν, ἐπὶ τῆς πλησίον ἐκάθισε πέτρας. Ἐπειδὴ δὲ τότε πνεῦμα ἐπίφορον ἔπνει, καὶ τοῖς ἀγρόταις ὁ σῖτος ἐπὶ τῆς ἄλωνος ἐλικμᾶτο· καὶ ἡ αὖρα τὰ λεπτὰ τῶν ἀχύρων διαῤῥιπίζουσα ταῖς ὄψεσι προσέβαλλε τοῦ ἁγίου, δεῖται τῶν γεωργῶν ἀνεῖναι πρὸς βραχὺ τόπον· οἱ δὲ οὐχ ὑπήκουον· εἶτα ὁ μὲν προσευχῇ μόνῃ τὸ πνεῦμα κοιμίζει· τοῖς δὲ καὶ ἄκουσιν ἐπαύετο ἡ σπουδή. Μὴ ἔχοντες οὖν ὅτι καὶ ἑαυτοῖς χρήσονται, οἱ μὲν ἐπὶ δεῖπνον τρέπονται, ὁ δὲ· καὶ γὰρ ἔτυχε δίψει ἁλοὺς· ὕδωρ παρ᾽ αὐτῶν ᾔτει· ἀλλ᾽ ἐκεῖνοι δεινῶς ἄξενοι ὄντες καὶ ἀκριβῶς ἄγροικοι, παρεθεῶρουν τὴν αἴτησιν, καὶ χλεύην τὸ πρᾶγμα ἐποίουν· εἰ δι᾽

ἕνα γέροντα, λέγοντες, ἀφεξόμεθα τραπέζης. Ἐμέμψατο οὖν τὴν ἀπανθρωπίαν ταύτην ὁ φιλανθρωπότατος ἀνδρῶν Ἀβέρκιος, καὶ τὸ μηδέποτε κορέννυσθαι αὐτοῖς ἐπηράσατο· ὃ καὶ ἔσχον εἰς δεῦρο παραμένον αὐτοῖς· μισανθρωπίας φιλάνθρωπον ἀτεχνῶς ἐπιτίμιον·

[38] Εἶτα τῆς πέτρας ἀπαναστὰς, τὴν ἑαυτοῦ πόλιν καταλαμβάνει· τὸ γοῦν πλῆθος αἰσθόμενοι τῆς τοῦ ἀνδρὸς παρουσίας, συνέῤῥεον πανδημεί, γλιχόμενοι ὄψιν τὲ τὴν γλυκεῖαν ἰδεῖν, καὶ φωνῆς ἀκοῦσαι τῆς ποθουμένης. Ὁ μὲν οὖν ἀσμένως αὐτοὺς εὐλογήσας καὶ ἀσπασάμενος, περιῄει τὴν πόλιν, καὶ αὖθις διδάσκων τὲ τὸν λόγον τῆς ἀληθείας σὺν παῤῥησίᾳ, καὶ τοὺς προσίοντας διὰ τοῦ θείου βαπτίσματος τελειῶν· δαιμονῶσι λύσιν τοῦ κακοῦ παρέχων, νόσους ἰώμενος, καὶ παντὸς ἰσχυροτέραν πάθους τὴν ἐν αὐτῷ τοῦ Πνεύματος δύναμιν προβαλλόμενος.

[39] Συνθεὶς δὲ καὶ βίβλον διδασκαλίας πάνυ ὠφελίμως ἔχουσαν, καταλείπει τοῖς ὑπ᾽ αὐτὸν πρεσβυτέροις ἅμα καὶ διακόνοις, ἵνα καὶ μετὰ θάνατον φθέγγηται δι᾽ αὐτῆς, καὶ τρόπον τινὰ μηδέποτε ὠφελῶν παύηται. Ἀνελθὼν οὖν ποτε εἰς ὄρος ὑψηλὸν, οὕτω δεῆσαν, ἐπεὶ δίψῃ δεινῇ αὐτός τε καὶ ὅσοι αὐτῷ συνῆσαν ἥλωσαν, ἐπὶ τὸν πάντα δυνάμενον καταφεύγει. Καὶ αὐτὸς μὲν εἰς προσευχὴν κλιθεὶς, τὰ γόνατα τῷ ἐδάφει δίδωσιν. Ὕδωρ δὲ πότιμον εὐθὺς ἀνῆκεν ἡ γῆ, καὶ ὁ τόπος ἐξ ἐκείνου, Τόπος Γονυκλισίας τὸ λοιπὸν ἐκλήθε. Πλὴν ἀλλὰ τότε μὲν εἰς τὸν οἶκὸν αὐτοῦ ἐπανῆκεν.

[40] Οὐ πολλῷ δὲ ὕστερον ὁρᾶ πάλιν ὄναρ αὐτῷ τὸν Κύριον ἐπιστάντα· καὶ Ἀβέρκιε, λέγοντα, ἤγγικεν ἤδη ὁ καιρὸς, ὥστε ἀναπαύσασθαί σε τῶν πόνων σου τῶν μακρῶν. Διαγρηγορήσας δὲ καὶ γνοὺς τὴν τελευτὴν αὐτῷ προδηλοῦσθαι, τὸ φανὲν τοῖς ἀδελφοῖς διηγεῖται· καὶ λίθόν τινα τετράγωνον, μῆκος τὲ καὶ πλάτος ἴσον, τάφον ἑαυτῷ κατασκευάζει· καὶ τὸν βωμὸν, ὃς ἐκείνου προστάξαντος ἀπὸ Ῥώμης ὑπὸ τοῦ δαίμονος ἐκεῖ μετηνέχθη, τῷ λίθῳ ἐφίστησι, τοὶον δέ τι ἐπίγραμμα αὐτῷ ἐγχαράξας·

[41] “Ἐκλεκτῆς πόλεως πολίτης τόδ᾽ ἐποίησα ζῶν, ἵν᾽ ἔχω καιρῷ σώματος ἐνθάδε θέσιν, τοὔνομα Ἀβέρκιος· ὁ ὢν μαθητὴς Ποιμένος ἁγνοῦ, ὃς βόσκει προβάτων ἀγέλας, οὔρεσι πεδίοις τε· ὀφθαλμοὺς ὃς ἔχει μεγάλους πάντα καθορόωντας. Οὗτος γάρ με ἐδίδαξε γράμματα πιστά· εἰς Ῥώμην ὃς ἔπεμψεν ἐμὲ βασίλειαν ἀθρῆσαι· καὶ βασίλισσαν ἰδεῖν χρυσόστολον, χρυσοπέδιλον· λαὸν δ᾽ εἶδον ἐκεῖ, λαμπρὰν σφραγῖδα ἔχοντα· καὶ Συρίης πέδον χώρας εἶδον, καὶ ἄστεα πάντα, Νίσιβιν, Εὐφράτην διαβάς· πάντας δ᾽ ἔσχον συνομηγύρους, Παῦλον ἔσωθεν. Πίστις δὲ παντὶ προῆγε· καὶ παρέθηκε τροφὴν, Ἰχθυν ἀπὸ πηγῆς παμμεγέθη, καθαρόν· ὃν ἐδράξατο Παρθένος ἁγνὴ, καὶ τοῦτον ἐπέδωκε φίλοις ἐσθίειν διαπαντός· οἶνον χρηστὸν ἔχουσα, κέρασμα διδοῦσα μετ᾽ ἄρτου. Ταῦτα παρεστὼς εἶπον Ἀβέρκιος ὧδε γραφῆναι, ἑβδομηκοστὸν ἔτος καὶ δεύτερον ἄγων ἀληθῶς. Ταῦθ᾽ ὁ νοῶν εὔξαιτο ὑπὲρ Ἀβερκίου πᾶς ὁ συνωδός. Οὐ μὲν τοι τύμβον ἕτερόν τις ἀπ᾽ ἐμοῦ ἐπάνω θήσει· εἰ δ᾽ οὖν, Ῥωμαίων ταμείῳ θήσει δισχίλια χρυσᾶ, καὶ χρηστῇ πατρίδι Ἰεραπόλει, χίλια χρυσᾶ.” Τὰ μὲν δὴ τοῦ ἐπιγράμματος ὧδέ πως ἐπὶ λέξεως εἴχεν, ὅτι μὴ ὁ χρόνος ὑφεῖλε κατ᾽ ὀλίγον τῆς ἀκριβείας καὶ ἡμαρτημένως ἔχειν τὴν γραφὴν παρεσκεύασεν.

[42] Αὐτὸς δὲ τοὺς πρεσβυτέρους εἰς ταυτὸν καὶ τοὺς διακόνους, καὶ τινας τοῦ πλήθους καλέσας· τεκνία, ἔφη, ἐμοὶ μὲν τὸ τοῦ βίου τέλος ἤδη πάρεστι· καὶ ἄπειμι, ὧ φίλον ἐμοὶ ποίμνιον, ἄπειμι πρὸς ἣν ἐπόθουν ἐκ νέου διαγωγὴν, καὶ πρὸς ὃν μόνον ἐγὼ τὴν ἔφεσιν ἔχω· καὶ οὗ με σφοδρῶς ὁ θεῖος ἐξέκαυσεν ἔρως ἄπειμι τοῦτον ὀψόμενος. Ὑμᾶς δὲ χρὴ σκοπεῖν, ὅντινα ἑαυτοῖς ἐπίσκοπον ψηφιεῖσθε, ὃς ποιμανεῖ τὲ ὑμᾶς μετ᾽ ἐμὲ, καὶ οὗτῆς φωνῆς ἀκούσει τὰ ἐμὰ πρόβατα καλῶς, καὶ, ὡς θεῷ φίλον, ὑπ᾽ αὐτοῦ ποιμαινόμενα. Ταῦτα τοῦ ἁγίου πρὸς αὐτοὺς εἰπόντος, βραχέα ἐκεῖνοι πρὸς ἀλλήλους εὐθὺς κοινολογησάμενοι, τὸν ἀρχιπρεσβύτερον τῆς ἐκκλησίας, ὄνομα καὶ αὐτὸν Ἀβέρκιον, κοινῶς ἐψηφίσαντο. Καὶ αὐτὸς δὲ τῷ ἀνδρὶ τὴν ἐπισκοπὴν ἐπιψηφισάμενος, ἐπιτίθησί τε αὐτῷ τὰς χεῖρας, καὶ εὐλογήσας· σοὶ ἔφη, ὦ Ἀβέρκιε, ἐπισκόπῳ εἶναι δίδωμι· θεοῦ τε διδόντος καὶ ἐμοῦ ὅσον ἐπ᾽ ἐμοί.

[43] Εἶτα εἰς οὐρανοὺς σὺν τοῖς ὄμμασι καὶ χεῖρας ἀνασχὼν, καὶ προσευξάμενος τῷ θεῷ ἀπαίρει τὲ τῶν ἐνταῦθα τῷ πνεύματι, καὶ πρὸς Χριστὸν διαβαίνει, χοροῖς ἀγγέλων ὁ κατ᾽ ἄγγελον ἀληθῶς βιώσας, παραπεμπόμενος. Τὸ μέν τοι τὴν πόλιν οἰκοῦν πλῆθος παρὰ τὸ ἱερὸν ἐκεῖνο τοῦ ἀνδρὸς σῶμα συναθροισθέντες, ἱερά τε αὐτῷ ἐπάσαντες ἄσματα, καὶ λαμπρῶς ἀνελόμενοι ὥσπέρ τινα κοινὸν θησαυρὸν, ἐν τῷ λίθῳ κατέθεντο, δευτέραν τοῦ Ὀκτωβρίου πρὸς ταῖς εἴκοσιν ἄγοντος. Εἶτα τὸν ὑπ᾽ αὐτοῦ δεξάμενον τὴν ἐπισκοπὴν, ἐπὶ τὸν αὐτοῦ θρόνον ἀναγαγόντες, κοινῇ τὸν ἐπὶ θρόνου δόξης τῆς βασιλείας Θεὸν ἐμεγαλυνον· ᾧ πρέπει πᾶσα δόξα, τιμὴ καὶ προσκύνησις, νῦν καὶ ἀεὶ καὶ εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας τῶν αἰώνων· ἀμήν.

At Christ's bidding, Abercius The divine Abercius, therefore, to return to him, when he had been at Rome for a suitable time, handing on to the churches of the Christians the saving doctrine of the faith, saw the Lord standing by him in his sleep and saying: You must take care, Abercius, of those also who are in Syria. Roused from sleep, he asked the Augusta that he might be allowed to depart. For she held him back with all her strength; fearing lest, after his departure, the demon, given its liberty, should invade her daughter again. But he bade her be of good heart on this matter, and again pressed that a ship be prepared for him in which he might sail to the parts of Syria. With difficulty at length, and yielding to many entreaties, the Augusta orders Cornelianus to prepare a vessel and forthwith furnish it with necessaries.

[35] he travels through Syria Having embarked on it in the port, on the seventh day of the voyage ^a he reached Syria. And first indeed he stays at Antioch, then halts at Apamea ^b, thence going round the other cities and reconciling the churches that were at variance with one another: for at that time the plague of the Marcionite Heresy ^c was cruelly devouring them. Having crossed the Euphrates ^d, he visited the churches also near Nisibis and through the whole of Mesopotamia, which also he set in order in the same way. Thereupon money came to him from all, who thought this would be a slight recompense for the troubles he had suffered for the churches. They did not know that they were acting just as if they cast fetters on a swift runner as a reward for his agility; or, if you prefer, just like those who, seeing a naked man wrestling excellently, should try to cover him with a garment, that he might put on something by which he could be seized by his adversary.

[36] where he is declared ισαπόστολος; When, therefore, Abercius refused these things, saying that far more had been offered him by the Augusta, which he might have accepted for a worthier cause, and yet they were not persuaded, there came forward into the midst a certain man named Barchasanes, a man most illustrious by birth, abundant in riches: It is neither fitting, brethren, he said, nor in any way to your interest, to have used force on him on account of money, nor may what has been given be laid aside. But what he has merited by his deeds, this rather should be given him. Let us decree, therefore, that he be called ^e Equal to the Apostles: for we know of no other who has traversed so much of land and sea in favour of his brethren except those first disciples of Christ, whom this man has been seen by us to emulate. This indeed he said, and the others standing by approved. Thenceforth, therefore, Abercius received a surname of this kind, which he had obtained by his deeds even before their decision. When he had gone out from there, and had been in both Cilicias, and had traversed Lycaonia and Pisidia too, he came to Synnada ^f, the metropolis of Lesser Phrygia; where, having been received in hospitality by some Christians, when he had refreshed himself a little, he hastened to his own city.

[37] having entered Phrygia he punishes certain inhospitable men, When, therefore, in summer he had come to the place which is called Aulon, he sat down on a rock close by. And the wind blowing from the opposite quarter, and the countrymen winnowing corn, the breeze, lifting the light chaff, drove it into the face of the holy Man. He asks them, therefore, to interrupt their labour a little; but in vain. Then he by prayers lulls the breeze, so that they, even against their will, are compelled to cease from work. Having, therefore, now nothing to do, they turn to supper. Abercius, suffering from thirst, asked them for water; but they, being plainly inhospitable and boorish, despise the request and mock the man: Shall we indeed abstain from the table, they say, for the sake of one old man! The most humane of men, Abercius, took this inhumanity ill, and cursed them, that they should never be satisfied; which has happened to them too until this very day; a humane penalty indeed of inhumanity ^g.

[38] received with joy by the Hierapolitans, After this, rising from the rock, he came to his city. When the people perceived his arrival, they flow together from every side, eager to enjoy the pleasant sight of him and to hear his longed-for voice. He in turn, when he had blessed and greeted them from his heart, began again to go about the city, freely preaching the word of truth, and initiating those who came by divine baptism; freeing the possessed too from their possession, dispelling diseases, and showing that the power of the Spirit that was in him prevailed over any evils.

[39] he writes a book and brings forth another spring; He composed also a very useful book on doctrine ^h, which he left to his presbyters and deacons, that through it he might speak even after death, and in some manner never cease to profit them. When one day, as was his custom, he had climbed a high mountain, he and all his companions began to suffer from burning thirst. Taking refuge in him who can do all things, and turning to prayer, he falls on his knees. And behold, suddenly the earth brings forth drinkable water; whence that place was thereafter called the Place of Genuflexion ⁱ. For the rest, he then returned home.

[40] he prepares his tomb Not long after, he saw the Lord again standing by him in his sleep and saying: The time is near, Abercius, in which you shall rest from your long labours. Roused from sleep, he understood that the end of his life had been foretold him, of which he also warned his brethren. Forthwith he prepares a sepulchre for himself, namely a squared stone, equal in length and breadth; on which he placed the altar which the demon had carried from Rome at his command, with an epitaph of this kind [k]:

[41] with the epitaph; "A citizen of a chosen city ^l, living I made this ^m; that here in time I may have a seat for my body, I by name Abercius; a disciple of the chaste Shepherd, who ⁿ feeds the flocks of sheep on the mountains and fields; who has great eyes that see all things. He taught me faithful letters [o]; who also sent me to Rome, to see the seat of empire, and to behold the Augusta, adorned with golden robe and shoes [p]. There too I saw a people having splendid [q] rings. Moreover I traversed the plains of Syria [r] and all its cities, and Nisibis, having crossed the Euphrates. All

faith was everywhere my guide [t], and set before me food, a Fish [u] from the fountain, very great, pure, which the chaste Virgin grasped, and gave to her friends to eat for ever, having good wine, giving the mixture with bread. These things I, Abercius, standing by, caused to be so written, being in my seventy-second year in all [v]. Whoever understands these things [x] and is of one mind with me, let him pray for Abercius. Nor let anyone place another sepulchre over mine; but if he does, let him pay [y] to the Roman treasury two thousand gold pieces, and to my good country Hierapolis a thousand gold pieces [z]." The Inscription indeed ran so word for word; except that time has taken away a little of its integrity and has rendered the writing faulty.

[42] and, a successor having been designated for himself, Finally, having called the presbyters and deacons together with certain others of the people: Little children, he said, the end of my life is at hand, and I depart, O flock beloved to me; I depart to that conversation which I sought from my earliest age, and to him with longing for whom alone I am held; I depart to see him whose divine love vehemently inflames me. You must look about whom you will choose for yourselves as bishop, who after me may feed you, and whose voice my sheep may happily hear, and by whom, according to the good pleasure of God, they may be fed. After the holy Man had said these things, they at once conferred briefly among themselves, and unanimously chose the archpresbyter of the church, likewise Abercius [aa] by name. And when he too had conferred the bishopric on him by his own vote, he laid hands on him. When he had blessed him, he said: Do you indeed, Abercius, be bishop, God granting it, and I too, as far as I can.

[43] he dies most holily. Then, with eyes and hands raised to heaven, and having prayed to God, he departs hence in spirit and makes his way to Christ, conducted by the choirs of Angels, he who had lived plainly like an Angel. The people who inhabited the city, gathered to the sacred body of the blessed Man, when they had sung holy hymns, solemnly took it up as a certain common treasure, and laid it in the stone tomb, on the twenty-second day of October. After this, having led to his throne him who had received the bishopric from him, with a common voice they magnified God, who sits on the throne of glory; to whom be praise, honour and adoration, now and always and to the ages of ages. Amen [bb].

ANNOTATIONS.

I noted in the Preliminary Commentary, num. 17, that there has been disputation in these days about this Epitaph. Nor shall I here linger longer on the disagreements which turn about the interpretation and true reading of the poem, much less shall I seek to settle such great disputes. See what was said in the place cited of the Preliminary Commentary. This one thing I have before my eyes, to publish the Epitaph according to the faith of the manuscripts, leaving it to others to discourse on its interpretation and emendation or restoration from epigraphic or historical conjectures; since nothing has been put forward so far which seems to me sufficiently certain. Yet that the reader may know in what position the question is today, besides the reading already given from the Spicilegium Solesmense in the Preliminary Commentary, num. 15, I shall write down two other readings of the Epitaph; the one from our Halloix, the third from Garrucci. For the rest, there is no doubt that this Epitaph both was and is metrical in Greek. This is sufficiently manifest even from the reading alone, although, as we now have it, it is defective in many places, not indeed, says Halloix Halloix, as above, p. 137, through the fault of its author, as I think, but through the injury of time, which eats away stones and marbles, or also … through the ignorance or carelessness of copyists. He then subjoins the following restoration of the poem:

[1] Ἐκλεκτῆς πόλεος τόδε ζῶν ποίησα πολίτης, Ὡς ἂν ἔχω καιρῷ τοῦ σώματος ἐνθάδε θήκην Τούνομ᾽ Ἀβέρκιος, ὢν ὁ μαθητὴς Ποιμένος ἁγνοῦ,

[4] Ὃς βόσκει προβάτων ἀγέλας ὄρεσιν τε πέδοις τε. Ὀφθαλμοὺς ὃς ἔχει μεγάλους πάντ᾽ εἰσορόωντας. Οὗτος γάρ μ᾽ ἐδίδαξε … γράμματα πιστά, Εἰς Ῥώμην ὃς ἔπεμψεν ἐμὲ, βασίλειον ἀθρῆσαι

[8] Καὶ βασίλισσαν ἰδεῖν χρυσόστολον, χρυσοπέδιλον. Λαὸν δ᾽ εἰδον ἐκεῖ, λαμπρὰν σφραγῖδα ἔχοντα, Καὶ Συρίης χώρας εἶδον, καὶ ἄστεα πάντα, Νίσιβιν, Εὐφράτην διαβὰς[…]

[12] Πάντας δ᾽ ἔσχον ὁμηγερέας καὶ Παῦλον ἔσωθεν. […]πίστις δὲ προῆγε Πάντῃ, καὶ παρέθηκε τροφὴν Ἰχθῦν ἀπὸ πηγῆς Παμμεγέθη, καθαρὸν, ὃν ἐδράξατο Παρθένος ἁγνὴ,

[16] Καὶ τοῦτον παρέδωκε φίλοις ἔσθειν διὰ παντὸς, Οἶνον χρηστὸν ἔχουσα, κέρασμα διδοῦσα μετ᾽ ἄρτου. Ταῦτα παρεστὼς εἶπον Αβέρκιος ὦδε γραφῆναι, Ἑβδομηκοστὸν ἔτος καὶ δεύτερον ἦγον ἀληθῶς·

[20] Ταῦθ᾽ ὁ νοῶν εὔξαιτο ὑπέρ μου πᾶς ὁ συνῳδὸς· Οὐ μέν τις τύμβον ἕτερον ἐπ᾽ ἐμοῦ ἐπιθήσει. Εἰ δ᾽ οὗν, Ῥωμαίων ταμείῳ δισχίλια θήσει, Καὶ χρηστῇ πατριδ᾽ Ἱεραπούλεἳ χίλια χρυσᾶ.

If the fair reader admits this restoration of the Greek Epigram, Halloix adds, I ask with equal goodwill that he not reject this Latin interpretation in as many verses:

[1] A citizen of a chosen city, I completed this tomb While living, that here one day the limbs of one at rest may lie, Abercius by name; the friend and follower of the guiltless Shepherd, [4] Who feeds his sheep on the mountains and in the plains; who with great eye beholds all things. He taught me the sacred words of faithful doctrine; He sent me to Rome: here I saw the palaces of the realm, [8] And the Augusta adorned with robes and slippers glittering with gold, And a people round whose fingers a shining ring encircles; and I saw the lands and towns of Syria; Nisibis, having crossed the Euphrates […] [12] And I had all gathered together, within also Paul. […] faith everywhere went before me, And set before me food, a Fish from a perennial fountain, Very great, pure, which a modest Virgin grasped, [16] And set before her friends to be eaten for ever; And the excellent wine which she has, she offers with bread. I, Abercius, standing by, myself wished these things to be inscribed, Who have lived ten times seven years and two besides. [20] Let whoever knows these things help me with prayer, whoever thinks piously with me. Let no one add a tomb to my tomb; Or let him give two thousand of gold to the Romulean treasuries, And to Hierapolis, my good country, another thousand besides.

Halloix then gives the reason for the changes and transpositions of words which he used in re-forming or arranging the Greek hexameters Ibid., pp. 138 and 139. Our Garrucci proposes the following restoration, to use his word Civiltà Cattolica, year 1856, vol. I, p. 689. And that it may appear what he either added or changed, the Epitaph is shown in capital letters, the emendations in small letters.

[1] ΕΚΛΕΚΤΗΣ ΠΟΛΕΩΣ ΤΟΔΕ σῆμ᾽ ΕΠΟΙΗΣΑ ΠΟΛΙΤΗΣ ΖΩΝ ΙΝΑ ΕΧΩ ΚΑΙΡΩ ΣΩΜΑΤΟΣ ΕΝΘΑ ΘΕΣΙΝ ΤΟΥΝΟΜΑ ΑΒΕΡΚΙΟΣ ΕΙΜΙ ΜΛΘΗΤΗΣ ΠΟΙΜΕΝΟΣ ΑΓΝΟΥ

[4] ΟΥΤΟΣ ΓΑΡ ΜΕ ΕΔΙΔΑΞΕ Θεοῦ τὰ ΓΡΑΜΜΑΤΑ ΠΙΣΤΑ ΕΙΣ ΡΩΜΗΝ ΟΣ ΕΠΕΜΨΕ ΜΕ σὴν ΒΑΣΙΛΕΙΑΝ ΑΘΡΗΣΑΙ ΛΑΟΝ ΔἘΙΔΟΝ ΕΚΕΙ ΛΑΜΠΡΑΝ ΣΦΡΑΓΙΔΑ ΕΧΟΝΤΑ ΚΑΙ ΣΥΝΟΜΗΓΥΡέαΣ Πέτρον καὶ ΠΑΥΑΟΝ ΕΣΩΘΕΝ

[8] μαρτΥΡΙου ΠΕΔΟΝ εἰς ΕΙΔΟΝ ΠΙΣΤΙΣ ΔΕ ΠΡΟΗΓΕ ΚΑΙ ΠΑΡΕΘΗΚΕ ΤΡΟΦΗΝ

ΙΧΘΥΝ ζωῆς ΑΠΟ ΠΗΓΗΣ ΠΑΜΜΕΓΕΘΗ ΚΑΘΑΡῶς Οὗ ΕΔΡΑΞΑΤΟ ΠΑΡΘΕΝΟΣ ΑΓΝΗ ΚΑΙ ΤΟΥΤΟΝ ΠΑΡΕΔΩΚΕ ΦΙΛΟΙΣ ΕΣΘΕΙΝ ΔΙΑΠΑΝΤΟΣ

[12] ΟΙΝΟΝ ΧΡΗΣΤΟΝ ΕΧΟΥΣΑ ΚΕΡΑΣΜΑ ΔΙΔΟΥΣΑ ΜΕΤ᾽ ΑΡΤΟΥ ΤΑΥΤΑ ΠΑΡΕΣΤΩΣ ΕΙΠΟΝ ΑΒΕΡΚΙΟΣ ΩΔΕ ΓΡΑΦΗΝΑΙ ΕΒΔΟΜΕΚΟΣΤΟΝ ΕΤΟΣ ΚΑΙ ΔΕΥΤΕΡΟΝ ΗΓΟΝ ΑΛΗΘΩΣ ΟΥΜΕΝΤΟΙ ΤΥΜΒΟΝ ΕΜΟΥ ΕΤΕΡΟΝ ΕΠΑΝΩ ΘΗΣΕΙΕ

[16] ΕΙΔΟΥΝ ΡΩΜΑΙΩΝ ΤΑΜΕΙΩ ΔΙΣΧΙΛΙΑ ΚΡΥΣΑ. ἤ ΧΡΗΣΤΗ ΠΑΤΡΙΔΙ ΘΗΣΕΙ ΑΙΣΧΙΛΙΑ ΚΡΥΣΑ.

Which indeed are rendered into Latin in the same place, and not unfaithfully, in these little verses:

[1] Son of a chosen city, I set up this monument While living, that one day I may have here rest for my body. I am by name Abercius, follower of the pure Shepherd. [4] For here the true God handed down to me the word; the same Was my exhorter that I should see at Rome thy kingdom. I saw there a people illustrious with a shining seal, And with Peter and Paul of concordant minds; within [8] The very place of martyrdom was looked upon, and faith went before And set on the table the Fish (the most pure Virgin Grasped the choice one from the pure fountain of life) And gave it to her beloved to eat for all time, [12] Having serviceable wine, ministering the drink with bread. I, Abercius, standing by, ordered these verses to be inscribed, When truly the year turned for me eight times nine. Let no one place other monuments on our sepulchre, [16] Or he shall pay to the treasury of the Romans two thousand coins, Or to my dear country two thousand coins.

From these, as was said in the Preliminary Commentary, num. 17, it may be seen that many things in the Epitaph were cut out by Garrucci. For what in the Spicilegium Solesmense consists of twenty-two little verses in all, and in Halloix of twenty-three, here numbers only seventeen. Certain particular points we shall indicate in the following Annotations.

r. See above, Annotation d. Garrucci cuts out everything pertaining to this journey. Compare the Preliminary Commentary, num. 17. Παῦλον ἔσωθεν. No one will easily explain these words. Perhaps the passage is corrupt. Halloix renders: And I had all gathered together, within also Paul; and, what you may wonder at, he adds not even a word for the sake of explanation. Surius translates thus: And I had all coming to the same assembly, and Paul within. Does Abercius perhaps mean to say that in this journey he was animated by the example and precepts of the holy Apostle of the gentiles, which he continually set before his eyes? Dom Pitra, with Dübner leading the way, uses this emendation; in place of Παῦλον ἕσωθεν he puts πάντας δὴ ἔωθεν Ἔσχον (ἐμοὶ) συνομηγυρέας, moreover all from the east I had with me (in the sacred rites) of one mind Spicilegium Solesmense, vol. III, pp. 533 and 534. He adds in a note Ibid., p. 533: all (the codices) interpose that Παῦλον ἔσωθεν, without any sense: which absurdity Surius rendered with a sincere translation but an absurd one: "And I had all, etc." But Dübner most aptly suggested ἔωθεν … The rest (which follows in the Epigraph about the allegorical Fish) agrees with 1 Cor. XI, 20 and following (where it treats of the Eucharistic table: When you come therefore together into one place, etc.), which, when some notary had perhaps cited it in the margin with entangled abbreviations; thence the stain of the fault. This could perhaps be admitted if these words were found only in one or another codex; but since all interpose it, I do not easily understand how some notary was the stain and cause of the fault. How differently Garrucci thinks and how he emends the text we saw above, letter q.

t. Πίστις δὲ παντὶ προῆγε. Halloix and Garrucci delete the word παντὶ; likewise Dom Pitra, who besides, and that alone as I should think, in place of προῆγε has προσῆγε, and renders: For faith led forth for each, so that these words now concern the eucharistic Fish. In others these words are separated and taken in an absolute sense, indicating that faith shone before Abercius everywhere and in all things, and that he sought nothing else in his whole life, and especially in his journeys, but to spread the faith of Christ.

u. It is sufficiently ascertained and established that Christ is denoted above all by the symbol of the Fish. So Mamachi [Origines et antiquitates christianae, book I, §6, vol. I, p. 56. Rome, 1749]. It is also known that the Greek word ἰχθὺς (in Latin Piscis) furnishes in order the initial letters of the words Ἰησοῦς Χρῖστὸς Θεοῦ Υἱὸς Σωτὴρ, Jesus Christ, Son of God, Saviour. See Halloix Vol. II, pp. 142 and 143, likewise the Spicilegium Solesmense Vol. III, pp. 499–584, where the allegorical and symbolic Fish is treated expressly. Whence the learned man J. B. de Rossi Ibid., vol. III, p. 546: That the image of the Fish, met with everywhere in the Christian monuments of the old age, signifies Ἰησοῦν Χριστὸν Θεοῦ Υιὸν Σωτῆρα, and that those who are reborn and live in Christ are little Fishes, that is, the faithful, antiquity itself has taught us by such express testimonies that the arguments for this matter could indeed be multiplied,

but nothing can be added to the certainty, which is already the highest. For the rest, everyone will assent to Dom Jean-Baptiste Pitra, who calls the Inscription of St. Abercius a splendid testimony concerning the eucharistic Fish, than which scarcely any other is more illustrious; nay almost unique … in which the mysterious token of the ἰχθύος is joined with the Blessed Virgin Mary.

v. From these seventy-two years which St. Abercius is said to have lived, Halloix concludes from various conjectures that he was born about the ninety-sixth year of the Lord Halloix, vol. II, p. 55. See the Preliminary Commentary, num. 10, where we have shown that nothing certain can be established about the years in which St. Abercius was actually born or died.

x. Whoever, thinking on these things, is of one mind with us, let him pray for Abercius. Surius. There are not lacking those to whom it seems strange, nay even blameworthy, that St. Abercius, thinking of death, was solicitous to forbid the placing of another sepulchre over his, and to impose a fine on one who did otherwise; but, replies Halloix Halloix, vol. II, p. 144, this ought not to seem foreign to a holy Man, nay it pertains rather to his providence, that he forbade his sepulchre and monument, from which some profit could flow to posterity, to be hidden. For the rest, the custom of not putting the dead upon the dead had been received from the most ancient times, both among the Hebrews and the heathen and among the Christians, as Jacutius proves in his commentary on the inscription of Bonusa and Menna [Specimens of Christian antiquities which are in the old inscription of Bonusa and Menna, p. 31 and following. Rome, 1758]. On which matter is commonly cited a passage of Tertullian from the book On the Soul Chap. 51. Migne's Patrologia, vol. II, col. 738: There is, he says, another account also among our people, that in a cemetery a body, by withdrawing (namely prodigiously), made room for a body being placed beside it. That custom is likewise proved from the council of Auxerre of the year 578: It is not lawful for a dead man to be put upon a dead man Sirmond, Councils of Gaul, vol. I, p. 363; and from that of Mâcon of the year 585: We have found that many, the limbs of the dead not yet decayed, open the sepulchres and put the dead on top… And therefore we decree that no one henceforth do this. And if it shall have been done, according to the decrees of the laws, the bodies placed on top shall be thrown back out of the same tombs Ibid., p. 388; so too in the Capitularies of Charlemagne: Let them not put a dead man upon a dead man Pertz, Monumenta Germaniae, Leges, vol. II, appendix, p. 83. Hence too, in some of the older inscriptions, curses and maledictions on those who should have dared to attempt any such thing Jacutius, as above, p. 39 and following: Let no one put his own or another's corpse upon me; and if he presume this, let him be accursed and bound for ever with anathema. And in the very inscription of Bonusa and Menna, which Jacutius thinks is to be referred to the times of the passing fourth or beginning fifth century Ibid., p. 4, among other things one reads: Let him have anathema from Judas if anyone shall have put another man upon me Ibid., p. 31. On this the same Jacutius aptly notes Ibid., p. 41: For how few are there who would not declare it most just that the faithful of Christ, to keep the rest of the departed safe and sound, should have pronounced the evils of divine vengeance against any violators of it whatever, against whom the heathen themselves set themselves, not only with the fines appointed by way of penalty by the laws of their princes; but were accustomed to hurl very many curses against these very men, as against the sacrilegious and wickedest of mortals, wishing them that there should be for them angry manes. Ossa. suorum, eruta. atque. dispersa the bones of their own dug up and scattered, and also DEOS. IRATOS. QUOS. OMNES. COLUNT the angry gods whom all worship; or other things twin (similar) to these, which are recorded in the pagan epitaphs copied chiefly by Gruter and Mencke? What of the fact that in the sacred writings many curses, horrible even to hear and to speak, are customarily uttered against the impious, such as those above all heaped up in the most bitter waters of Jealousy against the woman purging herself of the suspicion of adultery Num. V, 14–31; and those then uttered by the Levites, at Moses's command, in the assembly of the people, against all Hebrew transgressors of the divine law Deut. XXVIII, 16 and following; to say nothing of the plagues and so many other curses which John pronounced against the violator of the book of the Apocalypse Apoc. XXII, 18? But if these curses, most full of horror, in the judgement of Reinesius himself (against whom Jacutius is here contending), by no means are or can be said to be out of keeping with the meekness of God; neither can those curses still extant in the Inscriptions of the ancient Christians be so blamed that they should be reputed out of keeping with Christian meekness and piety. Thus far Jacutius. A little before he had said As above, p. 36 and following: Certainly this sepulchral religion of the Heathen and the Hebrews was at length, as was to be wished, vindicated in the light of truth by the early faithful; who, since they were so well instructed about the resurrection of the dead that they believed nothing more fundamental, and kept nothing more frequently in their mouths, than that their sepulchres are houses of rest, and that their dead sleep in the sleep of peace, awaiting their change and the coming of the glory of the great God, for that reason reputed it a monstrous and execrable sin that that peace of their dead in Christ should be disturbed, especially by the casting of the corpses of others one upon another Compare Angelo Mai, Veterum scriptorum etc., vol. V, in the Preface, p. XVI. As regards the fine, similar things again occur sometimes in the ancient epigraphs of sepulchres. Thus at Pola, on the witness of Halloix Vol. II, p. 144, which is a city of Istria, in a certain garden at St. Stephen's (as Gruter has it), the following Inscription was read, which agrees not a little with the end of the Abercian Inscription: AVIDIA MAXIMINA. DOMVM. ÆTERNAM. V. S. P. SI. QVIS. ALIVD. CORPVS. SVPERPOS. DET. FISCO. P. CCC. M. N. MAXIMINA DOMVM ÆTERNAM VIVA SIBI POSVIT SI QVIS ALIVD CORPVS SVPERPOSVERIT DET FISCO X CCCMILLIA [Avidia Maximina set up this eternal home for herself while living; if anyone places another body on top, let him give to the treasury … ; Maximina set up this eternal home for herself while living; if anyone shall have placed another body on top, let him give to the treasury … three hundred thousand], that is, three thousand denarii. Finally, to Fabretti this monument is Christian; Jacutius thinks otherwise, since, he says Ibid., note, no indication of Christianity occurs in it, and rather heathenism betrays itself there, not only from the formula eternal home …, but from the money which is adjudged therein to the treasury by way of penalty, it is now to be reckoned a Heathen Inscription. Yet Jacutius by no means denies that a fine of that kind could have been used in Christian monuments. Nor is what Angelo Mai has to be passed over, in the Preface to the Christian Inscriptions which he made public from the manuscript codices of Marini in his Scriptorum veterum nova collectio, vol. V: I, he says P. XXII and following, should have most of all wished from Marini a disquisition on the inscriptions about which it is doubted whether they are Heathen or Christian… I confess indeed that it is a matter of great and practised judgement, of long experience and labour, and not without the knowledge of many things (which abounded in Marini), such as formulas and signs, which often serve the same in the camps of both religions, of expressions too, emblems and abbreviations, that in doubtful matters of this kind something certain can at last be established. For who would not laugh at the credulity of that good man who interpreted the letters I. O. M. inscribed on a stone before the doors of the monastery over which he presided as introitus omnium monachorum the entrance of all the monks, and not rather Jovi optimo maximo to Jupiter best and greatest, as we read everywhere in the class of inscriptions on the gods of the heathen?

z. The Colbert codex 1540 inverts the numbers; it imposes a thousand to be paid to the Romans, two thousand to Hierapolis. Garrucci has in both places: Two thousand coins.

aa. This is he who in Le Quien is called Abercius II, of whom he relates only this: The successor of St. Abercius was another Abercius, from archpresbyter of the church of Hierapolis, designated by his predecessor Abercius and confirmed while he was still living. So it is related in the Life of the former Abercius Oriens Christianus, vol. I, col. 834. In the same place there comes, tenth in order among the bishops of Hierapolis, Abercius III Ibid., col. 835, who subscribed the council of Chalcedon: Abercius, least bishop of Hierapolis of Phrygia Salutaris.

bb. In Boissonade's Μεταφράσει there is added a hortatory conclusion, which I find somewhere rendered into Latin thus: And he was magnificently buried in this tomb which he had prepared for himself. Let us who hear emulate his virtue: for the Holy Spirit does not permit the lives of praiseworthy men to be handed down simply for description; but that each one, finding what is useful in them, and exercising virtue by imitation of the better, may be found not without a share in like glory on the day of retribution, by the grace and bounty of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever. Amen. By way of a crowning conclusion I shall write down from the Paris codex num. 1540 the things that follow after the epigraph to the end of the Acts. We said in the Preliminary Commentary, num. 2, that this codex is of a more recent age than the others; which the learned reader, I should think, will judge with me can be proved also from the manner of narrating or the style:

Καὶ τοῦτο πράξας· καὶ συναγαγὼν τοὺς πρεσβυτέρους καὶ διακόνους τῆς ἐκκλησίας, καὶ τινας τῶν ἀδελφῶν, εἶπεν πρὸς αὐτούς· Τεκνία μου, ἐγὼ μὲν ὡς ὁ Κύριος προσέταξεν, μεθίσταμαι· ὑμεῖς δὲ βουλεύσασθε περὶ ἐπισκόπου. Καὶ πρὸς ἑαυτοὺς οἱ πρεσβύτεροι καὶ οἱ διάκονοι καὶ οἱ ἀδελφοὶ μικρὰ διαλεχθέντες, ἐπελέξαντο τὸν ἀρχιπεσβύτερον, καὶ αὐτὸν ὀνόματι Ἀβέρκιον· ἐπαινέσας οὖν τὴν προβολὴν αὐτῶν ὁ ἅγιος, ἐπέθηκεν ἐπ᾽ αὐτὸν τὰς χεῖρας, καὶ ἐπευξάμενος καὶ εὐλογήσας αὐτὸν. Οὐ μετὰ πολλὰς ὥρας παρακαθεζομένων αὐτῶν πάντων, ἀναβλέψας εἰς τὸν οὐρανὸν καὶ τὰς χεῖρας ἐκτείνας, εἶπεν· εὐχαριστῶ σοι Κύριέ μου Ἰησοῦ Χριστὲ, ὁ μέχρι τῆς σήμερον φυλάξας τὸν δοῦλον σου· καὶ ἁξιώσας με εἰς τὴν πόλιν σου, ἣν ἐκέλευσάς με ἐπισκοπεύειν, μεταστῆναι τοῦ προσκαίρου βίου τούτου· καὶ εἴη τὸ ὄνομά σου δεδοξασμένον, εἰς τοὺς ἀτελευτήτους αἰῶνας τῶν αἰώνων. Καὶ πάντων τῶν παρεστώτων τὸ ἀμὴν ἐπευφημισάντων παρέδωκεν τὸ πνεῦμα αὐτὸῦ τοῖς παρεστῶσιν ἀγγέλοις. Ἐπιμελησάμενοι οὖν οἱ παρόντες τοῦ σώματος, ὡς ἦν δυνατὸν ἔθαψαν εἰς τὸν τύμβον, ὃν ὡς προείρηται κατεσκεύασεν ἑαυτῷ. Ἐτελεύτησεν δὲ ὁ ἅγιος Ἀβέρκιος, μηνὶ Ὀκτωβρίῳ κβ κατὰ Ῥωμαίους. Καὶ ὑποστρέψαντες πάντες οἱ ἀδελφοὶ, εἰσήγαγον ὃν ἐψηφίσαντο ἐπίσκοπον, καὶ αὐτὸν ὡς εἴρηται Ἀβέρκιον καλούμενον, εἰς τὴν ἐκκλησίαν· καὶ ἐκάθισαν αὐτὸν εἰς τὸν θρόνον τῆς ἐπισκοπῆς τοῦ ἁγίου καὶ ἰσαποστόλου Ἀβερκίου· δοξάζοντες καὶ αἰνοῦντες τὸν φιλάνθρωπον Θεὸν καὶ τὸν Κύριον ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦν Χριστὸν, σὺν τῷ ἁγίῳ Πνεύματι, ᾧ ἡ δόξα καὶ τὸ κράτος εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας τῶν αἰώνων.

When he had done this, he gathered the presbyters and deacons of the church, and some of the brethren; to whom he said: Sons, I indeed, as the Lord has appointed, am shortly to die: but you

take counsel about a bishop. The presbyters and deacons and brethren, having conferred a little among themselves, chose the archpresbyter, also by name Abercius. The holy Man approved their proposal, and laid hands on him and blessed him. A few hours after, with them standing round, looking up to heaven and with hands outstretched, he said: I give thee thanks, my Lord Jesus Christ, who hast kept thy servant until this day, and hast deigned to call me from this life in the city of which thou didst will me to be bishop. Blessed be thy name for infinite ages of ages. And when all standing round had said Amen, he gave up his spirit to the angels standing by. When, therefore, those who were present had cared for the body of the deceased, they laid it in the tomb which, as has been said, he had prepared for himself. St. Abercius died in the month of October, on the 22nd day, according to the Romans. Then all the brethren, having returned, brought into the church the bishop whom they had chosen, also called, as we have said, Abercius, and set him on the pontifical chair of the holy and equal-to-the-apostles Abericius, praising and blessing the most kind God and our Lord Jesus Christ with the Holy Spirit, to whom be glory and power for ages of ages.

Notes

a. The title in Boissonade [Anecdota Graeca, vol. V, p. 462] is of this kind: Μετάφρασις εἰς τὸν βίον καὶ τὰ θαύματα τοῦ ἐν ἁγίοις πατρὸς ἡμῶν Ἀβερκίου, Metaphrasis on the life and miracles of our holy father Abercius; but in the codex of the royal library of Paris num. 1540 it is the following: Βίος καὶ πολιτεία τοῦ ἐν ἁγίοις πατρὸς ἡμῶν καὶ ἱσαποστὸλου Ἁβερκίου, the life and conversation of our holy father and equal of the apostles Abercius. Compare what was said in the Preliminary Commentary, num. 1.

b. The Μετάφρασις in Boissonade begins with a prologue: Οὐκ ἀγώνον ἐνστάσεις μόνον μαρτυρικῶν καἰ νῖκαι καὶ τρόπαια τὸ ἀξιέπαινον ἀποφέρεται, ἀλλὰ καὶ βίος πολὺ τὸ ὑπερκείμενον ἔχων τῆς κατὰ σάρκα ζωῆς καὶ τὴν τραχεῖαν τῆς ἀρετῆς καὶ ἀνάντη τρίβον διηνυκὼς διὰ τῆς χαμόθεν ἐπάρσεως· εἰ δὲ καὶ ἀποστολικοῖς ἔργοις τε καὶ διακονήμασι καὶ πρὸς ἔτι γε θαύμασι τοῖς ὑπερφυέσιν, ἐγκαλλωπίζοιτο, ὅσον τῷ κεκτημένῳ τὸ πρὸς τοὺς ἄλλους ἀμιγὲς καὶ ἀπρόσιτον οἶδεν

c. Decree or Edict, in Greek here δόγμα, which elsewhere is διάταγμα, επίταγμα, πρόγραμμα. St. Melito, in his book to Marcus Aurelius Antoninus on behalf of the Christians, uses now the word δόγμα, now δίαταγμα, as Halloix notes [Vol. II, p. 62], and he adds: And an edict is not of the emperors only, but also of consuls, proconsuls, prefects, governors, and of those who enjoy some similar power.

d. There is no doubt that a persecution was stirred up against the Christians under M. Aurelius and Lucius Verus. This is abundantly established from the testimonies of Eusebius, Sulpicius Severus, Orosius and others, as also from the passions of SS. Polycarp, Justin, Photinus, etc. Compare Baronius at the year 163 and following [Annals, vol. II, p. 209 and following], Halloix [Vol. II, p. 62 and following], Tillemont [Mémoires, vol. II, p. 307 and following]. But the question is whether the Divine Brothers (as those two emperors are rather often called) promulgated an edict against the Christians; since Tertullian, who lived in the same century, denies [Apology, book V. Migne's Patrologia, vol. I, col. 296 and following] that any law of this kind was given by M. Aurelius: What kind of laws, then, he says, are those which only the impious enforce against us?… Which no Hadrian, although the explorer of all curiosities, no Vespasian, although the conqueror of the Jews, no Pius, no Verus imposed. Where by Verus it is clear that he understands M. Aurelius, who also was called Verus for some time [Halloix, as above, p. 63]. Baronius answers [Annals at the year 164, num. 4, vol. II, p. 218]: Although Verus imposed no laws of that kind, yet both in other places and in Asia it is established that the Christians were harassed by divers edicts issued by the proconsuls administering the provinces; whose authority, as we have said elsewhere, in matters pertaining to religion, was the same as that of the pontiffs at Rome. These things would now suffice for our Acts to be reconciled at least to some extent with the saying of Tertullian. But what is found a little lower in the same Baronius does this better [Ibid.]: But another way to persecution too was devised and opened: for in the Acts of the holy martyrs Victor and Corona, which are known to be faithful, an edict is said to have been given by the emperor by which all were ordered to sacrifice to the gods; those who refused were to be put to punishment. The same things are found in the Acts of Abercius, likewise in the Acts of St. Justin and of Glyceria. M. Aurelius, therefore, did not impose a law by which he would strike the Christians directly, but indirectly. Yet in the Acts of SS. Victor and Corona, 14 May [Acta SS., vol. III of May, p. 268], Henschenius notes that under M. Aurelius Antoninus no new persecution was stirred up; but, he says, the generals and governors of the provinces exercised some tyranny at their own pleasure. Eusebius, in the preface to book V [Patrologia Graeca, Migne, vol. XX, col. 405 and 407]: At which time (of M. Aurelius), when in some provinces of the earth persecution had been stirred up against our people by the onslaught of the populace, one may conjecture from the things that happened in a single province (Asia) that almost innumerable martyrs shone forth throughout the whole world. On which place Valesius observes [Ibid.]: The persecution of the Christians which raged under the reign of Marcus did not blaze at the same time everywhere, nor was it finished within the space of one year. In Asia indeed it was begun in the 7th year of Marcus Antoninus; and that not from an edict of the emperor, but by tumult and popular agitation (which indeed agrees exactly with the Acts of St. Abercius). From then it was prolonged in Asia too until the end of his reign, as Melito of Sardis teaches, etc. This being so, who would wonder that the governors invoked or put forward the edicts of the emperors, since they did not see the old ones abolished, at least in fact? This being supposed, nothing prevents Tertullian's words from being said to agree entirely with the Acts. Nor is there need to have recourse to another solution of our Halloix. He says [Vol. II, pp. 63 and 64] that M. Aurelius was the persecutor and the protector of the Christians, but at different times. Tertullian, therefore, in order to make the cause of religion and faith better, and not to censure in any part those emperors who were commonly held good and just and clement, keeping silent about their harsh times towards the Christians, mentioned only the more clement ones and proposed them for imitation; and he added that religion had been most hateful only to those who themselves, on account of their impiety and inhumanity, had been most hateful to all.

e. See the Preliminary Commentary, num. 6. On the word Publius Sigonius notes [In Graevius, Thesaurus antiquitatum Romanarum, vol. II, col. 1955] from Valerius: Publii, those who had become wards before they had a forename. He then adds that others give another origin of the word. Indeed the Greeks, he says, when they write Ποπλιον, hint that it is derived from populus. In codex 1540 he is called Publius Dolabella, by what right I do not know.

f. This name is rare in the ancient writers, says Halloix [Vol. II, p. 52]; on the contrary the name is fairly celebrated among the first Christians, according to Henschenius [Acta SS., vol. III of Feb., p. 720]. Eusebius mentions [Eccl. Hist., book V, chap. 16] a certain Abercius Marcellus (or Ἀουιρκίου Avircius, whom Valesius in the same place confuses with ours) who, says Halloix [Vol. II, p. 52], also lived in the second century, and to whom a certain ancient writer contemporary with him (some suppose it is Apollinaris) dedicated his work against …, the Cataphrygians …. But that Abercius too is later than ours, and that heresy was not yet then known. Compare the Preliminary Commentary, num. 11, where we have written down another opinion from Le Quien. Besides that Abercius Marcellus, we have two others from the Acts; namely our holy Prelate and his successor, each by the name of Abercius. Finally in the Menaea on the 5th day of December memory is made of St. Abercius, martyr. Apart from these four Abercii, I find no other of this name, neither in the Martyrologies of the Latins, nor in the Menaea or Menologies of the Greeks, nor likewise in the sacred histories, none. So Halloix [Ibid.]. But Henschenius numbers six Abercii who in the first centuries… gloriously professed the faith of Christ… He adds another Abercius, who as bishop of the same Hierapolis subscribed the council of Chalcedon [Acta SS., as above].

g. Nothing has come down to us of the deeds of St. Abercius before his episcopate, from which our Acts begin. Halloix [Vol. II, p. 1] says he was born at Hierapolis, of parents whose names indeed are now unknown, but Christians in faith and religion (as we are given to gather not obscurely from the discourses he held). According to Le Quien [Oriens Christianus, vol. I, col. 833 and 834], St. Abercius comes third in order of time among the bishops of Hierapolis. The first is Heros, who Nicetas writes [In Le Quien, ibid.] was ordained bishop of Hierapolis by St. Philip the apostle; the second is Papias, who, on the witness of St. Jerome [Likewise, ibid.], published the fable of the thousand years' reign of Christ. Further, from the Epistle of St. Paul to Titus, chap. 3, ℣ 12, one may gather that that church was founded by the Teacher of the Gentiles [Le Quien, ibid.]: When I shall send to thee Artemas and Tychicus, make haste to come to me to Hierapolis; and again to the Colossians, chap. 4, ℣ 12 and 13: For I bear him (Epaphras) witness that he hath much labour for them that are at Laodicea and them at Hierapolis. Old monuments too relate that it was founded by Philip, who, as is found in Eusebius, died at Hierapolis [In Le Quien, ibid.].

h. There are several cities of the same name in different regions. Here Hierapolis of Phrygia or of Asia is meant, because Phrygia is contained within the bounds of Asia. Hierapolis, says Strabo [Geography, book XIII, pp. 902 and 903. Oxford, 1807], where there are hot waters and a Plutonium. The waters are also petrifying. The water, Strabo adds, so easily congeals into a crust and hardens that, by channels being led off, fences consisting of solid stone are produced. And for Strabo a plutonium is, in general, a chasm of the earth in a mountain, breathing out a deadly vapour, which elsewhere he calls a Charonium [Oriens Christianus, vol. I, col. 831 and 832. Likewise Strabo, as above, p. 902]. Strabo himself describes the Plutonium of Hierapolis thus [Ibid., p. 903]: The Plutonium, under a small brow of the overhanging mountain, is a moderate opening, as large as could receive a man, very deep; it is enclosed by a quadrangular railing, about half an acre in circuit. That opening is filled with a cloudy and thick darkness, so that the ground can scarcely be seen. But those who approach the railing round about, nothing (to them)

i. In Greek φαντασίαν. The author has in view verse 18, chap. 2 of Habakkuk, which runs thus in the Vulgate: What profiteth the graven thing, because the maker thereof hath graven it, a molten and a false image? Because the maker thereof hath trusted in a thing of his own forging, to make dumb idols. And according to the Septuagint: Τὶ ὠφελεῖ γλυπτὸν, ὅτι ἔγλυψαν αὐτο; Ἔπλασεν αὐτὸ χώνευμα, φαντασίαν ψευδῆ, ὅτι πέποιθεν ὁ πλάσας ἐπὶ τὸ πλάσμα αὐτοῦ, τοῦ ποιῆσαι εἴδωλα κωφά; What profiteth the graven thing, because they have graven it? He formed it a molten thing, a false image, because the maker trusts in his own forging, to make dumb idols.

k. There is added in codex 1540: ἔπειτα καὶ τὰ λοιπὰ ἀγάλματα τό τε τοῦ Ἡρακλέως καὶ Ἀρτέμιδος καὶ Ἀφροδίτες καὶ τῶν ἄλλων θεῶν συνέτριψεν, then he broke the remaining images, namely of Hercules, of Artemis and of Venus and of the other gods.

l. These words are rendered word for word thus in Surius: Yet uttering a very great voice, that men are mad who worship them and name them gods; and that what they now suffer, they suffer indeed justly and very praiseworthily. For the rest, the sense is that those empty images were deservedly thrown down, and by their ruin show the vanity of the gods.

m. Surius renders word for word: And when they had found him receiving (welcoming) those who were present with a calm and joyful countenance with the doctrine of piety, just as if nothing new had happened, they tell him of the ambush prepared, etc.

n. We should altogether be thought fugitives … from undergoing sufferings for Christ, if we so basely declined to suffer for him; and that when he commanded the sacred apostles, etc. Surius.

o. Ἀληθείας. Surius translates with the word piety; he will therefore have read in his codex εὐσεβείας.

a. From Greater Phrygia into Lesser, where St. Abercius dwelt.

b. These words are rendered thus in Surius: For he was most apt for teaching the word of truth, and most ready to make those who came to him familiar to Christ. There were probably lacking in Lippomano's Greek codex the words: καὶ ὰπαλλάξαι κακῶν ὀζύτατος.

c. It comes readily enough to mind that this Poplion is perhaps the same as the Publius of whom above. The words in Greek differ little from one another: ποβλίος and ποπλίων. And if it were so, from this Tillemont's objection, of which in the Preliminary Commentary num. 6, would again collapse. There would be had also an interpretation of the words above at num. 1: who presided over Lesser Phrygia; thus the manner in which Publius presided would in no way prevent another from being Governor of Asia.

d. Surius translates thus: Give me back again my eyes, the great work of God; bring it about that I may look again upon the pleasant sun.

e. These words are taken from Ps. 114, ℣ 8: For he hath delivered my soul from death, my eyes from tears, my feet from falling. In our Acts, therefore, the passage of David is neither recited entire nor in quite the same sense in which it is uttered by him. David says that he loves God and gives him thanks because he has been snatched from the danger of death and of falling into the hands of Absalom, and also from the great pains which he felt from it, drawing forth abundant tears. But Halloix notes here [Vol. II, p. 74]: But whence, someone will say, did a heathen woman have this knowledge and memory of David and the Psalms? For I too at one time had a suspicion that these things had been added by the writer or rather the copyist of the Acts. But having weighed the matter more maturely, and considered more attentively the faithful and sincere series of the Acts, I altogether think that that woman had not only heard something before of the Christian faith … but had also been instructed about the sacred books, and had had read to her from them the things that would be for her comfort (and what more so than the Psalms of David?), and had retained above all those by which her calamity came back to mind. So he. Which, however, is a mere conjecture, and, in my opinion, less probable than the suspicion that Halloix had once had.

f. For truly I have been freed from stumbling; nor are the steps of the soul less than the steps of the body. So Surius with Lippomano. But the latter part corresponds sufficiently neither to the Greek text nor to the sense. Halloix translates thus [Ibid.]: I have truly been preserved from stumbling in my steps no less of soul than of body. For the rest, the sense is: I have been preserved no less from stumbling in mind than in body.

g. So the Lord, Mark 8, ℣ 23, when he had spat on the eyes of the blind man and laid his hands on him, asked him if he saw anything. And looking up, he said: I see men as it were trees, walking.

h. But that each saw something different at the first sight … what these things mean is not explained in the Acts, says Halloix [Vol. II, p. 76]. The following words τούτων ἀκούσας ὁ Ἀβέρκιος, καὶ τῷ τῶν θαυμασίων χάριν ὁμολόγησας θεῷ up to βράχυ τι μετελάμβανεν ἄρτου are cited in the Treatise on the Fasting of the Greeks, of which above, Annotation X to chap. 1.

i. The hours of the day, says the same Halloix [Ibid., p. 71], were numbered from sunrise, so that there were six before midday and as many also after midday; and since the Jews, for the purpose of sacrifices and prayers, and after them the first Christians, divided the day into four parts, the first, the third, the sixth, the ninth; they called the first that which from sunrise, or the beginning of the day, contained three hours; the third, that which ran from the third hour of the day to the sixth; the sixth likewise, which extended from the sixth hour of the day, or from midday, to the ninth, that is, to the third in the afternoon; the ninth likewise, that which ran from the ninth to sunset. The hymns of the ninth hour having been said, therefore, one easily came to the end of the day.

k. Why do you take away the occasion of acquiring a good repute and cast out the matter of crowns? Surius. — Halloix treats at length of this disputation of Euxinianus with St. Abercius [Ibid., pp. 76–103].

l. Halloix sets out or comments on this fact thus, in the Life of the holy Man, which, according to his custom, he wove together from the Acts, the Menaea, etc. [Chap. 12. Ibid., p. 22]: When he had noticed that a bath was lacking there, by the use and convenience of which, if it were available, great solace would come to the sick; he went to obtain it to that supreme father and physician of the poor and afflicted, and in the place to which was given the name THE FIELD BY THE RIVER (not so in the Acts, which we in this place have rendered word for word with Lippomano and Surius), bending his knees on the ground, he poured forth warm prayers to God. .. Why say more? The merciful God heard his prayers. And behold, from a clear and serene sky thunder roared, and springs of hot waters burst forth from the ground close by there, as though God were plainly and clearly sounding: "Behold waters for you; build baths." Understanding this, Abercius at once ordered cisterns to be dug in the same place for receiving the waters, and to be fitted for the use of the sick. Thus far Halloix. For the rest, see our Annotations to chap. 1, letter h, where we related from the geographers that at Hierapolis there are hot or thermal waters. Our Acts (which Halloix also follows) hint not obscurely that they first burst forth from the earth at the prayers of St. Abercius.

m. But the malignant one, changed back again into himself, laughed most sweetly and most vehemently. Surius. And Halloix in the Life [Ibid., p. 22]: Then indeed that malignant one fell to laughing exultantly and guffawing.

a. This betrothal is mentioned by profane authors also, both Greek and Latin: Dio Cassius, Herodian, Julius Capitolinus, etc. The latter, who wrote more fully of the doings of Marcus and Verus, has it thus [Historiae Augustae Scriptores VI, edited by Schrevelius, p. 166. Leiden, 1661]: Marcus, as though he were the father of Lucius Commodus, called him Verus, adding the name of Antoninus, and betrothed his daughter Lucilla to his brother (that is, Verus). Compare the Preliminary Commentary, num. 7.

b. Faustina was the daughter of the emperor Antoninus Pius, wife of M. Aurelius Antoninus, mother of Lucilla. She was a woman, says Halloix [Vol. II, p. 109], of a manly and martial spirit, and a companion to her husband in the camp. Hence she was called Mother of the Camps. He (Marcus Aurelius) gave thanks, says Capitolinus [Historia Augusta, as above, p. 211], that Faustina too was called Diva by the senate, whom he had had with him even in the summer quarters, so that he called her Mother of the Camps. I do not know with what aim Halloix noted these things, more or less to the praise of Faustina; perhaps so as to make more likely what is narrated of her in the Acts of St. Abercius. But, however bad a woman, it is not impossible that she undertook everything for the safety of her suffering daughter, and even had recourse to the holy Bishop, and showed herself grateful to him for having obtained Lucilla's deliverance. In dark, and yet true, colours indeed does Eckhel paint Faustina, from Capitolinus, Dio and Victor: She was a woman, he says [Doctrina Numorum, vol. VII, p. 76], if ever there was one, of the utmost infamy and lust, unworthy of her father and husband… That she had to do indiscriminately with gladiators, sailors, and whoever are of

c. In the Acts Βουλγέσσος. But elsewhere it is more usually read in Greek Βολόγεσος, as in Aristides, or Βολόγαισας, as in Photius in Iamblichus, or finally Οὐολόγαισος, Vologaesus, as in Dio in his Marcus. By the Latins it is more commonly written Vologesus without the diphthong. See Halloix [Vol. II, p. 111]. Further, Vologases III, king of Parthia, a war having been stirred up, as it seems, on account of Armenia, and those who resisted being first conquered, invades Syria itself, spreads terror everywhere. To check him L. Verus sets out into Syria, etc. [Eckhel, as above, p. 49. Likewise Tillemont, Histoire des Empereurs, vol. II, p. 146]. Compare the Preliminary Commentary, num. 7.

d. By these words it is clearly indicated that the emperors, before Verus set out for the Parthian war, agreed between themselves that the marriage should be celebrated at Ephesus. But of such a pact Capitolinus is altogether silent. And if it was celebrated at Ephesus, it appears from the text of the said writer that this happened rather by chance than by agreement. Here are the words of Capitolinus. And first in his Verus [Historia Augusta, p. 232]: Yet at the urging of his companions he (Verus) set out a second time to the Euphrates; he also returned to Ephesus to receive his wife Lucilla, sent by her father Marcus, and for this reason chiefly, lest Marcus should come with him into Syria and come to know his (Verus's) shameful doings. For Marcus had told the senate that he would bring his daughter into Syria. And in his Marcus [Ibid., pp. 171 and 172]: In the middle of the (Parthian) war … his daughter, about to be married, committed to the care of his sister, and richly endowed, he escorted as far as Brundisium, and sent her to him (Verus). But he returned at once to Rome, recalled by the talk of those who said that Marcus wished to claim for himself the glory of the finished war, and for that reason was setting out into Syria. He writes to the proconsul that no one should go to meet his daughter on her journey. Yet it is not altogether shown by these things that it is falsely asserted in the Acts that before the Parthian war was begun it was agreed between the emperors about celebrating the marriage at Ephesus: for nothing prevents their having changed their mind in the course of a year or two. For Marcus set out from Rome to Brundisium only in the middle of the Parthian war, which lasted three or four years. Yet, for the aforesaid pact to be duly established, there would be need of a weightier testimony than that of Metaphrastes. For the rest, these things follow from Capitolinus: first, that Lucilla was betrothed to Verus before he set out into the East, above, letter a; next, that the marriage was celebrated only after a year or two; finally, that this took place at Ephesus. Which three things certainly constitute the chief parts of the narrative; the rest could to some extent be called accessory. Further, in these three the Acts agree. See the Preliminary Commentary, num. 7 and 8.

e. Of Artemis, that is, of Diana. ΑΡΤΕΜΙΣ. ΕΦΕΣΙΩΝ. or ΕΦΕΣΙΑ occurs frequently on the coins of the emperors, although it is not certain that all coins so inscribed were struck at Ephesus: for the cult of the Ephesian Diana spread widely. Certainly we have abundant coins of other cities which have the figure of the Ephesian Diana. The celebrity of that goddess brought this about [Eckhel, Doctrina Numorum, vol. II, p. 514]; whose fame, according to Pausanias, these three things increased: the size of the temple, which surpasses all other works of men; the flourishing state of the city of the Ephesians, and the presence of the divinity of Diana in it [Historia Augusta, p. 180].

f. These things do not agree with Capitolinus.

g. What Capitolinus writes in his Marcus makes this cause of the delay or postponement probable [From the recension of Erasmus, p. 166. Cologne, 1527]: While the Parthian war was being waged, the Marcomannic arose, which was long held off by the skill of those who were present, so that the Marcomannic could be waged when the Eastern war was already finished. See the Preliminary Commentary, num. 7.

h. In Greek εἰς τὴν ἐν Δάφνῃ Ἀντιοχείαν, Antioch which is by Daphne. Which seems to be so expressed either for distinction from other cities: for Stephen of Byzantium lists twelve cities of the same name; or in mockery of Lucius Verus, who, having sent his generals against the Parthians, himself stuck fast at Daphne, a place near Antioch abounding in delights [Halloix, vol. II, p. 111]. What Baiae was in Italy, and Canopus near Alexandria, that was Daphne in Syria, a suburb of Antioch: a place so infamous for pleasures that Chrysostom writes it was almost inaccessible to the more modest and frugal. And thence arose the proverb, to live with Daphnic morals; which they used of those dissolved in luxury… There were two things above all which carried people away into admiration and love of Daphne: the abundance of shady trees and of the best waters. The chief of the trees were laurels and cypresses, which the emperors forbade to be cut by many constitutions. So Casaubon in the notes on Capitolinus [Historia Augusta, p. 170], where he praises our Acts of St. Abercius.

i. The Greek word οἰωνοσκόπους signifies Augurs; Lippomano and Surius translate Haruspices, preferring the sense to the letter. Now an Augur (οἰωνοσκόπος, an inspector of birds) is one who conjectures the future either from the chattering of singing birds, or from the flight of birds of omen, or from the feeding and tripudium of chickens [Pitiscus, Lexicon antiquitatum Romanarum, under the word Augures]. A Haruspex differs from an augur in that the latter inspected birds, the former the altar, the victims and the entrails more diligently [Ibid., under the word Aruspex]. Above the rest the haruspices of Etruria are celebrated: On account of prodigies, says Cicero [Against Catiline III], when the haruspices had assembled from the whole of Etruria. In the books On Divination the same Tully hints not obscurely that the Romans excelled in the discipline of augury [Halloix, vol. II, p. 112]. Since, therefore, the Acts treat of diviners summoned from Etruria, the version of Lippomano and Surius, who call them Haruspices, is not to be disapproved. For the rest, on the witness of Donatus on Terence: Haruspex is derived from haruga, which is a victim, from ara, on which it is shut in and kept [Ibid.].

k. This is the Cornelianus who had been prefect of Syria under Antoninus Pius. Which Cornelianus Vologesus, king of the Parthians, put to flight, and so gave M. Aurelius and L. Verus the cause of waging war against him [Ibid., p. 114]. There was, says Capitolinus in his Marcus [Historia Augusta, pp. 168 and 169], at that time also the Parthian war, which Vologesus, having prepared it under Pius, declared in the time of Marcus and Verus, Attidius Cornelianus, who was then administering Syria, being put to flight.

l. Magistriani. Μαγιστεριανός, Μαγιστριανός, according to the Latin-Greek gloss, is an agens in rebus. Suicer: There were, he says, Magistriani or Magisteriani, to whom, among other things, the warrants for the public post also were committed. This magistracy was instituted first by Constantine (that indeed wrongly, as will follow from what is to be said), whom the Acts of Abercius call Magisterianus, but Metaphrastes in the life of Porphyry the bishop Magistrianus [Thesaurus ecclesiasticus from the Greek fathers, under the word Μαγιστεριανός]. Suicer seems not to have known or not to have thought that Metaphrastes also wrote the Acts of St. Abercius. See the Preliminary Commentary, num. 1. Du Cange has these things in general [Glossary]: Magisteriani, officials, masters of the offices. But in another place more distinctly: Agentes in rebus, who obeyed the commands of the prince and carried his mandates into the provinces; also called Magistriani, because they served, that is, were in service, under the Master of the offices [Ibid., under the words Agentes in rebus]. Further, the Master of the offices was a great dignity in the palace of the emperors, who presided over the palatines and the ministers of the prince, the scholae serving in the palace, etc. [Ibid., under the words Magister Officiorum]: And in the Paratitlon to book VI of the Theodosian code, title XXVI, On the agentes in rebus, one reads: There was a certain school of these agentes in rebus … or a fixed register, a fellowship, a college of a fixed and settled number, and that under the disposition of the Master of the offices, whence also among the Greeks Μαγισριανοί [Theodosian Code of Jacques Godefroy, vol. II, p. 163. Leipzig, 1737]. Rosweyde too collected some things about the Magistriani in his Onomasticon of the more difficult things and words for the Lives of the Fathers, where among other things: The Code of Justinian, L. 12, distinguishes under a different title the Agentes in rebus from the Castrensiani. The Castrensiani, however, were also subject to the Master of the offices (like the Magisteriani), as title 26 has it [Lives of the Fathers. Migne's Patrologia Latina, vol. LXXIII, col. 460]. Title XXXII of book VI of the Theodosian Code too is inscribed: On the Castrensiani and Ministriani, where there is also an ample Commentary on this subject [Theodosian Code of Godefroy, vol. II, pp. 225, 226, etc.]. Compare Charles Fabrot's Glossary to the Compendium of George Cedrenus [Corpus historiae Byzantinae, vol. VIII, at the beginning. Venice, 1729]. But whence Suicer dug out or fished out that the Magistriani were first instituted by Constantine I for my part do not know. Certainly in the authors whom I have cited here nothing of the kind is to be found; indeed it appears manifestly enough that Suicer slips.

m. This letter, says Boissonade [Anecdota, vol. V, p. 478], I published from other codices in Anecdota vol. IV, p. 467, but in words far unlike, although like in sentiments. The same, namely, holds here as in the whole Life of St. Abercius. The codices that I have seen all, two excepted, have the Acts as they are published by us. In them the letter of M. Aurelius occurs everywhere the same in sentiments and style; in the other two the style not only does not agree with the other codices, but the one differs from the other. This too is worthy of note, that the letter, when it is recited by itself or separately from the Acts among the writings of M. Aurelius, agrees exactly with ours, as may be seen in Boissonade, vol. IV, p. 467; likewise in Lambeck [Vol. VIII, p. 134] and Fabricius [Bibliotheca Graeca, vol. V, p. 507], in so far as one may conclude from the beginning. For the rest, on this letter see the Preliminary Commentary, num. 9. Baronius too, having plucked it from our Acts, inserted it in the Annals [At the year 163, num. 12]

n. In codex 1540 it is found thus, fol. recto 145, a little after the middle: Μάρκος Αὐρίλλιος Ἀντωνῖνος σεβαστός γέρμανικός, σαρματικός Εὐξενιανῷ Ρουλλίονι χαίρειν. In Boissonade.

a. It was said above that the magisteriani spent as many days in putting in at the Peloponnese from Brundisium. But since Syria is distant from Italy twice, nay three times, as far as the Peloponnese, it is clear with how swift a course St. Abercius measured out that journey. For the rest, I should not think there will be anyone, even among the most confident patrons of Symeon, who would wish to defend each and every detail of this journey.

b. There are several cities of this name: Apamea of the Messenians in the Peloponnese, likewise another in Lesser Phrygia, another in Bithynia, etc. That Apamea of Syria is meant here is clear from the journey of St. Abercius described in the Acts, where he is said, having visited the cities of Syria, to have crossed the Euphrates and visited Mesopotamia [Halloix, vol. II, p. 126].

c. See the Preliminary Commentary, num. 11, where a few things are touched on about the beginning of this heresy.

d. Having crossed the Euphrates. This crossing is mentioned also in the Epitaph: Καὶ Συρίης πέδον χώρας εἶδον, καὶ ἄστεα πάντα, Νίσιβιν, Εὐφράτην διαβάς; moreover I traversed the plains of Syria and all its cities, and Nisibis, having crossed the Euphrates. Consequently St. Abercius passed from Syria into Mesopotamia, and thence came back there again, thereafter, as is said below, to return to Hierapolis through Cilicia, etc. There is nothing in these things which, geography being considered, is impossible.

e. Compare the Preliminary Commentary, num. 6.

f. Τὰ Συννάδα, in the plural number, Synnada, of Synnada. Although, says Le Quien [Oriens Christianus, vol. I, col. 827], its name is neuter plural, yet by our Latin poets it is called Synnas. For the rest, Synnada is also of the feminine gender in Pliny. It is a city, according to Strabo and Ptolemy, of Greater Phrygia, Φρυγίας μέγαλης πόλεις, etc., so that it is surprising that in the Acts it is called the metropolis of Lesser Phrygia. Unless perhaps, says Halloix [As above, p. 128], in them (the Acts) the situation of the region was not regarded, but the arrangement of the churches was observed, in that the see of the Metropolitan bishop was there. And in very truth in the Province of Phrygia Salutaris (in which was the see of Hierapolis) the metropolis was the church of Synnada [Le Quien, as above]. So that the words of our Acts can be rightly interpreted according to Halloix's mind. Whence, in my opinion, the words he came to Synnada, the metropolis of Lesser Phrygia, indicate only that the see of Hierapolis, over which Abercius presided, was subject to that metropolis. It will not be beside the point to write down here the following words of Tully from book XV, letter IV, near the beginning: I was two days at Laodicea, then four days at Apamea, three days at Synnada, as many days at Philomelium.

g. On this passage Halloix observes: Two remarkable examples are related here of divine punishment on those who denied to St. Abercius slight offices of charity, namely a drink of cold water and so small a cessation from winnowing corn on the threshing-floor. Had they granted these, there is no doubt they would have received more from the holy Man full of exceptional charity; or, if less from him, certainly from the Lord, the lawgiver of charity, more than a hundredfold. But since they had done things contrary to charity, they also received contrary things, and for blessing inherited a curse… And it is to be noted that, as charity will have its reward, so inhumanity will have its own. Here something similar offers itself to the mind as of its own accord, of Elisha, IV Kings chap. 2, ℣ 23 and 24, who to the boys crying out and mocking: Go up, thou bald head, go up, thou bald head, cursed them in the name of the Lord; and there came forth two bears out of the forest and tore of them forty and two boys.

h. See the Preliminary Commentary, num. 14.

i. Several examples occur in sacred Scripture of places named from events of this kind. Thus Genesis 16: The well of him that liveth and seeth me; and Genesis 22, ℣ 14: The Lord seeth. Likewise Exodus 17, ℣ 7: Temptation, etc. As regards the spring itself, compare the Annotations to chap. 2, letter l. Of this bringing forth of a spring there is nothing in Boissonade's Μεταφράσει. Besides this I have found no other fact which does not recur in the same order in both Lives, although in a different style.

l. Garrucci notes [Civiltà Cattolica, year 1856, vol. II, p. 83] at this word ἐκλέκτης that St. Abercius is falsely said by Metaphrastes to come from Hierapolis of Phrygia. For, he says, Abercius would thus have left his see to come to Rome; and from there would have betaken himself into Mesopotamia; where, having both died and been buried, he would nevertheless have imposed on the violators of his sepulchre a fine to be paid to the city of Hierapolis in Phrygia. How absurd this is, adds Garrucci, everyone sees. But he wrote these things so because he judged our Acts altogether to be rejected; whence he weighs and admits the Epigraph alone; in which, since St. Abercius is said to have gone to Rome, and thence to have come into Mesopotamia, but no word is said of a return to the city of Hierapolis; Garrucci concluded that the holy Bishop both died and was buried in Mesopotamia. In our Acts, as also in the Μεταφράσει, it is expressly said that he returned to his see, and died and rests at Hierapolis; to which, in my opinion, the Epigraph in no way contradicts, since it is altogether silent about these things; nay rather it agrees, since, in case the sepulchre were violated, it imposes a fine to be paid to the city of Hierapolis; surely for this reason, that it was there.

m. Τόδ᾽ ἐποιήσα. Compare the Preliminary Commentary, num. 16.

n. Garrucci strikes out this little verse because it is a mere Metaphrastic amplification [Ibid.]; and the following one too: for, he says [Ibid.], those great eyes could indeed be an object of admiration in the age of Metaphrastes, when gigantic figures and icons were accustomed to be set into walls; but in the time of Abercius such things were neither seen nor in use. Someone will perhaps reply that there was no need of figures of that great kind for the author of the Epigram to give Christ great eyes, since there are many other things that could have induced him to this. Is not the word βοῶπις frequently attached to goddesses in Homer, which is rendered by Schrevelius: She who has the eyes of an ox, great and lovely? Nor is what Dom Pitra notes on this place to be omitted [Spicilegium Solesmense, vol. III, p. 553]: Here of their own accord come to mind those excellent images of the good Shepherd, expressed in painting or mosaic work, not seldom conspicuous with great eyes, which survive up to these times in the Roman cemeteries and basilicas. Compare Perret, Catacombes de Rome, in many places.

o. Dom Pitra here supplies the words τὰ ζωῆς, nor does Garrucci disapprove [Civiltà, ibid.]; he himself, however, in place of ζωῆς puts θεοῦ, because he is about to use the former word a little below. For the rest, the words of life and of God have the same sense. Halloix left the little verse incomplete. Dom Pitra has it thus: Εἰς Ῥώμην ὅς ἐπεμψέ με τὴν βασιλείαν ἀθρῆσαι. Garrucci for τὴν writes σὴν, and deletes the following Hexameter, and would have the words interpreted not in their proper sense but in a figurative one, so that they signify that Abercius was sent by Christ to Rome to see his church, σὴν βασιλείαν [Ibid., pp. 84 and 85]. By λαμπρὰν σφραγῖδα, a bright seal or ring, Abercius understands the golden rings shining on the fingers of the senators and knights of the Romans (who were in very great number) [Halloix, vol. II, p. 141]. On the witness of Pliny, who is not far distant from the age of St. Abercius, the custom of wearing rings on the fingers was almost peculiar to the Romans, since, he says [Natural History, book XXXIII, chap. 6, vol. V, p. 13. Paris, 1685], the greater part of nations and men, even those who live under our empire, have to this day no rings at all. And Halloix notes [As above] that it is no wonder if Abercius, not having seen rings in Phrygia, was amazed at their abundance at Rome; all the more because there were those who heaped three rings on one little finger [Pliny, in the book cited, p. 14]. See more in Pliny, who at the beginning of book XXXIII treats as it were expressly of rings. Compare Pitiscus's Lexicon of Roman Antiquities. Garrucci denies that rings worn on the finger are meant here. He observes, therefore, that the word σφραγίς has various meanings. It is rendered in Latin: a finger-ring, a signet-ring, a seal; likewise the character impressed on souls by baptism and confirmation, and indelible; which indeed he demonstrates at length [Civiltà Cattolica, year 1856, vol. II, pp. 85–87]; nor yet does he think that from these a right interpretation of this little verse can be given. Let him believe, he says [Ibid., p. 87], who will, that Abercius, alluding to baptism and confirmation, meant only to say: I saw at Rome a Christian people. This indeed neither he nor any initiate could be ignorant of! In his opinion, therefore, the word σφραγὶς is not to be taken materially, but in a wider sense. Garrucci accordingly renders the little verse into Latin: I saw there a people illustrious with a shining seal, namely, as he himself explains, a people to whom God granted that signal gift, that it should have the first and infallible chair. He accommodates the following two little verses too to this interpretation, which he therefore thinks must be not lightly emended, and proposes this reading of the whole passage where the Roman journey is treated: He was my exhorter that I should see at Rome thy kingdom; I saw there a people illustrious with a shining seal, And with Peter and Paul of concordant minds; within The very place of martyrdom was looked upon. So that the sense is, according to Garrucci: "When the errors of Montanus were raging, Christ sent me (Abercius) to Rome, that I might be confirmed in the faith by seeing the mother and principal church (thy kingdom, βασιλείαν), and a people enjoying the first and infallible chair (with a shining seal, λαμπρὰν σφραγῖδα ἔχοντα), which had Peter and Paul as teachers (συνομηγορέας Πέτρον καὶ Παῦλον), whose place of martyrdom too I there looked upon." Certainly these things, taken absolutely, hang together excellently and agree rightly; but nowhere, as I said in the Preliminary Commentary, num. 17, are they read so rendered, nay they are very different from the text of all the manuscripts.

ON ST. ABERCIUS, BISHOP OF HIERAPOLIS IN PHRYGIA,

ABOUT THE YEAR 167

PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.

BY B. B.

BY METAPHRASTES, FROM MANUSCRIPTS.

CHAPTER I.

ANNOTATIONS.

CHAPTER II.

ANNOTATIONS.

CHAPTER III.

ANNOTATIONS.

CHAPTER IV.

ANNOTATIONS.

Notes

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