in Moyle's Works, London, 1726.
During the time of Antoninus Pius and Marcus Antoninus there appeared
the first Apology of Justinus, and under M. Antoninus the Oration of
Tatian against the Greeks, which was a fierce attack on the established
religions; the address of Athenagoras to M. Antoninus on behalf of the
Christians, and the Apology of Melito, bishop of Sardes, also addressed
to the emperor, and that of Apolinarius. The first Apology of Justinus
is addressed to T. Antoninus Pius and his two adopted sons, M. Antoninus
and L. Verus; but we do not know whether they read it.[A] The second
Apology of Justinus is entitled "to the Roman Senate;" but this
superscription is from some copyist. In the first chapter Justinus
addresses the Romans. In the second chapter he speaks of an affair that
had recently happened in the time of M. Antoninus and L,. Verus, as it
seems; and he also directly addresses the emperor, saying of a certain
woman, "she addressed a petition to thee, the emperor, and thou didst
grant the petition." In other passages the writer addresses the two
emperors, from which we must conclude that the Apology was directed to
them. Eusebius (E.H. iv. 18) states that the second Apology was
addressed to the successor of Antoninus Pius, and he names him Antoninus
Verus, meaning M. Antoninus. In one passage of this second Apology (c.
8), Justinus, or the writer, whoever he may be, says that even men who
followed the Stoic doctrines, when they ordered their lives according to
ethical reason, were hated and murdered, such as Heraclitus, Musonius in
his own times, and others; for all those who in any way labored to live
according to reason and avoided wickedness were always hated; and this
was the effect of the work of daemons.
[A] Orosius, vii. 14, says that Justinus the philosopher
presented to Antonius Pius his work in defence of the Christian
religion, and made him merciful to the Christians.
Justinus himself is said to have been put to death at Rome, because he
refused to sacrifice to the gods. It cannot have been in the reign of
Hadrian, as one authority states; nor in the time of Antoninus Pius, if
the second Apology was written in the time of M. Antoninus; and there is
evidence that this event took place under M. Antoninus and L. Verus,
when Rusticus was praefect of the city.[A]
[A] See the Martyrium Sanctorum Justini, &c., in the works of
Justinus, ed. Otto, vol. ii. 559. "Junius R
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