ema perieiei, legon
episkopos aphichthai ex Haidou ton hamartomenon, hopos palin kation
tasta apangelloi tois ekei, daimosin.] (2) They also explain how the
ecclesiastical [Greek: episkopoi] came to be so highly prized, inasmuch
as these also were from a very early period regarded as mediators
between God and man, and considered as [Greek: en anthropois theoi].
There were not a few who in the first and second centuries, appeared
with the claim to be regarded as a God or an organ inspired and chosen
by God (Simon Magus [cf. the manner of his treatment in Hippol. Philos.
VI. 8: see also Clem. Hom. II. 27], Apollonius of Tyana (?), see further
Tacitus Hist. II. 51: "Mariccus.... iamque adsertor Galliarum et deus,
nomen id sibi indiderat"; here belongs also the gradually developing
worship of the Emperor: "dominus ac deus noster." cf. Augustus,
Inscription of the year 25; 24 B.C. in Egypt [where the Ptolemies were
for long described as Gods] [Greek: Huper Kaisaros Autokrattoros theou]
(Zeitschrift fur Aegypt. Sprache. XXXI Bd. p. 3). Domitian: [Greek:
theos Adrianos], Kaibel Inscr. Gr. 829. 1053. [Greek: theos Seoueros
Eusebes]. 1061--the Antinouscult with its prophets. See also Josephus on
Herod Agrippa. Antiq. XIX 8. 2. (Euseb. H. E. II. 10). The flatterers
said to him, [Greek: theon prosagoreuontes; ei kai mechri nun hos
anthropon ephobethemen, alla tounteuthen kreittona se thnetes tes
phuseos homologoumen.] Herod himself, Sec. 7, says to his friends in his
sickness: [Greek: ho theos humin ego ede katastrephein epitattomai ton
bion ... ho kletheis athanatos huph' hemon ede thanein apagomai]). On
the other hand, we must mention the worship of the founder in some
philosophic schools, especially among the Epicureans Epictetus says
(Moral. 15), Diogenes and Heraclitus and those like them are justly
called Gods. Very instructive in this connection are the reproaches of
the heathen against the Christians, and of Christian partisans against
one another with regard to the almost divine veneration of their
teachers. Lucian (Peregr. II) reproaches the Christians in Syria for
having regarded Peregrinus as a God and a new Socrates. The heathen in
Smyrna, after the burning of Polycarp, feared that the Christians would
begin to pay him divine honours (Euseb. H. E. IV. 15 41). Caecilius in
Minucius Felix speaks of divine honours being paid by Christians to
priests (Octav. IX. 10). The Antimontanist (Euseb. H. E. V. 18. 6)
asserts that t