as the triumphs they had celebrated.1 Minucius Felix also spoke in strong terms of the crimes that had marked the growth of Roman power. He too took up the assertion that Rome owed her prosperity to her worship of all the deities. "But, (ye say), that very superstition gave empire to the Romans, increased it, established it, since they were strong not so much through bravery as through religion and piety. Of course the famous and noble Roman justice began from the very cradles of the Empire at its birth! Were they not in their origin gathered together by crime, and did they not grow, protected by the terror of their excess ? For the first populace was collected together at a place of refuge : there flowed together ruined men, criminals, profligates, assassins, traitors. And Romulus himself, imperator and ruler, in order to surpass his own people in crime, committed parricide. These are the first auspices of a religious state! Soon, without precedent, he seized, violated, and made a mock of foreign maidens already betrothed, already assigned in marriage, and some who were married women; and he waged war with their parents, that is, with his own fathers-in-law, (and thus) shed the blood of kinsmen. What is more irreligious, more audacious, more disgraceful, than actual confidence in crime? And further, to drive neighbours from their land, to overthrow adjoining states with (their) temples and altars, to carry off captives, to grow to manhood by the losses of others and by one's own crimes, is the regular practice (disciplina) common to Romulus and to other kings and to later rulers (ducibus). And so, whatever the Romans hold, cultivate, possess, is the spoil of audacity. All temples (are built) out of booty, that is (to say), out of the ruins of cities, out of the spoils of the gods, out of massacres of priests. . . . Thus the Romans committed impiety as often as they triumphed: they had as many spoilings of the gods as trophies over the nations. The Romans therefore (became) so great, not because they were religious, but because they committed sacrilege with impunity." 2 Minucius proceeded further to refute the superstitious idea in question with the same arguments as Tertullianus had used, and he went on to quote cases in which the Romans had suffered defeat despite favourable auspices, and other cases in which they had won successes in the teeth of forbidding omens.3 1 Tert. Nat. ii. 17, Apol. 25f. The Bardesanic Book of the Laws of the Countries mentions the Romans as perpetually seizing upon other countries, and instances the recent annexation of Arabia and the abolition of its existing laws (ANCL xxiib. 107f), referring apparently to the events either of 195–196 A.D. or of 217-218 A.D. (DCB i. 257a). 2 Minuc. xxv. 1-6; cf. vi.f; Harnack C ii. 328. 3 Minuc. vii., xxv.f. These charges are summed up in the great culminating indictment of Hippolytus, who represents the Roman Empire as a Satanic Beast-power. After describing the image in Nebuchadnezzar's dream, he proceeds to apply its teaching to his own times. "How then should we not understand the things that were prophesied long ago in Babylon by Daniel, and are now being fulfilled in the world?" He then explains that the golden head of the image represented the Babylonians, the silver breast the Persians, the brazen belly and thighs Alexander and the Hellenes. "After these (came) the Romans, being the iron legs of the image, being strong as iron." 1 Later on, he identifies the Roman Empire 3 with the last of the four beasts described in the vision of Daniel vii. After remarking that the beasts all represent kingdoms, which like wild beasts destroy mankind, he describes them in detail, and identifies the first three, as before, with the Babylonian, Persian, and Hellenic Empires. He then goes on: "It is clear to all that, after the kingdom of the Hellenes, no other kingdom has arisen except that which now has power and stands firm, which has iron teeth for the purpose of taming all men and tearing by its own strength like iron. But the (words): It trod down the rest with its feet' (are used) because no other kingdom has been left after this one." 4 "After this, he speaks of iron legs, to indicate the terrible and fearful beast, which has iron teeth, which is the Romans, who now have power, being strong as iron." 5 "Nor will we pass over this, with what meaning the blessed prophet likened all these former kingdoms to wild beasts, but did not declare, in the case of the kingdom that exists now, what kind of beast it was. . . . For having said that the kingdom of the Babylonians was a lioness, and that of the Persians a bear, and that of the Hellenes a leopard, why did he not say, of that of the Romans, what beast it was, but says, '(one) fearful and exceedingly terrible, its teeth iron and its claws brass'?" He then explains that each 1 Hipp. Dan. II. xi. 3—xii. ; cf. Ant. 25, 28. 2 Hipp. Dan. IV. ii. 1-3. 4 3 Hipp. Dan. IV. ii. 4—iv. Hipp. Dan. IV. v. 1f; cf. vi. 4, X. 2, xiii. 3 (Tò Onplov Tò TÉTаρTov ẞaoiλeía reтáprη ἔσται ἐν τῇ γῇ, ἥτις ὑπερέξει πάσας τὰς βασιλείας, καὶ καταφάγεται πᾶσαν τὴν γῆν, καὶ συμπατήσει αὐτὴν καὶ κατακόψει), xvii. 7 (ἔτι τοῦ τετάρτου θηρίου μόνου κρατοῦντος), Ant. 33 (ίδε κρατεῖ νῦν ὁ σίδηρος, ἴδε “ δαμάζει πάντα καὶ λεπτύνει,” ἴδε ὑποτάσσει πάντας τοὺς μὴ θέλοντας), 50 (φανερὸν δὲ πᾶσιν ἐστιν ὅτι οἱ κρατοῦντες ἔτι νῦν εἰσι Aareivo), Ref. x. 34 (30) (oi σтρаτηɣoûνтes AaTivo). Cf. also Iren. v. xxv. 3 (ii. 392) (Bestia quarta regnum quartum erit in terra, quod eminebit super reliqua regna et manducabit omnem terram, et conculcabit eam, et concidet (= Dan. vii. 23)); Tert. Cul. ii. 12 (i. 732) (illa civitas valida, etc.). 5 Hipp. Dan. IV. vii. 4. "Hipp. Dan. IV. viii. If. 2 of the first three kingdoms represented a single nation,1 and continues: "But now the beast which now has power is not one nation; but from all tongues and from every race of men, it gathers to itself and prepares an army (dúvaμiv) for the marshalling of war they are all called Romans, though they are not all of one country." And then, after describing Daniel's terror at seeing the fourth beast, he goes on: "For as the Lord was born in the forty-second year under Augustus Cæsar, since whom the kingdom of the Romans has been in full bloom (xuaσev), and as the Lord by means of the Apostles summoned all nations and all tongues, and made a nation of faithful Christians, bearing the new name of the Lord in their heart, in the same way the kingdom which now has power according to the working of Satan' has imitated (him), and itself likewise collecting the noblest men from all nations, prepares them for war, calling them Romans. And the first enrolment happened under Augustus, when the Lord was born in Bethlehem, for this cause, in order that the men of this world, being enrolled by an earthly king, might be called Romans, while those who believe in the heavenly King might be named Christians, bearing on their forehead the sign of victory over death." Here we have the Melitonian parallelism between Christianity and the Empire put to a very different use from that made of it by Meliton: the Empire is represented, not as the legitimate complement or supplement of the Church, but as its coeval imitator and rival "according to the working of Satan." 5 CHRISTIAN ANTICIPATIONS OF THE FALL OF THE EMPIRE.— Corresponding to the conventional view as to the instability of all worldly rule, we find several prophecies of the approaching downfall of the Roman Empire. About 195 A.D. certain successes won by the Parthians and others against the imperial armies occasioned the insertion of some lines in the 'Sibylline Oracles,' foretelling 1 Hipp. Dan. IV. viii. 3-6. 2 3 4 Hipp. Dan. IV. viii. 7 (Greek below, on p. 405 n 1). Hipp. Dan. IV. viii. 8f. Hipp. Dan. IV. ix. 2 (Greek below, on p. 405 n 1), 3 (kal dià TOûTO kai πpúτn ἀπογραφὴ ἐγένετο ἐπὶ Αὐγούστου, ἡνίκα ὁ Κύριος ἐν Βηθλεὲμ ἐγεννήθη, ἵνα οἱ τοῦ κόσμου τούτου ἄνθρωποι ἐπιγείῳ βασιλεῖ ἀπογραφόμενοι Ρωμαῖοι κληθῶσιν, οἱ δὲ τῷ ἐπουρανίῳ βασιλεῖ πιστεύοντες Χριστιανοὶ ὀνομασθῶσιν, τὸ τρόπαιον τὸ κατὰ τοῦ θανάτου ἐπὶ μετώπῳ βαστάζοντες). ❝ Cf. Holtzmann RS 26f, 36; Neumann H 24-28, 32f, 39, 43f, 68ff; Harnack ME i. 262f (“. . . The cecumenical range of the Roman empire is, therefore, a Satanic aping of Christianity. As the demons purloined Christian philosophy and aped the Christian cultus and sacraments, so also did they perpetrate a plagiarism against the church by founding the great imperial state of Rome! This is the self-consciousness of Christendom expressed in perhaps the most robust, but also in the most audacious form imaginable!"), KS 145. 2 the early end of the Roman dominion.1 Tertullianus spoke to Scapula of the vengeance which Christians expected God would inflict on the imperial government in return for the persecutions; and he revelled in the prospect of beholding monarchs and provincial governors in the nether darkness and the fires of hell at the end of the age. With Hippolytus the approaching break-up of the Empire in favour of the Kingdom of Christ was given with his close application of the prophecies of the Book of Daniel and the Apocalypse to the conditions of his own time.4 Wishes, opinions, and calculations as to the time when the Empire would fall were in most cases connected with views on the subject of the coming of Antichrist, whose reign would immediately precede the Parousia of Jesus. It was always taken for granted, on the basis of 2 Thess. ii. 6f, that as long as the Empire as a whole should last, Antichrist would not come.5 Such was the basal fact. Various views were held as to the nearness or otherwise of the cataclysm. Irenæus ventures on the general statement that created things will come to an end in six thousand years from the date of their creation, but he does not take it upon himself to say how soon that period will have elapsed. Eusebius tells us 6 1 Sib. Orac. viii. 145-150 (cf. Neumann SK 112f): οὐκέτι νικήσειε πέδον 'Ρώμης έριθήλου, ὁππόταν ἐξ ̓Ασίης κρατέων ἔλθῃ σὺν Αρήι. 2 Tert. Scap. 2 fin. (i. 542): ultionem quam a Deo exspectamus. 3 Tert. Spect. 30 (i. 61f): quid admirer? quid rideam? ubi gaudeam? ubi exsultem, spectans tot ac tantos reges, qui in coelum recepti nuntiabantur, cum ipso love et ipsis suis testibus in imis tenebris congemiscentes! item praesides, persecutores dominici nominis, saevioribus quam ipsi flammis saevierunt insultantibus contra Christianos liquescentes ! 4 Hipp. Ant. 29 (ἴδωμεν τοίνυν τὰ συμβησόμενα ἐπ ̓ ἐσχάτων ἐπὶ τὴν πόρνην τὴν ἀκάθαρτον ταύτην, ὁποία δὲ καὶ ποταπὴ κατὰ χόλον Θεοῦ ἐπελεύσεται αὐτῇ πρὸ τῆς κρίσεως μερικὴ βάσανος), Dan. II. xiii. 2, xxvii. 9, IV. x. 3 (ὃς μεταστήσει πάσας τὰς βασιλείας τὰς ἐν τῷ κόσμῳ τούτῳ καὶ ἀλοήσει καὶ λικμήσει καὶ διασπερεῖ αὐτάς, κτλ.). Cf. Act. Petr. 24 (alter propheta dicit: . . . 'Lapis praecisus est sine manibus et percussit omnia regna.' Dan ii. 34). Tert. (see the passages quoted on next page, n 5, also) Res. 24 (ii. 498f) (quotation of 2 Th ii. Iff, with comments); Hipp. Ant. 63 (quotation of 2 Th ii. 1-12), Dan. IV. X. 2 (¿àv Kai TOûTO [i.e. the Roman Empire] ueraρon, πaveтαι λοιπὸν τὰ ἐπίγεια, ἄρχεται δὲ τὰ ἐπουράνια), xvii. 7 (τοῦ οὖν βδελύγματος [i.e. Antichrist] μηδέπω παραγενομένου, ἀλλ ̓ ἔτι τοῦ τετάρτου θηρίου μόνου κρατοῦντος, πῶς δύναται ἡ ἐπιφάνεια τοῦ Κυρίου γενέσθαι ;), xxi. 3 (τίς οὖν ἐστιν ὁ κατέχων ἕως ἄρτι, ἀλλ ̓ ἢ τὸ τέταρτον θηρίον, οὗ μετατεθέντος καὶ ἐκ μέσου γεναμένου ἐλεύσεται ὁ πλάνος ;) ; Orig. Cels. ii. 50 (quotation of 2 Th ii. 3b, 4, 6-12), vi. 46 (quotation of 2 Th ii. 1-12). Cf. Guignebert 9f; Neumann H 24, 27. 6 Iren. v. xxviii. 3 (ii. 402f). of a certain Judas, who "wrote a discourse on the seventy weeks in Daniel, and brought down the chronology to the tenth year of the reign of Severus: he also thought that the appearance of the Antichrist which was much talked about was then near. So greatly had the agitation caused by the persecution of our people at this time upset the thoughts of many." Tertullianus takes up a curiously inconsistent attitude. On the one hand, when he is writing for Christian readers only, he speaks of their impatient longing for the end of all things, and describes the appearance of Antichrist as imminent. On the other hand, when he is addressing pagans, he represents the Christians as praying for the continuance and stability of the Roman Empire, in the knowledge that it is the one bulwark between them and the suffering, distress, and turmoil of the Last Days.5 Hippolytus, though more than once he piously deprecates any attempt to arrive at an exact date, counselling his readers both to retain their belief in the prophecies and to pray that the fulfilment of them may not occur in their lifetime, yet ventures himself upon a very definite time-calculation. Starting from the usual chiliastic view of six thousand years as the period of the continuance of created things, and deducing from the dimensions of the ark built by Moses (!) that five thousand five hundred years had elapsed between the Creation 1 I.e. 202-203 A.D. 2 Eus. HE vi. vii: cf. Kruger 223f; Harnack C ii. 23. 3 Tert. Orat. 5 (i. 560) (198–202 A.D.) (Itaque si ad Dei voluntatem et ad nostram suspensionem pertinet regni dominici repraesentatio, quomodo quidam protractum quemdam in saeculo postulant, cum regnum Dei, quod ut adveniat oramus, ad consummationem saeculi tendat? Optamus maturius regnare, et non diutius servire, etc.), Spect. 29 (198-202 A.D.) (see above, p. 305 n 5), Res. 22 (ii. 494) (208–213 A.D.) (vota nostra suspirant in saeculi hujus occasum, in transitum mundi quoque ad diem Domini magnum, etc.). Tert. Fug. 12 (i. 487) (212 ̊A.D.) (antichristo iam instante). Tert. Apol. 32 (i. 236) (197 A.D.) (Est et alia major necessitas nobis orandi pro imperatoribus, etiam pro omni statu imperii rebusque Romanis, qui vim maximam universo orbi imminentem ipsamque clausulam saeculi acerbitates horrendas comminantem Romani imperii commeatu scimus retardari. Ita quae nolumus expediri, ea dum precamur differi, Romanae diuturnitati favemus), 39 (i. 255f) (Oramus etiam pro imperatoribus, pro ministris eorum et potestatibus, pro statu saeculi, pro rerum quiete, pro mora finis), Scap. 2 (i. 541) (212 A.D.) (imperatoris, quem sciens a Deo suo constitui, necesse est ut [sc. Christianus] et ipsum diligat, et revereatur, et honoret, et salvum velit, cum toto Romano imperio, quousque saeculum stabit. Tamdiu enim stabit). Cf. Bigelmair 87f. Hipp. Dan. IV. v. 4-6, vi. 1-3, xii. 2, XV.-xxii. (esp. xv. 1, xviii. 7, xxi. 4 [ἀλλὰ πάντως ζητεῖς περίεργος ὢν πόσα ἔτη περιλείπεται τῷ θηρίῳ, ἵνα μεταρθῇ, μὴ νοῶν, ὅτι ταῦτα ζητῶν ἑαυτῷ τὸν κίνδυνον ἐπιζητεῖς καὶ τάχιον τὴν κρίσιν ἰδεῖν ἐπιθυμεῖς], xxii.). In xviiif, he gives some interesting accounts of Christian fanatics who acted unwisely on the assumption that Christ was coming immediately: cf. Neumann H 72-75. |