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The Date of Tatian's Oration

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 August 2011

Robert M. Grant
Robert M. Grant
Affiliation:
University of Chicago
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Extract

Various dates have been given for Tatian's Oration to the Greeks, ranging from 152 to 172. None of these dates is correct, since the treatise was written after the year 176, perhaps in 177 or 178.

In the spring of 175 the Roman empire was shaken by the almost accidental revolt of Avidius Cassius, governor of Syria. Acting on the rumor that Marcus Aurelius had died, the governor proclaimed himself emperor. Egypt joined Cilicia, Syria, and Judaea; but the revolt was crushed in little more than three months. The emperor promised clemency (coins of the following year mention Clementia Aug.) and kept his promise. He then made a journey to the east with the empress Faustina and their son Commodus, passing through Syria but avoiding Antioch, the center of the revolt. Early in 176, after wintering in Alexandria, they visited Antioch and went on to Cappadocia, where Faustina's sudden death was followed by a magnificent funeral.

Type
Research Article
Information
Harvard Theological Review , Volume 46 , Issue 2 , April 1953 , pp. 99 - 101
Copyright
Copyright © President and Fellows of Harvard College 1953

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References

1 On the date cf. Grégoire-P, H.. Orgels in Anal. Boll. 79 (1951), 1–38Google Scholar. Telfer, W., in JTS N. S. 3 (1952), 79–83Google Scholar, prefers the year 168, chiefly on the ground that Polycarp had heard John and others who had seen the Lord. But if, as Dr. Telfer suggests, Polycarp was “nearing a hundred,” the year 177 cannot be excluded; and Irenaeus (Adv. haer. v. 33. 4) calls Papias a “hearer of John,” although it is almost certain that he was not a hearer of the apostle. Cf. F. Wotke in RE XVIII 2, 969–70.

2 Eusebius, H. E. v. 1.3.

3 Athénagore (Paris, 1943), 12–16Google Scholar.

4 Cf. SHA Marcus xxi. 6–7.

5 At this point the teachers' 10,000 drachmae (Lucian, Eun. 3; Philostratus, Vit. soph. p. 566 Boissonade) would be exchangeable at 16 2/3 dr. to the aureus, compared with the normal value of 25 to 1 (Lucian, Pseudolog. 30; Dio Cass. Iv. 12. 4). Perhaps, however, there is a textual error and we should read Y (400) instead of X (600).

6 Eusebius, H. E. v. 1. 62.

7 Cf. M. Aurelius, Medit. i. 7.

8 Frag. I Goodspeed (pp. 307–8); Eusebius, H. E. iv. 26. 5–11.

9 Ad Autol. iii. 30; i. 11.

10 Apol. xxxv. 9; Ad Scap. 2.