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Palladas and Christian Polemic

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 September 2012

Alan Cameron
Alan Cameron
Affiliation:
Bedford College, London.
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Extract

Eduard Norden's well known claim that pagans only read the New Testament when they wanted to refute it has never been seriously challenged. During the first four centuries of the Christian era the only pagans who can be shown to have had a thorough acquaintance with Christian writings and knowledge of Christian teachings are Celsus, Porphyry, and the Apostate Julian —all of whom wrote detailed refutations of Christianity.

Yet it has often been alleged that there are allusions to Christian doctrines and even echoes of New Testament phrases in the epigrams of Palladas of Alexandria. Now this, if true, would be of great interest and importance; for although it has, from time to time, been contended that Palladas was a Christian, there can in my opinion be little doubt that, like so many other schoolmasters in fourth and fifth century Egypt, he was a pagan. It is sufficient to refer to his caustic couplet on the monks, his numerous poems on Τύχη so characteristic of pagan writers of the day, and his ironic comments on the ‘conversion’ of the statues of the old Olympians, and on some Victories adapted to herald the victory of Christ (further evidence is adduced in § II).

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Roman Studies , Volume 55 , November 1965 , pp. 17 - 30
Copyright
Copyright © Alan Cameron 1965. Exclusive Licence to Publish: The Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies

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References

1 Antike Kunstprosa II (1909), 517 f., quoted and endorsed by Harnack, , Mission and Expansion of Christianity (tr. Moffat 1908) 1, 378Google Scholar, with 506, n. 1. For an attempt to prove that Themistius was familiar with the New Testament, not in my opinion compelling, see Downey, G., Harv. Theol. Rev. L (1957), 202 f.Google Scholar (though Themistius does quote Proverbs XXI, I three times, always referred to obliquely as λόγος τῶν Ἀσσυρίων: see Downey, again, Studia Patristica v, 3, 1962, 480 f.Google Scholar). For J. Straub's theory that the authors of the Historia Augusta were familiar with Christian writings, see below pp. 240 ff.

2 See, briefly, de Labriolle, P.'s La réaction paienne (1934), 111 f.Google Scholar, 223 f., 369 f. Many later anti-Christian writings, such as those reflected in the Quaestiones of Ambrosiaster (cf. Courcelle, P., Vigiliae Christianae XIII, 1959, 133–69Google Scholar), in all probability derive their knowledge of the Bible from Porphyry.

3 Most recently by Waltz, P., REG 59/60 (1946/1947), 203 f.Google Scholar

4 I have collected the evidence in §§ I and IV of my article ‘Wandering Poets’ in Historia, XIV (1965).

5 Below, p. 29.

6 cf. SirBowra, Maurice, ‘Palladas on Tyche’, CQ n.s. X (1960), 118 f.CrossRefGoogle Scholar, and add to the poems he discusses Anth. Pal. X, 77 and XI, 62 (henceforth all references to poems from the Anth. Pal. will be cited by book and poem number only).

7 IX, 528; XVI, 282; cf. JHS LXXXIV (1964), 54 f.

8 cf. Norden, l.c. As Tertullian observed (De test.an. I, 4) ‘tantum abest ut nostris litteris annuant homines, ad quas nemo venit nisi iam Christianus’.

9 Harvard Studies LXIII (1958), 459 f.

10 Proc. Brit. Acad. XLV (1959), 260 f.

11 cf. Headlam, W., Jl. of Philology, XXX (1907), 300.Google Scholar

12 See the testimonia cited by Tischendorf, ad loc.

13 Orpheus V (1958), 119 f: X, 82 she takes to be a satire on the Christian way of life as a tirocinio for the life after death; for my interpretation see below p. 27. For her interpretation of X, 90 see n. 41.

14 cf. Harnack, , History of Dogma (tr. 1897 from 3rd German ed.) III, 265Google Scholar: ‘The fundamental importance of the First Fall… won acceptance as an authoritative Biblical doctrine, but never obtained the same certainty, clearness, or importance among the Greek Fathers as among the Latin’. Gregory of Nazianzus was incautious enough to say that small children were ἀπόνηροι (Or. XL, 23).

15 See my ‘Notes on Palladas’ § IV, in CQ n.s. XV (1965). Pelagius' teachings on Free Will did not attract much notice before the beginning of the fifth century.

16 At p. 165 of his very useful study of Palladas in Wiss. Zeitschr. d. Humboldt-Universität, Gesell. u. sprachwiss. Reihe, VI (1956/7).

17 Studia Patristica IV, 2 (1961) 463, n. 5.

18 Amand, D., Fatalisme et Liberté dans l'antiquité grecque, Université de Louvain, Receuil de travaux d'histoire et de philologie, III e sér., fasc. 19 (1945), 176Google Scholar, with full discussion of other pagan writers who deal with the matter.

19 cf. Bowra, o.c. (n. 6), passim.

20 Animadv. in Anth. Graec. II, 3 (1801), 259.

21 Rahlfs, A.' ed. of the Septuagint, II (1952), 274.Google Scholar

22 cf. also Propertius 111, 5, 14; Lucian, Mort. Dial., X, 1.

23 Analecta Laurentiana, Festschr. Theodor Gomperz (1902), 398.

24 δεσμός is a not altogether satisfactory correction for the ms. δῆμος; cf. also Lumb, T. W., Notes on the Greek Anthology (1920), 86.Google Scholar

25 Luck, o.c. (n. 9), 459; Bowra, o.c. (n. 10), 264.

26 In his Tübingen Dissertation Palladas von Alexandrie (1956; typescript, available only in Tübingen), ad loc.

27 cf. JHS 1964, 58.

28 A discourse on the Miracles of our Saviour (1727), 38. The allusion would have added point if we accept Bowra's suggestion that the poem was inspired by the slaughter of the pagans of Alexandria by Theophilus' monks, o.c. (n. 10), 258. The arch-pagan Porphyry could scarcely find words strong enough to express his utter contempt for the story of the Gadarene swine: (fr. 49 Harnack, Abh. Berl. Akad. 1916).

29 Ἑλλησι is attested in a few citations from Greek Fathers, presumably under the influence of Ἔλληνες in the next verse.

30 See below n. 41.

31 Select Epigrams of the Greek Anthology 2 (1906), 330.

32 Lumb, o.c. (n. 24), 59, suggests ὡς ῥόῳ for the rather weak ὡς ὸρῶ of the mss.

33 So Bowra, , CQ, 1960, 122.Google Scholar

34 On Magnus see Seeck, O., Die Briefe des Libanius (1906), 200, Magnus IV.Google Scholar

35 Pagans often asserted that Christ was merely a very able magician, placing him on a level with, and sometimes below (Lactantius, , Div. Inst. v, 3Google Scholar) Apollonius of Tyana and Apuleius. Cf. Arnobius, , Adv. Nat. I, 52 f.Google Scholar for a list of magicians compared with Christ; Augustine, ep. 5 and Eunapius, Vit. Soph., praef. for adulation of Apollonius. Christ as the healer and physician par excellence is in fact a very common motif in Christian literature; cf. Harnack, Mission, Bk. II, Ch. 2, and, more recently, Arbesman, R., Traditio X (1954), 1 f.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

36 It was Reiske who first connected the poems with Theodosius' anti-pagan edict of 391, Cod. Theod. XVI, 10, 11 (cited in the Didot edition, ad loc.).

37 Lacombrade, , Pallas I (1953), 23Google Scholar; Keydell, , Byz. Zeit. L (1957), 1.Google Scholar

38 Ἔλλην is the regular Greek word for ‘pagan’ from the fourth century on: see Lechner, K., Hellenen und Barbaren im Weltbild der Byzantiner, Diss. München, 1954, 16–37Google Scholar, and cf. also now Opelt, I., Vigiliae Christianae XIX (1965), 7 f.Google Scholar

39 cf. the index to PG 64, 277–8, s.v. invidia.

39a PG 31, 376a: for many more examples see Bartelink, G. J. M., Vigiliae Christianae XII (1958), 37 f.Google Scholar

39b Grégoire, Recueil No. 230 ter: the restoration is certain (cf. the parallels quoted by Peterson, E., Είς Θεός, 1926, 35)Google Scholar. For a number of Judaeo–Christian amulets from Africa in the Later Empire designed to ward off invidia, cf. Merlin, A., REA XLII (1940), 486 f.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

40 Pointed out by Luck, o.c. (n. 9), 470, n. 71. Kasia has 8 consecutive poems on the subject of (edited by Krumbacher, K., SB München, 1897, 359Google Scholar).

41 Eunapius, Vit. Soph. 472; for Julian see the passages collected by Asmus, R., Woch. f. kl. Phil. XXIV (1907), 152.Google ScholarBonnano, , Orpheus 1958, 124Google Scholar, taking νεκρῶν ἐλπιδας as being the ‘mondo ideale pagano immediatamente distrutto’ thinks that Palladas is deliberately opposing it to the Christian idea of death as the start of true life. But nowhere is Palladas more likely to have heard talk of death as the start of true life than in the pagan neoplatonic circles of Alexandria.

42 Schwippers, J. W., De Ontwikkeling der Euhemeristische Godencritiek in de Christelijke Latijnse Literatuur (Diss. Utrecht, 1952)Google Scholar, has collected the allusions to Euhemerus from Latin patristic writings. A full treatment of the subject, according to Courcelle, P. (REL XXX, 1952, 451Google Scholar), would require ‘deux gros volumes et une dizaine d'années’.

43 La réaction paienne (1934), 415, n. 2. To the passages there cited add Julian, Adv. Cyn. 203C3, as emended by Russell, D. A. in CR n.s. XV (1965), 43.Google Scholar Jews also accused Christians of worshipping a νεκρός (Theodoret, Ad Rom. IV, PG 82, col. 93c).

44 cf. Neill, and Nock, , Jl. Theol. Stud. XXVI (1925), 174 f.Google Scholar

45 For a different, but to my mind unconvincing, explanation, cf. Scott, and Ferguson, , Hermetica IV (1936), 187 n.Google Scholar

46 This temple was destroyed in 391 and converted into a tavern—an event to which Palladas devoted no fewer than four poems: Anth. Pal. IX, 180–3; and cf. JHS LXXXIV (1964), 57.

47 An Alexandrian would inevitably mean Alexandria when he referred to the πόλις, for Alexandria was distinguished as the πόλις from the rest of Egypt, known as χώρα (Wilcken, U., Grundzüge u. Chrestom. 1. I (1912), 34).Google Scholar cf. also JHS 1964, 60.

48 The passages of Palladas and Sozomen surely confirm a date in the 390's for the ‘prophecy’: cf. n. 44 above.

49 cf. Harnack, , Mission (tr. Moffat) 1, 379Google Scholar, n. 3. ‘Suidas’ s.v. μώρους states quite simply that

50 o.c. (n. 37), 2–3.

51 This line appears to be quoted by Synesius in his ep. 44: as pointed out by Stella, L. A., Cinque poeti dell' antologia palatina (1949), 383.Google Scholar On the other hand the motif may have been used by other poets besides Hesiod and Palladas, for Julian, writing before Palladas, says (ep. 82 [59], p. 137 Bides): Hesiod's line is often quoted: see the testimonia in Rzach's editio maior ad. loc.

52 Zerwes connects the αἴλουρος of 1. 9 with Timothy Ailurus, monophysite bishop of Alexandria from 457, but on any chronology of Palladas' life this is a good thirty years after the last date he is likely to have lived to; cf. § IV of my article in CQ 1965.

53 Contra Christianos, as reconstructed by K. J. Neumann, 1880, 190, 5 f. cf. also CQ n.s. XIV (1964), 319, n.3.

54 As seen already by Stella, o.c. (n. 51), 341.

55 Callimachus II (1953), XCIII. But cf. now Gow, and Page, , The Greek Anthology: Hellenistic Epigrams I (1965), XXXVIII–IX.Google Scholar

56 cf. his ‘normalization’ of Anth. Pal. v, 6, 5 (Callimachus) by substituting Beckby misleads when he merely says ‘om. PI.’ in his note on IX, 175, 4, without indicating that Planudes actually wrote something else instead.

57 For Palladas' puns cf. Peek, P–W XVIII. 3, 167; Zerwes, Palladas von Alexandrie 368–9; and my article in Byz. Zeit. LVII (1964), at pp. 287–91

58 For discussion of the reading see § III of my article in CQ n.s. XV (1965).

59 For close parallels to this sentiment in other pagans of the day cf. CQ l.c. (n. 58).

60 Cf. Maspero, J., Bulletin de l'institut franç. d'arch. orient. du Caire XI (1914), 176 f.Google Scholar

61 Zacharias, Life of Severus, tr. Kügener, , Patr. Or. II (1907), 32.Google Scholar

62 cf. JHS 1964, 59 f.

63 cf. Jones, A. H. M., Later Roman Empire II (1964), 1002Google Scholar and my article ‘Roman School Fees’ in CR n.s. XV (1965).

64 Libanius, for example, uses σύνταξις of the municipal salaries paid to teachers in Antioch (Or. XXXI, 19).

65 cf. CR, l.c. (n. 63).

66 Proc. Brit. Acad. XLV (1959), 267.

67 cf. Jones, , Later Roman Empire II, 748 f.Google Scholar

68 cf. Robert, L., Hellenica IV: Epigrammes du Bas-Empire (1948), 39 f.Google Scholar

69 Robert, o.c. 98.

70 For the text cf. § v of my article in CQ n.s. XV (1965).

71 Two thousand dwelt in the neighbourhood of Alexandria alone (Sozomen, HE VI, 29).

72 For an interesting parallel cf. Julian, Contra Christianos p. 198: Both Julian and Palladas may well have sincerely believed—or fondly hoped—that Christianity would ‘blow over’ before long, and allow Heracles and the oracles to come back into their own once more.

73 Byz. Zeit. 1957, 2.

74 o.c. (n. 66), 267: his view depends largely on his translation of βουλευτής as counsellor.

75 Gibbon, , Decline and Fall, ed. Bury, IV (1897), 198Google Scholar, n. 41. I am grateful to Prof. A. Momigliano and Mr. P. R. L. Brown for helpful comments.