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Page 3
The war on the northern frontier appears to have been uninterrupted
during the visit of Antoninus to the East, and on his return the emperor
again left Rome to oppose the barbarians. The Germanic people were
defeated in a great battle A.D. 179. During this campaign the emperor
was seized with some contagious malady, of which he died in the camp at
Sirmium (Mitrovitz), on the Save, in Lower Pannonia, but at Vindebona
(Vienna), according to other authorities, on the 17th of March, A.D.
180, in the fifty-ninth year of his age. His son Commodus was with him.
The body, or the ashes probably, of the emperor were carried to Rome,
and he received the honor of deification. Those who could afford it had
his statue or bust; and when Capitolinus wrote, many people still had
statues of Antoninus among the Dei Penates or household deities. He was
in a manner made a saint. Commodus erected to the memory of his father
the Antonine column which is now in the Piazza Colonna at Rome. The
_bassi rilievi_ which are placed in a spiral line round the shaft
commemorate the victories of Antoninus over the Marcomanni and the
Quadi, and the miraculous shower of rain which refreshed the Roman
soldiers and discomfited their enemies. The statue of Antoninus was
placed on the capital of the column, but it was removed at some time
unknown, and a bronze statue of St. Paul was put in the place by Pope
Sixtus the fifth.
The historical evidence for the times of Antoninus is very defective,
and some of that which remains is not credible. The most curious is the
story about the miracle which happened in A.D. 174, during the war with
the Quadi. The Roman army was in danger of perishing by thirst, but a
sudden storm drenched them with rain, while it discharged fire and hail
on their enemies, and the Romans gained a great victory. All the
authorities which speak of the battle speak also of the miracle. The
Gentile writers assign it to their gods, and the Christians to the
intercession of the Christian legion in the emperor's army. To confirm
the Christian statement it is added that the emperor gave the title of
Thundering to this legion; but Dacier and others, who maintain the
Christian report of the miracle, admit that this title of Thundering or
Lightning was not given to this legion because the Quadi were struck
with lightning, but because there was a figure of lightning on their
shields, and that this title of the legion existed in the time of
Augustus.
Scaliger also had observed that the legion was called Thundering
([Greek: keraunobolos], or [Greek: keraunophoros]) before the reign of
Antoninus. We learn this from Dion Cassius (Lib. 55, c. 23, and the note
of Reimarus), who enumerates all the legions of Augustus' time. The name
Thundering of Lightning also occurs on an inscription of the reign of
Trajan, which was found at Trieste. Eusebius (v. 5), when he relates the
miracle, quotes Apolinarius, bishop of Hierapolis, as authority for this
name being given to the legion Melitene by the emperor in consequence of
the success which he obtained through their prayers; from which we may
estimate the value of Apolinarius' testimony. Eusebius does not say in
what book of Apolinarius the statement occurs. Dion says that the
Thundering legion was stationed in Cappadocia in the time of Augustus.
Valesius also observes that in the Notitia of the Imperium Romanum there
is mentioned under the commander of Armenia the Praefectura of the
twelfth legion named "Thundering Melitene;" and this position in Armenia
will agree with what Dion says of its position in Cappadocia.
Accordingly Valesius concludes that Melitene was not the name of the
legion, but of the town in which it was stationed. Melitene was also the
name of the district in which this town was situated. The legions did
not, he says, take their name from the place where they were on duty,
but from the country in which they were raised, and therefore what
Eusebius says about the Melitene does not seem probable to him. Yet
Valesius, on the authority of Apolinarius and Tertullian, believed that
the miracle was worked through the prayers of the Christian soldiers in
the emperor's army. Rufinus does not give the name of Melitene to this
legion, says Valesius, and probably he purposely omitted it, because he
knew that Melitene was the name of a town in Armenia Minor, where the
legion was stationed in his time.
The emperor, it is said, made a report of his victory to the Senate,
which we may believe, for such was the practice; but we do not know what
he said in his letter, for it is not extant. Dacier assumes that the
emperor's letter was purposely destroyed by the Senate or the enemies of
Christianity, that so honorable a testimony to the Christians and their
religion might not be perpetuated. The critic has however not seen that
he contradicts himself when he tells us the purport of the letter, for
he says that it was destroyed, and even Eusebius could not find it. But
there does exist a letter in Greek addressed by Antoninus to the Roman
people and the sacred Senate after this memorable victory. It is
sometimes printed after Justin's first Apology, but it is totally
unconnected with the apologies. This letter is one of the most stupid
forgeries of the many which exist, and it cannot be possibly founded
even on the genuine report of Antoninus to the Senate. If it were
genuine, it would free the emperor from the charge of persecuting men
because they were Christians, for he says in this false letter that if a
man accuse another only of being a Christian, and the accused confess,
and there is nothing else against him, he must be set free; with this
monstrous addition, made by a man inconceivably ignorant, that the
informer must be burnt alive.[A]
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