Page:The Journal of Classical and Sacred Philology, Volume 1, 1854.djvu/218

 208 Journal of Philology. briefly to state them, and to shew the worthlessness (as it appears to me) of the one and the unsatisfactoriness, to say the least, of the other. (1) Tlte Acts of St Aurea. Those we possess in several shapes. The earliest has it, that that royal virgin was martyred at Ostia, in the persecution of Gallus A. D. 252. Seventeen converted soldiers were martyred at the same time, two of whom, Taurinus and Herkulanus, were buried at Portus. The next, that the martyrdoms took place at Ostia, but under Claudius, and that Aurea was buried by one Nonnus called also Hippolytus, who was himself drowned afterwards in the same place. The third, that the martyrdom was under Alexander Sev- erus, and that the entomber was Hippolytus Bishop of Portus. Now the Depositio Martyrum of A. D. 354 has for Sep. 5 the entry, Aconti, in Porto, et Nonni et Herculani et Taurini. Now surely the natural inference from all this is that into the first version of St Aurea's Legend these three real persons, Nonnus or Nonus, Herculanus and Taurinus were worked in : that the next modeller of the story, either knew, or asserted without knowing, that the Latin Nonus had (as was not uncom- mon) a Greek Christian name Hippolytus : or else he knew that Nonnus was a title given to Religious Persons, and conjecturing that this Nonnus might be the Father of Portus 44, was anxious to connect the story with so great a saint. Lastly, some writer find- ing the story in this shape, boldly glorifies his heroine by making indignation at her death the cause of Hippolytus's martyrdom, and he accordingly transfers the whole scene to the time of Alexander Severus, and brings Hippolytus in as Bishop of Portus. Dollinger strangely infers (in his zeal to prove that our Hip- polytus had no connection with Portus) that the Hippolytus whose relics were kept in that place was the Nonus of the first Acts of Aurea : of whom we may safely say that there is no proof 44 That Hippolytus the Bishop was Nonni, Jacobi &c.) and of Taurinus and really sometimes known by this title is Herculanus on Sep. 5, has on Aug. 23 seen by the Hieronymian Martyrology (Bp. Hippolytus' day) which while it records the martyrdom In Portu Urbis Romae Hippolytus of the above Nonnus on 15 July, qui dicitur Nonnus. (In Portu Urbis Romaa nat. 8. Aconti,