Page:The early Christians in Rome (1911).djvu/224

 "And you yourselves must acknowledge that we who have been called by God through the contemned and shameful mystery of the Cross  endure all torments rather than deny Christ even by word" (Justin, Dial. cxxxi.).

"For having put some to death on account of the false charges brought against us, they also dragged to the torture our servants—children—weak women—and by awful torments drove them to admit that they were guilty of those very actions which they (the persecutors) openly perpetrate,—about which, however, we are little concerned, because none of these actions are really ours. We have the ineffable God as witness both of our thoughts and deeds" (Justin, II. Apol. xii.).

,  160

Jerome tells us that Minucius Felix was, before his conversion to Christianity, an advocate at Rome. The dialogue, which forms the substance of the writing—a work of some considerable length, is a supposed argument between a cultured pagan Cæcilius and the Christian Octavius—the writer Minucius Felix acting as arbiter between the disputants. The scene of the dialogue was the sea-shore of Ostia, it closes with the conversion of the pagan Cæcilius, who is convinced by the arguments brought forward by the Christian Octavius.

The resemblances between Minucius Felix and the famous Apology of Tertullian, which was written circa 200, are most striking—and the question which of the two was the plagiarist has long been before critics. Later scholars, among whom Ebert, Salmon, Bishop Lightfoot, Renan, and Keim are conspicuous, have conclusively established the priority of Minucius. The year of grace 160, before the death of Antoninus Pius, a date based upon the internal evidence of the writing, is suggested by Lightfoot as the most probable period of the composition.

Dean Milman's estimate of the literary excellence of the piece is as follows: "Perhaps no late work, either pagan or