§ 178. Apolinarius of Hierapolis. Miltiades.

Claudius Apolinarius,^13771377    This is the spelling of the ancient Greek authors who refer to him. Latin writers usually spell his name Apollinaris or Apollinarius. There are several noted persons of this name: 1) the legendary St. Apollinaris, bishop of Ravenna (50-78?), who followed St. Peter from Antioch to Rome, was sent by him to Ravenna, performed miracles, died a martyr, and gave name to a magnificent basilica built in the sixth century. See Acta Sanct. Jul. V. 344. 2) Apollinarus the Elder, presbyter at Laodicea in Syria (not in Phrygia), an able classical scholar and poet, about the middle of the fourth century. 3) Apollinaris the Younger, son of the former, and bishop of Laodicea between 362 and 380, who with his father composed Christian classics to replace the heathen classics under the reign of Julian, and afterwards originated the christological heresy which is named after him. See my article in Smith and Wace I. 134 sq.377 bishop of Hierapolis in Phrygia, a successor of Papias, was a very active apologetic and polemic writer about a.d. 160–180. He took a leading part in the Montanist and Paschal controversies. Eusebius puts him with Melito of Sardis among the orthodox writers of the second century, and mentions four of his "many works" as known to him, but since lost, namely an "Apology" addressed to Marcus Aurelius (before 174). "Five books against the Greeks" "Two books on Truth." "Two books against the Jews." He also notices his later books "Against the heresy of the Phrygians" (the Montanists), about 172.^13781378    H. E. IV. 27; repeated by Jerome, De Viris ill. 26. Two extracts of a work not mentioned by Eusebius are preserved in the Chron. Pasch. Copies of three of his apologetic books, πρόσ Ἕλληνας περὶ εὐσεβείας, περὶ ἀληθείας , are mentioned by Photius. The last two are probably identical, as they are connected by καί. See the fragments in Routh, I. 159-174. Comp. Donaldson III. 243; Harnack, Texte, I. 232-239, and Smith and Wace I. 132.378

Apolinarius opposed the Quartodeciman observance of Easter, which Melito defended.^13791379    See above, p. 214 sq., and Chron. Pasch. 1. 13.379 Jerome mentions his familiarity with heathen literature, but numbers him among the Chiliasts.^13801380    De Vir. ill. 18; Com. in Ezech. c. 36. In the latter place Jerome mentions Irenaeus as the first, and Apollinaris as the last, of the Greek Chiliasts (" ut Graecos nominem, et primum extremumque conjugam, Iren. et Ap."); but this is a palpable error, for Barnabas and Papias were Chiliasts before Irenaeus; Methodius and Nepos long after Apolinarius. Perhaps he meant Apollinaris of Laodicea, in Syria.380 The latter is doubtful on account of his opposition to Montanism. Photius praises his style. He is enrolled among the saints.^13811381    Acta Sanct. Febr. II. 4. See Wetzer and Welte2 I. 1086.381

Miltiades was another Christian Apologist of the later half of the second century whose writings are entirely lost. Eusebius mentions among them an "Apology" addressed to the rulers of the world, a treatise "against the Greeks," and another "against the Jews;" but be gives no extracts.^13821382    H. E. V. 17. Jerome, De Vir. ill. 39. Comp. Harnack, Texte, I. 278-282, and Salmon, in Smith and Wace III. 916.382 Tertullian places him between Justin Martyr and Irenaeus.^13831383    Adv. Valent. 5. Miltiades is here called "ecclesiarum sophista," either honorably= rhetor or philosophus (See Otto and Salmon), or with an implied censure ("mit einem üblen Nebegeschmack, " as Harnack thinks). The relation of Miltiades to Montanism is quite obscure, but probably he was an opponent.383