Imatges de pàgina
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supposititium esse convincunt post eundem Scaligerum alii bene multi, in quibus omnium doctissime et copiosissime Humfredus Hodius.

One who should be disposed to dispute the point with Bentley, might say, that besides the first and illustrious Sophocles, there was a Sophocles his grandson, and a third in the time of the Ptolemies, and that they were all dramatic poets; and he might suppose that this fragment or a part of it, was possibly taken from the second or third Sophocles. See Fabricius B. Gr. i. 623. He might compound the matter, and conjecture that the three first lines were genuine, and the six following spurious.

If the Cohortatio was not written by Justin, Athenagoras was perhaps the first father who took notice of this passage, and he only cites the two first verses, which gives some reason to suspect that he never saw the rest.

But, upon a review of the whole, I must agree with Bentley, and reject this pious fragment as the work of one forger, or perhaps of two.

In the first verse,

Εἷς ταῖς ἀληθείαισιν, εἷς ἐσιν Θεὸς

is preferable to

Ἐν ταῖς ἀληθείαισιν.

Bently objects to

Θνητοὶ δὲ πουλυκερδείᾳ πλανώμενοι

that the fourth foot will be a spondee: but may not the diphthongs ai, et, oi, be made short, when a vowel or diphthong follows in the same word? Sophocles Philoct. 1450.

Τίνα προσωφέλησιν ἔρξεις ; Βέλεσι τοῖς Ηρακλείοις— And so in other, places, if I remember right. Homer, Il. . 105.

Τοΐσις

Τοῖοις ἐὼν, οἷος ἔτις ̓Αχαιών χαλκοχιλίνων.

He observes, as I think, rightly, that an attic writ er would not use ouxxepdig in an iambie verse; but πουλὺς, for πολὺς, is rather a poetic license than an ionic dialect. The best objection to xedig is, that it is nonsense.

Attic writers use the words ολοίατο, οψοίατο, τιθέασι, διδόασιν, &c. which seem properly to belong to the ionic dialect.

IX.

The Epistle of the church of Smyrna says of the martyrs: τὸ πῦρ ἦν αὐτοῖς ψυχρὸν τὸ τῶν ἀπηνῶν βασανισῶν. Frigidus ipsis videbatur immanium carnificum ignis.

This passage, which hath been misunderstood, relates to the torments inflicted on the martyrs before they were put to death. They were treated like slaves and criminals, and tortured; and in such tortures fire was usually one instrument.

Q. Curtius says of Philotas: Ac primo quamquam hinc ignis, illinc verbera, jam non ad questionem, sed ad pænam ingerebantur,—vi. 11.

Cicero in Verr. v. 63.

Huccine tandem omnia reci

derunt, ut civis Romanus-deligatus in foro vergis cæderetur? Quid, cum ignes ardentesque lamina, ceterique cruciatus admovebantur?

Seneca says of the emperor Caius: Ceciderat flagellis senatores; ipse effecit ut dici possit, Solet fieri: torserat per omnia, quæ in rerum natura tristissima sunt, fidiculis, tabularibus, eculeo, igne, vultu suo. Et hoc loco respon

debitur, magnam rem! si tres senatores, quasi nequam mancipia, inter verbera et flammas divisit-De Ira iii. 19. Saxa, ferrum, ignem, Caium excepturi. De Brev. Vit.

IS.

[Domitianus]

[Domitianus] plerosque partis adversæ—novo quæstionis genere distorsit: immisso per obscœna igne. Suetonius Domit. x.

Cicero Topic 20. Facit etiam necessitas fidem, quæ cum a corporibus, tum ab animis nascitur. Nam et verberibus, tormentis, igni fatigati, quæ dicunt, ea videtur veritas ipsa dicere.

Propertius i. 1. 27.

Fortiter et ferrum, savos patiemur et ignes:
Sit modo libertas, quæ volet ira, loqui.

iv. 7. 49.

Lygdamus uratur, candescat lamina vernæ.
Tibullus i. 10. 21.

Ure meum potius flamma caput, et pete ferro
Corpus, et intorto verbere terga seca.

Horace Epist. i. xv. 36.

Scilicet ut ventres lamná candente nepotum
Diceret urendos.

Juvenal xiv.

Tum felix, quoties aliquis, tortore vocato, Uritur ardenti propter duo lintea ferro. Ovid. Met. iii. 696.

et dum crudelia jussæ Instrumenta necis ferrumque ignisque parantur, Seneca Oedip. 862.

Huc aliquis ignem : flamma jam excutiet fidem. Petronius: In verba Eumolpi sacramentum juravimus, uri, vinciri, verberari, ferroque necari; et quicquid aliud Eumolpus jussisset, tanquam legitimi gladiatores domino, corpora animosque religiosissimi addicimus.

Seneca Epist. xxxvii. Eadem honestissimi hujus, et illius turpissimi auctoramenti verba sunt, uri, vinciri, ferroque necari. necari. Ab illis qui manus arena locant, et edunt

ዐር

ac bibunt que per sanguinem reddant, cavetur ut ista vel inviti patiantur; a te, ut volens libensque.

Epist. vii. Occide, ure, verbera. Quare tam timide incurrit in ferrum?—

Quinctilian. Declam. ix. Fremebant ubique omnia apparatu mortis. Hic ferrum acuebat, ille accendebat ignibus laminas: hinc virga, inde flagella adferebantur.

Tertullian Apol. 15. Risimus et inter ludicras meridianorum crudelitates, Mercurium mortuos cauterio exami

nantem.

Ignatius Epist. ad Rom. 5. Hug, ỳ saugos, Inpiwr Tε Cuτάσεις, ἀναζομαι, διαιρέσεῖς, (κορπισμοὶ ὀςέων, (υΓκοπαὶ μελῶν, ἀλεσὺ μοὶ ὅλα τὰ ζώμαλος, καὶ κόλασις το Διαβόλο ἐπ ̓ ἐμὲ ἐρχέσθω, μόνον Iva 'Ino Xpis éílux. Ignis, crux, ferarum concursus, sectiones, lanience, ossium discerptiones, membrorum concisiones, totius corporis contritiones, et Diaboli tormenta in me veniant, tantummodo ut Jesum nanciscar.

Justin. M. Dial. Κεφαλοβομέμενοι γ καὶ σαυρόμενοι, καὶ θε φίοις παραβαλλόμενοι, καὶ δεσμοῖς, καὶ πυρί, καὶ πάσαις ταῖς ἄλλαις βασάνοις, ὅτι οὐκ ἀφισάμεθα τῆς ὁμολογίας, δῆλόν εσιν. Quod namque dum gladio percutimur, et in crucem agimur, et bestüs objicimur, et vinculis, et igne, et tormentis aliis omnibus plectimur et excruciamur, a professione nostrà non discedamus, satis constat, &c. &c. &c.

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