ARISTIDES, MARCIANUS. - One of the first Christian apologists. According to Eusebius (Hist. eccl., IV, 3, 3, and Chron., ad a. 2140) he was an Athenian philosopher and left an Apology addressed to the emperor Hadrian, still read by many in his own time. St. Jerome, however, no longer knew it, because what he tells us about it (De viris illustribus, 20; Epist., 70, 4) is merely a reworking of Eusebius's words. It then remained unknown until 1878, when the Mechitarists of Venice published an Armenian fragment of it, and in 1889 Rendel Harris found the entire Syriac version in the monastery of St. Catherine on Mount Sinai; it was then established by I. Armitage Robinson that the Greek text too had long been known, since it forms, with slight alterations, chapters 26-27 of the Life of Barlaam and Josaphat.
The Syriac version bears the dedication: "To the emperor Caesar Titus Hadrian Antoninus Augustus and Pius, Marcianus Aristides, Athenian philosopher." The second name Marcianus must certainly be regarded as authentic, while it is still debated whether (for internal reasons) one should rather follow Eusebius (cit.) and the Armenian version, which say the work is dedicated to the emperor Hadrian. It is likewise debated whether the Greek text, generally more concise, or the Syriac, more diffuse, is closer to the original, but the fragments recently recovered from the papyri generally vindicate the latter against the former.
The Apology establishes first of all the true concept of God: eternal, perfect, immortal, omniscient, father of men and sufficient unto himself, and demonstrates that neither the barbarians, nor the Greeks, nor the Jews possessed it, but only the Christians (a fourth race), who received their faith from Jesus, born of a Jewish virgin, killed by the Jews, risen and ascended into heaven. Their wondrous life is a confirmation of this, whatever the calumnies circulating about them may say. Naturally A. dwells above all on demonstrating the absurdity of the religions of the "three races" and the holiness of the Christian life.
The Apology is valuable for the simplicity and clarity of its line of argument, which brings out the cogency of its reasoning, although one may suspect that it seems original to us only because it is the first document of its kind. And although the author is not a man of great culture, but of modest literary ability, he is nonetheless appealing for that ingenuous confidence with which he sets forth his ideas, full not only of the force of truth but also of a remarkable power of communication. He has been reproached for the narrowness of his theme and for not expatiating more on the exposition of specifically Christian dogmas; but this could have been out of place in an apology intended for the emperor, and in any case A. was fully entitled to limit his theme as he wished. Moreover, for his purpose it suffices, and it cannot be denied that the point he develops is essential.
Bibliography3 works
The same with the Syriac text (and version) in Texts and Studies, I, 11, Cambridge 1893, where there is also a new ed. of the Greek text (already in PG 96, 1108). Critical ed. by R. Seeburg, Leipzig 1894 and J. Geffcken, Zwei griechische Apologeten, ibid. 1907. There too is a homily on Lk, 23, 42 ff. in Armenian, certainly apocryphal, and another Armenian fragment "ex epistula Aristida." Some (I. P. Beeck, Bogotovska Smatra, Zagreb 1931, pp. 1-16) even hold A. to be the author of the letter to Diognetus. Besides the authors cited see also A. Puech, Les Apologistes grecs du IIe siècle, Paris 1912, p. 35 ff.; id., The Apology of A., in The Harvard theol. Rev., 1937, pp. 233-47; G. Lazzati, Ellenismo e Cristianesimo. Il primo capitolo dell'Apologia di A., in La Scuola Cattolica, 1938, p. 35-51; I. Giordani, La prima polemica cristiana, 2nd ed., Brescia 1943, p. 125 ff.; B. Altaner, Patrologia, Ital. trans., 2nd ed., Turin 1944, p. 67; A. Casamassa, Gli apologisti greci, Rome 1944, pp. 31-48; M. Pellegrino, Gli apologisti greci del II secolo, ibid. 1947, pp. 25-39.
Antonio Ferrua