ome:
(7) North Africa.—(a) Tertullian (c. 200). The ges in Tertullian’s writings are—Scorp. 15: ‘Orientem fidem Rome primus Nero cruentauit. Tune Petrus ab altero cingitur, cum cruci adstrin- itur’; de Bapt. 4: ‘quos P. in Tiberi tinxit’; de rescr. Heret. 32: ‘Romanorum [ecclesia refert] Clementem a Petro ordinatum’; ib. 36: ‘Ista quam felix ecclesia [sc. Rome]... ubi Petrus passioni dominice adequatur.’ Thus Tertullian is the earliest writer who (1) speaks of the manner of St. Peter’s death—by crucifixion ; (2) and explleid states that it took place in Nero’s reign. (6) Commodian. This earliest Christian poet, prob- ably of African extraction, writing about A.D. 250 (see Dict. Chr. Biog. i. p. 610), speaks in the Car- men Apologeticum 820f. of Peter and Paul suffer- ing in Rome under Nero.
(8) This Catena will best be ended with a reference to the two historians of the first part of the 4th cent., Lactantius and Eusebius. toe tantius in Jnstit. Div. iv. 21 speaks of Peter and Paul preaching in Rome, adding, ‘ ea preedicatio in memoriam scripta permansit’—which Zahn (Ges. Kan. ii. p. 884) considers to be a reference to the Pauli predicatio (cf. Beendo-Cypriay, de Rebapt. 17); and in de Mort. Persec. 2 he says of Nero: ‘Petrum cruci affixit et Paulum interfecit.’ The following passages from Eusebius are to the oe —HE τι. xiv. (Peter’s conflict at Rome with Simon Magus in Claudius’ reign), xv. (Peter and the com- position of Mark’s cope at Rome), xvii. (in the reign of Claudius, Philo became acquainted with Peter at Rome; cf. Jerome, de Virr. Illustr. xi.; Photius, Cod. 105), xxv. (Paul beheaded, Peter cruci- fied at Rome), mI. xxi. (Clement third in succession ‘after Peter and Paul’), xxxi. 1; Demons. Evang. iii. 5. 65 (St. Peter crucified at Rome head down- wards); Theophania iv. 7 (ed. Lee p. 221; Peter’s ‘honourable sepulchre in the very front of their city,’ t.e. Rome), v. 31 (ed. Lee p. 315; Peter crucified at Rome). See just below on the Chronicon. Passages from later writers are col- lected by Lipsius p. 236 ff. For a summing up of this evidence see below, p. 777.
6. Chronological notices in the Chronicon of Eusebius and in the Liber Pontificalis.—(i.) The Chronicon.—(a) St. Peter’s arrival in Rome. The Armenian version assigns St. Peter’s arrival at Rome, after founding the Church at Antioch, to the 3rd year of Caius, i.e. 39-40, adding, ‘ commoratur illie antistes ecclesiz annis viginti.’ The appoint- ment of Euodius as bishop of Antioch is placed in the 2nd year of Claudius, t.e. 42-43. Jerome puts the appointment of Euodius in the 4th year of Claudius, i.e. 44-45, and the arrival of St. Peter at Rome, after founding the Antiochene Church, in the 2nd year of Claudius, i.e. 42-43. He adds
PETER (SIMON)
PETER (SIMON) 771
‘xxv annis eiusdem urbis episcopus perseuerat.’* (δ) St. Peter’s death. The yee version puts the Neronian persecution, ‘when the apostles Peter and Paul suffered martyrdom at Rome,’ in the 13th year of Nero, i.e. 67-68, and perhaps by & pure mistake the beginning of Linus’ episcopate pax Petrum’ is assigned to the previous year.+ erome places the persecution, the martyrdom of the two apostles, and the accession of Linus to the episcopate in the last—the l4th—year of Nero. It may be noticed that the date in the Armenian version for Peter’s arrival at Rome seems to be a revision of the Eusebian date, and was perhaps attained thus. It is said in this version that Peter continued at Rome 20 years: this brings us to 59-60—an absurd date for the apostle’s death. But if we suppose that in the processes of translation and revision ‘twenty’ was substi- tuted for ‘twenty-five,’ then we get a date assigned to Peter's death very shortly after the fire in July 64. It seems likely, then, that the Armenian version, assuming 25 years’ episcopate, worked back from the summer or autumn of 64, and so — the early date for Peter’s arrival in Rome. this be so, we have here indirect evi- dence of the survival of the tradition that Peter’s martyrdom took place in 64. The date, however, of the apostle’s death is unrevised, and retains its Eusebian position at the end of Nero’s rei Two other es dealing with the date of St. Peter’s arrival at Rome must be quoted: (1) Eus. HE π. xiv., where, after an account of Simon’s mischievous oe at Rome, Eusebius adds that t
Providence brought Peter also thither ἐπὶ τῆς αὐτῆς Κλαυδίου βασιλείας. (2) Jerome (de Virr. Illustr. 1):
*Romam pergit ibique viginti quingue annis cathedram sacerdotalem tenuit usque ad ultimum annum Neronis, id est, qguartum decimum’ (cf. v.). Harnack (Die Chronol. p. 124 n.) points out that Eusebius in the History does not refer to a 25 years’ epeupete, and puts Peter’s arrival at Rome simply in the reign of Claudius, and that it is therefore ible that the reference to the 25 and the location of the commencement of
that period in the 2nd year of Claudius may be due to Jerome. This may be so; but the fact that both the versions of the Chronicon, the Armenian and Jerome, mention the length of Peter’s stay at Rome (the original number of years in the Arm. asin Jerome having probably been 25), and that they both place his martyrdom there near the end of Nero’s reign, points to the dates and the 25 years’ episcopate having been derived from the original statement of the Eusebian Chronicon. It is probable (Lightfoot, Clement i. ue 339 ; Harnack, OMeual p- 123) that Eusebius derived his early pal chronology from Julius Africanus; and the tter may in his turn have used earlier documents, ¢.g. the lists of Hegesippus. But (assuming that it hada place in the Chronicon of Eusebius) there is no evidence to show whether the 25 years’ episcopate was the invention of Eusebius or whether he inherited it from one of his predecessors. It will appear in a moment that it is | erie the result of an artificial arrangement of dates. We turn to the date of the martyrdom, which is put in the last year of Nero’s reign. It is to be noticed that the catholic Acts of Peter (ed. Lipsius p. 172 f.) connect with the apostle’s death a prophecy that ‘Nero should be destroyed not many days hence’