V. Time of composition. Octavius closely resembles Tertullian's Apologeticus, both in argument and language, so that one book presupposes the other; although the aim is different, the former being the plea of a philosopher and refined gentleman, the other the plea of a lawyer and ardent Christian. The older opinion (with some exceptions [1543] 544) maintained the priority of Apologeticus, and consequently put Octavius after A.D. 197 or 200 when the former was written. Ebert reversed the order and tried to prove, by a careful critical comparison, the originality of Octavius. [1544] 545 His conclusion is adopted by the majority of recent German writers, [1545] 546 but has also met with opposition. [1546] 547 If Tertullian used Minucius, he expanded his suggestions; if Minucius used Tertullian, he did it by way of abridgement.
It is certain that Minucius borrowed from Cicero (also from Seneca, and, perhaps, from Athenagoras), [1547] 548 and Tertullian (in his Adv. Valent.) from Irenaeus; though both make excellent use of their material, reproducing rather than copying it; but Tertullian is beyond question a far more original, vigorous, and important writer. Moreover the Roman divines used the Greek language from Clement down to Hippolytus towards the middle of the third century, with the only exception, perhaps, of Victor (190-202). So far the probability is for the later age of Minucius.
But a close comparison of the parallel passages seems to favor his priority; yet the argument is not conclusive. [1548] 549 The priority of Minucius has been inferred also from the fact that he twice mentions Fronto (the teacher and friend of Marcus Aurelius), apparently as a recent celebrity, and Fronto died about 168. Keim and Renan find allusions to the persecutions under Marcus Aurelius (177), and to the attack of Celsus (178), and hence put Octavius between 178 and 180. [1549] 550 But these assumptions are unfounded, and they would lead rather to the conclusion that the book was not written before 200; for about twenty years elapsed (as Keim himself supposes) before the Dialogue actually was recorded on paper.
An unexpected argument for the later age of Minucius is furnished by the recent French discovery of the name of Marcus Caecilius Quinti F. Natalis, as the chief magistrate of Cirta (Constantine) in Algeria, in several inscriptions from the years 210 to 217. [1550] 551 The heathen speaker Caecilius Natalis of our Dialogue hailed from that very city (chs. 9 and 31). The identity of the two persons can indeed not be proven, but is at least very probable.
Considering these conflicting possibilities and probabilities, we conclude that Octavius was written in the first quarter of the third century, probably during the peaceful reign of Alexander Severus (A. D. 222-235). The last possible date is the year 250, because Cyprian's book De Idolorum Vanitate, written about that time is largely based upon it. [1551] 552
[1532] Jerome puts him after Tertullian (and Cyprian), Lactantius beforeTertullian.
[1533] We may, also refer to more recent analogies: the ablest champions of Romanism-as Hurter, Newman, Manning, Brown, owe their intellectual and moral equipment to Protestantism; while the Old Catholic leaders of the opposition to Vatican Romanism--as Döllinger, Friedrich, Reinkens, Reusch, Langen, von Schulte--were formerly eminent teachers in the Roman church.
[1534] Jerome decribes him as "in signis causidicis Romani fori," but he depended on Lactantius, who may have derived this simply from the introduction to the book, where the author speaks of taking advantage of the court holidays for an excursion to Ostia. The gens Minucia was famous in Rome, and an inscription (Gruter, p. 918) mentions one with the cognomen Felix
[1535] From Cirta (now Constantine). This we must infer from the fact that he call Corn. Fronto "Cirtensis noster, " Octav. c. 9; comp. c. 31, "tuus Fronto."
[1536] In 40 (al. 41) short chapters which, in Halm's edition, cover 54 pages, oct. The book was written several years after the Dialogue and after the death of Octavius (c. 1: "discedens or decedens vir eximius et sanctus immensum sui deside rium nobis reliquit, " etc.).
[1537] "Post haec laeti hilaresque discessimus, Caecilius quod crediderit, Octavius gaudere [ad gaudendum] quod vicerit, ego [Minuc. Fel.] et quod hic crediderit et hie vicerit."
[1538] The only traces are in chs. 29 and 34, which perhaps allude to Jer. 17:5 and I Cor. 15:36, 42.
[1539] Keim supposes that he intended to refute Celsus (but he is nowhere mentioned); De Félice, that he aimed at Fronto (who is twice mentioned); Kühn better: public opinion, the ignorant prejudice of the higher classes against Christianity.
[1540] C. 40: "Etiam nunc tamen aliqua consubsidunt non obstrepentia veritati, sed perfectae institutioni necessaria, de quibus crastino, quod iam sol occasu declivis est, ut de toto (oret die toto)congruentius, promptius requiremus."
[1541] Renan (p. 402) takes a different view, namely that Minucius was a liberal Christian of the Deistic stamp, a man of the world "qui n'empêche ni la gaieté, ni le talent, ni le goût aimable de la vie, ni la recherche, de l'élégance du style. Que nous sommes loin de l'ébionite ou méme du juif de Galilée! Octavius, c'est Cicéron, ou mieux Fronton, devenu chrétien. En réalité, c'est par la culture intellectuelle qu'il arrive au déisme. Il aime la nature, il se plaît a la conversation des gens biens élevés. Des hommes faits sur ce modèle n'auraient créé ni l'Évangile ni l'Apocalypse; mais, réciproquement, sans de tels adhérents, l'Évangile, l'Apocalypse, les épItres de Paul fussent restés les éscrits secrets d'une secte ferméé, qui, comme les esséens ou les théapeutes, eut finlement disparu." Kühn, also, represents Minucius as a philosopher rather than a Christian, and seems to explain his silence on the specific doctrines of Christianity from ignorance. But no educated Christian could be ignorant of Christ and His work, nor of the prophets and apostles who were regularly read in public worship.
[1542] On the philosophy of Minucius, see the analysis of Kühn, p. 21 sqq.; 58 sqq.
[1543] Blondel (1641), Daillé (1660), Rösler (1777), Russwurm (1824), doubted the priority of Tertullian. See Kühn, l.c., p. v.
[1544] In his essay on the subject (1866), Ebert put Octavius between 160 and the close of the second century; in his more recent work on the History of Christ. Lat. Lit. (1874), vol. I., p. 25, be assigns it more definitely to between 179 and 185 (" Anfang oder Mitte der achtziger Jahre des 2. Jahrh."). He assumes that Minucius used Athenagoras who wrote 177.
[1545] Ueberweg (1866), Rönsch (Das n. T. Tertull. 1871), Keim (1873), Caspari (1875, III. 411), Herzog (1876), Hauck (1877), Bonwetsch (1878), Mangold (in Herzog2 1882), Kühn (1882), Renan (1882), Schwenke (1883). The last (pp. 292 and 294) puts the oral dialogue even so far back as Hadrian (before 137), and the composition before the death of Antoninus Pius (160).
[1546] Hartel (1869), Jeep (1869), Klussmann (1878), Schultze (1881), and Salmon (1883). Hartel, while denying that Tertullian borrowed from Minucius, leaves the way open for an independent use of an older book by both. Schultze puts Minucius down to the reign of Domitian (300-303), which is much too late.
[1547] Renan (p. 390) calls Minucius (although he puts him before Tertullian) a habitual plagiarist who often copies from Cicero without acknowledgment. Dombart (p. 135 sqq.), and Schwenke (p. 273 sqq.) prove his dependence on Seneca.
[1548] The crucial test of relative priority applied by Ebert is the relation of the two books to Cicero. Minucius wrote with Cicero open before him; Tertullian shows no fresh reading of Cicero; consequently if the parallel passages contain traces of Cicero, Tertullian must have borrowed them from Minucius. But these traces in Tertullian are very few, and the inference is disputable. The application of this test has led Hartel and Salmon (in Smith and Wace, III. 92) to the opposite conclusion. And Schultze proves 1) that Minucius used other works of Tertullian besides the Apologeticus, and 2) that Minucius, in copying from Cicero, makes the same kind of verbal changes in copying from Tertullian.
[1549] Chs. 29, 33, 37. I can find in these passages no proof of any particular violent persecution. Tortures are spoken of in ch. 37, but to these the Christians were always exposed. Upon the whole the situation of the church appears in the introductory chapters, and throughout the Dialogue, is a comparatively quiet one, such as we know it to have been at intervals between the imperial persecutions. This is also the impression of Schultze and Schwenke. Minucius is silent about the argument so current under Marcus Aurelius, that the Christians are responsible for all the public calamities.
[1550] Mommsen, Corp. Lat. Inscript. VIII. 6996 and 7094-7098; Recueil de Constantine, 1869, p. 695. See an article by Dessau in "Hermes, " 1880, t. xv., p. 471-74; Salmon, l.c., p. 924; and Renan, l.c., p.'090 sq. Renan admits the possible identity of this Caecilius with the friend of Minucius, but suggests in the interest of his hypothesis that he was the son.
[1551] V. Schultze denies Cyprian's authorship; but the book is attester by Jerome and Augustin.