NEWBOLD— THE SYRIAC DIALOGUE " SOCRATES." 109 



pare also ("Orat.," p. 27, 26) "Therefore thou rollest thyself upon 

 the ground before demons and shadows and askest vain petitions 

 from one that hath nought to give " (and also p. 29, 25) with Dio's 

 account ij'j, 15, 5-7) of Caracalla's vain efforts to recover his 

 health by assiduous devotion to the gods. 



As regards the bearing of these conclusions upon the hypothesis 

 which I suggested some years ago ("Bardaisan and the Odes of 

 Solomon" in the Journal of Biblical Literature, 191 1), that the 

 " Odes " were written by Bardaisan, I can only say that no infer- 

 ences can be drawn until the " Odes " have been given much more 

 careful study than they have yet received. They are certainly 

 more deeply tinged with Valentinian ideas than are the above three 

 works — much more deeply, indeed, than I supposed when I pub- 

 lished my first study of the problem — and many of them are as yet 

 but imperfectly understood. I may, however, remark that the ref- 

 erences to persecution in the "Odes" {e. g., 5, 8, 29) would be 

 perfectly appropriate to the situation above supposed ; especially 

 would the perplexing allusions of the 29th be at last intelligible. 

 The boldness of the " Oration " must have inflamed Caracalla's 

 savage temper to the highest degree and it was no doubt after its 

 delivery that Apollonius, "the friend of Antoninus" (Epiph., 

 " Haer.," 56), demanded of Bardaisan that he renounce his faith, 

 and received an uncompromising refusal. Epiphanius says that 

 on that occasion Bardaisan very nearly attained the rank of a con- 

 fessor. It is probable that he would have attained the still higher 

 rank of a martyr if Caracalla had not been assassinated, April 8, 

 217, while making a trip from Edessa to Harran. Compare with 

 this situation the language of the 29th Ode : 



4 He has raised me from the depth of hell 



and from the mouth of death has drawn me ; 



5 I have brought low my enemy 



and He has acquitted me by His grace. . . . 



7 He showed me His sign 



and guided me by His light ; 

 He gave me the rod of His power 



8 that I might subdue the thoughts of the peoples, 

 to bring low the prowess of warriors, 



