108 NEWBOLD— THE SYRIAC DIALOGUE " SOCRATES." 



polite answers to every man " for which Bardaisan's disciples 

 praised him (Philoxenus ap. Cureton, " Spicilegium," p. v) ; its 

 cosmology is closely akin to and in no point inconsistent with that 

 of the chief source. 



That the "Oration of Melito " (Cureton, op. cit., pp. 22-31, 

 Syr.) is also the work of Bardaisan is rendered extremely probable 

 by its close affinity to both the " Socrates " and the " Book of the 

 Laws." The " Socrates " teaches that knowledge of God is implicit 

 in every man by virtue of his relation to the " Original Root." In 

 the " Oration " a similar doctrine is both stated in general terms 

 [e. g., compare "Or.," p. 30, 15, with " S." p. 161, 16) and di- 

 rectly applied to the Emperor, e. g. (p. 25, 24) : "But thou, a free 

 intelligence and cognizant of the truth, enter into thyself;" (p. 27, 

 14) "Know thyself and thou shalt know God;" (p. 29, 16) "But 

 thou, feeble man. within whom He is and without whom He is and 

 above whom He is." Its relation to the " Book of the Laws " is 

 even closer ; with the latter it insists upon the doctrine of free will 

 and makes extensive use of material drawn from the history and 

 customs of foreign nations in the same curious and characteristic 

 way. The Emperor to whom it is addressed is without doubt Cara- 

 calla. He was generally known during his life as simply " Anto- 

 ninus"; he spent the winter of 216-17 in Edessa ; he was wont to 

 seek out and consult astrologers, and Bardaisan, who had been an 

 intimate friend of the late king Abgar IV., must have been brought 

 into touch with him. The dialogue on Destiny which Bardaisan 

 dedicated to him, which M. Nau is right in distinguishipg from the 

 "Book of the Laws" ("Le Livre des Lois," pp. 11-12), and the 

 " Oration," were probably both among the results of the personal 

 relation thus established. One may also recognize in some of the 

 bold characterizations of the " Oration " leading traits of Cara- 

 calla; compare, for example (25, 25), "if they clothe thee in the 

 fashion of a woman remember that thou art a man " with Dio 

 Cassius's description of the effeminate appearance which Caracalla 

 affected while in the East — his removal of his beard at Antioch 

 (Dio, yy, 20) and the barbaric long-robed costume of his own 

 designing which he wore in Mesopotamia (Dio, 78, 3, 3) ; com- 



