26 



was ail interval of little more than thirty years, about the same 

 space of time that Oppian lived.* Now, since Oppian, im- 

 medialely on obtaining his father's restoration, returned to Ana- 

 zarba where he died ; the time of his death seems, with nmch 

 probabilty, to have happened soon after that of Scverus, or in the 

 first year of the reign of Caracalla, and consequently his birth may 

 have taken place under Antoninus tlie philosopher. 



The testimony of Eusebius appears more pointed. His words 

 are Et; MagKn Kvruvnns Ovxiccnog rrjv AXievrixijv e-vvsy^aipuro But all 

 their force as an argument in favour of Schneider is lost, unless it 

 be proved that they apply to the philosophic emperor, and not to 

 Caracalla. Belu maintains, \^ ith Scaliger, that it is of the latter 

 only they are to be understood. The work of Hieronynms in which 

 Oppian is mentioned, being a translation from Eusebius, adds no- 

 thing to the argument. 



The evidence of Athenaeus is considered by Schneider, as decisive 

 in his favour. Athenaeus is generally supposed to have written in 

 the time of Commodus, for he speaks of that emperor as his cotem- 

 porary o »u^' iifjtyug, and of liaviug seen him driving in a chariot 

 armed with the club of Hercules. Again, he mentions Oppian as 

 having lived a short time before him, rov oXiyiu ts^o hiJi-iuv yivofi,eiiovO'!r- 

 iriavov KiXiKDc,. Ilence the inference that our poet must have flou- 

 rished before the reign of Caracalla or Severus. Belu replies 

 that the phrase, nct^ rif^ai, cannot apply to a cotemporary, but to 

 a person defunct ; and that Commodus must have been dead when 

 it was written. The passage oXiya 'jt^o rifjijuv, he thinks, is an 



* Belu's chronology does not correspond with Gibbon's and Wotton's. According to him 

 M. A. Antoninus died A. D. 182, and Caracalla began to reign A. D. 212 ; whereas it is more 

 accjratelj' ascertained that the former event tool; place March 17, A. D. 180, and that Severus 

 died February 4, 211. 



