CHAPTER I.

THE LAST OF THE LONG PEACE.

I.

Cyprian's Preparation in Heathendom.

SUCH was the city and the society in which, possibly after long practice as an advocate, Thascius Cyprianus became the most eminent master of forensic eloquence1; that is to say the leading member of the highest of the professions?.

Of his birthplace or family we know nothing; both his names are almost unique in the nomenclature of antiquity,

and when he speaks affectionately of Carthage as the happiest place on earth to him,-' where God had willed that he should believe and grow up (in the faith),' he would scarcely have omitted to claim a native interest in the beloved home, had he possessed it'.

All that to us is represented by the influence of the press lay in an ancient capital within the power of eloquence. Far from any shade of unreality resting on them the teachers of oratory were courted leaders in society. The publicity of life, the majesty of national audiences, the familiarity of the cultivated classes with the teaching of the schools, required the orator to be not only perfect in the graces of life, but to be versed in ethical science; to be armed with solid arguments as well as to be facile of invention; not less convincing than attractive; in short to be a wit and a student, a politician and an eclectic philosopher.

Q. TASGIVS FORTVNATVS.

From the connection of Cyprus with Carthage it might have seemed possible to derive Cyprianus thence if Cyprius had been an ascertained proper name, but scarcely otherwise. Pape connects it with 'Copper.' If derived from Cypris it would, as other derivatives of divine names, Apollonius, Herculanus, &c., be more common. Names given after this goddess come generally from Aphrodite.

At the age of nearly thirty Cicero was still placing himself under the tuition of the Rhodian Molon. Augustine's fourth Epp. 175, 181) is so named, as is also also Corp. Inscrr. Latt. vol. XII. n. 3277 the Deacon who carried the remarkable correspondence between Jerome and Augustine (Aug. Epp. 71 et sqq.); a Presbyter, to whom Jerome writes as Presbyterorum studiosissime,' Ep. 140 (139) (13) on Psalm 89 (90); and a Donatist Bishop (Aug. c. litt. Petil. iii. c. 34 (40)); in C. Insc. Gr. iv. 8954 from Bethlehem, 9203, 9412 Kηπpn(a)vov; in C. Inscrr. Latt. VIII. i. 455, 2291 (a Bishop of Bagai), VIII. ii. 10539; and in Procopius as the name of a 'Dux fœderatorum' in the Vandal and Gothic wars. Thus Pape properly calls it a late name. The origin of both names is unknown. The Mozarabic Vesper Hymn for his day begins Urbis magister Tascio,' Lit. Moz. ed. Migne 11. c. 1201 (ed. Card. Ximenes, " Tuscia'), but this cannot be identified with the African town Thacia (Tab. Peut.), Oasia (Ptol.), or regarded as more than a guess. See

1 The birthplace is not really indicated by the passages quoted from Prudentius Peristeph. xiii. 3 'est proprius patriæ martyr,' and Suidas, s.v. Καρχηδὼν ἐξ ἧς ὡρμᾶτο, even supposing their authority to be sufficient. Jerome's 'Cyprianus Afer' cannot be taken, as by Fechtrup, to mean necessarily a native of Africa.

2 For the third time Cic. Brut. 91.

book on Christian Doctrine shews us that five centuries and a changed religion did not abate the value placed on technical perfection. No statesman's name had for generations commanded such reverence as was paid in Cyprian's times to the life and memory of Timesitheus the Rhetorician, whose daughter Ob. A.D. the young African Emperor had espoused', and whose honour 243. and universal cultivation and experience had for a brief interval restored purity to the court, dignity to the senate, and discipline to the camps of Rome.

To the well-moulded strength of Roman eloquence Africa, 'nurse of pleaders',' had added a fervour not unlike that with which Ireland has enriched the English bar. With a powerful memory3, and a methodic, classificatory mind, Cyprian had pursued the highest literary culture. 'What gold, what silver, what raiment he brought with him out of Egypt!' exclaims Augustine. And Jerome, treating the conquest of the literary world by Christianity as grander than any triumph over mere power or luxury, and seeking an instance of the true 'Kings of the World,'-'who are last of all to hear the word, yet 'at length, like the Ninevite, descend from their thrones to 'plebeian levels, lay aside the radiance of their eloquence, put 'away the intoxicating draught of words, and thenceforth 'content themselves with the majesty of Christian thoughts' -selects the great Carthaginian master*.

1 Jul. Capitol. Gordiani Tres c. 23 'causa eloquentiæ dignum parentela sua putavit.' [The incredible name Misitheus given him by Julius, and that of Timesicles by Zosimus (i. 17, 18) are both mistakes. His name was in full C. Furius Sabinius Aquila Timesitheus. See two interesting Inscriptions in Orelli, Inscrr. Latt. v. 3. pp. 103, 4, nn. 5530, 1. The former with facsimile and full comment in L. Renier's and J. B. Monfalcon's ed. of J. Spon (Lyon 1857), pp. 162, 3.]

2 Juv. Sat. vii. 148 'nutricula causidicorum Africa.' Domitius Afer and

Julius Africanus in the time of Nero
were orators whom Quintilian (x. 1,
118) compares to the ancients; the
latter he describes as 'concitatior sed in
cura verborum nimius.'

3 Memoriosa mens, Pont. Vit. 5. Cf.
preface to Testim. 'quantum mediocris
memoria suggerebat.'

4 Comm. in Fon. c. 3. So Greg. Naz. Οr. χχίν. 6 ... τὸ τῶν λόγων κράτος, τῶν τε κατὰ φιλοσοφίαν καὶ ὅσοι τῆς ἄλλης παι· δεύσεως, καὶ τούτων 8 βούλει μέρος· ὡς μᾶλλον μὲν τὸ ποίκιλον ἢ τὸ ἄκρον ἐν ἑκάστῳ θαυμάζεσθαι· μᾶλλον δὲ τὸ εὐδό

No accessions, indeed, to the Christian ranks were more important than the conversions of the great lawyers. Versed in letters and in modern thought, practised in the sifting of evidence, cold to the voice of enthusiasm, moving in that circle of refined habit of which Minucius gives so delicate a picture in his barrister's holiday at Ostia, accustomed moreover to see Christians at the worst worldly advantage, they became witnesses and disciples at once. Nor are any phenomena more significant of the hold which was being gained upon the Roman world than first the conversion, and next the superiority to contemporary ethnic writers, in genius alike and in cultivation, of a Tertullian, a Felix, a Cyprian.

The position he had attained might alone imply that at the time when he first attracts our notice Cyprian had passed middle life'. His wealth was affluent, his landed property large, his gardens in Carthage spacious and beautiful. The home of which he speaks to Donatus as no longer fair to the purged eye is sketched apparently from his own: it is a villa of more than Pompeian richness, with frescoed walls, gilded ceilings, and marble-lined saloons3.

κιμον ἐν ἑκάστῳ τῆς περὶ πάντα πολυμαθίας. It is evident that Gregory had read some at least of his treatises (and see also c. 7). There is no ground for supposing his other Cyprian to have written anything.

1 Pearson rightly sets aside Baronius' inference from the Ad Donatum c. 3 'senio,' as to his age, and observes that Pontius gives no hint of it. This would be strange in a biographer, and although supergressus vetustatis ætatem Pont. Vit. 2 may mean 'surpassing all antiquity,' it is just possible that in his superfine style he may parallel veteribus by vetustatis and senibus by ætatem, thus implying old age. Antiquity is not part of the antithesis, and he is contrasting Cyprian with those who had heard the truth all their lives. Gregory Nazianzen,

calling him (Or. xxiv. 6) τὸ τῆς νεότητος avos, confuses him with the Oriental Cyprian who was somewhat over 30 according to the story.

2 Pont. Vit. 2, ad Donat., 1, 15.

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3 Ad Don. 15. Compare Vitruv. vi. 5 (8) Forensibus autem et disertis (atria) elegantiora et spatiosiora ad conventus excipiundos.' I do not introduce to the text Gregory's ὁ πλούτῳ περιφα νὴς καὶ δυναστείᾳ περίβλεπτος καὶ γένει γνώριμος ... συγκλήτου βουλῆς μετουσία καὶ προεδρία because there is no knowing whether he has the right Cyprian before him. Or. xxiv. 6. The end of Ad Don. c. 3 has no relation to his own position. 'Fascibus ille oblectatus...Hic stipatus clientium cuneis' are picturesque illustrations simply.

His personal address was conciliatory yet dignified, his manner affectionate, his expression attractive by a certain grave joyousness. His dress, quiet yet appropriate to his rank, was remarked on as answering to his calm tone of mind'. He never thought it necessary to assume the philosopher's pall, which Tertullian had maintained to be the true dress of a Christian, for to him the bared arm and exposed chest seemed rather pretentious than plain2. Augustine, when acknowledging the benefits he had derived through Cyprian's intercessions, dwells especially on the never-hardened tenderness of his character. 'Gentle he was when he had yet to endure amid various temptations this world's 'perils". Even to the last his friendship was claimed by senator and knight, by the oldest heathen houses, and the highest ranks of the province..

Yet wealth and elegance, cultivation and good sense, might have left him the mere ornament of his circle or perhaps of

1 Gravis vultus et lætus nec severitas tristis nec comitas nimia...nec cultus dispar a vultu, temperatus et ipse de medio; non illum superbia sæcularis inflaverat, nec tamen prorsus adfectata penuria sordidarat. Pont. Vit. 6. Gregory Nazianz. surely had read the passage which he thus beautifully condenses, τὸ περὶ τὰς ἐντεύξεις ύψηλόν τε ὁμοῦ καὶ φιλάνθρωπον, ὡς ἴσον ἀπέχειν εὐτελείας καὶ αὐθαδείας. Or. xxiv. 13.

2 De Bono Patientia 2 'exserti ac seminudi pectoris,' &c. That is, he condemns the mode of wearing the Pallium which Justin kept and which Tertullian recommended as ascetic and Christian. It is represented in the Cemetery of Callistus on two figures of teachers (de Rossi, R. S., vol. II. p. 349, Tav. xv. 7, 9). These belong to the middle of the second century, and the fashion does not reappear. If Gregory Nazimeans that Cyprian wore the pallium (as he seems to do, Or. xxiv. 13,

anzen

when he praises in him τὸ περὶ τὴν ἐσθῆτα φιλόσοφον) it is one of his countless mistakes about him.

3 Serm. 312, c. I.

4 Pont. Vit. 14. And this heathen respect for him remained. Greg. Naz. says τὸ μὲν ὄνομα πολὺ παρὰ πᾶσι Κυπριανοῦ καὶ οὐ Χριστιανοῖς μόνον ἀλλὰ καὶ τὴν ἐναντίαν ἡμῖν τεταγμένοις... Οr. xxiv. 17. Dr Peters, p. 38, solemnly works out, as if from Lactantius, that a nickname Coprianus' was effectually used at Carthage to laugh away Cyprian's influence. All that Lactantius says is Divin. Instt. v. I that he had heard an accomplished man break this sorry jest, say fifty years at least later. The point of it was that 'so elegant a wit, meant for better things, had devoted itself to

old wives' fables.' Cf. inter copreas,
Suet. Tib. 61. Scurra qui incopriatur,
Gloss. Isidor. ap. M. Martini Lexic.
Philol. (1698) v. II.