Acts of the Pagan Martyrs - an Anti-Roman genre

[ficino]

Just happened upon a review of Herbert A. Musurillo's The Acts of the Pagan Martyrs: Acta Alexandrinorum (Oxford: Clarendon, 1954). I had not before heard that there was a whole literature of "acts" of the trials and, often, executions of pagan Greeks by the Romans, nor that the Romans were often blamed in these writings for taking advice from Jews. This literature apparently exists only in papyrus fragments, of which Musurillo made a selection. The fragments show Greek resentment of Roman rule, esp. within an Alexandrian milieu. According to Robert M. Grant's review (The Journal of Religion 35.2 [1955] 133), Musurillo concluded that this genre did not directly influence Christian "Acta" of martyrs but that the two genres shared many features: protocol/trial format; plethora of lively sayings and aphorisms; display of heroic contempt for death; "rather long, irrelevant speeches" by the martyrs; caricature of Roman officialdom. M thinks the similarities come from shared historical circumstances and not from literary dependency.

The nature of the charges against pagan Greek martyrs is not clear from the review, nor is the nature of the bad advice that Jews are supposed to have given Roman officials (I am guessing that it fits into the long-standing reputation of bad blood between Greeks and Jews in Alexandria).

Has anyone come across any of these so-called pagan martyr "Acts"? Fascinating. Obviously, papyrus fragments are the only remains because in time, there ceased to be a market for this literature.

[andrewcriddle]

Alexandria was a multicultural city with different ethnic groups, (Native Egyptians Greek Settlers Jewish settlers etc), with different legal and social status. The Roman takeover of Egypt threatened the privileged legal and social status of the Greek settlers in Alexandria. They strongly objected to this and their protests were dealt with harshly by the Roman government.

Andrew Criddle

[Roger Pearse]

I'd like to see a copy myself, but it has never come to hand.

[ficino]

I just spent a bit of time with Musurillo's edition of the Acta Alexandrinorum, but since I'm not "working on" them, I didn't get deeply into it. He edits fragments of maybe thirty Acta. From skimming it, I gather that many of the charges were of the kinds: 1) a Greek is accused falsely before Roman authorities (Jews can be brought in here as the villains); 2) Greek/s complain about injustices perpetrated by Roman authorities. In one of the accounts, the defendant is sentenced to being burned alive, and Musurillo goes into what he thinks are the beginning stages of this type of execution in the late second or third cent. CE. - not for upper class defendants.

Of interest to students of Church history are Musurillo's comments about attitudes of Christian apologists to the deaths of pagan sages. As many others have done, Musurillo discusses the growth of a sub-genre of accounts of deaths of famous people. Hermippus of Smyrna in the 3rd cent. is an example of a writer who traded in these. By the time of Christian apologetics, says M., Clement of Alexandria and Tertullian tended to speak positively about the deaths of sages like Socrates, as though they perceived the truth to the extent it was made known to the Gentiles before Christ, and were willing to die for it. Theophilus of Antioch, though, already in the late 2nd cent., was deriding Socrates' death as futile. This latter attitude came to dominate, "the final verdict of early Christianity," says Musurillo, until the middle ages - e.g. Dante extols Socrates et al. Musurillo thinks perhaps the words, "if I give my body to burned" in I Cor. 13:3 do not refer to Christian martyrdom but to stories of pagan sages. Still, I think Musurillo said that burning alive became a punishment later than the time of Paul, but I may have gotten this point wrong.

[Leucius Charinus]

Still, I think Musurillo said that burning alive became a punishment later than the time of Paul, but I may have gotten this point wrong.

I have read that the laws for burning people alive were brought in under Constantine.

EG: Codex Theodosianus 16.8.1 dated 315 CE ....

"Any Jew who stones a Jewish convert to Christianity shall be burned, and no one is allowed to join Judaism"

[theomise]

Speaking of "martyrs" by fire, how can any of us ever forget the blessed Peregrinus Proteus?

The Death of Peregrine: http://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/l/lucian/ ... ter59.html

[Leucius Charinus]

Another review ....


The Acts of the Pagan Martyrs: Acta Alexandrinorum by Herbert A. Musurillo
Review by: Robert M. Grant The Journal of Religion, Vol. 35, No. 2 (Apr., 1955), p. 133
Published by: The University of Chicago Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1200635 .

This literature contained stories of the trials of pagan "martyrs" often before emperors and other officials - trials which often culminated in the imposition of the death penalty. These stories are basically historical, though touched up for the use of political propaganda.

When are they dated?

[Blood]

Just happened upon a review of Herbert A. Musurillo's The Acts of the Pagan Martyrs: Acta Alexandrinorum (Oxford: Clarendon, 1954). I had not before heard that there was a whole literature of "acts" of the trials and, often, executions of pagan Greeks by the Romans, nor that the Romans were often blamed in these writings for taking advice from Jews. This literature apparently exists only in papyrus fragments, of which Musurillo made a selection. The fragments show Greek resentment of Roman rule, esp. within an Alexandrian milieu. According to Robert M. Grant's review (The Journal of Religion 35.2 [1955] 133), Musurillo concluded that this genre did not directly influence Christian "Acta" of martyrs but that the two genres shared many features: protocol/trial format; plethora of lively sayings and aphorisms; display of heroic contempt for death; "rather long, irrelevant speeches" by the martyrs; caricature of Roman officialdom. M thinks the similarities come from shared historical circumstances and not from literary dependency.

The nature of the charges against pagan Greek martyrs is not clear from the review, nor is the nature of the bad advice that Jews are supposed to have given Roman officials (I am guessing that it fits into the long-standing reputation of bad blood between Greeks and Jews in Alexandria).

Has anyone come across any of these so-called pagan martyr "Acts"? Fascinating. Obviously, papyrus fragments are the only remains because in time, there ceased to be a market for this literature.

I've heard of them, but never read any. Why does the author conclude that they didn't influence Christian Acts?

[andrewcriddle]

I've heard of them, but never read any. Why does the author conclude that they didn't influence Christian Acts?

Basically the author finds little evidence for any direct dependence.

They share similar themes (dissidents persecuted by the state) and to a certain extent similar rhetorical conventions, but little more.

Andrew Criddle

[Leucius Charinus]

I've heard of them, but never read any. Why does the author conclude that they didn't influence Christian Acts?

Basically the author finds little evidence for any direct dependence.

They share similar themes (dissidents persecuted by the state) and to a certain extent similar rhetorical conventions, but little more.

The appearance of Christian hagiography is generally stated to be the later part of the 4th century and following the first Christian hagiography - that of Athanasius c.360 CE and his authorship of "The Life of Anthony". The only exception to this that I know of are the works of Eusebius such as "The Martyrs of Palestine" and of course the reports of Christian persecution and martyrs scattered throughout his "Church History". These Eusebian stories of martyrs perhaps are not viewed as "Hagiography" or "Venable stories of the Saints".

Dependence and influence suggests chronological dependence. Which came first, which came second.
When is the authorship of the Acts of the Pagan Martyrs considered to have happened?

This literature contained stories of the trials of pagan "martyrs" often before emperors and other officials - trials which often culminated in the imposition of the death penalty. These stories are basically historical, though touched up for the use of political propaganda.

Pagans of Alexandria undergo Persecutions in the rule of Constantius as attested in Ammianus

In the decade 350-360 CE the history of Ammianus attests to the trials and executions of "numbers without end" of pagans due to their religious beliefs and explicitly mentions that victims were dragged from both Antioch and Alexandria. Do these fragments have anything to do with these Imperial persecutions, and if not, what chronology is being mooted, or suggested, or guessed at for the stories themselves?


Pagan Trials earler - during the rule of Constantine

There is also some evidence that some trials of pagans occurred under Constantine. I can think of two events atm ....

(1) Torture of pagan magistrates immediately after the Council of Antioch c.325 CE
(2) The pubic execution of Sopater - the head of the academy of Plato - c.336 CE




Have any of these fragments (and AFAIK these "Acts of the Pagan Martyrs" only exist in papyri fragments) been dated by the palaeographers and if so what dates have been ascribed to them?