On Illustrious Men

19. Quadratus the bishop

XIX. QUADRATUS THE BISHOP uadratus, a disciple of the apostles, was named bishop of Athens as successor to Publius,1 when the latter was crowned with martyrdom for Christ. By his faith and zeal he reunited the church, which was in terror and disarray . 2. When Hadrian spent the winter in Athens, and visited Eleusis2 and, initiated into almost all the Greek mysteries,3 presented an opportunity to those who hated the Christians to harass the believers without a decree of the emperor,4 Quadratus presented a treatise to him composed In defense of our religion, very useful, and full of reasoning and of faith, worthy of the teaching of the apostles.5 3. In it he also revealed his own venerable old age, in saying that many had been seen by him in the time of the Lord in Judea who were oppressed by various infirmities, and who had been cured, and others who were raised from the dead.6 notes 1. “bishop of Athens”: Eus., h.e. 4.23.3. Possibly a different Quadratus, “with a prophetic gift,” is mentioned in Eus., h.e. 3.37. 2. Hadrian succeeded Trajan in 117. Cf. R. M. Grant, Greek Apologists, Chap. 4; D. Kienast, “Hadrian, Augustus und die eleusinischen Mysterien,” JfNG 10 (1959–1960): 61–69. 3. K. Clinton, “The Eleusinian Mysteries: Roman Initiates and Benefactors , Second Century b.c. to a.d. 267,” ANRW II, 18, 2 (Berlin, 1989), 1516–25. 4. Eus., h.e. 4.8.6; P. Keresztes, “The Imperial Roman Government and the Christian Church; I. From Nero to the Severi; III. Hadrian’s Rescript on the Christians,” ANRW II, 23, 1, 287f. 5. h.e. 4.3.1–2, with a quotation from the Apology; this may be a third Quadratus (cf. n. 1 above); R. M. Grant, “Quadratus, the first Christian Apologist,” in R. H. Fischer, ed., A Tribute to A. Vööbus (1977), 152–64 [= idem, Greek Apologists, 35–36, 184]. 6. h.e. 4.3.2. ON ILLUSTRIOUS MEN 39 ...