12. When Turbo had made this
statement, Archelaus was intensely excited; but Marcellus remained
unmoved, for he expected that God would come to the help of His
truth. Archelaus, however, had additional cares in his anxiety
about the people, like the shepherd who becomes concerned for his sheep
when secret perils threaten them from the wolves. Accordingly
Marcellus loaded Turbo with the most liberal gifts, and instructed him
to remain in the house of Archelaus the bishop.
1537
But on that selfsame day Manes
arrived, bringing along with him certain chosen youths and virgins to
the number of twenty-two.
1538
And first of all he sought for
Turbo at the door of the house of Marcellus; and on failing to find him
there, he went in to salute Marcellus. On seeing him, Marcellus
at first was struck with astonishment at the costume in which he
presented himself. For he wore a kind of shoe which is usually
called in common speech the quadrisole;
1539
he had also a party-coloured cloak, of a
somewhat airy
1540
appearance; in his
hand he grasped a very sturdy staff of ebony-wood;
1541
he carried a Babylonian book under his left
arm; his legs were swathed in trousers of different colours, the one
being red, and the other green as a leek; and his whole mien was like
that of some old Persian master and commandant.
1542
Thereupon Marcellus sent forthwith
for Archelaus, who arrived so quickly as almost to outstrip the word,
and on entering was greatly tempted at once to break out against him,
being provoked to that instantly by the very sight of his costume and
his appearance, though more especially also by the fact that he had
himself been turning over in his mind in his retirement
1543
the various
matters which he had learned from the recital of Turbo, and had thus
come carefully prepared. But Marcellus, in his great
thoughtfulness, repressed all zeal for mere wrangling, and decided to
hear both parties. With that view he invited the leading men of
the city; and from among them he selected as judges
of the
discussion
certain adherents of the Gentile religion, four in
number. The names of these umpires were as follows:
Manippus, a person deeply versed in the art of grammar and the practice
of rhetoric; Ægialeus,
1544
a very eminent physician, and a man of the highest reputation for
learning; and Claudius and Cleobolus,
1545
two brothers famed as
rhetoricians.
1546
A splendid
assemblage was thus convened; so large, indeed, that the house of
Marcellus, which was of immense size, was filled with those who had
been called to be hearers. And when the parties who proposed to
speak in opposition to each other
had taken their places in view of all,
then those who had been elected as judges took their seats in a
position elevated above all others: and the task of commencing
the disputation was assigned to Manes. Accordingly, when silence
was secured, he began
1547
the discussion in the following terms:
1548
—
1537
The words,
the bishop
, are omitted in the Codex
Bobiensis.
1538
But
Codex Bobiensis gives
duodecim
, twelve.
1539
But
the Codex Bobiensis gives
trisolium
, the trisole. Strabo,
book xv., tells us that the Persians wore high shoes.
1540
Aërina, sky-like. [This portrait seems from life.]
1541
Ducange in his
Glossary
, under the word
Εβέλλινος
,
shows from Callisthenes that the prophets or interpreters of sacred
things carried an ebony staff. [
Ezek. xxvii. 15
; Routh, p.
71.]
1542
The
text is, “vultus vero ut senis Persæ artificis et bellorum
ducis videbatur.” Philippus Buonarruotius, in the
Osservazioni sopra alcuni frammenti di vasi antichi di Vetro
,
Florence, 1716, p. 69, thinks that this rendering has arisen from the
Latin translator’s having erroneously read
ὡς
δημιουργοῦ
καὶ
στρατηγοῦ
instead
of
ὡς δημάρχου
καὶ
στρατηγοῦ
.
Taking
στρατηγοῦ
, therefore, in the civil sense which it bears in various passages, he
would interpret the sentence thus: “His whole mien was like
that of an old Persian
tribune and magistrate.
” See
Gallandi’s note [in Routh, p. 71].
1543
The
text is
secretius factum
, etc. Routh suggests
secretius
factus
, etc.
1544
The
Codex Bobiensis reads “Ægidius.”
1545
Epiphanius gives
Κλεόβουλος
.
1546
Codex
Casinensis reads
rectores
, governors. And Epiphanius, num.
10, makes the first a professor of Gentile philosophy, the second a
physician, the third a grammarian, and the fourth a rhetorician.
1547
For
primum
the Codex Casinensis reads
plurima
, = he began a
lengthened statement, etc.
1548
Thus
far Valesius edited the piece from the Codex Bobiensis.