The Christian Sacramentum in Pliny and a Pagan Counterpart

Author(s): A. D. Nock
Source: The Classical Review, Vol. 38, No. 3/4 (May - Jun., 1924), pp. 58-59
Published by: Cambridge University Press on behalf of The Classical Association
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/698364 .
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58 THE CLASSICAL REVIEW

perhaps in Upper Germany, the chief
places had already come to play a pre-
dominant part in the internal economy
of the tribal unit. And so, though this
did not produce a change in the arrange-
ments of the old-established 'civitates,'
to make a town the basis of the ' civitas'
would be the natural course of proce-
dure, especially in a district in which
there is no evidence of the existence of
any tribal unity.
D. ATKINSON.

THE CHRISTIAN SACRAMENTUM IN PLINY AND A PAGAN

COUNTERPART.
PLINY records in ep. ad Traian. 96. 6 pea.' An oath was certainly required
that the Christians who came before of those who entered the Attic Ei/ca&Sei,8
him in his official capacity testified that possibly of the in Cilicia:"
they were accustomed to meet before elsewhere it was alaPPaT'rao'i'
demanded of the asso-
dawn on a fixed day: 'carmenque ciation's officials.10 But the best parallel
Christo quasi deo dicere secum inuicem, to the Christian oath is, I suggest,
seque sacramento non in scelus aliquod afforded by the regulations of a private
obstringere, sed ne furta, ne latrocinia, shrine at Philadelphia, and published
ne adulteria committerent, ne fidem by Keil and Von Premerstein in the
fallerent, ne depositum appellati abne- third of their admirable Reiseberichte."1
garent; quibus peractis morem sibi The shrine was built by one Dionysius
discedendi fuisse rursusque coeundi ad in accordance with a monition in a
capiendum cibum, promiscuum tamen dream. Agdistis was its olico&acrrova
et innoxium; quod ipsum facere desisse (1. 52), but it contained altars of Zeus
post edictum meum, quo secundum Eumenes, Hestia, the other 0eo6 I(o-
mandata tua hetaerias esse uetueram.' 7rope9, Eudaimonia, Ploutos, Arete,
Scholars have frequently been tempted Hygieia, Tyche Agathe, Agathos Dai-
to regard sacramentoas a misunderstand- mon, Mneme, the Charites, and Nike (1.
ing by Pliny of a Christian reference to 6-).12 All who would' enter it must swear
the Eucharist.1 This is unnecessary: (1. 17-) 8XXov /FlOEva tre Lvcpl /.77re
the Eucharist is probably indicated by rvvatKi 7l app.alcov wrovrpov
*eld7e
/fo
cibum,2 and the sacramentum is some- r7po9 avOpcrov9, p9g EeT8a) 7rovr7pda
thing distinct. The term should mean 7rT7EftV)OVCKeLV /Lk7TeEILTEXCELV), /7 (IX-
an oath, like the soldier's oath of alle- 7POv, p9 8o00peov, LL (TOIMceOV, /10
giance :3 it is used of the gladiator's ap7Tay/Iov, L'rg e aUroUvEgWLTe-
/.4- 6vo.v
oath4 and of the conspirator's oath.5 XeLVlr77e ETEp9 EO-V3POVXEVELVILnp8 ovvtoe-
The early Christian use of an oath ropEtv, a7To-0TEpOVZTE(SE/Ll68 eVVOELv70
need not surprise us, in spite of 0o6/c/ 7T e, Icat ia' rVTL9TOv 7L
7o0T 77
Matt. 5- 34, 37 : there is evidence for it.6 Er~rove,IL
, j7e
) rrapa-
JL7Tre
Oaths in political societies are fami- ErWLPTeL,
liar; auvozoola is a synonym of &7at-
7
Cf. Thuc. 8. 54; Aristot. Pol. I3Ioa 7-; and
Ziebarth,Das griechische Vereinswesen,p. 94.
s I.G. II.1 6o9.
I
So T. A. Lacey ap. Hastings, Encycl. Rel. 9 Dittenberger, OG.I. 573. 23; Ziebarth, oh.
Eth. 10. 904, and others. Lightfoot, Apostolic cit., p. 142. (He there discusses two more
Fathers2 II. i., p. 50, leaves the question open. questionable examples.) Livy XXXIX. 8. 3
2 So
Batiffol, L'Eglise naissante et le Catholi- speaks of clandestinaeconiurationesin connexion
cismeA, p. 282. with the Bacchanalia (cf. ibid. 14. 8 ; 17. 6, and
a This appears in Tertullian,Martyr. 3, a fact the S.C. de Bacchanalibus, 1. 13).
of particular interest if we recall that in Tertul- 10 As Dittenberger, Syllogei 736.
lian the term sacramentum is crystallising (cf. 11 Wiener Denkschriften LVII. I, p. 18, n. I8,
J. Tixeront, Histoire des Dogmes8 I., p. 428). Abb. io, reprinted in Dittenberger3 985, and in
4 As Petronius, Sat. I117. Sitzungsber. Heidelberg, 1919, XVI., p. 4-.
5 Cod.
Justin. IX. 8. 5.
12
Cf. on the deities Weinreich's observations,
Cf G. Mead af. Smith-Cheetham, Dict.
6 and on combinations of deities in oaths A. B.
Christ. Ant. II., p. 1416: W. E. Beet af. Cook, Zeus II., p. 728- (which I quote from
Hastings, E.R.E. 9, p. 434. proof by the author's kindness).

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 THE CLASSICAL REVIEW 59

CLoT37Oet0V,cixXX'
4epoavtcdvcKat /~y7urTov, Xetpas !Kca y7volivy xcaapovq
cpvve•eruat.
They must further undertake on oath ,calt Yte, v7rdpxovTa1 Ka1 pqaev avTotq
to practise chastity; a man may not Bewovov :6 a Delian inscription
have intercourse with any person of datable-vvet••ra
in 5413 B.C. bids men enter the
either sex, slave or free, except his wife sanctuary of Zeus Kynthios and Athena
and unmarried women who have lost Kynthia Xepaiv xcat o*vXi icOaapq.7
their honour ;1 a free woman may not Here we see slave and freeborn ad-
have intercourse with any save her mitted without distinction,8 and adul-
husband. These precepts must not be tery with married slave-women con-
violated after they have been set up: demned, as it was later by the Stoic
o9 0e, 7tap iE /ToXe7Tat
a7ra o• livesrat Musonius.Y Moral conceptions which
oiVTre GEXec, aXXa we associate with Stoicism were, in
178a/p<•^ acaa/acoXov-
Obedience will
0Berv (1. 46-). bring fact, widely diffused in the Graeco-
blessings, disobedience, punishment Roman world: 'inde cuncti didicimus'
(1.46-). in the soldier's creed found at Carvoran
Here, as the editors observe, the acts by Hadrian's Wall10 suggests that
which are forbidden include a number brotherhood of mankind in the worship
which are sins rather than crimes. A of the Divine which is desired in the
genuine undertaking to observe a moral Philadelphian text.
standard is required of all persons In short, we see in this inscription
desirous to see the sacred rites per- one more illustration of the nature of
formed in the shrine.2 The significance that moral and religious atmosphere in
of this is increased by the date of which Christianity made such rapid
the inscription, which the editors put progress. The prayer to Agdistis to
in the first century B.C., Hiller von give men and women righteousness
Giirtringen in the second :3 we may (1. 52-) is typical of the new spirit.
fairly assume that it is prior to the A. D. NOCK.
Christian era. Consequently,the close 6
similarity of its requirements with Dittenberger 983. 3-: cf. Porphyry, de abst.
Didache II.4 is not to be explained as a II. 17, and E. Fehrle, Religionsgeschichtliche
Versuche und Vorarbeiten VI., p. 5o.
copying of the latter. 7
Roussel, Mdlanges Homolle (1913), P. 276,
The oath which Pliny mentions does 1. 14.
bear a distinct resemblance to this; it 8 Cf Lactantius, Diuin. instit. V. 14, 'nemo
apud eum (sc. deum) seruus est, nemo dominus.'
may well be an adaptation of an earlier For the older exclusions cf. Wichter, R.G. V.V.
local use.5 In its moral standpoint it IX. i., p. 123- (slaves), p. II8-(foreigners).
is not isolated. The Lindian lex sacra aft. Stob. flor. 6. 23 (III., p. 286-, Hense);
of the second century of our era includes cf. his condemnation of abortion, ib. 75. I5
the significantwords, rpCrovovpv Ka (p. 6oi, Hense), in marked contrast with Plato,
ab TO Rep. 461c, Theaet. 1I49D, Aristot. Pol. I335b 23,
and in accordance with the Hippocratic Oath.
1 So the editors rightly infer from irap•ivov 10 Carmina latina epigrafphica, ed. Biicheler
(1.28). 254. cuncti was regarded by the ancients as
" 6pvaydretrXo~~~a rzhUvrTipta (I. 40). For equivalent to coniuncti (Seru. ad Aen. I. 518 ;
pay cf. Horn. H. ad Demnet.480 (Eleusinian) cf. Thesaurus 1. L. IV. 1396, 1400). Petronius'
with Allen and Sikes ad loc. parody of the Senecan teaching that slaves are
3 His opinion is quoted in Dittenberger. our brothers (Sat. 71: cf. B. W. Henderson,
* Cf .p. 59 of Weinreich's paper for a detailed The Princifiate of Nero, p. 93) bears witness to
comparison. its dissemination. On the spread of ethical
6 The Philadelphian oath was, of course, to ideas cf. furtherA. Deissmann, Licht Osten4,
be taken once only. For the Christian use of yom
p. 262-; O. Kern, P. W. X. 1434. Sarapis and
pagan practices cf. the judicious discussions of Isis protect all who 050ta says a
H. Delahaye, Les Legendes hagiografphiques', poviov0rov,
Delian inscription of the second century B.C.
p. 168-; and J. Geffcken, Der Ausganog des (Weinreich, Neue Urkunden zur Sarafis-
griechisch-rkmischen Heidentums, p. 224-. religion, p. 31, 1. 33).

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