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Quadratus, an Author

Wace's Dictionary of Early Christian Biography

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Quadratus (3) , the author of an apology for the Christians, presented to the emperor Hadrian (regn. 117-138). Eusebius ( H. E. iv. 3) says the work was still in circulation in his time and that he himself was acquainted with it. He quotes one sentence which proves, as he observes, the great antiquity of the work. Quadratus remarks that the Saviour's miracles were no transient wonders, but had abiding effects. Those who had been cured or raised from the dead did not disappear, but remained for a considerable time after the Saviour's departure, some even to the times of Quadratus himself. Accordingly Quadratus is called a disciple of the apostles by Eusebius in his Chronicle , under the 8th year of Hadrian according to the Armenian, the 10th according to the Latin.

St. Jerome twice (de Vir. Ill. 19; Ep. 70, ad Magnum ) identifies the apologist with Quadratus, bp. of Athens, and states that the apology was presented when Hadrian visited Athens and was initiated in the Eleusinian mysteries. On chronological grounds we must reject this identification. For it is improbable that any one contemporary with subjects of our Lord's miracles should survive to 170. We may doubt also whether the apologist resided at Athens. A writer against the Montanists (ap. Eus. H. E. v. 17) contrasts the behaviour of the Montanist prophetesses with that of those recognized in the church as prophets, e.g. the daughters of Philip, Ammia, and Quadratus. Eusebius evidently understood the reference to be a Quadratus of whom he speaks ( H. E. iii. 37) under the reign of Trajan, and who is apparently the apologist. But since the author whom Eusebius quotes wrote in Asia Minor, it was probably there that Quadratus enjoyed the reputation of a prophet, as did the daughters of Philip in Hierapolis, and Ammia in Philadelphia.

His Apology seems to have survived until 6th cent., for several passages were quoted in controversy between the monk Andrew and EUSEBIUS (86) (Phot. Cod. 162). Cf. Zahn, Forschungen (1900), vi. 41; Harnack; Gesch. der Alt.-Chr. Lit. i. 95; ii. 1, 269–271.

[G.S.]