Cook, Arthur B.: Zeus: a study in ancient religion (Band 3,1): Zeus god of the dark sky (earthquake, clouds, wind, dew, rain, meteorits): Text and notes (Cambridge, 1940)

The relation of rain to Zeus 327

follows. A certain historic happening lent itself to two different
interpretations, the one Christian, the other pagan, in character. The
kernel of fact was the rescue of the Roman army from dire straits
by means of a timely rain-storm, which on the one hand refreshed
the fainting legionaries and on the other did serious damage to the
enemy. The dramatic escape of his troops was expressly mentioned
by the emperor in a letter to the senate and was by him attributed

I subjoin a precis of the positions taken up by the various disputants:
E. Petersen 'Das Wunder an der Columna M. Aurelii' in the Rom. Mitth. 1894 ix.
78 89 collects and criticises most of the evidence for the alleged miracle. He cites as
erary sources Apollinarios ap. Euseb. hist. eccl. 5. 5. 4, Tertull. apol. 5, ad Scap. 4,
10n Cass. 71. 8—10 (including Xiphilinos, who is followed by Zonar. epit. hist. 14. 2
«nd Kedren. hist. comp. 250 c—d (i. 439 Bekker)), Iul. Capit. v. M. Ant. philos. 24. 4,
^-useb. chron. p. 172 Schoene (= Chron. Pasch. 260 n—id\ A (i. 486 f. Dindorf) and
Armtn. ann. Abr. 2188), Themist. or. 15 p. 191 b, Oros. 7. 15. 7—ii, Claud, at
* cons. Honor. 339 ff., and a forged letter of M. Aurelius (printed as an appendix to
*ust. Mart (ed.sj, c. T. Otto Ienae 1876 i. i. 246 ff.). Recent texts by A. Harnackin the
Jlz»ngsber. d. Akad. d. Wiss. Berlin 1894 p. 878 ff. and by J. Geffcken in the Neue Jahrb.

*&w. Altertum 1899 iii. 253—269). Dion's account (helpful rain, renewed fight, hail
and thunderbolts destroying the foe) is distinguished from the Christian version, in which
J') lightning plays as big a part as rain, (2) both being due to the prayers of Christians in
^e twelfth Legion, (3) hence called «pawoj36Xos; (4) a letter of M. Aurelius recognises
,ese services of the Christians and (5) prohibits their persecution. Since Apollinarios
?1Ves (2) and (3), but not (4) and (5), and since the legio ftdminata had already acquired
name under Augustus, it is clear that Aurelius' letter either never existed or existed
sto aS a Christian forgcy- Granted, however, that (4) and (5) are an addition to the
Th .We nave )'et; t0 reckon with (t) + (2) + (3) as an independent version. Dion and
enustios are in general agreement, though the latter makes the emperor Antoninus
' not M. Aurelius, and says that he had seen the incident represented in a ypa<p-q
^„ „ l°c- cit. Kal elSov iyw 4v ypcuprj eiVoca toO (pyov, rbv /xiv avTonparopa 7rpo<reux6^evoi'
„j T^ 't"&a.yyi, toiis arpaTiioras Se ra Kpavi) Tiji Sfippoi vwortd^PTas Kal ep.Tnw'Xa^vovs tov
™s ToC SeoaSbroxi). Now this ypatp-q may well have been the extant column of
c°lunUre"US' snort> '* appears that both Dion and Themistios are describing the
^rink^' ^esc"^ing wrongly. The Romans were not catching the rain in order to
-j^ ^ut us'ng their shields as umbrellas in the attempt to protect themselves against
w'th Wlnged god, hovering like a cloud, is a simple personification of Rain, comparable
^■°man S ^otus (l"/ra P- 333) ar)d not at once suggestive of any figure in Greek or
note t, Mythology. The Christians, accepting him as a mere personification, would further
Darba 'C cruc''orm shield-signs of the legionaries and misinterpret the attitude of the
at Cr ans' kneeling to prevent the Romans from crossing the river, as that of Christians
*°uld er ^ ma"y, in the adjacent scene of enemy-defences fired by a thunderbolt they

A S^e tne Punitive lightning and its effect upon the foe.
■^Urel's o-arnac^ 'Die Quelle der Berichte liber das Regenwunder im Feldzuge Marc
adds toSCifen-die Quaden'in the Sitsungsber. d. Akad. d. Wiss. Berlin 1894 pp. 835—882
e list of sources Landolfus Sagax hist. Rom. 8. 144 p. 314 Droysen (in the

0"u»ientn r

"lisccll erma,n"c historica. Auctores antiquissimi. Tomus ii Berolini 1879)=/'"''.

^aUistos°y ^ ^ Eyssenhardt, who c. 1000 a.d. copied out Orosius; Nikephoros

s- Xiv is ^nthoPOulos hist. eccl. 4. 12 (cxlv. 1004 b ff. Migne), who writing early in
bza'nr Kedren°s, indirectly dependent on Eusebios (K. Krumbacher Geschichte
91 least \a\\SCl'"' L,//erai"r* Miinchen 1897 p. 291); Souid. s.v.'Aprowpu, who in part
PassaEe co °WS r>'0n; and__of more importance—oracl. Sib. 12. 187 ff. Geffcken, a
opposed c. 250 a.d., and Greg. Nyss. or. in xl mart. 2 (xlvi. 757 c ff. Migne),