Complete Works XVIII: Against Celsus I-IV (Lommatzsch)

The most illustrious Baronius referring to Cardinal Cesare Baronio, a 16th-century ecclesiastical historian believes that Lucian dedicated his Alexander, or False Prophet original: "Pseudomante", to his own Celsus (for he wrote it at his encouragement). No one who has read that little book carefully or examined it with clear eyes will doubt this; for in it, Lucian briefly recounts the life, crimes, ravings, and deceptions of Alexander of Abonoteichos, a most notorious impostor. I believe Celsus was greatly pleased by this discourse, since all Epicureans are accustomed to dispel and scatter the frauds and impostures of such scoundrels with laughter and hissing. You may perhaps object: how can these things be? Since Celsus mentions Marcellina (book 5, no. 62), who, as a follower of the Gnostics, seized the occasion of a most grave persecution under Anicetus—that is, if I am not mistaken, shortly before the times of the philosopher Antoninus—and betook herself to Rome, where she exterminated many Orthodox believers, as witnessed by Irenaeus (book 1, chap. 24) and also Epiphanius (heresy 27). But Lucian flourished during the reign of the emperor Trajan: "It is said that he lived in the time of Caesar Trajan, and beyond." And many authors who are by no means to be despised hold this opinion. The most brilliant Vossius replies in his book 2, chapter 15, On Greek History: "It seems otherwise to me; nor is this for a light reason: for Lucian mentions Marcus Caesar and the Marcomannic war waged by him. The passage is in Alexander, or False Prophet: 'He sends out an oracle while the war in Germany was raging, when the god Marcus was already engaged with the Marcomanni and the Quadi.'" You see how he not only mentions the war waged against the Marcomanni and the Quadi, but also calls Marcus a "god" original: "θεόν", that is, Divine; which argues that he had yielded to nature and had already been placed in heaven. Therefore, it must be placed beyond controversy that Lucian lived during the age of Marcus Antoninus the philosopher, since he recounts conversations that he himself had with Alexander the False Prophet, and under Commodus, the son of Antoninus the philosopher, since he calls Marcus Divine. "I judge that the same must be determined concerning the age of Celsus." The most illustrious Baronius also, having cited this very passage of Lucian concerning the war with