, to which we are able
to assign an approximate date. His treatise 'On the Paschal Festival,'
he himself tells us, was written while Sergius Paulus was proconsul of
Asia [223:3]; and the recent investigations of M. Waddington into the
fasti of this province have led to the result that this proconsulate
should probably be dated about A.D. 164-166 [223:4]. Again we are
informed that he addressed his 'Apology' to M. Antoninus (A.D. 161-180)
[223:5]. It appears however from an extant fragment, that L. Verus, the
colleague of M. Antoninus, was no longer living; for Melito speaks of
prayer on behalf of the emperor's son (Commodus), without mentioning his
brother and co-emperor (Verus). Now Verus died in the very beginning of
the year 169. On the other hand ancient authorities assign the Apology
to the year 169 or 170; and, as there is no reason for rejecting their
statement, we may suppose that it was written soon after the death of
Verus. Probably its date was ascertainable within a year or two from
internal evidence. This Apology however is regarded by Eusebius as the
latest of Melito's writings [223:6]; and, as the catalogue of his works
comprises some twenty treatises at least, his literary activity must
have extended over a considerable period of time, so that we shall
probably not be far wrong if we place the commencement of his career as
an author about the middle of the century. He appears to have died soon
after the Apology was written. In the last decade of the century
Polycrates mentions him among other worthies of the past who had gone to
their rest [224:1]. He was buried at Sardis. From the context it may be
inferred that he did not suffer martyrdom, like so many of his famous
contemporaries, but died a natural death.

These chronological notices suggest that Melito was born in the early
part of the second century, within a very few years after the death of
St John. During the greater part of his life at all events, he must have
been a contemporary of St John's disciple Polycarp, who was martyred at
an advanced age in the year 155 or 156; and likewise of Papias, who had
conversed with personal disciples of Christ, and seems also to have
survived till towards the middle of the century. As the communications
between Sardis on the one hand, and Smyrna and Hierapolis on the other,
were easy, a prominent man like Melito, whose religious zeal led him on
one occasion to undertake a distant journey to Palestine, would be