Apologists on Trials: Justin’s Second Apology, the Literary Courtroom, and Pleading Philosophy

Abstract

Abstract This paper presents a fresh reading of Justin’s Second Apology. It focuses on that text’s narrative sections—the so-called martyrdom of Ptolemaeus and Lucius, and Justin’s own rift with Crescens. It demonstrates both these stories’ intratextual links, and their intertextual ties with contemporary mid-2d century literature—Achilles Tatius’ Greek novel Leucippe and Clitophon, and Apuleius’ Latin Apology. These in turn reveal the sophisticated rhetorical devices Justin employs, his goals in so doing, and the consequences for our understanding of the supposed new genre of Christian “apology.”