Aquila

• I L. Pontius Aquna, Cic. Phil. 11, 6.—
• II Julius Aquila, Tac. A. 12, 15.—
• III Vedius Aquila. Tac. A. 12, 15.—
• IV Aquila Romanus, author of a work De Figuris Sententiarum et Elocutionis; v. Teuffel, Röm. Lit. § 384.—
• V Julius Aquila, a Roman jurist, author of Liber Responsorum, of which there are extracts in Dig.; v. Bach, Hist. Jurisp. Rom. III. 3.—
• VI Aquila, the name of a Christian Jew, Vulg. Act. 18, 2; ib. Rom. 16, 3.

(Ἀκύλας), the translator of the Old Testament into Greek, was a native of Pontus. Epiphanes (De Pond. et Mens. 15) states, that he was a relation of the emperor Hadrian, who employed him in the rebuilding of Jerusalem (Aelia Capitolina); that he was converted to Christianity, but excommunicated for practising the heathen astrology; and that he then went over to the Jews, and was circumcised; but this account is probably founded only on vague rumours. All that we know with certainty is, that having been a heathen he became a Jewish proselyte, and that he lived in the reign of Hadrian, probably about 130 A. D. (Iren. 3.24; Euseb. Praep. Evan. 7.1; Hieron. Ep. ad Pammach. vol. iv. pt. 2, p. 255, Mart.) Works Translations of the Old Testament

He translated the Old Testament from Hebrew into Greek, with the purpose of furnishing the Jews who spoke Greek with a version better fitted than the Septuagint to sustain them in their opposition to Christianity. He did not, however, as some have supposed, falsify or pervert the sense of the original, but he translated every word, even the titles, such as Messiah, with the most literal accuracy. This principle was carried to the utmost extent in a second edition, which was named κατʼ ἀκρίβειαν. The version was very popular with the Jews, in whose synagogues it was read. (Novell. 146.) It was generally disliked by the Christians but Jerome, though sometimes showing this feeling, at other times speaks most highly of Aquila and his version. (Quaest. 2, ad Damas. iii. p. 35; Epist. ad Marcell. iii. p. 96, ii. p. 312; Quaest. Heb. in Genes. iii. p. 216; Comment. in Jes. 100.8; Comment. in Hos. 100.2.) The version is also praised by Origen. (Comment. in Joh. viii. p. 131; Respons. ad African. p. 224.) Editions

Only a few fragments remain, which have been published in the editions of the Hexapla [Origenes], and in Dathe's Opuscula, Lips. 1746. [P.S]

a Roman knight, stationed with a few cohorts, in A. D. 50, to protect Cotys, king of the Bosporus, who had received the sovereignty after the expulsion of Mithridates. In the same year, Aquila obtained the praetorian insignia. (Tac. Ann. 12.15, 21.)

(GALLUS?), a Roman jurist, from whose liber responsorum two fragments concerning tutors are preserved in the Digest. In the Florentine Index he is named Gallus Aquila, probably from an error of the scribe in reading Γαλλουον for Ιουλιον. This has occasioned Julius Aquila to be confounded with Aquillius Gallus. His date is uncertain, though he probably lived under or before the reign of Septimius Severus, A. D. 193-8; for in Dig. 26. tit. 7, s. 34 he gives an opinion upon a question which seems to have been first settled by Severus. (Dig. 27. tit. 3. s. 1.3.) By most of the historians of Roman law he is referred to a later period. He may possibly be the same person with Lucius Julius Aquila, who wrote de Etrusca disciplina, or with that Aquila who, under Septimius Severus, was praefect of Egypt, and became remarkable by his persecution of the Christians. (Majansius, Comm. ad 30 Juriscon. Fragm. vol. ii. p. 288; Otto, in Praef. Thes. vol. i. p. 13; Zimmern, Röm. Rechts-Geschichte, vol. 1.103.) [J.T.G]

tribune of the plebs, probably in B. C. 45, was the only member of the college that did not rise to Caesar as he passed by the tribunes' seats in his triumph. (Suet. Jul. Caes. 78.) He was one of Caesar's murderers, and afterwards served as a legate of Brutus at the beginning of B. C. 43 in Cisalpine Gaul. He defeated T. Munatius Plancus, and drove him out of Pollentia, but was killed himself in the battle fought against Antony by Hirtius. He was honoured with a statue. (Appian, App. BC 2.113; D. C. 46.38, 40; Cic. Phil. 11.6, 13.12, ad Fam. 10.33.) Pontius Aquila was a friend of Cicero, and is frequently mentioned by him in his letters. (Ad Fam. 5.2-4, 7.2, 3.)

a rhetorician, who lived after Alexander Numenius but before Julius Rufinianus, probably in the third century after Christ. Works de Figuris Sententiarum et Elocutionis

He was the author of a small work intitled, de Figuris Sententiarum et Elocutionis, which is usually printed with Rutilius Lupus.

Rufinianus states, that Aquila took the materials of this work from one of Alexander Numenius on the same subject. [See p. 123a.] Editions

The best edition is by Ruhnken, Lugd. Bat. 1768, reprinted with additional notes by Frotscher, Lips. 1831.

commander of the thirteenth legion, one of Otho's generals, was present in the battle in which Otho's troops were defeated by those of Vitellius, A. D. 70. He subsequently espoused Vespasian's party. (Tac. Hist. 2.44, 3.7.)

(1) A native of Sinopé in Asia Minor. He first applied himself to the study of mathematics and architecture; and the emperor Hadrian, according to Saint Epiphanius, made him a superintendent of public buildings, and gave him charge of the restoration and enlargement of Jerusalem, under its new name of Aelia Capitolina. This commission afforded him an opportunity of becoming acquainted with Christianity, which he subsequently embraced, and received the rite of baptism. Becoming afterwards addicted, however, to judicial astrology, he was excommunicated, and then attached himself to Judaism. Aquila is rendered famous by his Greek version of the Old Testament, which he published A.D. 138. It is the first that was made after the Septuagint translation, and appears to have been executed with great care. Aquila's method was to translate word for word, and to express, as far as this could conveniently be done, even the etymological meaning of terms. Although his version was undertaken with the view of opposing and superseding that of the Septuagint, of which last the churches made use after the example of the apostles, still the Fathers found it in general so exact that they often, in preference, drew their texts from it. St. Jerome, who had at first censured it, afterwards praised its exactness. The Hellenistic Jews preferred it also for the use of their synagogues Some fragments of it are preserved in the Hexapla of Origen. Aquila joined to a second edition of his version some Jewish traditions which he had obtained from the rabbi Akiba, his preceptor. This edition was still more favourably received by the Hellenistic Jews than the previous one had been. The emperor Justinian, however, interdicted the reading of it, on the ground that it only made the Jews more stubborn in error. See Clarke, Succession of Sacred Lit. i. 44.

(2) Romānus. A Latin rhetorician of the third century A.D., author of a work De Figuris. Text by Halm (1863).