Quadra

Apology of Quadratus (fragment)

Quadratus of Athens

One paragraph survives — and it is a very good paragraph.

Catch rate: Not found in the wild
Base research: 64
Stat total: 180

Base stats

Every stat is a checkable fact about the actual book, not a designer's mood. Bars are drawn against the highest value any book reaches.

Stamina38

Contend46

Defend62

Popularity34

Total180

Why these numbers

The game's own explanation, as a reader sees it in the backpack.

Stamina 38

Nearly all of Quadratus’ Apology is lost — one paragraph remains of the whole book. Almost no surviving text means very low Stamina.

Contend 46

Quadratus opened a respectful case to the Emperor Hadrian rather than crushing an opponent, so Quadra’s Contend is gentle.

Defend 62

High for so small a book. The one paragraph that survives was quoted word for word by Eusebius, and no scholar disputes it. Defend measures certainty, not size.

Popularity 34

Only specialists have ever read Quadratus, so few debaters recall him quickly. Quadra almost always speaks last.

Development

A book develops as it is read — the fragment becomes the work, the work becomes the corpus.

Quadra→
Lv 14

Eusebius: Fragments→
Lv 22

Preparation

Moves learned

By levelling up. A book that develops keeps what it knew and learns the rest on its new schedule.

Lv	Move	Type	Cat.	Pwr	Acc	PP
1	Eyewitness Appeal	History	Argument	40	100%	25
1	Random Verse	Bible	Argument	10	100%	30
4	Steelman	Rationality	Type shift	—	—	10
8	Chapter…	Bible	Scripture	—	—	12
10	Works That Remain	History	Argument	60	100%	10
17	Affirm	—	Status	—	—	1
50	Speak Greek	History	Status	—	100%	5

The quotes behind its moves

How to read these. In Scholar’s Dream, books argue with each other. Each thing a book can do in a debate is a move, and most moves carry a real quotation — the words the book puts on the table when it uses that move.

Strong against lists the opposing books and arguments a move was written to answer. Used against one of them, it hits much harder than usual: ×2 means twice the normal force, ×4 four times. It is the game’s way of saying: this is the sentence that answers that argument. Open an entry to read why.

“The works of our Saviour were always present, for they were genuine.”
Quadratus, Apology, in Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History 4.3.2 (trans. McGiffert, NPNF² 1, public domain).public domain

Eyewitness Appeal

HistoryArgument · power 40 · 100% accurate

In the gamePublic facts, publicly checkable — no rhetorical fog can blur them.

Strong against

×2"We Are All Religious"an argument · why?

Christianity does not claim to be true because it feels right. It points to public events that people saw, and those can be checked.

×2Ancestral Customan argument · why?

Age does not make a story true, and newness does not make it false. What matters is whether it happened, and the works of Jesus were done in public.

×2Felt Certaintyan argument · why?

Nobody else can check a feeling. The works of Jesus were done in public, in front of people who could say what they saw.

×2Fifteen Booksan argument · why?

Quadratus pointed to people still alive in his day whom Jesus had healed or raised. Witnesses who tell a story differently have still seen the same thing.

×2Mischievous Superstitionan argument · why?

The faith did not spread like a rumour with no source. It began with things done in public, in front of witnesses who could be questioned.

×2Philosophy from Oraclesan argument · why?

The first disciples were not guessing from far away. They saw his works in public, and they were the ones who worshipped him.

×2The Declamationan argument · why?

The Christian case does not rest on fine speaking. It rests on things done in public, and no speech, however beautiful, can make them true or false.

“Let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger.”
James 1:19 (WEB).

Steelman

RationalityType shift

In the gameRestate the foe’s position in its strongest form — exposing its true weak point. Lowers the foe’s Defend. Always fair; never a bad move to use.

“…those that were healed, and those that were raised from the dead… were also always present… so that some of them lived even to our day.”
Quadratus, Apology, in Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History 4.3.2 (trans. McGiffert, NPNF² 1, public domain). (trimmed quote)public domain

Works That Remain

HistoryArgument · power 60 · 100% accurate

In the gameQuadratus: some whom Christ healed "remained to our own day."

Strong against

×2"Waste of Years"an argument · why?

Quadratus could point to people Jesus had healed who were still alive. Learning the record of what God actually did takes more than a weekend, and it is worth the years.

×2Ancestral Customan argument · why?

The faith does not rest on being old or new. It rests on what happened, and Quadratus could still point to people Jesus had healed.

×2Felt Certaintyan argument · why?

Quadratus did not point to a feeling. He pointed to people Jesus had healed, some of them still alive in his own day, whom anyone could go and ask.

×2Fifteen Booksan argument · why?

Quadratus could name people Jesus had healed who were still living. Four accounts that differ in detail still point to things that really happened.

×2Mischievous Superstitionan argument · why?

Quadratus could point to people Jesus had healed who were still alive. A superstition has nobody like that to point to.

“For in him we live, and move, and have our being. As some of your own poets have said.”
Acts 17:28 (WEB) — Paul at the Areopagus, quoting the Athenians’ own poets back to them.

Affirm

Status

In the gamePick the part of the opponent’s case that is true and affirm it. That point can no longer be used against you, and the opponent’s Defend falls sharply. It deals no damage. Affirm something false and you have only agreed with an error.

Read it: The Works That Remained

The passages the Scriptorium holds on screen, word for word from a public-domain translation. Written in Koine Greek.

“But the works of our Saviour were always present, for they were genuine: — those that were healed, and those that were raised from the dead, who were seen not only when they were healed and when they were raised, but were also always present.”
Quadratus, Apology, in Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History 4.3.2 (trans. McGiffert, NPNF² 1, public domain).

“…and not merely while the Saviour was on earth, but also after his death, they were alive for quite a while, so that some of them lived even to our day.”
Quadratus, Apology, in Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History 4.3.2 (trans. McGiffert, NPNF² 1, public domain).

“To him Quadratus addressed a discourse containing an apology for our religion, because certain wicked men had attempted to trouble the Christians. The work is still in the hands of a great many of the brethren, as also in our own, and furnishes clear proofs of the man’s understanding and of his apostolic orthodoxy.”
Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History 4.3.1 (trans. McGiffert, NPNF² 1, public domain) — Eusebius introducing Quadratus.

Notes

That is the whole book. Everything above is every surviving word of the Apology of Quadratus — there is no second passage to turn to.

Quadratus of Athens, writing to the Emperor Hadrian, c. A.D. 124–129. The earliest Christian apology of which any text at all survives.

Read Eusebius’ sentence again. In the early fourth century the book was still "in the hands of a great many of the brethren." It was common. Then it was gone, and one paragraph is left because Eusebius happened to copy it out.

Jerome, independently, calls the work "indispensable, full of sound argument and faith and worthy of the apostolic teaching," and says Quadratus became bishop of Athens after Publius was martyred (On Illustrious Men 19).