Justin Martyr

During the reign of Antoninus Pius, but after the emperor had elevated his adoptive son Marcus Aurelius to share his rule in 146, Justin Martyr, a Christian teacher of Middle Platonist leanings and a native of Flavia Neapolis (the ancient Shechem and the modern Nablus) in Palestine, addressed an apology to him and his ‘sons’ Verissimus (i.e., Marcus) and Lucius. It was possibly the martyrdom of the aged Polycarp of Smyrna (c. 156) that stimulated this appeal, which was written in Rome, perhaps in 156 or 157.

Richard A. Norris Jr., “The Apologists,” in The Cambridge History of Early Christian Literature, ed. Frances Young, Lewis Ayres, and Andrew Louth (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004), 38.