2

The geographical setting of the narrative has its centre in Rome, where evidently the work itself was written. Hermas’ home in the city, the road to Cumae, the Via Campana,—these are the localities mentioned by name. There is one exception. Arcadia is chosen as the subject of a Similitude (Sim. ix.), the last properly so called, because the mountains visible from a central height by their character and position afford a good subject for the concluding parable, the component elements of the Church (see J. A. Robinson, The Athos Codex of the Shepherd of Hermas, p. 30, where the views of Rendel Harris are discussed and further developed and modified). As he was brought to Rome, and sold as a slave there, Arcadia may have been his native place.