Arnobius: ADVERSVS NATIONES LIBRI VII

1.1. Interrogare vos libet ipsosque ante omnia Romanos, dominos rerum ac principes, utrumne existimetis Pietatem Concordiam Salutem Honorem Virtutem Felicitatem ceteraque huiusmodi nomina quibus aras videmus a vobis cum magnificis exaedificatas delubris vim habere divinam caelique in regionibus degere an ita ut adsolet dicis causa, ex eo quod optamus et volumus bona ista nobis contingere, superorum retuleritis in censum. 2. Nam si verba | f. 80b | existimantes haec cassa et nullius substantiae nomina divinis tamen regionibus consecratis, erit vobis videndum, utrumne istud puerile sit ludicrum an vestrorum de numinum delusione spectans, quibus coaequatis et adiungitis inanium figmenta verborum. 3. Sin autem ex animi certiore sententia deos esse et haec rati templis et pulvinaribus onerastis, inscitiam nostram ut doceatis oramus: Victoria Pax Aequitas et cetera quae in superioribus dicta sunt quanam ratione, qua via intellegi possunt dii esse atque ad superorum concilium pertinere?

1.1. It pleases me to question you—and you before all, Romans, lords of affairs and princes—whether you think that Piety, Concord, Safety, Honor, Virtue, Felicity, and the other names of this sort, for which we see altars constructed by you together with magnificent shrines, have divine force and dwell in the regions of heaven; or whether, as is customary for the sake of expression, from the fact that we desire and wish that those goods befall us, you have entered them in the roll of the supernal beings. 2. For if, accounting these words | f. 80b | as empty and names of no substance, you have nevertheless consecrated them to divine regions, it will be for you to consider whether that is childish sport, or looks toward the delusion of your gods, to whom, when you make them equal and join to them, you adjoin empty figments of words. 3. But if, from a more settled judgment of mind, you have deemed these to be gods and, thinking this, have loaded temples and sacred couches with them, we beg that you teach our ignorance: by what rationale, by what way, can Victory, Peace, Equity, and the rest that were mentioned above be understood to be gods and to pertain to the council of the supernal?

2.1. Nos enim, nisi forte communem tollitis nobis atque eripitis sensum, nihil horum sentimus et cernimus habere vim numinis neque in aliqua contineri sui generis forma, sed esse virtutem viri, salutem salvi, honorem honorati, victoris victoriam, concordis concordiam, pietatem pii, memoriam memoris, feliciter vero viventis ac sine ullis offensionibus felicitatem. 2. Quod a nobis verissime dici ex contrariis promptum est oppositionibus noscitare, infelicitate discordia oblivione iniquitate impietate ignavia pectoris et valetudine corporis minus fausta. Ut enim haec accidunt hominumque sunt posita in actionibus, adfectibus fortuitis, ita quod illis adversum est ex qualitatibus benignioribus nominatur, in aliis necesse est haereat, ex quibus ita formatis figuratio ista concepta est nominum.

2.1. For we, unless perhaps you take away and snatch from us our common sense, feel and discern that none of these have the force of a numen nor are contained in any form proper to their kind, but are the virtue of the man, the safety/health of the safe, the honor of the honored, the victory of the victor, the concord of the concordant, the piety of the pious, the memory of the mindful, and, indeed, the felicity of one living felicitously and without any offenses. 2. That what we say is most true is easy to recognize from contrary oppositions: from infelicity, discord, oblivion, iniquity, impiety, ignavia of heart, and a less propitious health of the body. For as these occur and are set in the actions of men and in fortuitous affections, so what is opposed to them, being named from more benign qualities, must inhere in others, from whose thus-formed states this figuration of names has been conceived.

3.1. Nam quod nobis catervas signatorum alias inducitis deorum, existimare non possumus utrumne istud serio atque ex rei compertae faciatis fide an fictionibus ludentes | f. 81 | cassis ingeniorum lasciviatis fluxu[m]. "Quod abiectis infantibus pepercit lupa non mitis, Luperca, inquit, dea est auctore appellata Varrone". - Ex rerum ergo proventu, non ex vi naturae dea ista est proditat et postquam feros morsus immanis prohibuit belua, et ipsa esse occepit et ipsius nominis significantiam traxitt aut si fuit iamdudum dea, priusquam Romulus nasceretur et frater, cuius fuerit nominis atque appellationis expromite. 2. Praestana est, ut perhibetis, dicta, quod Quirinus in iaculi missione cunctorum praestiterit viribus: et quod Tito Tatio, Capitolinum capiat collem viam pandere atque aperire permissum est, dea Panda est appellata vel Pantica. Ante facta et haec ergo numquam fuerant numina et nisi Romulus tenuisset teli traiectione palatium nique Tarpeiam rupem rex Sabinus potuisset accipere, nulla esset Pantica, nulla Praestana est?

3.1. For as to your introducing to us other companies of countersigned gods, we cannot reckon whether you do this in earnest and on the faith of a thing found out, or, playing with fictions, you lasciviate in a flux of empty wits | f. 81 |. “Because the she-wolf, not gentle, spared the exposed infants, ‘Luperca,’ he says, ‘is a goddess, so named on the authority of Varro.’” Therefore out of the issue of events, not out of the force of nature, that goddess has been produced; and after the monstrous beast forbade her savage bites, both she began to exist and drew the signification of her very name. Or if she was already a goddess before Romulus and his brother were born, bring out what her name and appellation was. 2. Praestana, as you allege, is so called, because Quirinus in the launching of the javelin excelled the forces of all; and because to Titus Tatius it was permitted to open and lay open a way, he might seize the Capitoline hill, the goddess was called Panda or Pantica. Therefore before the deeds were done, neither of these had ever been a numen; and unless Romulus had held the Palatine by the transfixion of a weapon, and the Sabine king had been able to take the Tarpeian crag, would there be no Pantica, no Praestana?

Si et has dicitis ante sui causam fuisse cognominis, quod in priore quaesitum est capite, cuius et hae fuerint vocaminis indicate.

If you say that these too had beforehand the cause of their cognomen, which was inquired in the prior chapter, indicate of whose appellation these also were.

4.1. "Pellendorum hostium dea potens Pellonia est". - Quorumne, nisi molestum est, edite. Confligunt partes atque inter se comminus armorum collatione decernunt, et haec illi est pars hostis et illa huic hostilis: quos ergo Pellonia, cum hinc et inde pugnabitur, pellet, aut in gratiam concessura est quorum, cum utrique debeat parti sui nominis vires officium que praestare? Quod si utique fecerit, id est partibus si utrisque favorem ac suffragium commodarit, nominis sui vim perdet, quod partis unius in pulsione formatum est.

4.1. "Pellonia is the potent goddess of repelling enemies." - Of which ones, if it is not bothersome, declare. The parties clash and decide at close quarters by a collation of arms, and this is to that a hostile party and that to this hostile: whom, then, will Pellonia repel, when there will be fighting on this side and on that, or into whose favor will she concede, since to each party she ought to furnish the forces and the service of her name? But if she should indeed do so, that is, if she should lend favor and suffrage to both parties, she will lose the force of her name, which has been formed for the repulsion of a single party.

| f. 81b | 2. Nisi forte dicetis: "Romanorum tantum est dea haec et cum solis Quiritibus faciens gralo tiosis semper opitulationibus praesto est". - Esse quidem hoc ita, quod nomini favemus, optamus, at quaestionem non exiguam res habet. 3. Quid enim? Romani deos possident peculiares, qui aliarum gentium non sint?

| f. 81b | 2. Unless perhaps you will say: "This goddess is the Romans’ alone, and dealing with the Quirites only, she is at hand with ever-gracious assistances." - We indeed wish this to be so, since we favor the name; but the matter carries no small question. 3. What then? Do the Romans possess peculiar gods, who are not of other nations?

et quemadmodum poterunt dii esse, si non omnibus quae ubique sunt gentes aequabilitatem sui nominis exhibebunt? 4. et ubi quaeso iamdudum Pellonia haec fuit, cum apud furculas Caudinas decus publicum subiugatum est, cum apud Trasimeni lacum sanguinei <cu>currere torrentes, cum Diomedis campi Romanis cadaveribus aggerati sunt, cum mille alia vulnera proeliorum innumeris accepta sunt cladibust Dormiebat, stertebat; aut quoa vilia facere consueta sunt capita, in hostilia castra defugerat?.

and how will they be able to be gods, if they do not exhibit to all the nations that are everywhere an equability of their name? 4. and where, pray, was this Pellonia long ago, when at the Caudine Forks the public honor was brought under the yoke, when at Lake Trasimene bloody torrents ran, when the fields of Diomedes were heaped up with Roman corpses, when a thousand other wounds of battles were received amid innumerable disasters? She was sleeping, she was snoring; or, as heads accustomed to doing base things are wont, had she fled into the hostile camp?

5.1. "Dii laevia laeva sinistrarum tantum regionum sunt praesides et inimici partium dexterarum". - Quod quanam istud ratione dicatur quove animi sensu, neque ipsi nos adsequimur nec a vobis confidimus posse in aliquam lucem communis intellegentiae perduci. Iam primum enim mundus ipse per se sibi neque dexteras neque laevas neque superas regiones neque imas neque anticas habet neque posticas. Quicquid enim teres est atque ex omni parte rotunditatis solidae convexione conclusum, nullum habet initium, nullum finem: ubi finis et initium nullum est, esse aliqua portio sui nominis [et initium] non potest.

5.1. "The left-hand gods,from the left , are presiding guardians only of left-hand regions and enemies of the right-hand parts." - By what rationale this is said, and with what disposition of mind, neither do we ourselves attain to grasp it, nor are we confident that by you it can be brought into any light of common intelligence. To begin with, the world itself, by itself for itself, has neither right nor left nor upper regions nor lower nor front nor back. For whatever is smoothly rounded and enclosed by the convexity of solid roundness on every side has no beginning, no end: where there is no end and no beginning, there cannot be any portion of its own designation [and a beginning].

2. Itaque cum dicimus: dextera haec regio est | f. 82 | et illa laeva, non ad mundi habitum dicimus, qui sui simillimus totus est, sed ad positionem nostram situmque revocamus, qui informati sic sumus, ut alia dextera, alia in nos dicantur esse laeva: quae tamen haec ipsa, quae laeva appellamus et dextera, [alia in nobis] nihil habent perpetuum, nihil fixum, sed prout nos casus atque eventus conlocaverit temporis, ita nostris sumunt ab lateribus figurationes. 3. Si orientem solem respexero, cardo mihi frigoris et septentrio fit laevus: in quem si ora traduxero, erit mihi sinister occasus, qui ab sole posterganeus habebitur. Rursus vero si iecero plagam in occiduam lumina, vocabulum sinistri auster et meridies transit: in qua si me parte necessaria temporis circumegerit ratio, fit ut oriens laevus inmutata corporis conversione dicatur.

2. And so, when we say: this region is the right-hand | f. 82 | and that the left-hand, we do not say it with respect to the posture of the world, which as a whole is most like to itself, but we refer it back to our own position and site, we being formed in such a way that some things are said to be right, others left, relative to us: yet these very things which we call left and right, [as with other things in us] have nothing perpetual, nothing fixed, but just as chance and the event of time shall have placed us, so they take on configurations from our sides. 3. If I look toward the rising sun, the cardo of cold and the Septentrion become left for me; toward which, if I turn my face, the sinister setting will be mine, which will be held as posterior to the sun. But again, if I cast my eyes toward the occidental quarter, the name of “left” passes to Auster and the meridian; in which part, if the necessary reckoning of time turns me around, it comes about that the Orient is called left by a changed conversion of the body.

4. Qua ex re poterit facillime recognosci, neque dextera neque laevanatura esse ulla sed positionis et temporis et prout nostri corporis habuerit se situs rerum ad circumstantiam collocatus. 5. Quod cum ita se habeat, quanam ratione, quo pacto sinistrarum partium dii erunt, cum easdem constiterit religiones modo dexteras fieri modo laevas? Aut quid dexterae meruerunt de immortalibus dis partes, ut sine ullis praesidibus degerent, quas esse faustas et prosperis semper cum ominibus ediderunt?.

4. From this matter it can be most easily recognized that neither right nor left are anynature, but [matters] of position and of time, and according to how our body’s posture has had itself, the situation of things being collocated with reference to the surrounding circumstance. 5. Since this is so, by what rationale, in what way will there be gods of the left-hand parts, since the same religiones have established that these same [parts] become now right, now left? Or what have the right-hand parts deserved from the immortal gods, that they should live without any guardians, which they have declared to be auspicious and always with prosperous omens?.

6.1. "Lateranus, ut dicitis, deus est focorum et genius adiectus que hoc nomine, quod ex laterculis ab hominibus crudis caminorum istud exaedificetur genus". 2. - Quid ergo? si testa aut materia | f. 82b | fuerint quacumque alia fabricati, foci genios non habebunt, et ab officio tutelae quisquis iste est Lateranus abscedet, quod regni sui possessio non luteis constructa est formis? et quid, quaeso, ut faciat, praesidatum focorum deus iste sortitus est?

6.1. "Lateranus, as you say, is the god of hearths and a genius adjoined with this name, because this kind of chimneys is built up from little bricks by raw men." 2. — What then? if they have been constructed of tile or of timber | f. 82b | or of any other material whatsoever, will hearths not have genii, and will this Lateranus, whoever he is, withdraw from the duty of tutelage because the possession of his realm has not been constructed by clay forms? And what, I ask, is this god, allotted the presidency of hearths, to do?

3. Per humani generis coquinas currit inspiciens et explorans, quibusnam lignorum generibus suis ardor in foculis excitetur, habitudinem fictilibus contribuit vasculis ne flammarum dissiliant vi victa, curat ut ad sensum palati suis cum iucunditatibus veniant rerum incorruptarum sapores, et an o rite pulmenta condita sint praegustatoris fungitur atque experitur officio. 4. Itane istud non foedum, quinimmo, ut verius dixerim, non contumeliosum, non impium, ad hoc tantum inducere deorum nescio quas fictiones, non quas dignis honoribus prosequare sed quas rebus turpibus et infami praeficias actioni?.

3. He runs through the kitchens of the human race, inspecting and exploring by what genera of woods his ardor may be kindled on the little hearths; he imparts a condition to the earthenware little vessels, lest, overborne by the force of the flames, they spring apart; he takes care that the flavors of uncorrupted things come, with their own pleasantnesses, to the sense of the palate; and, as to whether the stews have been seasoned rightly, he performs and assays the office of a taster. 4. Is that then not foul—nay, to speak more truly, not contumelious, not impious—to introduce, for so paltry a purpose, I-know-not-what fictions of the gods, not such as you would accompany with worthy honors, but such as you would set over base matters and a disreputable action?.

7.1. Etiamne militaris Venus castrensibus flagitiis praesidet et puerorum stupris? etiamne Perfica una est e populo numinum, quae obscenas illas et luteas voluptates ad exitum perficit dulcedine inoffensa pro cedere? etiamne Pertunda, quae in cubiculis praesto est virginalem scrobem effodientibus maritis?

7.1. Is even the Military Venus presiding over camp flagitious acts and the stuprations of boys? Is even Perfica one from the populace of the divinities, who perfects those obscene and muddy pleasures to their outcome, to proceed with unharmed sweetness? Is even Pertunda, who is at hand in the bedchambers for husbands excavating the virginal trench?

etiamne Tutunus, cuius inmanibus pudendis horrentique fascino vestras inequitare matronas et auspicabile ducitis et optatis? 2. Quodsi minime vos admovent ad intellectum veritatis res ipsae, nec ex ipsis saltem potestis nominibus noscere inanissimae superstitionis figmenta haec | f. 83 | esse et falsorum imaginationes deorum? 3. "Putationibus arborum Puta, inquitis, praesto est, rebus petendis Peta, deus nemorum Nemestrinus est, Patellana numen est et Patella, ex quibus una est patefactis, patefaciendis rebus altera praestituta.

and even Tutunus, upon whose immense pudenda and bristling fascinum you deem it auspicious and you desire your matrons to ride? 2. But if the things themselves do not in the least move you to an understanding of truth, can you not at least from the names themselves recognize these to be the figments of the most empty superstition | f. 83 | and the imaginations of false gods? 3. "For the pruning of trees Puta, you say, is at hand; for things to be sought, Peta; the god of groves is Nemestrinus; Patellana is a numen and Patella, of which one is for things laid open, the other appointed for things to be laid open."

4. Nodutis dicitur deus, qui ad nodos perducit res satas, et quae praeest frugibus terendis, Noduterensis: ab erroribus viarum dea +Vpibilia liberat, in tutela sunt Orbonae orbati liberis parentes, in Neniae, quibus extrema sunt tempora. Nam quae durat et solidat infantibus parvis ossa Ossipago ipsa memoratur, Mellonia dea est pollens potensque in apibus, mellis curans custodiens que dulcedinem"..

4. Nodutis is said to be a god, who brings sown things to their nodes (joints), and she who presides over the grains to be threshed, Noduterensis; from the errors of the roads the goddess +Vpibilia frees, under the tutelage of Orbona are parents bereft of children, under Nenia are those whose times are at the end. For she who hardens and solidifies the bones for little infants is herself called Ossipago; Mellonia is a goddess powerful and potent in bees, caring for and guarding the sweetness of honey"..

8.1. - Dicite, o quaeso, ita ut vobis propitiae faveant Peta Puta Patella, si omnino non essent apes ullae in terris, aut si exos humanum velut quidam vermiculi nasceremur, dea Mellonia non esset aut Ossipago solidatrix ossuum nomen proprium non haberet? 2. Etenim quaero et rogito, utrumne vobis videantur antiquiores dii esse natura tempore vetustate an homines, an apes fruges virgulta et cetera? 3. Dubitabit hominum nemo quin innumeris dicatis "deos aetatibus, saeculis cuncta quaecumque sunt anteire". - Quod si habet se ita, qui fieri per rerum naturam potest, ut ex rebus postea procreatis acciperent nomina ea quae sunt priora temporibus aut tutelas sortirentur earum dii rerum quae nondum essent genitae et in usum mortalibus adtributae?

8.1. - Say, I pray, so that Peta Puta Patella may be propitious and show favor to you, if there were absolutely no bees at all on the earth, or if the human race were born exos, like certain little worms, would the goddess Mellonia not exist, or would Ossipago, the solidatrix of bones, not have a proper name? 2. For I inquire and I ask whether the gods seem to you to be more ancient by nature, by time, by vetusty than men, or bees, crops, shrubberies, and the rest? 3. No one among men will hesitate but that you say “the gods in ages, in centuries, go before all things whatsoever there are.” - But if it is so, how can it come to be, through the nature of things, that those who are prior in times should receive their names from things begotten afterwards, or that the gods should obtain the tutelages of those things which were not yet born and assigned to the use of mortals?

4. An numquid "iamdudum sine nominibus dii erant, et postquam res nasci terrisque inesse coeperunt, his a vobis dignati sunt signis atque appellationibus nuncupari?". | f. 83b | 5. - Et unde scire potuistis quae nomina singulis inderetis, cum esse illos ignoraretis omnino autinesse potentias his certas, cum esset vobis similiter nescium quisnam eorum quid posset et cui rei deberet pro sui numinis potestate praeponi?.

4. Or perhaps, “long since the gods were without names, and after things began to be born and to be present in the earth, they were by you deemed worthy to be designated by these signs and appellations”? | f. 83b | 5. - And whence were you able to know what names you should assign to each individual, when you were altogether ignorant that they existed, or that certain powers inhered in them, since it was likewise unknown to you which of them could do what, and to what matter he ought, by the potency of his numen, to be set over?.

9.1. "Quid ergo, inquitis, hos deos nusquam esse gentium iudicatis et falsis opinationibus constitutos?". - Non istud nos soli, sed veritas ipsa dicit et ratio et ille communis qui est cunctis in mortalibus sensus. 2. Qui est enim qui credat esse deos Lucrios et lucrorum consecutionibus praesidere, cum ex turpibus causis frequentissime veniant et aliorum semper ex dispendiis constent? quis Libentinam, quis + Burnum libidinum superesse tutelis, quas iubet sapientia fugere et quas mille per species propudiosa expeeritur et exercet obscenitas?

9.1. "What then, you say, do you judge that these gods are nowhere among the nations and have been constituted by false opinions?" — Not we alone say this, but truth itself says it, and reason, and that common sense which is in all mortals. 2. For who is there who would believe that there are the gods Lucrios and that they preside over the acquisitions of gains, since they very frequently come from base causes and always consist of others’ losses? who Libentina, who + Burnum to be over the tutelages of lusts, which wisdom bids one flee, and which obscenity, in a thousand shameful forms, both tries and practices?

3. quis Limentinum, quis Limam custodiam liminum gerere et ianitorum officia sustinere, cum fanorum cotidie videamus et privatarum domorum convelli et subrui nec sine his esse flagitiosos ad lupanaria commeatust quis curatores obliquitatum Limos, quis Saturnum praesidem sationis, quis Montinum montium, quis segnium Murcidam? quis ad extremum deam Pecuniam esse credat, quam velut maximum numen vestrae indicant litterae donare anulos aureos, loca in ludis atque in spectaculis priora, honorum suggestus summos, amplitudinem magistratus, et quod maxime pigri ament, securum per opulentias otium..

3. who Limentinus, who Lima to bear the custody of thresholds and to sustain the duties of janitors, since we see the fanes’ and those of private houses daily being torn up and undermined, and that disgraceful goings to brothels are not without these? who the Limi as curators of obliquities, who Saturn as president of sowing, who Montinus of mountains, who Murcidus of the slothful? who, at the end, would believe that the goddess Money exists, whom your writings indicate, as the greatest numen as it were, to bestow golden rings, front places in the games and in the spectacles, the highest platforms of honors, the amplitude of magistracy, and, what the sluggards love most, care-free leisure through opulences..

10.1. Quodsi habent insedibus suos proprios praesides ossa, mella et limina ceteraqua alia, | f. 84 | quae vel cursim perstrinximus vel nimietatis non adtigimus taedio, licet consimili ratione mille alios deos inducere, qui rebus innumeris debeant suam curam custodiamque praebere. 2. Cur enim deus praesit mellì uni tantummodo, non praesit cucurbitis, rapis, non cunelae, nasturtio, non viciis betaciis caulibus? cur sola meruerint ossa tutelam, non meruerint ungues pili cetera que alia locis posita in obscuris et verecundioribus partibus?

10.1. But if in theirseats their own proper presidents preside over bones, honey, and thresholds, and other things of such a kind, | f. 84 | which either we have merely skimmed in passing or have not touched from weariness at excess, by a like reasoning it is permitted to introduce a thousand other gods, who ought to offer their care and custody to innumerable things. 2. For why should a god preside over honey only, and not preside over gourds, turnips, savory, nasturtium, vetches, beets, cabbages? why should bones alone have deserved tutelage, and not have deserved nails, hairs, and whatever other things are placed in hidden and more modest parts?

3. Et sunt casibus obnoxia plurimis et curam magis deorum diligentiam que desiderant. Aut si et has dicitis partes suis agere sub tutelatoribus divis, incipient totidem dii esse quot res sunt: nec explicabitur ratio, cur non rebus omnibus divinae praesideant curae, si certas res esse quibus praesint numina et provideant dixeritis..

3. And these are subject to very many contingencies and rather crave the care and diligence of the gods. Or if you say that these parts also act under their tutelary divinities, there will begin to be just as many gods as there are things: nor will the rationale be explained why divine cares should not preside over all things, if you say that there are certain things over which the numina preside and provide..

11.1. Quid dicitis, o patres novarum religionum, quid potestatum? hoscine a nobis deos violari et neglegi sacrilego clamitatis queritamini que contemptu, Lateranum genium focorum, Limentinum praesidem liminum, Pertundam Perficam Noduterensem? et quia non supplices Mutuno procumbimus atque Tutuno, ad interitum res lapsas atque ipsum dicitis mundum leges suas et constituta mutasse?

11.1. What do you say, O fathers of new religions, what of the powers? Is it these gods that you shout are violated by us and neglected with sacrilegious contempt, and about whom you lodge complaints—Lateranus, the genius of the hearths, Limentinus, the presider of thresholds, Pertunda, Perfica, Noduterensis? and because we do not, as suppliants, prostrate ourselves to Mutunus and Tutunus, do you say that things have slipped to destruction and that the world itself has changed its own laws and constitutions?

2. Atquin videte, perspicite, ne dum talia confingitis monstra talia atque molimini, deos offenderitis certissimos, si modo sunt ulli qui istius nominis mereantur sustinere atque habere fastigium, nec propter aliam causam mala ista quae dicitis | f. 84b | ferveant et cotidianis accessionibus insolescant. 3. "Cur ergo, e vobis fortasse aliquis dixerit, esse falsum istos deos? Et invocati ab haruspicibus parent, et suis acciti nominibus veniunt et fidelia reddunt responsa quaerentibus". 4. - Possumus optinere falsum esse quod dicitur, vel quod suspicionibus plenissima res tota est, vel quod multas cotidie praedictionum videmus aut aliter cadere aut in contrarios exitus frustrata expectatione torqueri..

2. But indeed see, perceive, lest while you concoct such monsters as these and attempt such things, you offend the most certain gods—if only there are any who deserve to sustain and have the pinnacle of that name—and that not for any other cause do those evils which you speak of | f. 84b | seethe and, with daily accessions, grow insolent. 3. "Why then," perhaps someone of you will say, "is it false that these are gods? For when invoked by the haruspices they obey, and, summoned by their own names, they come and render faithful responses to those who seek." 4. - We can maintain that what is said is false, either because the entire business is most full of suspicions, or because we see many predictions daily either turn out otherwise, or, expectation frustrated, be twisted into contrary outcomes..

12.1. Sed sint, ut adseritis, verae: unde tamen facietis fidem, Melloniam verbi causa vel Limentinum inserere se fibris et ad rerum quas quaeritis significantias aptare? numquid illorum aliquando vidistis os habitum faciem, aut eadem haec possunt in pulmonibus aut iocusculis conspici? nonne accidere fieri, licet astu dissimuletis, potest ut alter pro altero subeat fallens ludens decipiens atque invocati speciem praestans?

12.1. But grant, as you assert, that they are true: whence, however, will you make good the credence that, for example, Mellonia or Limentinus inserts himself into the entrails and fits himself to the significations of the matters you seek? Have you ever seen their mouth, bearing, face; or can these same things be beheld in the lungs or in the little livers? Does it not happen—though you cloak it with craft—that one may step in for another, tricking, playing, deceiving, and presenting the appearance of the one invoked?

2. Si magi, haruspicum fratres, suis in accitionibus memorant antitheos saepius obrepere pro accitis, esse autem hos quosdam materiis ex erassioribus spiritus, qui deos se fingant nesciosque mendaciis et simulationibus ludant, cur non ratione non dispari credamus hic quoque subicere se alios pro eis qui non sunt, ut et vestras opinationes firment et sibi hostias caedi alienis sub nominibus gaudeant? .

2. If the magi, brothers of the haruspices, recount that in their summons anti-gods more often creep in in place of those summoned, and that these are certain spirits from coarser materials, who feign themselves gods and play with the unknowing by lies and simulations, why should we not, by a not dissimilar reasoning, believe that here too others substitute themselves for those who are not, so that they both strengthen your opinions and rejoice that victims are slaughtered for themselves under alien names? .

13.1. Aut si haec accipere rei novitate rennuitis, unde vobis est scire an sit unus aliquis qui succedatpro omnibus quos invocatis partibusque se cunctis locorum divisionumque supponens multorum vobis speciem divorum praebeat et | f. 85 | potestatum? 2. "Quisnam iste est unus?" interrogabit<is> forte. - Possumus instituti veris auctoribus dicere, sed ne nobis fidem habere nolitis, Aegyptios Persas Indos Chaldaeos Armenios interroge<tis> omnesque illos alios, qui [in] interioribus viderunt et cognoverunt haec artibus: iam profecto discetis, quisnam sit deus unus vel sub eo qui plurimi, qui deos se fingant et humani generis inprudentiam ludant.

13.1. Or if you refuse to accept these things because of the novelty of the matter, how have you to know whether there is some one who steps in as a substitutefor all those whom you invoke, and, putting himself under all the parts of places and of divisions, presents to you the appearance of many divinities and | f. 85 | powers? 2. "Who then is this one?" you will perhaps ask<is>. - We can say this, supported by the true authors of the discipline; but lest you be unwilling to put faith in us, ask interroge<tis> the Egyptians, Persians, Indians, Chaldaeans, Armenians, and all those others who have seen [in] the inner things and have come to know these matters through the arts: by now you will surely learn who the one god is, or under him who are very many, who feign themselves gods and toy with the imprudence of the human race.

3. Iamdudum nos pudet ad eum locum venire, in quo risum tenere non possunt non tantum puerculi et procaces, verum etiam serii atque in maristetrici asperitate durati. 4. Nam cum a doctoribus omnes nostris insinuatum acceperimus et traditum, in declinationibus deorum plurativos numeros non esse, quod essent dii singuli, nec communiter ire per plurimos uniuscuiusque nominis proprietas quiret, immemores vos facti et puerilium disciplinarum recordatione composita et conplures subditis vocabulis isdem deos et cum sitis alias in eorum numero restrictiores, multiplices eos rursus cognominum societate fecistis: quam quidem olim partem iudicii acris viri atque ingenio perspicaci tam sermone Italo explicuere quam Graeco. 5. Et dare nobis conpendium potuisset res ista, si non et aliquos videremus litterarum esse istarum expertes, et institutus a nobis sermo nos quoque conpelleret nonnihil de his rebus quamvis ab illis sumptum commemoratumque depromere.

3. For a long time now we are ashamed to come to that point, at which not only little boys and the saucy cannot keep from laughter, but even the serious, hardened in the harshness of the sea’stetrici gloom. 4. For since we all have received it insinuated and handed down by our teachers, that in the declensions of the gods there are not plural numbers, because the gods are individuals, nor could the propriety of each name go in common through many, you, having become forgetful and with the recollection of boyish disciplines laid aside, both assign many gods under the same appellations, and although elsewhere you are more restrictive in their number, you have again made them multiple by the society of cognomina: which point, indeed, men of sharp judgment and perspicacious wit long ago explained as much in the Italian speech as in the Greek. 5. And this matter might have given us a compendium, if we did not also see that some are unacquainted with these letters, and if the discourse undertaken by us did not compel us too to draw forth somewhat about these things, although taken from them and already commemorated.

14.1. Aiunt igitur theologi vestri [Cic.nat. deor. 3, 21.53] et vetustatis absconditae | f. 85b | conditores, tris in rerum natura Ioves esse, ex quibus unus Aethere sit patre progenitus, alter Caelo, tertius vero Saturno, apud insulam aretam et sepulturae traditus et procreatus: quinque Soles et Mercurios quinque, ex quibus, ut referunt, Sol primus Iovis filius dicitur et Aetheris habetur nepos, secundus aeque Iovis et Hyperiona proditus genetrice, tertius Vulcano, non Lemnio, set Nili qui fuerit filius, quartus Ialysi pater, quem Rhodi peperit heroicis temporibus Acantho, quintus Scythici regis et versipellis habetur Circae.

14.1. Therefore your theologians [Cic.nat. deor. 3, 21.53] and the founders of concealed antiquity | f. 85b | say that in the nature of things there are three Jupiters, of whom one was begotten from father Aether, another from Sky, but the third from Saturn, near the island aretam both delivered to burial and begotten: five Suns and five Mercuries; of these, as they report, the first Sun is said to be a son of Jupiter and is held a grandson of Aether; the second likewise of Jupiter and brought forth with Hyperiona as genetrix; the third from Vulcan, not the Lemnian, but the one who was a son of the Nile; the fourth the father of Ialysus, whom at Rhodes Acantho bore in heroic times; the fifth is held [to be] of the Scythian king and of Circe the versipellis.

2. Nam Mercurius primus, qui in Proserpinam dicitur genitalibus adhinnivisse subrectis, supremi progenies Caeli est, sub terra est alter, Trophonius qui esse iactatur, Maia tertius matre et Iove procreatus sed tertio, quartus suboles Nili est, cuius nomen Aegyptia gens horret et reveretur expromere, quintus Argi est interemptor, fugitivus atque exul et proditor apud Aegyptum litterarum. 3. Sed et Minervae, inquiunt, sicut Soles et Mercurii quinque sunt, ex quibus prima non virgo sed ex Vulcano Apollinis procreatrix, Nili altera proles et quae esse perhibetur Aegyptia, stirps Saturni tertia est et quae usum excogitavit armorum, Iovis quarta progenies quam Messenii Coryphasiam nuncupant, et quae Pallantem occidit patrem incestorum adpetitorem est quinta. .

2. For the first Mercury, who is said to have neighed at Proserpina with his genitals upraised, is the progeny of highest Heaven; another is under the earth, who is bruited to be Trophonius; the third, begotten of Maia as mother and of Jove, but by the third; the fourth is the offspring of the Nile, whose name the Egyptian nation shudders at and reveres to utter; the fifth is the slayer of Argus, a fugitive and exile and the revealer of letters among the Egyptians. 3. But also, they say, just as there are five Suns and Mercuries, so there are five Minervas: of whom the first is not a virgin but from Vulcan the procreatrix of Apollo; the second is offspring of the Nile and is said to be Egyptian; the third is the stock of Saturn and devised the use of arms; the fourth is the progeny of Jove, whom the Messenians name Coryphasian; and the fifth is she who slew Pallas her father, a pursuer of incestuous acts. .

15.1. Ac ne longum videatur et nimium, minutatim velle capita ire per singula, aiunt idem theologi, quattuor esse Vulcanos et tris Dianas, Aesculapios totidem et Dionysos quinque, ter binos Hercules et quattuor Veneres, tria | f. 86 | genera Castorum totidemque Musarum, pinnatorum Cupidinum trigas et quadrigas Apollinarium nominum, quorum similiter genitores, similiter matres, loca quibus nati sunt indicant et originem singulorum suis cum prosapiis monstrant. 2. Quod si verum et certum est et ex rei cognitae adseveratione monstratur, aut omnes dii non sunt, quoniam plures sub eodem nomine, quemadmodum accepimus, esse non possunt, aut si aliquis ex his est, ignorabitur et nescietur, quia sit consimilium nominum confusione caecatus. Atque ita per vos ipsos, quamvis fieri nolitis, efficitur ut haesitet religio conturbata neque habeat finem certum, in quem dirigere se possitet nullis elusa ambiguitatis erroribus.

15.1. And, that it may not seem long and too much to wish the headings to go in minute detail through each single item, the same theologians say that there are four Vulcans and three Dianas, just as many Aesculapiuses and five Dionysuses, thrice two Herculeses and four Venuses, three | f. 86 | kinds of Castors and just so many of Muses, trios of winged Cupids and four-horse teams of Apollinarian names, for whom they similarly point out fathers, similarly mothers, and the places where they were born, and show the origin of each together with their pedigrees. 2. But if this is true and certain and is shown by the assertion of a known matter, either none of them are gods, since several under the same name, as we have received, cannot exist, or if any one of these is, he will be unknown and unknowable, because he is blinded by the confusion of similar names. And thus through you yourselves, although you do not wish it to happen, it is brought about that religion, thrown into confusion, hesitates and has no fixed goal toward which it can direct itself, and,et nullis baffled by no errors of ambiguity.

16.1. Fingite nos enim vel auctoritate commotos vel violentia terroris vestri induxisse in animum Minervam verbi causa sacris vobis sollemnibus et ritu velle adorare volgato: r si cum divinas apparamus adgredi atque aris flammantibus sua reddere constituta, Minervae omnes advolent ac de istius nominis possessione certantes poscant sibi singulae apparatum illum sacrorum reddi: quid in medio faciemus nos animal tenue vel in partes quas potius pii muneris officia transferemus? 2. Dicet enim forsitan prima illa quam diximus: "Meum nomen est Minervae, meum numen, quae Apollinem genui, quae Dianam et ex mei uteri fetu caelum numinibus auxi et deorum numerum multiplicavi". "Immo, inquiet quinta Minerva, tu, tun' es? quae marita et puerpera totiens castitatis purae inminuta es sanctitate? nonne vides in Capitoliis omnibus virginalis esse species Minervarum et nuptarum his formas ab artificibus | f. 86b | cunctis dari?

16.1. Suppose, indeed, that we, either moved by authority or by the violence of your terror, have brought into mind, for example’s sake, to wish to adore Minerva with your solemn sacra and with the vulgarized rite: r if, when we are preparing to approach divine things and to render to the flaming altars the things appointed to them, all the Minervas should fly hither and, contending for the possession of that name, should demand that that apparatus of the sacra be rendered to each of them for herself: what shall we do in the midst, we a frail creature, or into what parties shall we rather transfer the offices of pious munus? 2. For perhaps the first one, whom we mentioned, will say: "Mine is the name of Minerva, mine the numen, I who begot Apollo, who Diana, and from the offspring of my womb I have augmented heaven with divinities and multiplied the number of the gods." "Nay," says the fifth Minerva, "you—are you the one? you who, as a married woman and child-bearer, have so often been diminished in the sanctity of pure chastity? do you not see that in all the Capitolia the aspect of the Minervas is virginal and that the forms of the nuptarum are given to them by all craftsmen | f. 86b |?"

Desiste igitur nomen iuris tibi adsciscere non tui. Nam Minervam me esse genitore ex Pallante procreatam testis omnis est poetarum chorus, qui Palladem me nuncupat derivato a patre cognomine". 3. "Quid dicis, inquiet secunda haec audiens, ergone Minervium nomen tu feres parricida petulans et ex amoris incesti contaminatione polluta, quae dum te fucis atque artibus excolis meretriciis, etiam patris in te mentem furialibus plenam cupiditatibus excitasti? Perge igitur, aliud tibi quaere signum; nam mea res ista est, quam Nilus maximus fluminum aquis generavit ex liquidis et in virgineos habitus roris concretione conduxit.

"Cease therefore to ascribe to yourself the right of a name not yours. For that I am Minerva, procreated by a begetter from Pallas, the whole chorus of poets is witness, who entitles me Pallas, with a cognomen derived from my father." 3. "What do you say," says the second, hearing this, "will you then bear the Minervian name, you petulant parricide and polluted from the contamination of incestuous love, who, while you embellish yourself with meretricious dyes and arts, even aroused in your father toward you a mind full of furial cupidities? Go on then, seek another sign for yourself; for that affair is mine, which the Nile, greatest of rivers, generated from its liquid waters and led into virginal forms by the concretion of dew.

Quodsi fidem inquiris facti, Aegyptios et ego testes dabo, quorum <sum> Neith lingua, Platonis testificante Timaeo" [Pl. Tim. 21 e]. 4. - Quid deinde arbitramur fore? desistetne et illa Minervam se dicere, cui Coryphasiae nomen est vel ex Coryphae matris signo vel quod ex vertice summo Iovis parmam ferens emicuit atque armorum accincta terroribus? aut illam, quae tertia est, cessuram patienter nomine?

But if you inquire the credence of the deed, I too will provide Egyptians as witnesses, of whom <sum> Neith in their tongue, with Plato’s Timaeus bearing witness" [Pl. Tim. 21 e]. 4. - What then do we suppose will be? Will even she desist from calling herself Minerva, she whose name is Coryphasia, either from the sign of mother Corypha, or because, flashing forth from the topmost vertex of Jove bearing a shield, and girded with the terrors of arms? Or will that one, who is the third, yield the name with patience?

et non dictis talibus habituram rationem sui et primarum adrogantiam refutaturam: "Itane tu audes maiestatem tibi mei nominis usurpare, si verum, ex caeno et ex gurgitibus prodita coagulataque limosis? aut tibi tu alienam dignitatem adsumis deae, quae de vertice procreatam mentiris te Iovis et rationem te esse mortalibus ineptissimis suades? 5. ex capite <Iupiter> conceptos filios procreat?

and will she not, by such words, have a reckoning of herself and refute the arrogance of the first ones: "So then do you dare to usurp to yourself the majesty of my name, if in truth, brought forth from mud and from whirlpools and coagulated with slimy things? Or do you assume to yourself the alien dignity of the goddess, you who lie that you were procreated from the vertex of Jupiter and persuade the most inept mortals that you are Reason? 5. from his head does <Iupiter> beget conceived sons?"

et ut arma quae gestas procudi possint et fabricari, in verticis | f. 87 | ipsius cavo officina fabrilis fuit, incudes mallei fornaces folles carbones et forficces? At si verum est quod adseveras, rationem te esse, desiste tibi nomen id quod meum est vindicare: nam quam dicis ratio non est species numinis certa sed obscurarum intellegentia causarum". 6. Si ergo, ut diximus, officia nobis adeuntibus religiosa Minervae adsint quinque ac de huius nominis proprietate rixantes sibi quaeque desideret aut turis suffimenta libari aut ex pateris aureis inferia vina defundi, quo disceptatore, quo iudice controversias tollemus tantas? aut quis quaesitor, quis arbiter cervicibus tantis erit, qui inter personas huiusmodi aut vindicias iustas dare aut sacramenta conetur pronuntiare non iusta?

and that the arms which you bear might be able to be forged and fabricated, was there in the hollow of his own vertex | f. 87 | a smith’s workshop—anvils, hammers, furnaces, bellows, coals, and shears? But if what you aver is true, that you are Reason, cease to vindicate for yourself that name which is mine: for the reason which you speak of is not a fixed species of divinity but an understanding of obscure causes." 6. If therefore, as we have said, when we approach, five Minervas with religious offices are present to us, and, wrangling about the propriety of this name, each desires for herself either that fumigations of frankincense be offered, or that from golden paterae libation-wines be poured out, by what disceptator, by what judge shall we remove controversies so great? or what inquisitor, what arbiter will be for necks so lofty, who between persons of this sort will either give just vindications or attempt to pronounce the sacramenta not just?

nonne potius ibit domum seseque abstinens ab negotiis talibus tutius esse arbitrabitur nihil horum contingere, ne aut uni dando quod omnium est inimicas ecficiat ceteras aut stultitiae crimen incurrat, si id attribuat cunctis quod esse oportebat unius?.

Will he not rather go home and, abstaining from such affairs, deem it safer to touch none of these things, lest either by giving to one what is of all he render the others inimical, or incur the charge of stupidity if he attribute to all that which ought to be of one?.

17.1. Possumus haec eadem de Mercuriis, Solibus, immo de aliis omnibus, quorum numeros tenditis et multiplicatis, expromere. 2. Sed satis est ex uno rationem in ceteris eandem esse scire, et ne forte prolixitas fastidium audientiae pariat, cessabimus ire per singula, ne dum vos arguimus nimietatis, loquacitatis inmodicae suscipiamus et nos culpam. 3. Quid dicitis o isti, qui ad deorum nos cultum membrorum laniatibus mvitatis et suscipere nos cultum vestrorum conpellitis numinum?

17.1. We can set forth these same things about the Mercuries, the Suns, nay rather about all the others, whose numbers you stretch and multiply. 2. But it is enough, from one, to know that the same rationale is in the rest; and lest perhaps prolixity breed a disgust of the audience, we will cease to go through the particulars, lest while we accuse you of nimiety, we ourselves incur the blame of immoderate loquacity. 3. What say you, O you there, who invite us to the cult of the gods by lacerations of members and compel us to undertake the worship of your divinities?

4. Possumus | f. 87b | difficiles non esse, si modo aliquid nobis dignum tanti nominis opinione monstretur. 5. Ostendite nobis Mercurium, sed unum: date Liberum, sed unum: unam Venerem atque unam similiter Dianam. 6. Nam esse Apollines quatuor aut tris Ioves numquam nobis facietis fidem, nec si testem ipsum citetis Iovem aut Pythium constituatis auctorem..

4. We can | f. 87b | be not difficult, if only something be shown to us worthy of the reputation of so great a name. 5. Show us Mercury, but one: grant Liber, but one: one Venus and one likewise Diana. 6. For you will never make us believe that there are four Apollos or three Joves, not even if you cite Jupiter himself as witness or appoint the Pythian as authority..

18.1. Sed ex diverso nescio quis: "Unde, inquit, scimus an explorata et cognita theologi scriptitarint, an ut visum est atque sedit libidinosa extulerint fictione?". 2. - Nihil istud ad causam, nec sermonis istius in eo est ratio constituta, utrumne res ita sint, theologorum ut indicant scripta, an aliter se habeant et multo dissociatae discrimine; nobis enim satis est rebus de publicatis loqui neque quaerere quid sit in vero sed refutare, convincere id quod in medio positum est atque opinatio concepit humana. 3. "Sed si mendaces illi, vos veritas quae sit expeonite et inrefutabile aperite secretum". 4. - Et qui fieri potis est remotis magisteriis litterarum? quid est enim quod dici de immortalibus diis possit, quod non ex hominum [di] scriptis ad humanas pervenerit notiones?

18.1. But on the contrary some unknown person says: "Whence, says he, do we know whether the theologians wrote after things had been explored and known, or, as it seemed good and as lust settled, have they put forth by a libidinous fiction?". 2. - That is nothing to the case, nor is the rationale of this discourse established in this, whether the matters are so as the writings of the theologians indicate, or whether they are otherwise and far dissociated by a divergence; for it is enough for us to speak about things that have been made public and not to seek what is in the truth, but to refute and to convict that which is set in the midst and which human opinion has conceived. 3. "But if those men are mendacious, you set forth what the truth is and lay open the irrefutable secret". 4. - And how can that be possible with the magisteries of letters removed? For what is there that can be said about the immortal gods which has not come to human notions from the writings of men?

aut quicquam vos ipsi de illorum ritibus potestis caerimoniisque narrare, quod relatum in litteras non sit et scriptorum commentariis publicatum? 5. Aut si ponderis existimatis nullius haec esse, aboleantur omnes libri quos de diis habetis compositos theologorum, pontificum, nonnullorum etiam philosophiae deditorum; quinimmo potius fingamus ab exordio | f. 88 | mundi nullum aliquando mortalium nullum esse de diis quicquam: experiri volumus et cupimus scire, an muttire, an hiscere deorum in mentione possitis, an concipere eos mente quos in animis vestris nullius scripti informaverit notio. 6. Cum vero nomina et potentias illorum suggerentibus vobis libris addidicisse vos constet, iniquum est detrahere litteris his fidem quarum ea quae dicitis testimonio atque auctoritate firmatis..

or can you yourselves relate anything about their rites and ceremonies, which has not been committed to letters and published in the commentaries of writers? 5. Or if you judge these to be of no weight, let all the books be abolished which you have about the gods, composed by theologians, by pontiffs, and by some even devoted to philosophy; nay rather, let us suppose from the beginning | f. 88 | of the world that there has at no time been any of mortals, nor anything at all about the gods: we wish to make trial and we desire to know whether you can mutter, or open your lips, at the mention of the gods, or conceive them in mind—those whom in your souls no notion of any writing has shaped. 6. But since it is agreed that you have learned the names and powers of them with books suggesting them to you, it is inequitable to detract from these writings the credence by whose testimony and authority you make firm the things which you say..

19.1. "Nisi forte haec falsa et ea quae a vobis dicuntur erunt vera". - Quo argumento, quo signo? cum enim homines utrique et qui haec et illa commentati sunt fuerint, et de rebus incertis ab utraque sit disputatum parte, adrogantis est dicere, id quod tibi placeat esse verum, quod vero animum laedit id libidinis et falsitatis arguere. 2. Per humani generis iura atque ipsius mortalitatis consortia, cum auditis et legitis "ex illo atque ex illa matre deus ille est proditus", nonne animi vestri sensum tangit humanum nescio quid dici et ex terreni generis humilitate proficiscens?

19.1. "Unless perhaps these things are false and those which are said by you will be true." - By what argument, by what sign? since indeed on both sides there have been men who have composed these things and those, and about uncertain matters there has been disputation by each party, it is arrogance to say that that which pleases you is true, but to accuse as libidinousness and falsity that which in truth wounds your mind. 2. By the rights of the human race and the consortia of mortality itself, when you hear and read "from that man and from that mother that god was produced," does it not touch the human sense of your minds that something human is being said, proceeding from the lowliness of earthly stock?

3. Aut cum esse arbitramini vos ita, sollicitudinem concipitis nullam ne offensionis aliquid apud ipsos quicumque sunt contrahatis deos, quod ex turpi concubitu creditis atque ex seminis iactu ignoratam sibi ad lucem beneficiis obscenitatis egisse? 4. Nos enim, ne quis forte existimet ignorare, nescire, quid istius nominis conveniat dignitati, aut nativitatis expertes deos esse oportere censemus, aut si aliquos ortus | habent, ab domino rerum ac principe rationibus quas ipse novit, ipse, ducimus atque existimamus emissos, immaculatos castissimos puros, nescientes quae sit foeditas ista coeundi et usque ad illos ipsos principali procreatione finita..

3. Or when you so suppose them to exist, do you conceive no solicitude lest you contract any offense with the gods, whoever they are, because you believe that from base concubinage and from the casting of seed one, unknown to himself, has been driven forth to the light by the benefices of obscenity? 4. For we, lest anyone perchance suppose that we are ignorant, not knowing what befits the dignity of that name, judge that either the gods ought to be devoid of nativity, or, if they have any origins | have, that they have been sent forth by the Lord of things and Prince, by reasons which he himself knows—he himself—we hold and reckon them to have been emitted, immaculate, most chaste, pure, not knowing what that foulness of coition is, and that even for those very ones the principal procreation is finished..

20.1. At vero vos contra maiestatis inmemores et sublimitatis tantae eas illis adiungitis nativitates ortusque eos adscribitis quos ingeniis lautioribus homines et execrationi habeant et horrori. 2. "Ex Ope, inquitis, matre et ex genitore Saturno cum suis est gnatus Diespiter fratribus". - Uxores enim dii habent atque in coniugalia foedera condicionibus veniunt ante quaesitis? usu farreo coemptione genialis lectuli sacramenta condicunt?

20.1. But in truth you, unmindful of majesty and of such sublimity, attach to them those births and assign to them those origins which men of more polished wits hold in execration and in horror. 2. "From Ops, you say, the mother, and from the begetter Saturn, Diespiter was born along with his brothers". - For do the gods have wives and come into conjugal covenants with conditions first sought out? Do they stipulate the sacraments of the genial couch by usus, by farreum, by coemptio?

habent speratas, habent pactas, habent interpositis stipulationibus sponsas? 3. Et quid de ipsis coniunctionibus loquimur, quando <audetis> et quosdam nuptias celebrasse et festas habuisse frequentias dicere et lusisse in his deas et, quod participes [et quid] fescenninorum non essent, perturbasse discordiis omnia et humano<rum> in posterum genus exitiorum sevisse discrimina?.

do they have those hoped-for, do they have those contracted, do they have brides with stipulations interposed? 3. And what are we saying about the unions themselves, when you <dare> even to say that certain ones celebrated weddings and had festive crowds, and that goddesses sported in these; and, because they were not participants [and what] in Fescennine verses, they threw everything into confusion with discords and for the human race in time to come they sowed the divisions (discriminations) of destructions?.

21.1. "Sed in ceteris forsitan minus huius turpitudinis foeditas". - Ergone ille rector poli, pater deorum et hominum, supercilii nutu totum motans et tremefaciens caelum, exi viro concretus et femina est, et nisi ambo sexus in obscenas dissolverent copulatis corporibus voluptates, Iuppiter ille maximus non esset, et usque ad hos dies et regem numina non haberent et caelum sine domino staret? 2. Et quid Iovem miramur ex | f. 89 | feminae effusum dictitare vos alvo, quando auctores vestri et nutricem habuisse conscribunt et ex alieni uberis alimonia mo traditam retinuisse vitam? Quid dicitis o viri?

21.1. "But in the rest perhaps the foulness of this turpitude is less." - Therefore that ruler of the pole, father of gods and men, with a nod of the eyebrow setting the whole heaven in motion and making it tremble, is from a man and a woman compounded, and unless both sexes, with bodies coupled, dissolved themselves into obscene pleasures, that greatest Jupiter would not exist, and down to these days the divinities would not have a king and the heaven would stand without a lord? 2. And why do we wonder that you keep saying that Jove was poured forth from a woman’s womb | f. 89 |, when your authors also write that he had a nurse and that by the nourishment of another’s breast he kept the life handed over to him? What do you say, O men?

Ergone, iterum dicam, tonans fulgens et fulminans et nubila terribilia conducens suxit fluenta mammarum, vagitum edidit, repsit atque ut fletum exponeret ineptissime tractum, crepitaculis obticuit auditis et ad somnos inductus est in mollissimis cunis iacens et vocibus delenitus infractis? 3. O deorum adsertio religiosa, o amplitudinis metuendae venerabilem monstrans atque insinuans dignitatem! Sicine apud vos, quaeso, supernarum nascitur eminentia potestatum, his in lucem prodeunt generationibus dii vestri quibus asini porci canes, quibus inmunda haec omnis conceptatur et genitur terrenarum proluvies bestiarum?

Ergo, shall I say it again, the thundering, flashing, and fulminating one, gathering dreadful clouds, sucked the streams of the breasts, uttered a wail, crawled, and, in order to set forth his weeping, most ineptly drawn out, fell silent when rattles were heard, and was led into sleeps as he lay in the softest cradles and was soothed by broken voices? 3. O religious championship of the gods, O dignity showing and insinuating the venerable majesty of a greatness to be feared! Is thus, I ask, among you the eminence of the supernal powers born—do your gods come forth into the light by those same generations by which donkeys, pigs, dogs—by which this whole unclean outpouring of earthly beasts—is conceived and begotten?

22.1. Nec contenti hos coetus gravitati attribuisse Saturniae, etiam ipsum regem mundi flagitiosius liheros procreasse quam ipse est natus atque editus praedicatis. 2. "Ex Hyperiona, inquitis, matre et ex Iove iaculatore fulminis Sol aureus et flagrantissimus natus est: ex Latona et eodem arquitenens Delius et silvarum agitatrix Diana: ex Leda et eodem [arquitenens Delius et silvarum] Graece Dioscoris nomen est: ex Alcmena et eodem Hercules ille Thebanus, quem clava pellisque tutata sunt: ex Semela atque ipso Liber, qui Bromius dicitur et ex femine iterum natus patris: ex ipso rursus et Maia Mercurius ore facundus et gestator adfabilium | f. 89 b | colubrarum". 3. - Potest ulla gravior contumelia Iovi vestro infligi aut quicquam est aliud quos labefactet aut destruat deorum principis auctoritatem, quam quod eum creditis voluptatibus aliquando libidinosis victum et in femineos appetitus inflammati pectoris incaluisse fervore? 4. Et quid regi Saturnio matrimoniis fuerat cum alienis rei?

22.1. Nor, content to have attributed these assemblies to the gravity of the Saturnian, do you also proclaim that the very king of the world begot children more flagitiously than he himself was born and brought forth. 2. “From Hyperion, you say, the mother, and from Jove, the hurler of the thunderbolt, the golden and most blazing Sun was born: from Latona and the same, the bow-bearing Delius and Diana, the huntress of the woods: from Leda and the same [the bow-bearing Delius and the huntress of the woods] in Greek the name is the Dioscuri: from Alcmena and the same, that Theban Hercules, whom club and hide protected: from Semele and himself, Liber, who is called Bromius and was again born from his father’s thigh: from himself in turn and Maia, Mercury, eloquent of mouth and the bearer of affable snakes | f. 89 b |.” 3. Can any heavier contumely be inflicted on your Jove, or is there anything else that could shake or destroy the authority of the prince of the gods, than that you believe him at times overcome by libidinous pleasures and to have grown hot with the fervor of an inflamed breast toward feminine appetites? 4. And what had the Saturnian king to do with marriages that belonged to others’ affair?

nonne illi fuerat satis Iuno, nec sedare impetum cupiditatum in regina poterat numinum, cum nobilitas eam commendaret tanta, facies os dignitas et ulnarum nivei marmoreique candores? An uxore contentus llaud una concubinis, pelicibus atque amiculis delectatus inpatientiam suam spargebat passim, ut babaecali adolescentes solent, salax deus, et canus ex infinitis corporibus flaccescentium voluptatum restituebat ardorem? 5. Quid dicitis o impii vel quas de vestro Iove opinionum confingitis foeditates?

had not Juno been enough for him, nor could he calm the rush of desires in the queen of the divinities, since so great a nobility commended her, beauty, face, dignity, and the snowy and marmoreal candor of her arms? Or, content with a wife—yet not with one—delighting in concubines, mistresses, and little girlfriends, was he scattering his impatience everywhere, as babaecali adolescents are wont, a salacious god, and gray-haired, restoring his ardor from the countless bodies of pleasures growing flaccid? 5. What do you say, O impious ones, or what foulnesses of opinions do you fabricate about your Jove?

Ita non animadvertitis, non videtis, cuius eum notetis probri? cuius criminis constituatis auctorem? vel quas in eum labes flagitiorum, quantas coacervetis infamias?.

So do you not take note, do you not see, with what opprobrium you brand him? of what crime you constitute him the author? or what stains of flagitious deeds you fasten upon him, how great infamies you heap together?.

23.1. Ad libidinem homines proni atque ad voluptatum blanditias naturae infirmitate proclives adulteria tamen legibus vindicant et capitalibus adficiunt eos poenis quos in aliena comprehenderint foedera genialis se lectuli expugnatione iecisse. 2. Subsessoris et adulteri persona cuius esset turpitudinis, notae cuius, regnorum maximus nesciebat, et speculator ille, ut fama est, bene meritorum ac pessime, quidnam deceret se velle rationibus pectoris non perspiciebat | f. 90 | amissis. 3. Et tolerari forsitan maletractatio haec posset, si eum saltem personis coniungeretis conparibus, et adulter a vobis immortalium constitueretur dearum.

23.1. Men prone to libido and, by the infirmity of nature, inclined to the blandishments of pleasures nevertheless avenge adulteries by laws and visit with capital punishments those whom they have apprehended to have cast themselves into another’s marriage-pacts by the storming of the nuptial couch. 2. Of what turpitude, of what brand, the role of a lurker and adulterer was, the greatest of rulers did not know; and that speculator, as report has it, very badly toward the well-deserving, did not discern what it would be fitting for him to will, the counsels of his heart having been lost | f. 90 |. 3. And perhaps this maltreatment might be tolerated, if at least you would join him with comparable persons, and the adulterer were by you constituted the paramour of immortal goddesses.

In humanis vero corporibus quidnam, quaeso, inerat pulchritudinis, quid decoris, quod inritare, quod flectere oculos posset in se Iovis? cutes viscera pituita atque omnis illa proluvies intestinorum sub involucris constituta, quam non modo Lynceus ille penetrabili acie possit horrescere, verum etiam quivis alter sola vel cogitatione vitare. 4. O egregia merces culpae, o digna et pretiosa dulcedo, propter quam Iuppiter maximus cycnus fieret et taurus et candidorum procreator ovorum..

But in human bodies, pray, what was there of pulchritude, what of decor, that could irritate, that could bend the eyes of Jove toward itself? skins, entrails, phlegm, and all that profluvium of the intestines set beneath coverings, which not only that Lynceus with his penetrating acuity might shudder at, but indeed any other person would avoid at the mere thought. 4. O outstanding reward of fault, O worthy and precious sweetness, on account of which greatest Jupiter would become a swan and a bull and the procreator of gleaming-white eggs..

24.1. Si aperire oculos mentis et veritatem propriam intueri sine ulla vultis gratificatione privata, miseriarum omnium causas, quibus genus ut dicitis iamdudum flictatur humanum, ex huiusmodi repperietis opinationibus fluere quas habetis antiquitus de diis vestris et quas in melius reformare ante oculos posita veritate rennuitis. 2. Nam nos quidem quidnam de illis aliquando aut inconveniens sensimus aut conscriptionibus edidimus indecoris, ut in invidiam iaciantur nostram labores generis humani et commoditates quibus vivitur imminutae? 3. Numquid a nobis dicitur, ut ciconias, ut palumbes ex ovis esse progenitos quosdam deos?

24.1. If you wish to open the eyes of the mind and to behold the proper truth without any private gratification, you will find the causes of all miseries, with which, as you say, the human race has long been afflicted, to flow from opinions of this sort which you have from antiquity about your gods, and which you refuse to reform for the better, though the truth is set before your eyes. 2. For we, indeed—what at any time have we either thought unbecoming about them, or published in indecorous compositions, such that the labors of the human race and the amenities by which life is lived, diminished, should be thrown into our discredit? 3. Do we, perchance, say that, like storks, like wood-pigeons, certain gods are begotten from eggs?

numquid ex pelagi spuma et ex Caeli genitalibus amputatis Cythereiae Veneris concretum coaluisse candorem? numquid parricidii causa vinctum esse Saturnum et ablui | f. 90 b | diebus statis, vinculorum ob ponderibus et levari? numquid beneficio Curetum ab interitu servatum Iovem?

Do we say that the whiteness of Cytherian Venus was concreted, coalesced, from the foam of the sea and from the genitals of Caelus that were amputated? Do we say that Saturn, on account of parricide, was bound and is washed | f. 90 b | on stated days, and, on account of the weights of his bonds, is lifted? Do we say that Jupiter was preserved from destruction by the benefaction of the Curetes?

numquid expulisse regno patrem et alieni iuris imperium violentia et fraude tenuisse? numquid pulsum a nobis senem Italorum delituisse in finibus, et quod tutus fuisset a filio, nomen Latio inposuisse pro munere? 4. numquid incestas nuptias cum sorore Iovem ipsum dicimus fecisse nos, aut invitatum ad ius mensae pro suillis visceribus prolem nescium Lycaoniam pransitasse?

Do we say that he expelled his father from the kingdom and held the dominion of another’s right by violence and fraud? Do we say that, driven by us, the old man hid within the borders of the Italians, and, because he had been safe from his son, imposed the name upon Latium as a gift? 4. Do we say that Jove himself made incestuous nuptials with his sister, or that, invited to the right of the table, he dined on a Lycaonian child unknowing in place of swine’s entrails?

numquid altero claudum pede apud insulam Lemnum fabrilia opera exercuisse Vulcanum? numquid cupidinis atque avaritiae causa, sicut canit Boeotius Pindarus [Pith. III, 96-105], Aesculapium fulminis transfixum esse telo! numquid Apollinem ditem factum eos ipsos reges quorum gazis fuerat locupletatus et donis ambiguitate fefellisse responsi?

was Vulcan, lame in one foot, practicing fabrile works at the island of Lemnos? was it for the sake of lust and avarice, as the Boeotian Pindar sings [Pith. 3, 96-105], that Aesculapius was transfixed by the weapon of a thunderbolt! was Apollo, made rich, deceiving those very kings—by whose treasures and gifts he had been enriched—by the ambiguity of his response?

5. numquid furem Mercurium publicavimus nos? nos esse Lavernam atque cum hoc simul fraudibus praesidere furtivis? numquid ex nobis Myrtilus est auctor, qui Macari filiae Megaclonis ancillulas profitetur fuisse Musas?

5. have we published Mercury as a thief? that we are Laverna and, together with him, preside over furtive frauds? is Myrtilus from us the authority, who professes that the Muses were the little maidservants of Megaclo, daughter of Macareus?

numquid rege a Cyprio, cuius nomen Cinyras est, dictavimus meretriculam Venerem divorum in numero consecratam?.

Was it by a Cypriot king, whose name is Cinyras, that we dictated that the little harlot Venus be consecrated among the number of the gods?.

25.1. Quis ex reliquiis Pelopis conpactum esse Palladium prodidit? non vos? quis Spartanum fuisse Martem?

25.1. Who divulged that the Palladium was compacted from the relics of Pelops? not you? who that Mars was Spartan?

non Epicharmus auctor vester? quis in Thraciae finibus procreatum? non Sophocles Atticus cunctis consentientibus theatris?

Is not Epicharmus your author? Who declared it procreated within the boundaries of Thrace? Was it not Sophocles the Athenian, with all the theaters consenting?

quis mensibus in Arcadia tribus et decem vinctum? non Melae fluminis filius quis ei canes | f. 91 | ab Caribus, quis ab Scythis asinos immolari? non principaliter cum ceteris Apollodorus?

who said that he was bound in Arcadia for thirteen months? was it not the son of the river Meles? who [said] that for him dogs | f. 91 | by the Carians, who that by the Scythians donkeys were immolated? was it not principally Apollodorus together with the others?

quis dum genialibus insultat alienis haesisse in laqueis involutum? non commentarii vestri? non scaenae?

who, while he was insulting another’s nuptial couch, was stuck, entangled in snares? are these not your commentaries? not the stages?

2. Numquid aliquando a nobis conscriptum est mercennariam deos servitutem servisse, ut Herculem Sardibus amoris et petulantiae causa, ut Admeto Apollinem Delium, ut Laomedonti Troico Iovis fratrem, ut eidem sed cum patruo Pythium, ut coniugalia secreta miscentibus Minervam luminis ministram et lucernarum modulatricem? 3. Nonne ille vester est vates, qui Martem fecit et Venerem mortalium manibus vulneratos? non ex vobis Panyassis unus est, qui ab Hercule Ditem patrem et reginam memorat sauciatam esse Iunonem?

2. Has it ever been written by us that the gods served a mercenary servitude: that Hercules at Sardis, for the cause of love and petulance; that Apollo the Delian to Admetus; that to the Trojan Laomedon the brother of Jove, and to the same, but with his paternal uncle, the Pythian; that, for those mixing conjugal secrets, Minerva was a minister of light and a modulatress of lamps? 3. Is not that your bard, who made Mars and Venus wounded by the hands of mortals? Is there not among you a certain Panyassis, who relates that by Hercules Dis the Father and the Queen were wounded, and that Juno was wounded?

non viraginem ab Ornyto caesam cruentatam vexatam Polemonis vestri indicant scripta? non ab Hippocoontis liberis ipsum Sosibius Herculem cruciatum retulisse pronuntiat et inlati vulneris et doloris? 4. Apud insulam Cretam sepulturae esse mandatum Iovem nobis editum traditur?

do not the writings of your Polemon indicate that a virago, cut down by Ornytus, was bloodied and vexed? does not Sosibius declare that Hercules himself was tormented by the sons of Hippocoön, and that both a wound and pain were inflicted? 4. Is it not handed down to us, set forth, that Jove was consigned to burial on the island of Crete?

in Spartanis et Lacedaemoniis finibus nos dicimus conditos in cunis coalitos fratres? noster ille est auctor, qui Patrocles Thurius scriptorum in titulis indicatur, qui tumulos memorat reliquiasque Saturnias tellure in Sicula contineri? Hieronymus, Plutarchus nostrarum esse partium comprobatur, qui in Oetaeis verticibus Herculem post morborum comitialium ruinas dissolutum in cinerem prodidit?.

in the Spartan and Lacedaemonian borders do we say there were established brothers fused in their cradles? is that our author, who is indicated in the titles of writings as Patrocles the Thurian, who recounts that the tumuli and Saturnian relics are contained in Sicilian earth? Hieronymus, Plutarch is proved to be of our party, who on the Oetaean peaks reported Hercules, after the ruins of comitial diseases, dissolved into ash?

26.1. Nam quid de illis amoribus dicam quibus in feminas sanctos incaluisse caelestes vestris proditum litteris atque auctoribus continetur? | f.91 b | 2. Numquid enim a nobis arguitur rex maris Amphitritas EIippothoas Amymonas Menalippas Alcyonas per furiosae cupiditatis ardorem castimoniae virginitate privasse? 3. numquid Apollo Latonius immaculatus ille, castissimus atque purus Arsinoas Aethusas Eypsipylas Marpessas, Zeuxippas et Prothoas, Daphnas et Steropas inconsulti pectoris adpetisse fervoribus?

26.1. For what shall I say about those loves, by which in your writings and authorities handed down it is contained that the holy celestials grew hot toward women? | f.91 b | 2. Is it, for instance, by us that the king of the sea is accused of having, through the ardor of frenzied cupidity, deprived Amphitritas, EIippothoas, Amymonas, Menalippas, Alcyonas of the virginity of chastity? 3. Did Apollo Latonian, that immaculate one, most chaste and pure, with the fervors of an unadvised breast desire Arsinoas, Aethusas, Eypsipylas, Marpessas, Zeuxippas and Prothoas, Daphnas and Steropas?

4. numquid senex Saturnus iamdudum obsitus canis atque annorum vetustate iam fflgidus nostris carminibus indicatur ab uxore in adulterio comprehensus induisse formam feri et sub pecoris specie hinnitibus evolavisse iactatis? 5. Iuppiter ipse rex mundi nonne a vobis infamis est isse per innumeras species et petulantis amoris flammam servilibus obumbravisse fallaciis? 6. numquid a nobis aliquando conscriptus est, libidinosa ut perficeret furta, modo esse in aurum versus, modo in satyrum ludicrum, in draconem, in alitem, taurum, et quod omnia genera contumeliarum transiliat, in formiculam parvulam, ut Clitoris videlicet filiam Myrmidonis ederet apud Thessalos matrem?

4. is old Saturn, long since overgrown with gray and now already frigid with the antiquity of years, indicated in our songs as having been caught by his wife in adultery, to have put on the form of a wild beast, and under the likeness of cattle to have flown off with whinnies flung about? 5. is not Jupiter himself, the king of the world, by you made infamous for having gone through innumerable species and for having overshadowed the flame of petulant love with servile deceits? 6. has it ever been written by us that, in order to accomplish libidinous thefts, he was now turned into gold, now into a playful satyr, into a dragon, into a winged creature, a bull, and—so as to overleap all kinds of affronts—into a tiny little ant, so that he might make the daughter of Clitor, a Myrmidon, a mother among the Thessalians?

7. Quis illum in Alcumena novem noctibus fecit pervigilasse continuis? - non vos? Quis in amoribus desidem derelicta caeli statione iacuisse?

7. Who made him keep sleepless watch with Alcmene for nine continuous nights? - not you? Who [said] that, in amours, he lay idle, his station of heaven abandoned?

- non vos? 8. Et sane adiungitis beneficia non parva, siquidem vobis deus Hercules natus est, qui in rebus huiusmodi patris sui transiret exuperaretque virtutes. 9. Ille noctibus vix: novem unam potuit prolem extundere concinnare conpingere, at Hercules sanctus deus gnatas quinquaginta de Thestio nocte una perdocuit | f. 92 | et nomen virginitatis expeonere et genetricum pondera sustinere.

- not you? 8. And indeed you add no small benefits, since for you a god Hercules was born, who in matters of this sort would pass beyond and overtop the virtues of his father. 9. He, with nights scarcely: with nine he could hammer out, concinnate, and patch together one offspring; but Hercules, the holy god, taught thoroughly fifty daughters from Thestius in a single night | f. 92 | both to put off the name of virginity and to bear the burdens of mothers.

10. Quid quod non contenti feminei generis adtribuisse diis curas etiam sexus adiungitis adamatos ab his mares? Hylam nescio quis diligit, Hyacintho est alius occupatus, ille Pelopis desideriis flagrat, hic in Chrysippum suspirat ardentius, Catamitus rapitur deliciarum futurus et poculorum custos, et ut Iovis dicatur pullus, in partibus Fabius aduritur mollibus obsignatur que posticis..

10. What? that, not content to have attributed to the gods the cares of the feminine gender, you even add males loved by them to their sex? Some fellow loves Hylas, another is occupied with Hyacinthus, that one burns with desires for Pelops, this one sighs more ardently for Chrysippus; Ganymede is seized, destined to be a darling and keeper of cups, and, so that he may be called Jove’s “chick,” in his soft parts Fabius is singed and is sealed in his hind parts..

27.1. Sed soli amant apud vos mares et femineo sexui sua conservata est sanctitas? nonne vestris cautum est litteris, adamatum esse ab Aurora Tithonum, arsisse in Endymionem Lunam, Nereidem in Aeacum, in Achillis genitorem Thetim, Proserpinam in Adonem? matrem eius Cererem in Iasionem nescio quem rusticanum et post Vulcanum Phaethontem Martem in Anchisae nuptias ipsam illam Venerem Aeneadum matrem et Romanae dominationis auctorem?

27.1. But is it only males who love among you, and has sanctity been kept for the feminine sex? Is it not stipulated in your writings that Tithonus was loved by Aurora, that the Moon burned for Endymion, that a Nereid for Aeacus, that Thetis for the begetter of Achilles, that Proserpina for Adonis? that his mother Ceres for Iasion, some rustic I-know-not-who; and that, after Vulcan, [she loved] Phaethon and Mars; and that that very Venus, mother of the Aeneads and author of Roman domination, [entered] into the nuptials of Anchises?

2. Cum talia igitur vos probra et flagitiosa prodigia non in unum aliquem nominatim sed in omnem pariter superorum gentem quam esse vos remini sine ullius exceptione iaciatis, audetis salva verecundia. dicere, aut esse nos impios aut vos pios, cum multo maiores ferant a vobis offensas ex omnibus probris quae in illorum maledicta conducitis quam amplitudines et honores ex ritu atque officio cultionis? 3. Aut enim falsa illa sunt cuncta quae sunt prompta de singulis existimationem illorum maiestatemque laedentia, et res digna omnino est, propter quam dii funditus | f. 92b | genus omne debeant abolere mortalium, aut si explorata et vera sunt et sine ullis dubitationibus conprehensa, ad eam perducitur res summam, ut invitissimis vobis non generis superi sed humani eos fuisse credamus..

2. Since such reproaches and flagitious prodigies you thus hurl, not against some one person by name but equally against the whole nation of the supernal ones, whom you remember to exist without any exception, do you dare, with modesty intact, to say, either that we are impious or that you are pious, when they bear much greater offenses from you out of all the reproaches which you conduct into their malediction than amplifications and honors from the rite and office of cult? 3. For either all those things are false which are ready to hand about individuals, injuring their estimation and majesty, and the case is altogether worthy, on account of which the gods ought utterly | f. 92b | to abolish the whole race of mortals, or, if they are well-explored and true and grasped without any hesitations, the matter is brought to this sum: that, much against your will, we should believe them to have been not of the upper race but of the human..

28.1. Ubi enim nuptiae matrimonia puerperia nutrices artificia debilitates, ubi status capitis et condicio servitutis, ubi vulnera caedes cruor, ubi amores desideria voluptates, ubi omnis animorum adfectio ab inquietis perturbationibus veniens, necesse est divinum nihil istic esse, nec quod proprium caduci est generis et terrenae fragilitatis praestantiori posse adhaerere naturae. 2. Quis est enim qui credat, si modo agnoscit ac percipit vis istius potentiae quae sit, aut genitabiles habuisse partes deum et abscisione foedissima privatum his esse, aut ex se proditas aliquando intercepisse proles et vinculorum coercitum poenis, aut cum patre quodammodo conseruisse bella civilia et cum iure abstinuisse regali, aut exterritum minoris metu vertisse exuperatum terga et tamquam fugitivum et exulem in summotis delituisse secretis? 3. quis est, inquam, qui credat ad humanas adcubuisse deum mensas, interemptum avaritiae causa, fefellisse supplices ambiguitate responsi, praecellere in fur lstorum dolis, adulterasse servisse vulneratum esse etadamasse et per omnes libidinum formas incestarum cupiditatum circumegisse pellaciam?

28.1. Where, indeed, there are nuptials, matrimonies, child-births, nurses, crafts, debilities, where status of head and the condition of servitude, where wounds, slaughters, gore, where loves, desires, pleasures, where every affection of souls coming from restless perturbations, it is necessary that there be nothing divine there, nor can what is proper to a perishable kind and to earthly fragility adhere to a more preeminent nature. 2. For who is there who would believe, if only he recognizes and perceives what the force of that power is, either that a god had generative parts and was deprived of these by most foul abscission, or that offspring brought forth from himself he at some time intercepted and was constrained by the penalties of chains, or that he in some sort waged civil wars with his father and abstained from royal right, or that, panic-stricken, overmastered by fear of one inferior, he turned his back and, as though a fugitive and an exile, skulked in withdrawn retreats? 3. Who is there, I say, who would believe that a god reclined at human tables, was put to death for cause of avarice, deceived suppliants by ambiguity of response, excelled in the tricks of thieves, committed adultery, was a slave, was wounded, and fell in love, and through all the forms of lusts plied the enticement of incestuous desires?

4. Atquin omnia vos ista et fuisse et inesse in diis adseveratis vestris, neque ullam praetermittiti? speciem vitiositatis maleficii lapsus quam non in convicium | f. 93 | numinum opinionum petulantia conferatis. 5. Aut igitur vobis quaerendi sunt dii alii in quos omnia ista non cadant - in quos enim haec cadunt, humani sunt generis atque terreni - aut si hi sunt tantummodo quorum nomina publicastis et mores, opinionibus tollitis vestris.

4. And yet you asseverate that all those things both have been and are in your gods, nor do you pass over any form of viciousness, of malefice, of lapse, which you do not, by the petulance of your opinions, heap as reproach upon the numina | f. 93 |. 5. Either therefore other gods must be sought by you, upon whom all these things do not fall—for those in whom these things do fall are of the human race and earthly—or, if these alone are they whose names and manners you have published, you abolish them by your opinions.

Mortalia sunt enim quaecumque narratis..

For whatever things you narrate are mortal..

29.1. Et possumus quidem hoc in loco omnis istos, nobis quos inducitis atque appellatis deos, homines fuisse monstrare vel Agragantino Euhemero replicato, cuius libellos Ennius, clarum ut fieret cunctis, sermonem in Italum transtulit, vel Nicagora ayprio vel Pellaeo Leonte vel ayrenensi Theodoro vel Eippone ac Diagora Meliis vel auctoribus aliis mille, qui scrupolosae diligentiae cura in lucem res abditas libertate ingenua protulerunt. 2. Possumus, inquam, si placet, et Iovis res gestas et Minervae experomere bella, virginis et Dianae, quibus dolis Liber Indorum affectaverit regnum, cuius fuerit condicionis Venus, cuius operae, cuius quaestus, matrimonium Magna cuius tenuerit Mater, quidnam spei, quid voluptatis specioso ab Attide conceperit, unde Serapis Aegyptius, unde Isis, vel ex quibus causis appellatio ipsa concinnata sit nominum..

29.1. And we can indeed in this place show that all those whom you introduce to us and call gods were men, either with the Agrigentian Euhemerus brought forward again, whose little books Ennius, that it might become clear to all, translated the discourse into the Italic tongue, or with Nicagoras the Cyprian or Leon the Pellaean or Theodorus the Cyrenian or Eippone and Diagoras the Melians, or with a thousand other authors, who by the care of scrupulous diligence brought hidden matters to light with ingenuous liberty. 2. We can, I say, if it pleases, also set forth the deeds of Jupiter and the wars of Minerva and of Diana the virgin, by what tricks Liber aspired to the kingdom of the Indians, of what condition Venus was, of what employment, of what gain, whom the Great Mother held in marriage, what hope, what pleasure she conceived from handsome Attis, whence the Egyptian Serapis, whence Isis, or from what causes the very appellation of the names was composed..

30.1. Sed non istam suscepimus in eo sermone quem facimus vel operulam vel voluntatem, ut ostendamus et publicemus quinam fuerint hi omnes. 2. Illud nobis propositum est, ut quoniam nos impios et inreligiosos vocatis, vos contra et deorum contenditis esse cultores, demonstrare atque in medio ponere, ab hominibus magis nullis ignominiosius eos tractari quam vobis. | f. 93b | 3. Quod si habere se ita ex ipsis maledictionibus promptum est, sequitur ut intellegi debeat vos superis stimulos indignationum furialium commovere, qui tam foedas de illis vel auditis vel creditis vel ignominiosas ipsi compingitis fabulas.

30.1. But we have not undertaken in this discourse that we are making either the little work or the intention to show and publish who all these were. 2. This is our aim: since you call us impious and irreligious, while you, conversely, contend that you are worshipers of the gods, to demonstrate and set forth openly that by no men are they handled more ignominiously than by you. | f. 93b | 3. And if it is thus evident from those very maledictions themselves, it follows that it ought to be understood that you are stirring against the supernal ones the goads of furial indignations, you who either have heard or believed such foul and ignominious fables about them, or you yourselves piece them together.

4. Non enim qui sollicite relegit et inmaculatas hostias caedit, qui acervos turis dat concremandos igni, numina consentiendus est colere aut officia solus religionis inplere. 5. Cultus verus in pectore est atque opinatio de dis digna, nec quicquam prodest inlatio sanguinis et cruoris, si credas de his ea quae non modo sint longe ab eorum dissita distantiaque natura, verum etiam labis et turpitudinis aliquid et maiestati eorum concilient et decori..

4. For the one who scrupulously goes through the rites and slays unspotted victims, who gives heaps of incense to be burned up by fire, is not therefore to be thought to worship the numina or by himself to fulfill the duties of religion. 5. True cult is in the breast, and an opinion about the gods worthy of them; nor does the bringing-in of blood and gore profit anything, if you believe about them things which are not only far removed and distant from their nature, but even attach some stain and turpitude, and compromise their majesty and decorum..

31.1. Interrogare enim vos libet et ad sermonis exigui responsionem vocare, utrumne gravius existimetis nullas caedere his hostias, quia putes naturam tantam neque velle neque appetere istas, an talia de his probra opinionum foeditate concipere quae cuiusvis animum in ultionis possint rabiem concitare? 2. Si rerum momenta pendantur, nullum repperias tam invidum iudicem, qui non criminosius aestimet maledictis insignibus cuiuspiam famam carpi quam a quoquam silentio praeteriri. 3. Hoc enim forsitan rationis existimari possit et credi, illud sacrilegae mentis est et desperatae in fictionibus caecitatis.

31.1. For I am minded to interrogate you and to call you to the answer of a brief discourse, whether you judge it more grave to slay no sacrificial victims for these, because you suppose a nature so great neither to will nor to appetite these, or to conceive such reproaches about them by the foulness of opinions as can stir the mind of anyone into a fury of vengeance? 2. If the moments of things be weighed, you would find no judge so ill-disposed who would not esteem it more criminal that the reputation of someone be torn by distinguished maledictions than that he be passed by in silence by anyone. 3. For this perhaps can be thought and believed to be of reason; that other is of a sacrilegious mind and of a blindness desperate in its fictions.

4. Si in caerimoniis vestris rebusque divinis postilionibus locus est et piaculi dicitur contracta esse | f. 94 | commissio, si per imprudentiae lapsum aut in verbo quispiam aut simpuvio deerrarit, aut si rursus in sollemnibus ludis curriculisque divinis commissum omnes statim in religiones clamatis sacras, si ludius constitit aut tibicen repente conticuit aut si patrimus ille qui vocitatur puer omiserit per ignorantiam lorum aut terram tenere non potuit: audetis abnuere in delictis tam gravibus violari semper a vobis deos, cum in levioribus causis irasci eos ipsi cum pernicie saepius confiteamini civitatis? [Cic.,har. r. X,20.] .

4. If in your ceremonies and divine matters there is room for postillions and it is said that a commission, once committed, has contracted a piacular guilt, | f. 94 | if by a slip of inadvertence someone has strayed either in a word or in the simpuvium (libation-vessel), or if again in the solemn games and divine race-courses, whenever a fault has been committed, you all immediately cry up sacred religious scruples, if the performer stopped, or the flautist suddenly fell silent, or if that boy who is called patrimus, through ignorance, omitted the strap, or could not keep hold of the ground: do you dare to deny that in offenses so grave the gods are ever violated by you, when in lighter causes you yourselves confess that they grow angry, again and again to the ruin of the state? [Cic.,har. r. 10,20.] .

32.1. "Sed poetarum, inquiunt, figmenta sunt haec omnia et ad voluptatem compositae lusiones". - Non est quidem credibile homines minus brutos et vetustatis remotissimae vestigatores aut non eas inseruisse suis carminibus fabulas quae in notionibus hominum super essent atque in auribus collocatae aut ipsos sibitantum licentiosi voluisse iuris adsciscere, ut confingerent per stultitiam res eas quae nec ab insania procul essent remotae et quae illis ab dis metum et periculum possent ab hominibus comparare. 2. Sed concedamus, ut dicitis, deformitatum tantarum concinnatores esse atque inventores poetas: immunes tamen ab deorum maletractatione nec sic estis, qui aut talia cessatis maleficia vindicare aut non legibus latis et severitate | f. 94b | poenarum tantae istis obviam temeritati constitutumque a vobis est ne quis posthac hominum id quod esset turpitudini proximum aut deorum indignum maiestatibus loqueretur. 3. Quisquis enim patitur peccare peccantem, is vires sumministrat audaciae, et maioris contumeliae res est falsis quemquam notare atque insignire criminibus quam vera ingerere atque obiectare delicta.

32.1. "But," they say, "these are all the poets’ figments and amusements composed for pleasure." - It is surely not credible that men less brutish, investigators of the most remote antiquity, either did not insert into their songs those tales which were current in the notions of men and lodged in their ears, or that they themselves wished to arrogate to themselves so licentious a right as to fabricate through folly things not far removed from insanity, and which could procure for them fear from the gods and danger from men. 2. But let us concede, as you say, that the poets are the arrangers and inventors of such deformities: yet you are not thereby immune from maltreatment of the gods—you who either forbear to vindicate such malefactions, or do not, by enacted laws and the severity | f. 94b | of punishments, oppose so great a rashness, and have not established that henceforth no one among men should speak what is next to turpitude or unworthy of the majesties of the gods. 3. For whoever allows a transgressor to transgress supplies strength to audacity; and it is a matter of greater contumely to mark and brand someone with false crimes than to thrust in and object true offenses.

Quod enim sis dici et quod esse te sentias, morsum habet minorem, testimonio tacitae recognitionis infractum: illud vero acerbissime vulnerat quod inurit innoxios et quod decus nominis atque existimationis infamat.

For that which you are said to be, and which you feel yourself to be, has a smaller bite, broken by the testimony of tacit recognition; but that, indeed, wounds most bitterly which brands the innocent and which defames the honor of name and estimation.

33.1. Scribuntur dii vestri in tricliniis caelestibus atque in chalcidicis aureis cenitare, potare et ad ultimum fidibus et vocum modulatione mulceri. 2. Vos aures patientissimas commodatis nec iudicatis indignum voluptates attribui diis eas quibus corpora terrena fulciuntur et quas aures expetunt enervati pectoris dissolutione mollitae. 3. Inducuntur ex his alii amatores, adulteri castitatis nec cum feminis tantum sed cum viris etiam propudiosos flagitiososque miscere concubitus.

33.1. Your gods are written of as dining in celestial triclinia and in golden chalcidica, drinking, and finally being soothed by lyres and by the modulation of voices. 2. You lend the most patient ears, and you do not judge it unworthy that pleasures be attributed to the gods—those by which earthly bodies are propped up and which ears, softened by the dissolution of an enervated breast, crave. 3. From these, some are brought on as lovers, adulterers of chastity, and to mix shameful and scandalous couplings not only with women but even with men.

4. Vobis nulla est cura | f. 95 | quid super rebus dicatur tantis, neque ullo saltem castigationis metu luxuriantium litterarum coercetis audaciam. 5. Per insanias, per furores orbare alii se et tamquam hostili de sanguine ita se proprio parricidio cruentare: sacrilegia vos illa miramini elata subiimiter, et quod poenis omnibus conveniebat plecti ut animosius consurgat audacia, incentivo extollitis laudis. 6. Illi vulnera orbitatis ingemere et cum heiulatibus indecoris fata incusare crudelia: vos stupetis eloquentiae viribus, et quod penitus oportebat ex humani generis coalitu tolli, percensetis, ediscitis ac ne ulla intercidat oblivione curatis.

4. You have no concern | f. 95 | for what is said about matters so great, nor do you restrain, by even any fear of castigation, the audacity of luxuriant letters. 5. Through insanities, through frenzies, some bereave themselves and, as if from hostile blood, thus make themselves blood-stained with their own parricide: those sacrileges you marvel at, raised loftily, and that which it was fitting to be punished with all penalties, you, by an incentive of praise, exalt, so that audacity may rise more high-spirited. 6. They groan over the wounds of bereavement and, with unseemly howlings, arraign cruel fates: you are stupefied at the powers of eloquence, and what ought utterly to be removed from the coalition of the human race, you enumerate, learn by heart, and take care that none of it should perish by oblivion.

7. Vulnerari, vexari, bella inter se gerere furialium memorantur ardore discriminum: vobis illa est descriptio voluptati, atque ut scriptorum tantam defendatis audaciam, allegorias res illas et naturalis scientiae mentimini esse doctrinas..

7. To be wounded, to be vexed, to wage wars among themselves with the furial ardor of conflicts are recounted: to you that description is for pleasure, and, so that you may defend so great an audacity of the writers, you feign that those things are allegories and doctrines of natural science..

34.1. Sed quid ego neclectas aliorum conqueror contumelias numinum? 2. Ipse ille Iuppiter, cuius vos nomen effari non sine metu decuit et totius corporis concussione, amasio captus ab uxore describitur confiteri culpas suas, et vel demens ac nescius, quas amiculas coniugi, quas uxori anteposuerit pelices, obduratus inverecundia publicare: vos talia qui extuo lere prodigia poetarum esse principes atque reges divinis ingeniis praeditos, capita esse memoratis sanctissima, tantumque ab officio religionum quas inducitis evolastis, ut gravioris ponderis | f. 95 b | sint apud vos verba quibus caelitum violata sublimitas. 3. Ita ergo non decuit, si modo ullus deorum esset apud vos metus aut si esse illos uspiam praesumptionis certissimae confidentia crederetis, rogationibus, plebis scitis, consultorum senatus metu intercedere prohibere sancire, ne quis vellet de dis passim nisi quod esset plenum religionis effari?

34.1. But why do I complain of the contumelies of the numina neglected by others? 2. That Jupiter himself, whose name it was fitting for you to utter not without fear and with a concussion of the whole body, is described, caught as a paramour by his wife, as confessing his own faults, and, as though demented and unknowing, hardened in shamelessness to publish which girlfriends, which paramours he had preferred to his spouse, to his wife: you, who are for extol

ng such prodigies, declare the princes and kings of the poets, endowed with divine talents, to be most holy heads, and you have flown so far from the office of the religions which you introduce, that words by which the sublimity of the celestials violated are of graver weight | f. 95 b | with you. 3. Was it then not fitting, if only any fear of the gods were with you, or if by the confidence of most certain presumption you believed that they existed anywhere, by rogations, by plebiscites, by senatus consulta, to intercede with fear, to prohibit, to sanction, that no one should be willing to speak at random about the gods except what would be full of religion?

4. nec a vobis saltem istum meruerunt honorem, ut quibus expellitis a vobis eisdem ab his legibus propulsaretis iniurias? 5. Maiestatis sunt apud vos rei, qui de vestris sequius obmurmuraverint aliquid regibus. 6. Magistratum in ordinem redigere, senatorem aut convicio prosequi suis esse decrestis periculosissimum poenis.

4. nor have they at least from you deserved this honor, that those whom you expel from you you should by these same laws repel wrongs from them? 5. They are defendants of Majesty among you, who shall have muttered anything somewhat unfavorably about your kings. 6. To bring a magistrate to order, or to pursue a senator with reviling, you have decreed to be most perilous with their own penalties.

7. Carmen malum conscribere, quo fama alterius coinquinetur et vita, decemviralibus scitis evadere noluistis inpune, ac ne vestras aures convicio aliquis petulantiore pulsaret, de atrocibus formulas constituistis iniuriis. 8. Soli di sunt apud vos superi inhonorati contemptibiles viles, in quos ius est a vobis datum quae quisque voluerit dicere, turpitudinum iacere quas libido confinxerit atque excogitaverit formas. 9. Et incuriam nobis intendere tam infamium non erubescitis numinum, cum sit rectius multo deos esse non credere quam esse illos tales tali que existimatione sentire?.

7. To compose an evil song, by which another’s fame and life are stained, you were unwilling, by decemviral statutes, to let escape unpunished; and lest anyone with more petulant reviling should strike your ears, you established formulae concerning atrocious injuries. 8. The only ones unhonored, contemptible, and vile among you are the gods above, against whom the right has been granted by you for anyone to say whatever he wishes, to hurl the forms of turpitudes which lust has fabricated and devised. 9. And you do not blush to level against us the charge of neglect toward deities so infamous, since it is much more correct not to believe that gods exist than to think them to be such and to hold such an estimation?

35.1. Sed poetis tantummodo licere voluistis indignas de dis fabulas et flagitiosa ludibria comminisci? 2. Quid pantomimi vestri, quid histriones, quid illa mimorum atque exoleti generis multitudo? 3. nonne ad usum | f. 96 | quaestus sui abutuntur dis vestris et lenocinia voluptatum ex iniuriis adtrahunt contumeliisque divinis?

35.1. But have you wished that only poets be permitted to devise unworthy fables about the gods and flagitious mockeries? 2. What of your pantomimes, what of the histrions, what of that multitude of the mime and exolet kind? 3. Do they not abuse your gods for the use | f. 96 | of their own gain, and draw panderings of pleasures from the injuries and the divine contumelies?

4. Sedent in spectaculis publicis sacerdotum omnium magistratum que collegia, pontifices maximi et maximi curiones, sedent quindecimviri laureati et diales cum apicibus flamines, sedent interpretes augures divinae mentis et voluntatis, nec non et castae virgines, perpetui nutrices et conservatrices ignis, sedet cunctus populus et senatus, consulatibus functi patres, dis proximi atque augustissimi reges: et quod nefarium esset auditu, gentis illa genetrix Martiae, regnatoris et populi procreatrix amans saltatur Venus et per adfectus omnes meretriciae vilitatis inpudica experimitur imitatione bacchari. 5. Saltatur et Magna sacris compta cum infulis Mater et contra decus aetatis illa Pessinuntia Dindymene in bubulci unius amplexum flagitiosa fingitur adpetitione gestire, nec non et illa proles Iovis Sophoclis in Trachiniis [Trach. 749ss, 1024ss] Hercules pestiferi tegminis circumretitus indagine miserabiles edere inducitur heiulatus, violentia doloris frangi atque in ultimam tabem diffluentium viscerum maceratione consumi. 6. Quin et ille in fabulis maximus ipse regnator poli sine ulla nominis maiestatisque formidine adulterorum agere introducitur partes, atque [formidine] ut fallere castitatem alienarum possit familias matrum, ora immutare pellacia et in species coniugum | f. 98b | subditivi corporis simulatione succedere..

4. They sit in the public spectacles—the colleges of all the priests and of the magistrates, the supreme pontiffs and the greatest curiones; the laurelled quindecimvirs and the Diales flamens with their apexes sit; the augurs, interpreters of the divine mind and will, likewise sit, and the chaste virgins, the perpetual nurses and preservers of the fire; the whole people and the senate sit, the fathers who have discharged consulships, kings next to the gods and most august: and—what would be nefarious to hear—that mother of the Martial race, the loving procreatrix of the ruler and the people, Venus, is danced, and through all the affects of meretricious vileness, shameless, she is exhibited by imitative acting to rage in Bacchic frenzy. 5. The Great Mother too, adorned for the sacred rites with fillets, is danced, and, contrary to the honor of her age, that Pessinuntian Dindymene is fictitiously represented as exulting with a shameful appetition to leap into the embrace of a single cowherd; and likewise that offspring of Jove—Hercules of Sophocles in the Trachiniae [Trach. 749ss, 1024ss]—enmeshed in the toils of the pestiferous covering, is brought on to utter pitiable howlings, to be broken by the violence of pain and to be consumed into utter wasting by the maceration of his viscera as they melt away. 6. Nay more, that greatest one in the fables, the very ruler of the sky, without any dread of his name and majesty, is introduced to play the parts of adulterers, and, [formidine] so that he may be able to deceive the chastity of the households of other men’s matrons, to change his faces by treachery and, into the appearances of husbands, | f. 98b | to insinuate himself by the simulation of a substituted body..

36.1. Nec satis haec culpa est. Etiam mimis et scurrilibus ludicris sanctissimorum personae interponuntur deorum, et ut spectatoribus vacuis risus possit atque hilaritas excitari, iocularibus feriuntur cavillationibus numina: conclamant et adsurgunt theatra, caveae omnes concrepant fragoribus atque plausu, et quod nullis possit satisfactionibus expiari, exoletis atque inrisoribus numinum dona instituuntur et munera, ab officiis otium publicis,immunitas et vacatio cum coronis. 2. Et audetis post ista mirari unde oriantur haec mala quibus inundatur et premitur sine ulla intermissione mortalitas, cum omnis res eas quibus sunt involuta probra numinum et maledictionis elogia et cotidie referatis et ediscatis cotidie, et si quando animum desidem otiosis vultis alucinationibus occupari, dies vobis poscatis dari et sine ullis intermissionibus exhiberi. 3. Quod si haberet vos aliqua vestris pro religionibus indignatio, has potius litteras, hos exurere debuistis olim libros, [istos] demoliri,-dissolvere theatra haec potius, in quibus infamiae numinum propudiosis cotidie publicantur in fabulis.

36.1. Nor is this fault enough. Even in mimes and scurrilous ludicries the personae of the most holy gods are interposed, and so that in vacuous spectators laughter and hilarity can be stirred, the divine powers are struck with jocular cavillations: the theaters shout together and rise up, all the galleries resound with crashes and applause, and what can be expiated by no satisfactions, for catamites and mockers of the gods gifts and presents are instituted, leisure from public duties,immunity and exemption with crowns. 2. And you dare after these things to wonder whence arise these evils with which mortality is inundated and pressed without any intermission, since you every day recite and every day learn by heart all those matters in which the disgraces of the gods and the elogies of malediction are involved, and if ever you wish your idle mind to be occupied with otiose hallucinations, you demand that days be given to you and to be put on without any intermissions. 3. But if any indignation for your religions possessed you, these letters rather, these books you ought long ago to have burned, [those] to demolish,—to dissolve these theaters rather, in which the infamies of the gods are daily published in shameless fables.

4. Nam nostra quidem scripta cur ignibus meruerunt daris cur immaniter conventicula dirui? in quibus summus oratur deus, pax cunctis et venia postulatur magistratibus exercitibus regibus familiaribus inimicis, adhuc vitam degentibus et resolutis corporum vinctione; in quibus aliud auditur nihil | f. 97 | nisi quod humanos faciat, nisi quod mites verecundos pudicos castos, familiaris communicatores rei et cum omnibus quossolidet germanitatis necessitudine copulatos. .

4. For our writings, indeed, why have they deserved to be given to the fires, why are the conventicles savagely demolished? in which the highest God is prayed to, peace for all and pardon is requested for magistrates, armies, kings, kinsfolk, enemies, for those still spending life and for those released from the bond of bodies; in which nothing else is heard | f. 97 | except that which makes men humane, except that which makes them gentle, modest, pudic, chaste, familiar communicators of goods and, with all whom itsolidet by the necessity of brotherhood, conjoined. .

37.1. Verum ita se res habet, ut quoniam plurimum gladiis et potestate valetis ferri, anteire vos etiam veritatis scientia iudicetis, et esse pro diis pios, quorum potentias primi opinionum obscenitate foedastis. 2. Hoc in loco, si ferocitas vestra permittit et rabies patitur, illud nobis ut respondeatis oramus, utrumne iras cadere in naturam existimetis deorum an ab adfectibus his longe divinam esse beatitudinem disiugatam? 3. Nam si concipiunt has faces et motibus exasperantur irarum, sicut vestrae opinationes ferunt - nam saepe illos dicitis et propter ludos minus sollicite factos et propter praesules non probatos et propter quaedam spatiola defanata et propter caerimonias non rite perfectas tremoribus infremuisse terrarum et contagione pestilentiae conrupisse auras temporum luctuosa cum populi vastitate - sequitur ut intellegi debeat iracundias non parvas ex opinionibus eos continere praedictis.

37.1. Truly the matter stands thus, that since you prevail, being borne along by swords and authority, you judge yourselves also to go before in the knowledge of truth, and to be pious on behalf of the gods, whose powers you were the first to befoul with the obscenity of opinions. 2. At this point, if your ferocity allows and your rabies permits, we beg you to answer us this: whether you think angers fall upon the nature of the gods, or that divine beatitude is far disjoined from these affections? 3. For if they conceive these torches and are exasperated by motions of angers, as your opinions maintain—for you often say that they, both on account of games performed less solicitously, and on account of presiding prelates not approved, and on account of certain little spaces desecrated, and on account of ceremonies not rightly completed, have roared with tremors of the lands and have corrupted the airs of the seasons with the contagion of pestilence, with a mournful ravaging of the people—it follows that it ought to be understood that they contain no small irascibilities, according to the aforesaid opinions.

4. Quod si datur, et illud necessario consequens, miserias has omnis quibus olim genus accumulatur humanum ab huiusmodi fluere fictionibus. quodsi ab his causis indignatio proficiscitur numinum, miseriarum tantarum vos estis auctores, qui animos eaelitum non cessatis offendere et ultionis in rabiem coneitare. Sin autem | f. 97b | huiusmodi furiis deorum est genus immune neque quid sit irasci dii omnino noverunt, et nobis ergo irasci sine ulla ratione dicuntur, qui ira quid sit ignorant et ab eius comptu et permixtione sunt absoluti.

4. But if this is granted, this also follows of necessity: that all these miseries with which of old the human race is heaped up flow from fictions of this sort. And if from these causes the indignation of the divinities proceeds, you are the authors of such great miseries, who do not cease to offend the minds of the celestials and to incite them into a frenzy of vengeance. But if, on the other hand, | f. 97b | the genus of the gods is immune from furies of this kind, and the gods do not at all know what it is to be angry, then they are said to be angry with us without any reason—who do not know what anger is and are released from its contact and commixture.

[Neque enim fieri per rerum naturam potest, ut quod unum est fiat duo et in diversas res eat unitas ingenita simplicitate divisa].

[For it cannot come to pass by the nature of things, that what is one become two, and that unity go into diverse things, its ingenerate simplicity divided].