Minucius Felix: M. MINUCII FELICIS OCTAVIUS

Cogitanti mihi et cum animo meo Octavi boni et fidelissimi contubernalis memoriam recensenti tanta dulcedo et adfectio hominis inhaesit, ut ipse quodammodo mihi viderer in praeterita redire, non ea quae iam transacta et decursa sunt, recordatione revocare: ita eius contemplatio quantum subtracta est oculis, tantum pectori meo ac paene intimis sensibus inplicata est. Nec inmerito discedens vir eximius et sanctus inmensum sui desiderium nobis reliquit, utpote cum et ipse tanto nostri semper amore flagraverit, ut et in ludicris et seriis pari mecum voluntate concineret eadem velle vel nolle: crederes unam mentem in duobus fuisse divisam. Sic solus in amoribus conscius, ipse socius in erroribus: et cum discussa caligine de tenebrarum profundo in lucem sapientiae et veritatis emergerem, non respuit comitem, sed quod est gloriosius, praecucurrit.

Thinking, and with my mind recalling the memory of Octavius, a good and most faithful tent‑companion, such sweetness and affection of the man clung to me that I myself, in a manner, seemed to return into the past — not to recall by memory those things which are already done and gone —: so far as his presence was withdrawn from my eyes, so much was it entwined in my breast and almost my innermost senses. Nor without reason did the distinguished and holy man, departing, leave to us an immense longing for himself, since he had always burned with so great love of us, that both in play and in earnest he, with equal will, joined with me in wishing or not wishing the same things: you would have believed one mind to have been divided in two. Thus I alone was conscious in affections, he himself my partner in errors: and when, the gloom dispersed, I emerged from the deep of darkness into the light of wisdom and truth, he did not refuse to be my companion, but, which is more glorious, went before.

Itaque cum per universam convictus nostri et familiaritatis aetatem mea cogitatio volveretur, in illo praecipue sermone eius mentis meae resedit intentio, quo Q. Caecilium superstitiosis vanitatibus etiamnunc inhaerentem disputatione gravissima ad veram religionem reformavit.

And so, when through the whole period of our acquaintance and familiar companionship my thought was turning over, in that conversation of his above all my mind’s intent settled, in which he, by a very serious disputation, reformed Q. Caecilium — who was still clinging to superstitious vanities — to the true religion.

II.

     Nam negotii et visendi mei gratia Romam contenderat, relicta domo, coniuge, liberis, et -- quod est in liberis amabilius -- adhuc annis innocentibus et adhuc dimidiata verba temptantibus, loquellam ipso offensantis linguae fragmine dulciorem. Quo in adventu eius non possum exprimere sermonibus, quanto quamque inpatienti gaudio exultaverim, cum augeret maxime laetitiam meam amicissimi hominis inopinata praesentia.
     Igitur post unum et alterum diem, cum iam et aviditatem desiderii frequens adsiduitatis usus implesset et quae per absentiam mutuam de nobis nesciebamus, relatione alterna comperissemus, placuit Ostiam petere, amoenissimam civitatem, quod esset corpori meo siccandis umoribus de marinis lavacris blanda et adposita curatio: sane et ad vindemiam feriae iudiciariam curam relaxaverant. Nam id temporis post aestivam diem in temperiem semet autumnitas dirigebat.
     Itaque cum diluculo ad mare inambulando litori pergeremus, ut et aura adspirans leniter membra vegetaret et cum eximia voluptate molli vestigio cedens harena subsideret, Caecilius simulacro Serapidis denotato, ut vulgus superstitiosus solet, manum ori admovens osculu, labiis pressit.

     For he had hastened to Rome for business and for the sake of seeing me, having left house, wife, children, and -- which is more lovable among children -- still in innocent years and still halting in half-formed words, trying speech made the little talk sweeter by the very fragment of an offending tongue. On his arrival I cannot express in words how, with what impatient joy, I leapt for joy, when the unexpected presence of the most friendly man increased my happiness above measure.
     Therefore after one and another day, when now the frequent practice of constant attendance had filled the eagerness of desire and by alternate accounts we had learned what we did not know of one another through mutual absence, it pleased us to make for Ostia, the most pleasant town, because it was for my body a charming and nearby care for drying the dampness from sea-baths: and indeed they had relaxed the care of the judicial holiday for the vintage. For that time was guiding itself from the summer day into temperate autumn.
     And so at dawn we were walking to the sea and proceeding along the shore, that the breeze breathing gently might revive the limbs and that the sand, yielding to a soft tread, might sink with supreme pleasure; Caecilius, having pointed out the image of Serapis, as the superstitious common folk are wont, pressing his hand to his mouth in a kiss, touched his lips.

III.

Tunc Octavius ait: "Non boni viri est, Marce frater, hominem domi forisque lateri tuo inhaerentem sic in hac inperitiae vulgaris caecitate deserere, ut tam luculento die in lapides eum patiaris inpingere, effigiatos sane et unctos et coronatos, cum scias huius erroris non minorem ad te quam ad ipsum infamiam redundare."
Cum hoc sermone eius medium spatium civitatis emensi iam liberum litus tenebamus. Ibi harenas extimas, velut sterneret ambulacro, perfundens lenis unda tendebat: et, ut semper mare etiam positis flatibus inquietum est, etsi non canis spumosisque fluctibus exibat ad terram, tamen crispis tortuosisque ibidem erroribus delectati perquam sumus, cum in ipso aequoris limine plantas tingueremus, quod vicissim nunc adpulsum nostris pedibus adluderet fluctus, nunc relabens ac vestigia retrahens in sese resorberet. Sensim itaque tranquilleque progressi oram curvi molliter litoris iter fabulis fallentibus legebamus.

Then Octavius said: "It is not the mark of a good man, Marcus my brother, to abandon a man clinging to your flank at home and abroad in such vulgar blindness of inexperience, that on so bright a day you would permit him to be dashed upon the rocks—sculpted, indeed, and anointed and crowned—since you know that this error brings no less infamy upon you than upon him."
With this speech of his, having measured out the middle stretch of the city, we already held the open shore. There the outermost sands, as if laid out for a promenade, the gentle wave was flowing over; and, as the sea is always restless even when the winds are laid, although it did not come to land with barking, foamy breakers, yet we were exceedingly delighted by the crisp and winding wanderings there, when we dipped our soles in the very edge of the sea, which in turn now, driven against our feet, sported with the surge, now receding and drawing footprints back, sucking them into itself. Slowly therefore and peacefully advancing we read the curved course of the shore, beguiled by deceiving tales.

Haec fabulae erant Octavi disserentis de navigatione narratio. Sed ubi eundi spatium satis iustum cum sermone consumpsimus, eandem emensi viam rursus versis vestigiis terebamus, et cum ad id loci ventum est, ubi subductae naviculae substratis roboribus a terrena labe suspensae quiescebant, pueros videmus certatim gestientes testarum in mare iaculationibus ludere. Is lusus est testam teretem iactatione fluctuum levigatam legere de litore, eam testam plano situ digitis comprehensam inclinem ipsum atque humilem quantum potest super undas inrotare, ut illud iaculum vel dorsum maris raderet enataret, dum leni impetu labitur, vel summis fluctibus tonsis emicaret emergeret, dum adsiduo saltu sublevatur.

This was the story Octavius was telling about navigation. But when we had spent a sufficiently just span of time in talk, we again wore back the same measured way by our reversed footprints, and when we came to that place where the hauled-up little boats, suspended on laid timbers, rested safe from the earthly mud, we saw boys eagerly gesturing, playing a game of casting shells into the sea. The game was to choose a rounded shell, smoothed by the tossing of the waves from the shore, to take that shell with a flat position between the fingers and tilt it to roll as low and humble as possible over the waves, so that it might skim or graze the keel or back of the sea and swim along while it glides with a gentle impulse, or flash up and emerge on the highest waves struck, as it is raised by a continual leap.

Is se in pueris victorem ferebat, cuius testa et procurreret longius et frequentius exsiliret.

He carried himself among the boys as a victor, whose potsherd both ran forward farther and leapt up more frequently.

IV.

Igitur cum omnes hac spectaculi voluptate caperemur, Caecilius nihil intendere neque de contentione ridere, sed tacens, anxius, segregatus dolere nescio quid vultu fatebatur. Cui ego: "Quid hoc est rei? cur non agnosco, Caecili, alacritatem tuam illam et illam oculorum etiam in seriis hilaritatem requiro?"
Tum ille: "Iam dudum me Octavi nostri acriter angit et remordet oratio, qua in te invectus obiurgavit neglegentiae, ut me dissimulanter gravius argueret inscientiae.

Therefore, while we were all carried away with the delight of this spectacle, Caecilius seemed to pay no attention nor to laugh at the quarrel, but silent, anxious, withdrawn, he confessed with a face that he was grieving something I know not what. To whom I said: "What is the matter? Why do I not recognize, Caecilius, that alacrity of yours, and even that cheerfulness of your eyes in seriousness I search for?"
Then he: "For some time now the speech of our Octavius sharply vexes and gnaws at me, in which, having inveighed against you, he rebuked you for negligence, in order that, covertly, he might more gravely charge me with ignorance.

Itaque progrediar ulterius: de toto integro mihi cum Octavio res est. Si placet, ut ipsius sectae homo cum eo disputem, iam profecto intelleget facilius esse in contubernalibus disputare quam conserere sapientiam. Modo in istis ad tutelam balnearum iactis et in altum procurrentibus petrarum obicibus residamus, ut et requiescere de itinere possimus et intentius disputare."
Et cum dicto eius adsedimus, ita ut me ex tribus medium lateris ambitione protegerent: nec hoc obsequi fuit aut ordinis aut honoris, quippe cum amicitia pares semper aut accipiat aut faciat, sed ut arbiter et utrisque proximus aures darem et disceptantes duos medius segregarem.

Therefore I will proceed further: the matter is wholly between me and Octavius. If it pleases that I, a man of his own sect, dispute with him, he will now certainly understand that it is easier to argue in contubernalia than to cultivate wisdom. Only let us sit down in those places thrown up as the protection of the baths and on the projecting, jutting stones, so that we may both rest from the journey and dispute more intently."
And when we sat down at his saying, so that the three of them, by their eagerness, sheltered me as the middle of the flank: nor was this compliance a matter of rank or of honor, since friendship always either makes or receives equals, but so that, as arbiter and nearest to each, I might lend an ear and, standing between them, separate the two disputants.

Tum sic Caecilius exorsus est: "Quamquam tibi, Marce frater, de quo cum maxime quaerimus non sit ambiguum, utpote cum diligenter in utroque vivendi genere versatus repudiaris alterum, alterum conprobaris, in praesentiarum tamen ita tibi informandus est animus, ut libram teneas aequissimi iudicis nec in alteram partem propensus incumbas, ne non tam ex nostris disputationibus nata sententia quam ex tuis sensibus prolata videatur. Proinde, si mihi quasi novus aliqui et quasi ignarus partis utriusque considas, nullum negotium est patefacere, omnia in rebus humanis dubia, incerta, suspensa magisque omnia verisimilia quam vera: quo magis mirum est nonnullos taedio investigandae penitus veritatis cuilibet opinioni temere succumbere quam in explorando pertinaci diligentia perseverare. Itaque indignandum omnibus, indolescendum est audere quosdam, et hoc studiorum rudes, litterarum profanos, expertes artium etiam sordidarum, certum aliquid de summa rerum ac maiestate decernere, de qua tot omnibus saeculis sectarum plurimarum usque adhuc ipsa philosophia deliberat.

Then Caecilius thus began: "Although to you, Marce, brother, about whom we most inquire it is not ambiguous, seeing that, having diligently practiced both ways of life, you reject one and approve the other, nevertheless for the present your mind must be so formed that you hold the scales of the most equitable judge and do not, leaning, incline to the one side, lest the opinion appear to be borne not so much from our disputations as produced from your feelings. Therefore, if you were to sit with me as some new and as it were ignorant of either part, there is no business in revealing that all things in human affairs are doubtful, uncertain, suspended, and more probable than true: wherefore it is the more wonder that some, from weariness of investigating truth thoroughly, rashly succumb to any opinion rather than persevere with stubborn diligence in exploring. And so it is fitting for all to be indignant, for all to grieve, that certain men — and these unformed in studies, profane in letters, lacking even the basest arts — dare to decide some certain thing about the sum of things and about majesty, concerning which philosophy itself has deliberated through so many centuries and so many sects even until now."

Nec inmerito, cum tantum absit ab exploratione divina humana mediocritas, ut neque quae supra nos caelo suspensa sublata sunt, neque quae infra terram profunda demersa sunt, aut scire sit datum aut ruspari religiosum, et beati satis satisque prudentes iure videamur, si secundum illud vetus sapientis oraculum nosmet ipsos familiarius noverimus. Sed quatenus indulgentes insano atque inepto labori ultra humilitatis nostrae terminos evagamur et in terram proiecti caelum ipsum et ipsa sidera audaci cupiditate transcendimus, vel hunc errorem saltem non vanis et formidulosis opinionibus implicemus. Sint principio omnium semina natura in se coeunte densata, quis hic auctor deus?

Not without reason, since human mediocrity is so far removed from divine investigation that neither those things suspended above us in heaven, nor those plunged deep beneath the earth, are granted to be known or to be sacrilegiously pried into; and we may rightly seem blessed and sufficiently prudent if, following that ancient oracle of the sage, we know ourselves more intimately. But insofar as, indulgent to a mad and inept toil, we wander beyond the bounds of our humility and, thrust down to earth, audaciously transcend even heaven itself and the very stars with desire, let us at least not entangle this error in vain and fearful opinions. Let the seeds of all things be, in the beginning, condensed in nature gathering into itself—who then is the author here, God?

Sint fortuitis concursionibus totius mundi membra coalita, digesta, formata, quis deus machinator? Sidera licet ignis accenderit et caelum licet sua materia suspenderit, licet terram fundaverit pondere et mare licet influxerit e liquore unde haec religio, unde formido, quae superstitio est? Homo et animal omne quod nascitur, inspiratur, attollitur, elementorum ut voluntaria concretio est, in quae rursum homo et animal omne dividitur, solvitur, dissipatur: ita in fontem refluunt et in semet omnia revolvuntur, nullo artifice nec iudice nec auctore.

If the limbs of the whole world are coalesced, arranged, and formed by fortuitous concussions, who is the god-machinator? Although fire may have kindled the stars and heaven may have suspended them by its own matter, although it may have founded the earth by weight and the sea may have flowed in from the fluid whence this religio, whence dread — what superstition is this? Man and every animal that is born, breathed into, and raised up is the voluntary concretion of the elements, into which again man and every animal is divided, dissolved, and dispersed: thus they flow back to the source and all things roll back into themselves, with no artificer, nor judge, nor author.

Sic congregatis ignium seminibus soles alios atque alios semper splendere, sic exhalatis terrae vaporibus nebulas semper adolescere, quibus densatis coactisque nubes altius surgere, isdem labentibus pluvias fluere, flare ventos, grandines increpare, vel nimbis conlidentibus tonitrua mugire, rutilare fulgora, fulmina praemicare: adeo passim cadunt, montes inruunt, arboribus incurrunt, sine dilectu tangunt loca sacra et profana, homines noxios feriunt et saepe religiosos. Quid tempestates loquar varias et incertas, quibus nullo ordine vel examine rerum omnium impetus volutatur? in naufragiis bonorum malorumque fata mixta, merita confusa?

Thus, with the seeds of fires gathered, suns continually shine one after another; thus, with the vapors of the earth exhaled, clouds are ever growing up, and when these are condensed and compacted the clouds rise higher, the same sliding ones make rains to flow, winds to blow, hailstones to rattle, or with colliding clouds thunders to roar, lightnings to flash, and bolts to dart forth: so widely they fall, they rush upon mountains, crash into trees, without choice they touch sacred and profane places, strike harmful men and often the devout. Why should I speak of the various and uncertain tempests, by which, with no order or scrutiny, the onrush of all things is set rolling? In shipwrecks the fates of good and evil are mixed, merits confused?

in incendiis interitum convenire insontium nocentumque? et cum tabe pestifera caeli tractus inficitur, sine discrimine omnes deperire? et cum belli ardore saevitur, meliores potius occumbere?

that in fires destruction comes upon both the innocent and the guilty? and that when a pestiferous rot infects the tract of the sky, all perish without discrimination? and that when the ardor of war rages, the better rather fall?

In pace etiam non tantum aequatur nequitia melioribus, sed et colitur, ut in pluribus nescias, utrum sit eorum detestanda pravitas an optanda felicitas. Quod si mundus divina providentia et alicuius numinis auctoritate regeretur, numquam mereretur Phalaris et Dionysius regnum, numquam Rutilius et Camillus exilium, numquam Socrates venenum. Ecce arbusta frugifera, ecce iam seges cana, iam temulenta vindemia imbri corrumpitur, grandine caeditur.

In peace even wickedness is not only equated with the better sort, but is fostered, so that in many cases you would not know whether their depravity is to be detested or their prosperity to be desired. But if the world were governed by divine providence and by the authority of some divine power, Phalaris and Dionysius would never have deserved a kingdom, Rutilius and Camillus exile, Socrates poison. Behold fruitful orchards, behold now the gray crop, now the drunken vintage is spoiled by rain, is cut down by hail.

Adeo aut incerta nobis veritas occultatur et premitur, aut, quod magis credendum est, variis et lubricis casibus soluta legibus fortuna dominatur.

VI.

"Cum igitur aut fortuna certa aut incerta natura sit, quanto venerabilius ac melius antistitem veritatis maiorum excipere disciplinam, religiones traditas colere, deos, quos a parentibus ante inbutus es timere quam nosse familiarius, adorare, nec de numinibus ferre sententiam, sed prioribus credere, qui adhuc rudi saeculo in ipsius mundi natalibus meruerunt deos vel faciles habere vel reges! Inde adeo per universa imperia, provincias oppida videmus singulos sacrorum ritus gentiles habere et deos colere municipes, ut Eleusinios Cererem, Phrygas Matrem, Epidaurios Aesculapium, Chaldaeos Belum, Astarten Syros, Dianam Tauros, Gallos Mercurium, universa Romanos. Sic eorum potestas et auctoritas totius orbis ambitus occupavit, sic imperium suum ultra solis vias et ipsius oceani limites propagavit, dum exercent in armis virtutem religiosam, dum urbem muniunt sacrorum religionibus, castis virginibus, multis honoribus ac nominibus sacerdotum, dum obsessi et citra solum Capitolium capti colunt deos, quos alius iam sprevisset iratos, et per Gallorum acies mirantium superstitionis audaciam pergunt telis inermes, sed cultu religionis armati, dum captis in hostilibus moenibus adhuc ferociente victoria numina victa venerantur, dum undique hospites deos quaerunt et suos faciunt, dum aras extruunt etiam ignotis numinibus et Manibus.

"When therefore either fortune is certain or nature uncertain, how much more venerable and better it is to receive the stewardship of ancestral truth and discipline, to cultivate handed-down religions, to fear rather than know more familiarly the gods with which you were earlier imbued by your parents, to adore them, and not to form a judgment about the numina, but to trust the forebears, who even in a rude age at the very births of the world deserved that the gods be held either propitious or as kings! Hence so throughout all empires, provinces, towns we see municipalities each having distinct rites of sacred observance and worshipping gods, as the Eleusinians Ceres, the Phrygians the Mother, the Epidaurians Aesculapius, the Chaldeans Bel, the Syrians Astarte, the Tauro‑people Diana, the Gauls Mercury, and the Romans all. Thus their power and authority seized the circuit of the whole orb, thus they extended their empire beyond the paths of the sun and the limits of the very ocean, while they wield in arms a religious virtue, while they fortify the city with sacred religions, chaste virgins, many honors and the names of priests; while besieged and captured short of the Capitol they nevertheless worship gods whom another would already have scorned as wrathful; and through the ranks of the Gauls, those marveling at the audacity of their superstition, they press on with weapons unarmed but armed with the cult of religion; while, the walls having been seized in hostile places yet with victory still raging, they venerate the vanquished numina; while on every side hosts seek gods and make them their own, while they even erect altars to unknown numina and to the Manes.

Sic, dum universarum gentium sacra suscipiunt, etiam regna meruerunt. Hinc perpetuus venerationis tenor mansit, qui longa aetate non infringitur, sed augetur: quippe antiquitas caerimoniis atque fanis tantum sanctitatis tribuere consuevit quantum adstruxerit vetustatis.

Thus, while they receive the sacred rites of all peoples, they even merited realms. Hence a perpetual tenor of veneration remained, which is not broken by long age but is increased: for antiquity has been wont to ascribe to ceremonies and shrines only as much sanctity as it has built of antiquity.

VII.

CHAPTER 7.

"Nec tamen temere (ausim enim interim et ipse concedere et sic melius errare) maiores nostri aut observandis auguriis aut extis consulendis aut instituendis sacris aut delubris dedicandis operam navaverunt. Specta de libris memoriam; iam eos deprehendes initiasse ritus omnium religionum, vel ut remuneraretur divina indulgentia, vel ut averteretur imminens ira aut iam tumens et saeviens placaretur. Testis Mater Idaea, quae adventu suo et probavit matronae castitatem et urbem metu hostili liberavit; testes equestrium fratrum in lacu, sicut se ostenderant, statuae consecratae, qui anheli spumantibus equis atque fumantibus de Perse victoriam eadem die qua fecerant nuntiaverunt; testis ludorum offensi Iovis de somnio plebei hominis iteratio: et Deciorum devotio rata testis est; testis et Curtius, qui equitis sui vel mole vel honore hiatum profundae voraginis coaequavit.

"Yet our ancestors did not lightly (for I would even dare meanwhile both to concede and thus to err better) apply themselves either to observing auguries or to consulting entrails or to establishing sacred rites or to dedicating temples. Look to the records in the books; you will now find that they began the rites of all religions, either that divine indulgence might be repaid, or that impending wrath might be averted or, already swelling and raging, might be appeased. Witness the Idaean Mother, who by her coming both proved the chastity of the matron and delivered the city from hostile fear; witnesses the consecrated statues of the equestrian brothers in the lake, as they had shown themselves, who, breathless with horses foaming and steaming, from Perse announced the victory on the very day they had won it; witness the repetition in a plebeian man's dream that Jupiter was offended at the games: and the devotio of the Decii is a standing witness; witness also Curtius, who by the mass or by the honor of his horse made equal the gaping of the deep abyss.

Frequentius etiam, quam volebamus, deorum praesentiam contempta auspicia contestata sunt. Sic Allia "nomen infaustum," sic Claudi et Iuni non proelium in Poenos, sed ferale naufragium est, et ut Trasimenus Romanorum sanguine et maior esset et decolor, sprevit auguria Flaminius, et ut Parthos signa repetamus, dirarum inprecationes Crassus et meruit et inrisit. Omitto vetera quae multa sunt, et de deorum natalibus, donis, muneribus neglego carmina poetarum, praedicta etiam de oraculis fata transilio, ne vobis antiquitas nimium fabulosa videatur.

Even more frequently than we wished, the presence of the gods was invoked with the auspices despised. Thus Allia, an "inauspicious name"; thus for the Claudii and Iunii it was not a battle against the Poeni, but a fatal shipwreck; and that at Trasimenus, made both greater and more dishonorable by Roman blood, Flaminius scorned the auspices; and when we recall the Parthos and the recovery of the standards, Crassus both earned and mocked the dire imprecations. I pass over the many old matters, and I neglect the poems of poets about the gods’ birthdays, gifts, and offerings; I also skip the fates foretold concerning oracles, lest antiquity seem to you overly fabulous.

Intende templis ac delubris deorum, quibus Romana civitas et protegitur et ornatur: magis sunt augusta numinibus incolis, praesentibus, inquilinis quam cultu, insignibus et muneribus opulenta. Inde adeo pleni et mixti deo vates futura praecerpunt, dant cautelam periculis, morbis medellam, spem adflictis, opem miseris, solacium calamitatibus, laboribus levamentum. Etiam per quietem deos videmus, audimus, agnoscimus, quos impie per diem negamus, nolumus, peieramus.

Attend to the temples and shrines of the gods, by which the Roman civitas is both protected and adorned: they are more august to the numina as inhabitants, as present, as in-dwellers than opulent in cult, insignia, and munera. Hence so full and mingled with the god, the vates anticipate the future, give protection against perils, a remedy for diseases, hope to the afflicted, aid to the miserable, consolation for calamities, relief for labors. Even in quiet we see, hear, and recognize the gods, whom impiously by day we deny, refuse, and have perjured ourselves against.

VIII.

"Itaque cum omnium gentium de dis inmortalibus, quamvis incerta sit vel ratio vel origo, maneat tamen firma consensio, neminem fero tanta audacia tamque inreligiosa nescio qua prudentia tumescentem, qui hanc religionem tam vetustam, tam utilem, tam salubrem dissolvere aut infirmare nitatur. Sit licet ille Theodorus Cyrenaeus, vel qui prior Diagoras Melius, cui Atheon cognomen adposuit antiquitas, qui uterque nullos deos adseverando timorem omnem, quo humanitas regitur, venerationemque penitus sustulerunt: numquam tamen in hac impietatis disciplina simulatae philosophiae nomine atque auctoritate pollebunt. Cum Abderiten Protagoram Athenienses viri consulte potius quam profane de divinitate disputantem et expulerint suis finibus et in contione eius scripta deusserint, quid?

"Therefore, since concerning the immortal gods of all nations — although either the reason or the origin is uncertain — yet a firm consensus remains, I do not wildly wish that anyone, swollen with such audacity and so irreligious some sort of presumption, should strive to dissolve or weaken this religion so ancient, so useful, so salutary. Even if he be that Theodorus of Cyrene, or earlier Diagoras Melius, to whom antiquity appended the surname Atheon, who both by asserting that there are no gods have utterly removed all fear by which humanity is governed and all veneration: nevertheless they will never prevail in this doctrine of impiety under the name and authority of simulated philosophy. When the Athenians, more wisely than profanely, expelled the Abderite Protagoras for disputing about the divine and declared his writings damned in their assembly, what then?"

homines (sustinebitis enim me impetum susceptae actionis liberius exerentem) homines, inquam, deploratae, inlicitae ac desperatae factionis grassari in deos non ingemescendum est? Qui de ultima faece collectis imperitioribus et mulieribus credulis sexus sui facilitate labentibus plebem profanae coniurationis instituunt, quae nocturnis congregationibus et ieiuniis sollemnibus et inhumanis cibis non sacro quodam, sed piaculo foederatur, latebrosa et lucifuga natio, in publicum muta, in angulis garrula, templa ut busta despiciunt, deos despuunt, rident sacra, miserentur miseri (si fas est) sacerdotum, honores et purpuras despiciunt, ipsi seminudi! Pro mira stultitia et incredibilis audacia!

men (for you will endure me more freely exerting the onslaught of an undertaken action) men, I say, is it not lamentable that they of a deplorable, illicit and desperate faction should assail the gods? Who, having gathered from the lowest scum the most ignorant and credulous women, sliding by the facility of their sex, set up a populace for profane conspiracy, which by nocturnal congregations and solemn fasts and inhuman foods is bound not by any sacred thing but by a sacrificial crime; a secretive and light‑fleeing nation, dumb in public, talkative in corners, who scorn temples as tombs, spit upon the gods, mock sacred rites, pity (if it be right) the wretched priests, despise honors and purple robes, themselves half‑naked! For amazing folly and incredible audacity!

spernunt tormenta praesentia, dum incerta metuunt et futura, et dum mori post mortem timent, interim mori non timent: ita illis pavorem fallax spes solacia rediviva blanditur!

spernunt present torments, while they fear uncertain and future things, and while they fear to die after death, meanwhile they do not fear to die: thus to them a deceitful hope flatters revived consolations for their terror!

IX.

CHAPTER 9.

"Ac iam, ut fecundius nequiora proveniunt, serpentibus in dies perditis moribus per universum orbem sacraria ista taeterrima impiae coitionis adolescunt. Eruenda prorsus haec et execranda consensio. Occultis se notis et insignibus noscunt et amant mutuo paene antequam noverint: passim etiam inter eos velut quaedam libidinum religio miscetur, ac se promisce appellant fratres et sorores, ut etiam non insolens stuprum intercessione sacri nominis fiat incestum.

"And now, so that worse things may grow the more abundantly, those most foul shrines of impious intercourse spring up throughout the whole orb, morals ruined day by day like serpents. This consenting must be utterly rooted out and accursed. They know one another and love one another by hidden marks and insignia almost before they have known each other: everywhere among them, as it were, a certain religion of lusts is mixed, and they promiscuously call themselves brothers and sisters, so that by the intercession of the sacred name even not-uncommon debauchery becomes incest.

Ita eorum vana et demens superstitio sceleribus gloriatur. Nec de ipsis, nisi subsisteret veritas, maxime nefaria et honore praefanda sagax fama loqueretur. Audio eos turpissimae pecudis caput asini consecratum inepta nescio qua persuasione venerari: digna et nata religio talibus moribus!

Thus their vain and demented superstition gloats in crimes. Nor, were truth not to stand, would a shrewd rumor—most nefarious and to be proclaimed with honor—speak of them. I hear that they venerate the head of an ass, consecrated from the most filthy beast by some inept persuasion I know not: a religion fittingly born of such morals!

Alii eos ferunt ipsius antistitis ac sacerdotis colere genitalia et quasi parentis sui adorare naturam: nescio an falsa, certe occultis ac nocturnis sacris adposita suspicio! Et qui hominem summo supplicio pro facinore punitum et crucis ligna feralia eorum caerimonias fabulatur, congruentia perditis sceleratisque tribuit altaria, ut id colant quod merentur. Iam de initiandis tirunculis fabula tam detestanda quam nota est.

Others report that they worship the genitalia of the very antistes and priest and, as if of a parent, adore his nature: I know not whether this is false; certainly it is a suspicion placed upon secret and nocturnal rites! And he who relates that a man, punished with the highest torment for his crime, and the death‑dealing timbers of the cross, are narrated as their ceremonies, assigns fitting altars to the ruined and wicked, so that they may venerate what they deserve. Now the tale concerning the initiation of novices is as detestable as it is well known.

Infans farre contectus, ut decipiat incautos, adponitur ei qui sacris inbuatur. Is infans a tirunculo farris superficie quasi ad innoxios ictus provocato caecis occultisque vulneribus occiditur. Huius, pro nefas!

An infant, covered with grain to deceive the unwary, is set before him who is being imbued in the sacred rites. That infant is killed by a novice on the surface of the grain, as if provoked to harmless blows, by blind and secret wounds. This—what impiety!

sitienter sanguinem lambunt, huius certatim membra dispertiunt, hac foederantur hostia, hac conscientia sceleris ad silentium mutuum pignerantur. Haec sacra sacrilegiis omnibus taetriora. Et de convivio notum est; passim omnes locuntur, id etiam Cirtensis nostri testatur oratio.

they thirstily lick the blood, eagerly they rend apart the limbs of him, by this they are bound as a victim, by this conscience of the crime they are pledged to mutual silence. These rites are fouler than all sacrileges. And concerning the banquet it is well known; they are spoken of everywhere, even our Cirtan’s oration testifies to this.

Ad epulas sollemni die coeunt cum omnibus liberis, sororibus, matribus, sexus omnis homines et omnis aetatis. Illic post multas epulas, ubi convivium caluit et incestae libidinis ebriatis fervor exarsit, canis qui candelabro nexus est, iactu offulae ultra spatium lineae, qua vinctus est, ad impetum et saltum provocatur. Sic everso et extincto conscio lumine inpudentibus tenebris nexus infandae cupiditatis involvunt per incertum sortis, etsi non omnes opera, conscientia tamen pariter incesti, quoniam voto universorum adpetitur quicquid accidere potest in actu singulorum.

On the festive day for feasting they assemble for the banquet with all the free people, sisters, mothers, men of every sex and of every age. There, after many courses, when the revel has grown warm and the drunken ardor of incestuous lust has flared up, the dog that is tied to a candelabrum, by the throw of a morsel beyond the span of the line by which he is bound, is provoked to a rush and a leap. Thus, with the knowing light overthrown and extinguished, in shameless darkness they wrap the bound victims of unspeakable desire in the uncertainty of lot; and though not all by deed, yet all equally by conscience are partners in incest, since whatever can occur in the act of individuals is sought by the vow of the whole.

10.

"Multo praetereo consulto: nam et haec nimis multa sunt, quae aut omnia aut pleraque omnium vera declarat ipsius pravae religionis obscuritas. Cur etenim occultare et abscondere quicquid illud colunt magnopere nituntur, cum honesta semper publico gaudeant, scelera secreta sint? cur nullas aras habent, templa nulla, nulla nota simulacra, numquam palam loqui, numquam libere congregari, nisi illud, quod colunt et interprimunt, aut puniendum est aut pudendum?

"I pass over much by design: for these matters are too many, which either all or most of them make clear the obscurity of that perverse religion itself as true. For why do they strive greatly to hide and conceal whatever they worship, when honorable things always rejoice in public, and crimes are secret? Why then have they no altars, no temples, no well-known images, never speak openly, never gather freely, unless that which they worship and suppress must either be punished or be shameful?

Unde autem vel quis ille aut ubi deus unicus, solitarius, destitutus, quem non gens libera, non regna, non saltem Romana superstitio noverunt? Iudaeorum sola et misera gentilitas unum et ipsi deum, sed palam, sed templis, aris, victimis caerimoniisque coluerunt, cuius adeo nulla vis nec potestas est, ut sit Romanis hominibus cum sua sibi natione captivus. At etiam Christiani quanta monstra, quae portenta confingunt!

Whence moreover or who is that one god, solitary, forsaken, whom neither a free gens, nor regna, nor at least Roman superstition have known? The Jews alone, a wretched gentilitas, worshipped one god, and they did so openly, with temples, altars, victims, and ceremonies, whose power and might are so nonexistent that he is among Romans a captive man with his own nation. But also what monsters, what portents do the Christians contrive!

Deum illum suum, quem nec ostendere possunt nec videre, in omnium mores, actus omnium, verba denique et occultas cogitationes diligenter inquirere, discurrentem scilicet atque ubique praesentem: molestum illum volunt, inquietum, inpudenter etiam curiosum, siquidem adstat factis omnibus, locis omnibus intererrat, cum nec singulis inservire possit per universa districtus nec universis sufficere in singulis occupatus.

That god of theirs, whom they can neither show nor see, they hold to scrutinize closely into the morals of all, into all acts, and finally into words and hidden thoughts, roaming, as it were, and present everywhere: they call him troublesome, restless, even shamelessly curious, since he stands by all deeds and is among all places, for neither can he serve individuals throughout everything when stretched over the whole, nor suffice for all when occupied with particulars.

XI.

CHAPTER 11.

"Quid quod toto orbi et ipsi mundo cum sideribus suis minantur incendium, ruinam moliuntur, quasi aut naturae divinis legibus constitutus aeternus ordo turbetur, aut, rupto elementorum omnium foedere et caelesti conpage divisa, moles ista, qua continetur et cingitur, subruatur? Nec hac furiosa opinione contenti aniles fabulas adstruunt et adnectunt: renasci se ferunt post mortem et cineres et favillas et nescio qua fiducia mendaciis suis invicem credunt: putes eos iam revixisse. Anceps malum et gemina dementia, caelo et astris, quae sic relinquimus, ut invenimus, interitum denuntiare, sibi mortuis extinctis, qui sicut nascimur et interimus, aeternitatem repromittere!

"What shall I say when they threaten fire to the whole orb and to the world itself with its stars, they contrive ruin, as if either the eternal order set by nature’s divine laws were to be disturbed, or, the covenant of all the elements broken and the heavenly fabric rent apart, that mass by which it is contained and girded should be undermined? And not content with this furious opinion they build on and attach senile fables: they boast that they are reborn after death, and that ashes and embers — by some I-know-not-what confidence — they trust one another in their falsehoods: you would think them already revived. A double evil and twin madness it is, to prophesy destruction to the heaven and the stars, which we leave as we find them, and to promise eternity to themselves, dead and extinguished, who, as we are, are born and die!"

Inde videlicet et execrantur rogos et damnant ignium sepulturas, quasi non omne corpus, etsi flammis subtrahatur, annis tamen et aetatibus in terram resolvatur, nec intersit, utrum ferae diripiant an maria consumant an humus contegat an flamma subducat, cum cadaveribus omnis sepultura, si sentiunt, poena sit, si non sentiunt, ipsa conficiendi celeritate medicina. Hoc errore decepti beatam sibi, ut bonis, et perpetem vitam mortui pollicentur, ceteris, ut iniustis, poenam sempiternam. Multa ad haec subpetunt, ni festinet oratio.

From there, accordingly, they curse pyres and condemn the fiery burials, as if not every body, even if surrendered to flames, is nevertheless resolved by years and ages into the earth, and it makes no difference whether beasts tear it or the seas consume it or the soil covers it or the flame removes it, since for corpses every burial, if they feel, is punishment, if they do not feel, the very swiftness of destruction is a remedy. Deceived by this error, they promise themselves a blessed and, like the righteous, perpetual life after death, and to others, like the unrighteous, everlasting punishment. Much more they add to these things, were it not that the speech must hasten.

Iniustos ipsos magis nec laboro; iam docui: quamquam, etsi iustos darem, culpam tamen vel innocentiam novi fato tribui sententiis plurimorum. Et haec vestra consensio est; nam quicquid agimus, ut alii fato ita vos deo dicitis: sic sectae vestrae non spontaneos cupere, sed electos. Igitur iniquum iudicem fingitis qui sortem in hominibus puniat, non voluntatem.
"Vellem tamen sciscitari, utrumne cum corporibus an absque corporibus, et corporibus quibus, ipsisne an innovatis resurgatur.

I do not toil over the unjust themselves any more; I have already taught: although, even if I were to grant them just, yet I know that guilt or innocence is assigned by fate to the judgments of very many. And this is your consensus; for whatever we do, as others call it to fate, so you call it to God: thus your sects desire not the spontaneous but the elect. Therefore you devise an unjust judge who punishes by lot in men, not by will.
"Yet I would wish to be asked whether one rises again with bodies or without bodies, and with what bodies, with the same or with renewed ones."

Sine corpore? hoc, quod sciam, neque mens neque anima nec vita est. Ipso corpore?

Without a body? This, as far as I know, is neither mind nor soul nor life. By the body itself?

sed iam ante dilapsum est. Alio corpore? ergo homo novus nascitur, non prior ille reparatur.

but it has already fallen apart beforehand. In another body? therefore a new man is born, not the former one restored.

Et tamen tanta aetas abiit, saecula innumera fluxerunt; quis unus ullus ab inferis vel Protesilai sorte remeavit, horarum saltem permisso commeatu, vel ut exemplo crederemus? Omnia ista figmenta male sanae opinionis et inepta solacia a poetis fallacibus in dulcedinem carminis lusa a vobis nimirum credulis in deum vestrum turpiter reformata sunt.

And yet so great an age has gone by, innumerable centuries have flowed; has any one at all returned from the underworld, or returned by the lot of Protesilaus, at least with leave for a passage of hours, or that we might believe by example? All those figments of ill-sound opinion and inept consolations, played by deceitful poets for the sweetness of song, have, you plainly credulous ones, been shamefully transformed into your god.

XII.

CHAPTER 12.

"Nec saltem de praesentibus capitis experimentum, quam vos inritae pollicitationis cassa vota decipiant: quid post mortem inpendeat, miseri, dum adhuc vivitis, aestimate. Ecce pars vestrum et maior, melior, ut dicitis, egetis algetis, opere fame laboratis, et deus patitur dissimulat, non vult aut non potest opitulari suis; ita aut invalidus aut iniquus est! Tu, qui inmortalitatem postumam somnias, cum periculo quateris, cum febribus ureris, cum dolore laceraris, nondum condicionem tuam sentis?

"Nor at least make an experiment of the present situation, so that you, stirred by vain promises, be deceived by empty vows: reckon what hangs over you after death, wretches, while you still live. Behold a part of you, and the greater, the better, as you say, you will need, you will be poor, you will be cold, you toil from labor and hunger, and God endures and conceals it, he does not will or cannot succor his own; thus he is either weak or unjust! You, who dream of posthumous immortality, when you are shaken by danger, when you burn with fevers, when you are torn by pain, do you not yet perceive your condition?

nondum adgnoscis fragilitatem? invitus miser infirmitatis argueris nec fateris!
"Sed omitto communia. Ecce vobis minae, supplicia, tormenta, et iam non adorandae sed subeundae cruces, ignes etiam quos et praedicitis et timetis: ubi deus ille, qui subvenire revivescentibus potest, viventibus non potest?

Do you not yet acknowledge your fragility? Unwilling, wretched one, you are charged with infirmity and do not admit it!
"But I pass over common things. Behold to you threats, punishments, torments, and now crosses not to be adored but to be borne, even fires which you both proclaim and fear: where is that god who, who can come to the aid of those restored to life, cannot help the living?

Nonne Romani sine vestro deo imperant regnant, fruuntur orbe toto vestrique dominantur? Vos vero suspensi interim atque solliciti honestis voluptatibus abstinetis: non spectacula visitis, non pompis interestis, convivia publica absque vobis; sacra certamina, praecerptos cibos et delibatos altaribus potus abhorretis. Sic reformidatis deos quos negatis!

Are not the Romans, without your god, ruling and reigning, enjoying the whole world and masters over you? You, meanwhile, suspended and anxious, abstain from honorable pleasures: you do not attend spectacles, you do not take part in pomps, public feasts go on without you; sacred contests, pre‑cut foods and libations poured to altars you shrink from. Thus do you dread the gods whom you deny!

Non floribus caput nectitis, non corpus odoribus honestatis; reservatis unguenta funeribus, coronas etiam sepulcris denegatis, pallidi trepidi, misericordia digni, sed nostrorum deorum. Ita nec resurgitis miseri nec interim vivitis!
Proinde si quid sapientiae vobis aut verecundiae est, desinite caeli plagas et mundi fata et secreta rimari: satis est pro pedibus aspicere maxime indoctis inpolitis, rudibus agrestibus, quibus non est datum intellegere civilia, multo magis denegatum est disserere divina.

You do not wreath your head with flowers, nor adorn your body with the perfumes of honor; keeping ointments for funerals, you even deny garlands to graves, pale, trembling, deserving of pity, but claimed by our gods. Thus you neither rise again, wretched, nor meanwhile do you live!
Therefore if there is any wisdom or modesty in you, cease to pry into the blows of the sky and the fates and the secrets of the world: it is enough for the very unlearned, unpolished, rustic folk to look to their feet, to whom it is not given to understand civil matters, much more is it denied to discourse upon divine things.

XIII.

13.

"Quamquam si philosophandi libido est, Socraten, sapientiae principem, quisque vestrum tantus est, si potuerit, imitetur. Eius viri, quotiens de caelestibus rogabatur, nota responsio est: 'quod supra nos, nihil ad nos.' Merito ergo de oraculo testimonium meruit prudentiae singularis. Quod oraculum, idem ipse persensit, idcirco universis esse praepositum, non quod omnia comperisset, sed quod nihil se scire didicisset: ita confessae inperitiae summa prudentia est.

"Although if there is a craving for philosophizing, let each of you, if he can, imitate Socrates, the prince of wisdom. Of that man, whenever he was asked about the heavenly things, the well-known answer is: 'quod supra nos, nihil ad nos' — 'what is above us is nothing to us.' Therefore he deserved testimony from the oracle for his singular prudence. That oracle he himself perceived, namely that it was set over all, not because he had comprehended all things, but because he had learned that he knew nothing: thus the highest prudence is confessed ignorance.

Hoc fonte defluxit Arcesilae et multo post Carneadis et Academicorum plurimorum in summis quaestionibus tuta dubitatio, quo genere philosophari et caute indocti possunt et docti gloriose. Quid? Simonidis Melici nonne admiranda omnibus et sectanda cunctatio?

From this spring flowed the secure doubt of Arcesilaus and, much later, of Carneades and very many Academics concerning the highest questions, by which mode the unlearned can philosophize cautiously and the learned boastfully. What then? Is not the admirable hesitation of Simonides of Miletus fit for all to admire and to follow?

Qui Simonides, cum de eo, quid et quales arbitraretur deos, ab Hierone tyranno quaereretur, primo deliberationi diem petiit, postridie biduum prorogavit, mox alterum tantum admonitus adiunxit. Postremo, cum causas tantae morae tyrannus inquireret, respondit ille 'quod sibi, quanto inquisitio tardior pergeret, tanto veritas fieret obscurior.' Mea quoque opinione quae sunt dubia, ut sunt, relinquenda sunt, nec, tot ac tantis viris deliberantibus, temere et audaciter in alteram partem ferenda sententia est, ne aut anilis inducatur superstitio aut omnis religio destruatur."

When Simonides, being asked by Hieron the tyrant about him, what and of what sort he judged the gods, at first asked a day for deliberation; the next day he postponed it by two days; soon after, only one more, having been admonished, he added. Finally, when the tyrant inquired the causes of so great a delay, he replied, "For me, the more slowly an inquiry proceeds, the more obscure the truth becomes." In my opinion likewise those things which are doubtful ought, as they are, to be left, nor, with so many and so great men deliberating, should a sentence be rashly and boldly carried to the other side, lest either superstition be brought into anold-womanishness or all religion be destroyed.

XIV.

14.

Sic Caecilius et renidens (nam indignationis eius tumorem effusae orationis impetus relaxaverat): "Ecquid ad haec" ait "audet Octavius, homo Plautinae prosapiae, ut pistorum praecipuus, ita postremus philosophorum?"
"Parce," inquam, "in eum plaudere: neque enim prius exultare te dignum est concinnitate sermonis, quam utrimque plenius fuerit peroratum, maxime cum non laudi, set veritati disceptatio vestra nitatur. Et quamquam magnum in modum me subtili varietate tua delectarit oratio, tamen altius moveor, non de praesenti actione, sed de toto genere disputandi, quod plerumque pro disserentium viribus et eloquentiae potestate etiam perspicuae veritatis condicio mutetur. Id accidere pernotum est auditorum facilitate, qui dum verborum lenocinio a rerum intentionibus avocantur, sine dilectu adsentiuntur dictis omnibus nec a rectis falsa secernunt, nescientes inesse et incredibile verum et verisimile mendacium.

Thus Caecilius, smiling (for the swell of his indignation had been relaxed by the effusive onset of his speech): "Does Octavius," he said, "dare in these matters, a man of Plautine lineage, to be, as chief of the bakers, so the last of philosophers?"
"Spare," I say, "your applause for him: for it is not fitting that you exult in the neatness of a remark until the whole has been more fully argued on both sides, especially since your dispute strives not for praise but for truth. And although your speech has greatly pleased me by its subtle variety, yet I am moved more deeply, not about the present action, but about the whole kind of disputation, which very often, by the strength of the discussants and the power of eloquence, even the condition of clear truth is altered. That this happens is well known from the facility of hearers, who, while by the blandishment of words they are turned away from the intentions of things, assent indiscriminately to all that is said and do not distinguish false from right, not knowing that the incredible may be true and the probable may be a lie.

Itaque, quo saepius adseverationibus credunt, eo frequentius a peritioribus arguuntur: sic adsidue temeritate decepti culpam iudicis tranferunt ad incerti querellam, ut damnatis omnibus malint universa suspendere quam de fallacibus iudicare. Igitur nobis providendum est, ne odio identidem sermonum omnium laboremus ita, ut in execrationem et odium hominum plerique simpliciores efferantur. Nam incaute creduli circumveniuntur ab his quos bonos putaverunt: mox errore consimili iam suspectis omnibus ut improbos metuunt etiam quos optimos sentire potuerunt.
'Nos proinde solliciti, quod utrimque omni negotio disseratur et ex altera parte plerumque obscura sit veritas, ex altero latere mira subtilitas quae nonnumquam ubertate dicendi fidem confessae probationis imitetur, diligenter quantum potest singula ponderemus, ut argutias quidem laudare, ea vero quae recta sunt, eligere, probare, suscipere possimus."

Therefore, the more often they believe assertions, the more frequently they are refuted by the more experienced: thus, continually deceived by rashness, they shift the blame of the judge to the uncertainty of the complaint, so that, with all condemned, they would rather suspend everything than judge concerning the deceitful. Therefore we must take care that we do not waste ourselves repeatedly in hatred of all discussions, so that most simple folk are carried into execration and hatred of men. For the rashly credulous are entangled by those whom they thought good; soon, by a like error, with everything already suspected, they fear as wicked even those whom they might have judged the best.
'We therefore, anxious because on both sides every business is debated and on one side the truth is often obscure, and on the other a wondrous subtlety which sometimes, by the profuseness of speech, imitates the credibility of confessed proof, should diligently, as much as possible, weigh particulars, so that we may indeed praise clevernesses, but choose, prove, and undertake those things which are right.'

XV.

15.

"Decedis" inquit Caecilius "officio iudicis religiosi: nam periniurium est vires te actionis meae intergressu gravissimae disputationis infringere, cum Octavius integra et inlibata habeat singula, si potest, refutare."
"Id quod criminaris" inquam "in commune, nisi fallor, conpendium protuli, ut examine scrupuloso nostram sententiam non eloquentiae tumore, sed rerum ipsarum soliditate libremus. Nec avocanda, quod quereris, diutius intentio, cum toto silentio liceat responsionem Ianuari nostri iam gestientis audire."

"You withdraw," says Caecilius, "from the office of a conscientious judge: for it is perjury to impair the force of my action by interposing in a gravest dispute, since Octavius has each particular whole and unblemished to refute, if he can."
"That which you accuse," I say, "I have offered in general, unless I am mistaken, a compendium, that by a scrupulous examination we may free our judgment not by the swelling of eloquence but by the solidity of the things themselves. Nor is the intention, which you complain of, to be long diverted, since in complete silence it is permitted to hear the answer of our Januarius, who already longs to speak."

XVI.

16.

Et Octavius: "Dicam equidem, ut potero, pro viribus, et adnitendum tibi mecum est, ut conviciorum amarissimam labem verborum veracium flumine diluamus.
"Nec dissimulabo principio ita Natalis mei errantem, vagam, lubricam nutasse sententiam, ut sit nobis ambigendum, utrum tuo eruditio turbata sit, an vacillaverit per errorem. Nam interim deos credere, interim se deliberare variavit, ut propositionis incerto incertior responsionis nostrae intentio fundaretur. Sed in Natali meo versutiam nolo, non credo: procul est ab eius simplicitate subtilis urbanitas.

And Octavius: "I will speak indeed, as I shall be able, to the best of my strength, and you must strive with me, that we wash away the most bitter stain of insults with a flood of true words.
"Nor will I conceal at the outset that my Natalis's opinion so erred, wandered, and slid that we must doubt whether your learning was disturbed or whether it wavered through mistake. For meanwhile he varied between believing the gods and doubting himself, so that the intent of his proposition was founded on the uncertain, then more uncertain, basis of our response. But of my Natalis I do not wish to call him crafty, I do not believe it: subtle urbanity is far from his simplicity.

Quid igitur? Ut qui rectam viam nescit, ubi, ut fit, in plures una diffinditur, quia viam nescit, haeret anxius nec singulas audet eligere nec universas probare: sic, cui non est veri stabile iudicium, prout infida suspicio spargitur, ita eius dubia opinio dissipatur. Nullum itaque miraculum est, si Caecilius identidem in contrariis ac repugnantibus iactetur, aestuet, fluctuetur.

What then? Just as he who does not know the right way, when, as often happens, it is divided into several at once, because he does not know the way, clings anxiously and neither dares to choose the separate paths nor to approve them all: so he whose judgment of truth is not stable, as unfaithful suspicion is scattered, thus his doubtful opinion is dissipated. It is therefore no miracle if Caecilius is repeatedly tossed about in contraries and contradictions, burns with agitation, and fluctuates.

Quod ne fiat ulterius, convincam et redarguam quamvis diversa, quae dicta sunt, una veritate confirmata probataque: sic nec dubitandum ei de cetero est nec vagandum.
"Et quoniam meus frater erupit, aegre se ferre, stomachari, indignari, dolere, inliteratos, pauperes, inperitos de rebus caelestibus disputare, sciat omnes homines, sine dilectu aetatis, sexus, dignitatis, rationis et sensus capaces et habiles procreatos nec fortuna nanctos, sed natura insitos esse sapientiam: quin ipsos etiam philosophos, vel si qui alii artium repertores in memorias exierunt, priusquam sollertia mentis parerent nominis claritatem, habitos esse plebeios, indoctos, seminudos: adeo divites facultatibus suis inligatos magis aurum suspicere consuesse quam caelum, nostrates pauperes et commentos esse prudentiam et tradidisse ceteris disciplinam. Unde apparet ingenium non dari facultatibus nec studio parari, sed cum ipsa mentis formatione generari. Nihil itaque indignandum vel dolendum, si quicumque de divinis quaerat, sentiat, proferat, cum non disputantis auctoritas, sed disputationis ipsius veritas requiratur.

In order that this be no further, I will convict and refute, although the things said are diverse, confirmed and proven by a single truth: thus he must neither henceforth doubt nor wander.
"And since my brother has burst forth to bear it ill, to be sorely troubled, to be indignant, to grieve, that the unlearned, the poor, the inexperienced dispute about heavenly matters, let him know that all men, without selection of age, sex, dignity, reason, or sense, are begotten capable and fit for wisdom — not having obtained it by fortune, but having wisdom implanted by nature: moreover even those philosophers themselves, or if any other discoverers of the arts have come into memory, before the keenness of mind produced the brightness of a name, were regarded as common, unlearned, half-naked: so much were the rich, bound to their resources, more accustomed to covet gold than heaven, while our countrymen, poor and contrived, were the prudent ones and handed down learning to others. Whence it appears that talent is not given by wealth nor produced by means of opportunity, but generated with the very shaping of the mind. Nothing therefore is to be indignantly resented or grieved at if anyone enquires, feels, or utters concerning divine things, since what is required is not the authority of the disputant but the truth of the dispute itself.

Atque etiam, quo imperitior sermo, hoc inlustrior ratio est, quoniam non fucatur pompa facundiae et gratiae, sed, ut est, recti regula sustinetur.

And moreover, the more unskilled the speech, the more illustrious is the reasoning, since the pomp of eloquence and of grace is not painted on, but, as it is, the rule of the right is upheld.

XVII.

17.

     "Nec recuso, quod Caecilius adserere inter praecipua conisus est, hominem nosse se et circumspicere debere, quid sit, unde sit, quare sit: utrum elementis concretus an concinnatus atomis, an potius a deo factus, formatus, animatus. Quod ipsum explorare et eruere sine universitatis inquisitione non possumus, cum ita cohaerentia, conexa, concatenata sint, ut nisi divinitatis rationem diligenter excusseris, nescias humanitatis, nec possis pulchre gerere rem civilem, nisi cognoveris hanc communem omnium mundi civitatem, praecipue cum a feris beluis hoc differamus, quod illa prona in terramque vergentia nihil nata sint prospicere nisi pabulum, nos, quibus vultus erectus, quibus suspectus in caelum datus est, sermo et ratio, per quae deum adgnoscimus, sentimus, imitamur, ignorare nec fas nec licet ingerentem sese oculis et sensibus nostris caelestem claritatem: sacrilegii enim vel maxime instar est, humi quaerere quod in sublimi debeas invenire.
     "Quo magis mihi videntur qui hunc mundi totius ornatum non divina ratione perfectum volunt, sed frustis quibusdam temere cohaerentibus conglobatum, mentem, sensum, oculos denique ipsos non habere. Quid enim potest esse tam apertum, tam confessum tamque perspicuum, cum oculos in caelum sustuleris et quae sunt infra circaque lustraveris, quam esse aliquod numen praestantissimae mentis, quo omnis natura inspiretur, moveatur, alatur, gubernetur?
     "Caelum ipsum vide: quam late tenditur, quam rapide volvitur, vel quod in noctem astris distinguitur, vel quod in diem sole lustratur: iam scies, quam sit in eo summi moderatoris mira et divina libratio.

     "Nor do I refuse what Caecilius has attempted to assert among the chief things, that a man ought to know himself and look about to see what he is, whence he is, why he is: whether he is congealed from the elements or composed of well‑fitted atoms, or rather made, formed, and animated by a god. To examine and dig into that very thing we cannot do without an inquiry into the universe, since the parts cohere, are joined, and concatenated in such a way that unless you have carefully shaken out the reason of divinity you will not know humanity, nor can you conduct well the civil thing, unless you have known this common city of all the world; especially since we differ from beasts and wild animals in that those bent and leaning down to the earth are born to foresee nothing but food, whereas we, to whom a raised countenance and a gaze given toward heaven have been granted, have speech and reason by which we recognize, perceive, and imitate God, and it is neither right nor permitted to be ignorant of the heavenly brightness that thrusts itself upon our eyes and senses: for it is very much like sacrilege to seek on the ground what you ought to find on high.
     "Wherefore all the more do those seem to me not to have mind, sense, nor even eyes who wish this whole world's ornament to be completed not by divine reason but by certain scraps rashly cohering and conglomerated. For what can be so open, so confessed, and so clear, when you lift your eyes to the sky and survey what is below and around, as that there is some numen of the most excellent mind, by which all nature is inspired, moved, nourished, and governed?
     "See the sky itself: how widely it stretches, how swiftly it rolls, whether distinguished into night by the stars, or traversed in the day by the sun: you will then know how wondrous and divine is the balance of the highest Moderator.

Vide et annum, ut solis ambitus faciat, et mensem vide, ut luna auctu, senio, labore circumagat. Quid tenebrarum et luminis dicam recursantes vices, ut sit nobis operis et quietis alterna reparatio? Relinquenda vero astrologis prolixior de sideribus oratio, vel quod regant cursum navigandi, vel quod arandi metendique tempus inducant.

See also the year, how it makes the circuit of the sun, and see the month, how the moon is driven round by increase, decrease, and toil. What shall I say of the returning vicissitudes of darkness and light, so that there may be for us an alternate restoration of work and of rest? A more protracted discourse about the stars must be left to the astrologers, whether because they rule the course of navigation, or because they bring in the time for plowing and reaping.

Quae singula non modo ut crearentur, fierent, disponerentur, summi opificis et perfectae rationis eguerunt, verum etiam sentiri, perspici, intellegi sine summa sollertia et ratione non possunt.
"Quid? cum ordo temporum ac frugum stabili varietate distinguitur, nonne auctorem suum parentemque testatur ver aeque cum suis floribus et aestas cum suis messibus et autumni maturitas grata et hiberna olivitas necessaria? Qui ordo facile turbaretur, nisi maxima ratione consisteret.

These individual things not only, so that they might be created, made, and disposed, lacked the highest Maker and perfect reason, but also to be felt, perceived, and understood cannot be without the utmost care and reason.
"What? since the order of times and of crops is distinguished by a stable variety, does it not testify to its author and parent—spring equally with its flowers, and summer with its harvests, and the ripeness of autumn grateful, and winter's olive-yield necessary? That order would be easily disturbed, unless it were upheld by the greatest reason.

Iam providentiae quantae, ne hiems sola glacie ureret aut sola aestas ardore torreret, autumni et veris inserere medium temperamentum, ut per vestigia sua anni revertentis occulti et innoxii transitus laberentur!
"Mari intende: lege litoris stringitur. Quicquid arborum est vide: quam e terrae visceribus animatur! Aspice oceanum: refluit reciprocis aestibus.

Now what great providence, that winter alone should not burn with ice nor summer alone scorch with heat, but should insert the middle temperament of autumn and spring, so that by the footsteps of the returning year a hidden and harmless passage might glide!
"Attend to the sea: it is confined by the law of the shore. See whatever of the trees there is: how it is quickened from the entrails of the earth! Behold the ocean: it flows back with reciprocal tides.

Vide fontes: manant venis perennibus. Fluvios intuere: eunt semper exercitis lapsibus.
"Quid loquar apte disposita recta montium, collium flexa, porrecta camporum? quidve animantium loquar adversus sese tutelam multiformem?

See the springs: they flow from perennial veins. Regard the rivers: they always run along their worn courses.
"What shall I speak of suitably disposed straightness of the mountains, the bent hills, the outstretched plains? or what shall I speak of the many-formed defense of living things against one another?

alias armatas cornibus, alias dentibus saeptas et fundatas ungulis et spicatas aculeis aut pedum celeritate liberas aut elatione pinnarum?
"Ipsa praecipue formae nostrae pulchritudo deum fatetur artificem: status rigidus, vultus erectus, oculi in summo velut in specula constituti et omnes ceteri sensus velut in arce compositi.

at other times armed with horns, at other times fenced with teeth and founded on hoofs and barbed with spines, or freed by swiftness of feet or by the uplift of wings?
"Beauty itself above all of our form confesses the gods as artisan: a rigid posture, an erect countenance, eyes set high as in a watch, and all the other senses marshalled as if in a stronghold.

XVIII.

18.

"Longum est ire per singula. Nihil in homine membrorum est, quod non et necessitatis causa sit et decoris, et quod magis mirum est, eadem figura omnibus, sed quaedam unicuique liniamenta deflexa: sic et similes universi videmur et inter se singuli dissimiles invenimur.
"Quid nascendi ratio? quid?

"It is a long thing to go through particulars. There is nothing in a human's limbs which is not both for the sake of necessity and of ornament, and what is more wondrous, the same figure in all, yet certain lineaments are turned aside in each one: thus we appear similar as a whole and are found dissimilar one from another.
"What is the reason of being born? what?

cupido generandi nonne a deo data est, et ut ubera partu maturescente lactescant et ut tener fetus ubertate lactei roris adolescat?
     "Nec universitati solummodo deus, sed et partibus consulit. Britannia sole deficitur, sed circumfluentis maris tepore recreatur; Aegypti siccitatem temperare Nilus amnis solet, Euphrates Mesopotamiam pro imbribus pensat, Indus flumen et serere orientem dicitur et rigare.
     "Quod si ingressus aliquam domum omnia exculta, disposita, ornata vidisses, utique praeesse ei crederes dominum et illis bonis rebus multo esse meliorem: ita in hac mundi domo, cum caelo terraque perspicias providentiam, ordinem, legem, crede esse universitatis dominum parentemque ipsis sideribus et totius mundi partibus pulchriorem.
     "Ni forte, quoniam de providentia nulla dubitatio est, inquirendum putas, utrum unius imperio an arbitrio plurimorum caeleste regnum gubernetur: quod ipsum non est multi laboris aperire cogitanti imperia terrena, quibus exempla utique de caelo. Quando umquam regni societas aut cum fide coepit aut sine cruore discessit?

Is not the desire for begetting given by God, and that the breasts grow milk-bearing with the ripening of childbirth and that the tender fetus increase by the richness of milky dew?
     "God cares not for the universe only, but for its parts as well. Britain suffers from lack of sun, yet is restored by the warmth of the surrounding sea; the Nile river is wont to temper Egypt’s dryness, the Euphrates makes amends for Mesopotamia’s rains, the Indus river is said both to sow the east and to irrigate it.
     "But if you had entered some house and seen everything cultivated, arranged, ornamented, you would certainly believe that the master presides there and is much better than those good things: so in this house of the world, when you perceive providence in heaven and earth, order, law, believe that the master and parent of the whole universe is more beautiful than the very stars and the parts of the entire world.
     "Or perhaps, since there is no doubt about providence, you think it necessary to inquire whether the heavenly kingdom is governed by the rule of one or by the will of many: which very question is not small trouble to explain to one pondering earthly dominions, to which examples are certainly taken from heaven. When has the fellowship of a kingdom ever begun with fidelity or parted without blood?

Omitto Persas de equorum hinnitu augurantes principatum, et Thebanorum par, mortuam fabulam, transeo. Ob pastorum et casae regnum de geminis memoria notissima est. Generi et soceri bella toto orbe diffusa sunt, et tam magni imperii duos fortuna non cepit.
"Vide cetera: rex unus apibus, dux unus in gregibus, in armentis rector unus.

I omit the Persians, who by the neighing of horses augured a principate, and the match of the Thebans, a dead tale, I pass over. On account of shepherds and the cottage’s kingdom there is a most famous memory of twins. Wars between son-in-law and father-in-law were spread throughout the whole world, and fortune did not seize two of so great an empire.
"See the rest: one king for the bees, one leader among the flocks, one governor over the herds."

Tu in caelo summam potestatem dividi credas et scindi veri illius ac divini imperii totam maiestatem, cum palam sit parentem omnium deum nec principium habere nec terminum, qui nativitatem omnibus praestet, sibi perpetuitatem, qui ante mundum fuerit sibi ipse pro mundo: qui universa, quaecumque sunt, verbo iubet, ratione dispensat, virtute consummat.
"Hic non videri potest: visu clarior est; nec conprehendi: tactu purior est; nec aestimari: sensibus maior est, infinitus, inmensus et soli sibi tantus, quantus est, notus. Nobis vero ad intellectum pectus angustum est, et ideo sic eum digne aestimamus, dum inaestimabilem dicimus. Eloquar quemadmodum sentio: magnitudinem dei qui se putat nosse minuit; qui non vult minuere, non novit.
"Nec nomen deo quaeras: deus nomen est.

You might believe that in heaven the highest power is divided and cleft, and that the whole majesty of that true and divine empire is sundered, when it is plain that the parent of all is a god who has neither beginning nor end, who bestows nativity on all, perpetuity on himself, who, being before the world, is for himself a world: who commands all things whatever they are by a word, dispenses them by reason, perfects them by power.
"He cannot be seen: he is clearer than sight; nor grasped: purer than touch; nor measured: greater than the senses, infinite, immense, and known to himself alone as great as he is. For our breast is narrow for understanding, and therefore we so worthily esteem him while we call him unmeasurable. I will speak how I feel: the one who thinks he knows God diminishes his greatness; he who does not wish to diminish it does not know.
"Nor seek a name for God: God is the name.

Illic vocabulis opus est, cum per singulos propriis appellationum insignibus multitudo dirimenda est: deo, qui solus est, dei vocabulum totum est. Quem si patrem dixero, carnalem opineris; si regem, terrenum suspiceris; si dominum, intelleges utique mortalem. Aufer additamenta nominum et perspicies eius claritatem.
"Quid quod omnium de isto habeo consensum?

There is need of words there, since by each with their proper marks of appellation the multitude must be divided: to the god who is alone the whole name "god" belongs. If I call him father, you will deem him carnal; if king, you will suspect him earthly; if lord, you will certainly understand him mortal. Remove the added names and you will perceive his clarity.
"What then, that I have the consent of all about this?

Audio vulgus: cum ad caelum manus tendunt, nihil aliud quam 'deum' dicunt et 'deus magnus est' et 'deus verus est' et 'si deus dederit.' Vulgi iste naturalis sermo est an Christiani confitentis oratio? Et qui Iovem principem volunt, falluntur in nomine, sed de una potestate consentiunt.

I hear the crowd: when they stretch their hands to heaven, they say nothing else but 'God' and 'God is great' and 'God is true' and 'if God grants.' Is that natural speech of the crowd or the prayer of a confessing Christian? And those who wish Jupiter as prince are mistaken in the name, yet they agree about the one power.

XIX.

19.

"Audio poetas quoque unum patrem divum atque hominum praedicantes, et talem esse mortalium mentem qualem parens omnium diem duxerit. Quid? Mantuanus Maro nonne apertius, proximius, verius 'principio' ait 'caelum ac terras' et cetera mundi membra 'spiritus intus alit et infusa mens agitat, inde hominum pecudumque genus' et quicquid aliud animalium?

"I hear poets likewise proclaiming one father of gods and of men, and that the mind of mortals is such as the parent of all would deem. What then? Does not Mantuan Maro rather more openly, more closely, more truly say 'in the beginning' — 'spirit nourishes heaven and earth within, and an infused mind stirs; thence the race of men and of cattle' — and whatever other kind of animals?

Idem alio loco mentem istam et spiritum deum nominat. Haec enim verba sunt:

He elsewhere likewise calls that mind and spirit a god. For these are the words:

XX.

20.

"Exposui opiniones omnium ferme philosophorum, quibus inlustrior gloria est, deum unum multis licet designasse nominibus, ut quivis arbitretur, aut nunc Christianos philosophos esse aut philosophos fuisse iam tunc Christianos.
"Quod si providentia mundus regitur et unius dei nutu gubernatur, non nos debet antiquitas inperitorum fabellis suis delectata vel capta ad errorem mutui rapere consensus, cum philosophorum suorum sententiis refellatur, quibus et rationis et vetustatis adsistit auctoritas. Maioribus enim nostris tam facilis in mendaciis fides fuit, ut temere crediderint etiam alia monstruosa, mera miracula: Scyllam multiplicem, Chimaeram multiformem et Hydram felicibus vulneribus renascentem et Centauros equos suis hominibus inplexos, et quicquid famae licet fingere, illis erat libenter audire. Quid illas aniles fabulas, de hominibus aves et feras et de hominibus arbores atque flores?

"I have set forth the opinions of almost all philosophers, whose glory is more illustrious, that one God, although designated by many names, — so that anyone may judge either that Christians are now philosophers or that philosophers were already then Christians.
"But if the world is governed by providence and is steered by the nod of one God, antiquity should not, being delighted or captivated by the fables of the unlearned, carry us by mutual consensus into error, since it is refuted by the opinions of its own philosophers, to which the authority of both reason and antiquity lends support. For in our ancestors faith in falsehoods was so ready that they rashly believed other monstrous, mere miracles: Scylla manifold, Chimera multiform, and Hydra reborn by fortunate wounds, and Centaurs — horses intertwined with their men, and whatever fame may fabricate, they were glad to hear. What of those old-womanish tales, of men turned into birds and beasts and of men into trees and flowers?"

Quae si essent facta, fierent: quia fieri non possunt, ideo nec facta sunt. Similiter erraverunt erga deos quoque maiores nostri: inprovidi, creduli rudi simplicitate crediderunt. Dum reges suos colunt religiose, dum defunctos eos desiderant in imaginibus videre, dum gestiunt eorum memorias in statuis detinere, sacra facta sunt quae fuerant adsumpta solacia.

If those things had been made, they would be; because they cannot be made, therefore they were not made. Similarly our ancestors erred also toward the gods: unprovident, credulous, they believed with rude simplicity. While they worship their kings religiously, while they long to see the dead in images, while they yearn to retain their memories in statues, sacred rites were made which had been assumed as consolations.

Denique et antequam commerciis orbis pateret et antequam gentes ritus suos moresque miscerent, unaquaeque natio conditorem suum aut ducem inclytum aut reginam pudicam sexu suo fortiorem aut alicuius muneris vel artis repertorem venerabatur ut civem bonae memoriae: sic et defunctis praemium et futuris dabatur exemplum.

Finally, and before commerce opened the world and before peoples mingled their rites and customs, each and every nation worshipped its founder or a famous leader or a chaste queen stronger than her sexe or the discoverer of some gift or art as a citizen of good memory: thus to the dead a prize was given and to those to come an example.

XXI.

21.

"Lege historicorum scripta vel scripta sapientium: eadem mecum recognosces.
"Ob merita virtutis aut muneris deos habitos Euhemerus exsequitur, et eorum natales, patrias, sepulcra dinumerat et per provincias monstrat, Dictaei Iovis et Apollinis Delphici et Phariae Isidis et Cereris Eleusiniae. Prodicus adsumptos in deos loquitur, qui errando inventis novis frugibus utilitati hominum profuerunt. In eandem sententiam et Persaeus philosophatur et adnectit inventas fruges et frugum ipsarum repertores isdem nominibus, ut comicus sermo est 'Venerem sine Libero et Cerere frigere.' Alexander ille Magnus Macedo insigni volumine ad matrem suam scripsit, metu suae potestatis proditum sibi de diis hominibus a sacerdote secretum: illic Vulcanum facit omnium principem, et postea Iovis gentem.

"Read the writings of historians or the writings of the wise: you will recognize the same things with me.
"Euhemerus pursues that gods were regarded on account of merits of virtue or of office, and counts their natal days, homelands, and tombs and points them out through the provinces, of Dictaean Jove and of Delphic Apollo and of Pharian Isis and Eleusinian Ceres. Prodicus speaks of those taken up into the gods, who by roaming and discovering new crops proved useful to the benefit of men. To the same opinion Persaeus philosophizes and adds that the discovered crops and the very discoverers of the crops are named by the same names, as the comic saying is 'Venerem sine Libero et Cerere frigere.' That Alexander the Great of Macedon wrote in a notable volume to his mother that, through fear of his own power, a secret had been betrayed to him by a priest concerning the gods as men: there he makes Vulcan the prince of all, and afterwards the race of Jove.

Saturnum enim, principem huius generis et examinis, omnes scriptores vetustatis Graeci Romanique hominem tradiderunt. Scit hoc Nepos et Cassius in historia, et Thallus ac Diodorus hoc loquuntur. Is itaque Saturnus Creta profugus Italiam metu filii saevientis accesserat, et Iani susceptus hospitio rudes illos homines et agrestes multa docuit ut Graeculus et politus, litteras inprimere, nummos signare, instrumenta conficere.

For Saturn, the prince of this race and order, all the ancient writers, Greek and Roman, handed down as a man. Nepos and Cassius know this in their history, and Thallus and Diodorus relate it. Thus Saturn, a refugee from Crete, had come to Italy in fear of his raging son; and Janus, having received them into hospitality, taught those rude and rustic men many things so that they became somewhat Grecian and polished: to imprint letters, to stamp coins, to fashion instruments.

Itaque latebram suam, quod tuto latuisset, vocari maluit Latium, et urbem Saturniam indito de suo nomine et Ianiculum Ianus ad memoriam uterque posteritatis reliquerunt. Homo igitur utique qui fugit, homo utique qui latuit, et pater hominis et natus ex homine: Terrae enim vel Caeli filius, quod apud Italos esset ignotis parentibus, proditus, ut in hodiernum inopinato visos caelo missos, ignobiles et ignotos terrae filios nominamus. Eius filius Iuppiter Cretae excluso parente regnavit, illic obiit, illic filios habuit: adhuc antrum Iovis visitur et sepulcrum eius ostenditur, et ipsis sacris suis humanitatis arguitur.
"Otiosum est ire per singulos et totam seriem generis istius explicare, cum in primis parentibus probata mortalitas in ceteros ipso ordine successionis influxerit.

Therefore his lurking-place, which had lain hidden safely, chose to be called Latium, and they left to posterity both the city Saturnia, named from his own name, and the Janiculum and Janus to memory. A man therefore certainly who fled, a man certainly who hid, and a father of men and born of a man: for a son of Earth or of Heaven, because among the Italians he was of unknown parents, was revealed — so that to the present, unexpectedly seen as sent from the sky, we name them ignoble and unknown sons of the earth. His son Jupiter, with the parent expelled from Crete, reigned; there he died, there he had sons: even now the cave of Jupiter is visited and his tomb is shown, and by his very cults is attested his humanity.
"It is idle to go through them one by one and unfold the whole series of this stock, since, first of all, proved mortality in the parents has flowed into the others in the very order of succession.

Nisi forte post mortem deos fingitis, et perierante Proculo deus Romulus, et Iuba Mauris volentibus deus est, et divi ceteri reges, qui consecrantur non ad fidem numinis, sed ad honorem emeritae potestatis. Invitis his denique hoc nomen adscribitur: optant in homine perseverare, fieri se deos metuunt, etsi iam senes nolunt.
"Ergo nec de mortuis dii, quoniam deus mori non potest, nec de natis, quoniam moritur omne quod nascitur: divinum autem id est, quod nec ortum habet nec occasum. Cur enim, si nati sunt, non hodieque nascuntur?

Nisi perhaps you invent gods after death — and with Proculus having perished Romulus is a god, and Iuba, by the will of the Mauri, is a god, and the other divi are kings who are consecrated not to the authority of the numen but to the honor of merited power. To these, finally, this name is ascribed against their will: they long to persist in a man, they dread to become gods themselves, although already old they do not desire it.
"Therefore neither from the dead are there gods, since a god cannot die, nor from the born, since all that is born dies: that, however, is divine which has neither origin nor setting. For why, if they were born, are they not even born today?"

Nisi forte iam Iuppiter senuit et partus in Iunone defecit et Minerva canuit antequam peperit. An ideo cessavit ista generatio, quoniam nulla huiusmodi fabulis praebetur adsensio?
"Ceterum si dii creare possent, interire non possent, plures totis hominibus deos haberemus, ut iam eos nec caelum contineret nec aer caperet nec terra gestaret. Unde manifestum est homines illos fuisse, quos et natos legimus et mortuos scimus.

Unless perhaps Jupiter has already grown old and the birth in Juno failed and Minerva sang before she gave birth. Did that generation therefore cease, because no assent is afforded to such fables?
"Moreover, if the gods could create, they could not perish; we would have more gods than whole peoples, so that neither heaven would any longer contain them nor the air hold them nor the earth sustain them. Whence it is manifest that those men were human, whom we read to have been born and know to have died.

XXII.

CHAPTER 22.

"Quis ergo dubitat horum imagines consecratas vulgus orare et publice colere, dum opinio et mens imperitorum artis concinnitate decipitur, auri fulgore praestringitur, argenti nitore et candore eboris hebetatur? Quodsi in animum quis inducat, tormentis quibus et quibus machinis simulacrum omne formetur, erubescet timere se materiem ab artifice, ut deum faceret, inlusam. Deus enim ligneus, rogi fortasse vel infelicis stipitis portio, suspenditur, caeditur, dolatur, runcinatur; et deus aereus vel argenteus de immundo vasculo, ut saepius factum Aegyptio regi, conflatur, tunditur malleis et incudibus figuratur; et lapideus deus caeditur, scalpitur et ab impurato homine levigatur, nec sentit suae nativitatis iniuriam, ita ut nec postea de vestra veneratione culturam.
"Nisi forte nondum deus saxum est vel lignum vel argentum.

"Who then doubts that the common people pray to and publicly worship these consecrated images, while the opinion and minds of the unskilled are deceived by the craft's artful arrangement, are dazzled by the brightness of gold, and are dulled by the sheen of silver and the whiteness of ivory? But if anyone puts into his mind the devices and the engines by which every likeness is formed, he will blush to fear that the material was mocked by the artisan, as though he were making a god. For a wooden god, perhaps a portion of a pyre or of an unlucky log, is hung up, is hewn, is planed, is adzed; and a brazen or silver god is cast from a foul vessel, as was often done for the Egyptian king, is beaten with hammers and shaped on anvils; and a stone god is hewn, is carved and is smoothed by an unclean man, and does not feel the wrong of its nativity, so that nor afterwards does it gain any cultivation from your veneration.
"Unless, perhaps, the god is not yet stone or wood or silver.

Quando igitur hic nascitur? Ecce funditur, fabricatur, sculpitur: nondum deus est; ecce plumbatur, construitur, erigitur: nec adhuc deus est; ecce ornatur, consecratur, oratur; tunc postremo deus est, cum homo illum voluit et dedicavit.
"Quanto verius de diis vestris animalia muta naturaliter iudicant! Mures, hirundines, milvi non sentire eos sciunt: rodunt, inculcant, insident, ac nisi abigatis, in ipso dei vestri ore nidificant; araneae vero faciem eius intexunt et de ipso capite sua fila suspendunt.

When then is he born? Behold he is poured, fabricated, sculpted: he is not yet a god; behold he is tinned, built, erected: nor yet is he a god; behold he is adorned, consecrated, prayed to; then finally he is a god, when a man has willed him and dedicated him.
"How much more truly do mute animals judge of your gods by nature! Mice, swallows, kites know that they do not feel them: they gnaw, trample, sit upon them, and unless you drive them away, they nest in the very mouth of your god; and spiders weave his face and suspend their threads from his very head.

Vos tergetis, mundatis, eraditis et illos, quos facitis, protegitis et timetis, cum unusquisque vestrum non cogitat prius se debere deum nosse quam colere, dum inconsulte gestiunt parentibus oboedire, dum fieri malunt alieni erroris accessio quam sibi credere, dum nihil ex his quae timent norunt. Sic in auro et argento avaritia consecrata est, sic statuarum inanium consignata forma, sic nata Romana superstitio.
"Quorum ritus si percenseas, ridenda quam multa, quam multa etiam miseranda sunt! Nudi cruda hieme discurrunt, alii incedunt pilleati, scuta vetera circumferunt, pelles caedunt, mendicantes vicatim deos ducunt: quaedam fana semel anno adire permittunt, quaedam in totum nefas visere: est quo viro non licet et nonnulla absque feminis sacra sunt, etiam servo quibusdam caerimoniis interesse piaculare flagitium est: alia sacra coronat univira, alia multivira, et magna religione conquiritur quae plura possit adulteria numerare.

You wipe, cleanse, expunge, and those whom you make you protect and fear, when each one of you does not first think that he ought to know God rather than to worship him, while rashly they desire to obey their parents, while they would rather become an accession to another’s error than trust themselves, while they know nothing of those things which they fear. Thus in gold and silver greed is consecrated, thus the empty form of statues is fixed, thus is born Roman superstition.
"If you were to number the rites of these, how many things are laughable, how many also pitiable! Some run about naked in raw winter, others walk about wearing caps, they carry old shields around, they flay skins, begging from quarter to quarter they lead gods: some permit certain shrines to be visited once a year, some it is wholly impious to behold: there are places where a man may not enter, and some rites are without women, for a slave to be present at certain ceremonies is even a sacrificial disgrace to some; other rites a univira crowns, others a multivira, and with great religiosity they seek to acquire that which can reckon more adulteries.

Quid? qui sanguine suo libat et vulneribus suis supplicat, non profanus melius esset quam sic religiosus? aut cui testa sunt obscena demessa, quo modo deum violat qui hoc modo placat, cum si eunuchos deus vellet, posset procreare, non facere?

What? He who pours a libation with his blood and prays with his wounds — would he not be more profane than thus religious? Or he whose testicles have been shamefully cut away: in what way does he profane God who is thus appeased, since if God had wished eunuchs, he could have begotten them, not caused them to be made?

"Quis non intellegat male sanos et vanae et perditae mentis in ista desipere et ipsam errantium turbam mutua sibi patrocinia praestare? Hic defensio communis furoris est furentium multitudo.

"Who does not understand that the sick, vain, and ruined in mind are foolish in those matters, and that the very throng of the erring lends mutual patronage to one another? This common defence of madness is the multitude of the raging."

XXIII.

23.

" Considera denique sacra ipsa et ipsa mysteria: invenies exitus tristes, fata et funera et luctus atque planctus miserorum deorum. Isis perditum filium cum Cynocephalo suo et calvis sacerdotibus luget, plangit, inquirit, et Isiaci miseri caedunt pectora et dolorem infelicissimae matris imitantur; mox invento parvulo gaudet Isis, exultant sacerdotes, Cynocephalus inventor gloriatur, nec desinunt annis omnibus vel perdere quod inveniunt vel invenire quod perdunt. Nonne ridiculum est vel lugere quod colas vel colere quod lugeas?

"Consider finally the very rites and the mysteries themselves: you will find sad endings, deaths and funerals and the lament and wailing of miserable gods. Isis laments her lost son with her Cynocephalus and with bald priests, she beats her breast, inquires, and the wretched Isiaci beat their breasts and imitate the sorrow of the most unhappy mother; soon, with the little one found, Isis rejoices, the Cynocephalus, the finder, exults, nor do they cease in every year either to lose what they find or to find what they lose. Is it not ridiculous either to mourn what you worship or to worship what you mourn?

Haec tamen Aegyptia quondam nunc et sacra Romana sunt, ut desipias Isidis ad hirundinem et sistrum et adsparsis membris inanem tui Serapidis sive Osiridis tumulum.
"Ceres facibus accensis et serpente circumdata errore subreptam et corruptam Liberam anxia sollicita vestigat: haec sunt Eleusinia. Et quae Iovis sacra sunt? Nutrix capella est, et avido patri subtrahitur infans, ne voretur, et Corybantum cymbalis, ne pater audiat vagitus, tinnitus eliditur.

These things, however, once Egyptian and now Roman sacred rites, so that you may play the fool to Isis with a swallow and a sistrum and, with limbs sprinkled, the empty tomb of your Serapis or Osiris.
"Ceres, with torches kindled and girded about by a serpent, anxiously and solicitous tracks Libera, stolen and corrupted: these are the Eleusinia. And what are the sacred rites of Jove? The nurse is a she-goat, and the infant is snatched away from the greedy father, lest he devour it, and the cymbals of the Corybantes, lest the father hear the cry, the ringing is stifled.

Cybelae Dindyma pudet dicere, quae adulterum suum infeliciter placitum, quoniam et ipsa deformis et vetula, ut multorum deorum mater, ad stuprum inlicere non poterat, exsecuit ut deum scilicet faceret eunuchum. Propter hanc fabulam Galli eam et semiviri sui corporis supplicio colunt. Haec iam non sunt sacra, tormenta sunt.
"Quid?

Cybela of Dindymus is ashamed to tell that she, because she herself was both deformed and old and, as mother of many gods, could not entice to debauchery, cut off her adulterer’s genitals so that he might be a god, that is, a eunuch. On account of this tale the Galli worship her and the half-men by the torture of their bodies. These things are no longer sacred; they are torments.
"Quid?

formae ipsae et habitus nonne arguunt ludibria et dedecora deorum vestrorum? Vulcanus claudus deus et debilis, Apollo tot aetatibus levis, Aesculapius bene barbatus, etsi semper adulescentis Apollinis filius, Neptunus glaucis oculis, Minerva caesiis, bubulis Iuno, pedibus Mercurius alatis, Pan ungulatis, Saturnus compeditis. Ianus vero frontes duas gestat, quasi et aversus incedat; Diana interim est alte succincta venatrix, et Ephesia mammis multis et uberibus extructa, et Trivia trinis capitibus et multis manibus horrifica.

Do not the very forms and garbs themselves prove the mockeries and disgraces of your gods? Vulcan, a lame and weak god; Apollo fickle through so many ages; Aesculapius well-bearded, though always the son of the youthful Apollo; Neptune with glaucous eyes; Minerva with bluish eyes; Juno oxlike; Mercury with winged feet; Pan with hoofed feet; Saturn fettered. Janus indeed wears two faces, as if he walked turned both ways; Diana meanwhile is a high-girded huntress, and the Ephesian (goddess) built up with many breasts and udders, and Trivia terrifying with three heads and many hands.

Quid? ipse Iuppiter vester modo inberbis statuitur, modo barbatus locatur; et cum Hammon dicitur, habet cornua, et cum Capitolinus, tunc gerit fulmina, et cum Latiaris, cruore perfunditur, et cum Feretrius corona induitur. Et ne longius multos Ioves obeam, tot sunt Iovis monstra quot nomina.

What? your very Jupiter himself is sometimes set forth beardless, sometimes placed bearded; and when he is called Hammon he has horns, and when Capitoline, then he bears the thunderbolts, and when Latiaris, he is bedewed with blood, and when Feretrius, he is adorned with a crown. And lest I go on through many Joves, there are as many monsters of Jupiter as there are names.

Erigone suspensa de laqueo est, ut Virgo inter astra ignita sit, Castores alternis moriuntur ut vivant, Aesculapius ut in deum surgat fulminatur, Hercules ut hominem exuat Oetaeis ignibus concrematur.

Erigone is suspended from a noose, so that the Virgin may be set among the fiery stars, the Castores die by turns that they may live, Aesculapius is struck by lightning that he may ascend into a god, Hercules, that he may cast off his humanity, is burned with Oetaean fires.

XXIV.

24.

"Has fabulas et errores et ab inperitis parentibus discimus, et quod est gravius, ipsis studiis et disciplinis elaboramus, carminibus praecipue poetarum, qui plurimum quantum veritati ipsi sua auctoritate nocuerunt. Et Plato ideo praeclare Homerum illum inclytum laudatum et coronatum de civitate, quam in sermone instituebat, eiecit. Hic enim praecipuus bello Troico deos vestros, etsi ludos facit, tamen in hominum rebus et actibus miscuit, hic eorum paria composuit, sauciavit Venerem, Martem vinxit, vulneravit, fugavit.

"These fables and errors we learn from unskilled parents, and what is more serious, we elaborate by our very studies and disciplines, especially by the poems of poets, who have done the greatest harm to the truth by their own authority. And for this reason Plato famously expelled that renowned Homer, praised and crowned, from the city which he was instituting in his discourse. For this man, foremost about the Trojan war, though he composes entertainments, nevertheless mingled your gods in the affairs and acts of men; he set them on an equal footing, he wounded Venus, bound Mars, he wounded and put to flight.

Iovem narrat Briareo liberatum, ne a diis ceteris ligaretur, et Sarpedonem filium, quoniam morti non poterat eripere, cruentis imbribus flere, et loro Veneris inlectum flagrantius, quam in adulteras soleat, cum Iunone uxore concumbere. Alibi Hercules stercora egerit et Apollo Admeto pecus pascit. Laomedonti vero muros Neptunus instituit, nec mercedem operis infelix structor accepit.

He tells that Jove was freed by Briareus, lest he be bound by the other gods, and that he wept for Sarpedon his son, since he could not rescue him from death, weeping with bloody showers, and, enticed by Venus’s thong more fiercely than he was wont toward adulteresses, he lay with Juno his wife. Elsewhere Hercules has carted dung and Apollo tends the flocks of Admetus. But Neptune built the walls for Laomedon, and the unhappy builder did not receive the reward of the work.

Illic Iovis fulmen cum Aeneae armis in incude fabricatur, cum caelum et fulmina et fulgura longe ante fuerint, quam Iuppiter in Creta nasceretur, et flammas veri fulminis nec Cyclops potuerit imitari nec ipse Iuppiter non vereri. Quid loquar Martis et Veneris adulterium deprehensum et in Ganymeden Iovis stuprum caelo consecratum? Quae omnia in hoc prodita, ut vitiis hominum quaedam auctoritas pararetur.
"His atque huiusmodi figmentis et mendaciis dulcioribus corrumpuntur ingenia puerorum et isdem fabulis inhaerentibus adusque summae aetatis robur adolescunt et in isdem opinionibus miseri consenescunt, cum sit veritas obvia, sed requirentibus.

There the thunderbolt of Jove is forged on the anvil along with the arms of Aeneas, although heaven and thunder and lightning existed long before Jupiter was born in Crete, and neither could the Cyclopes imitate the flames of the true thunderbolt nor could Jupiter himself be without fear. What shall I say of the adultery of Mars and Venus detected, and of Jupiter’s rape of Ganymede consecrated in heaven? All these things are published in this way, that a certain authority for the vices of men might be prepared.
"By these and suchlike figments and sweeter lies the geniuses (minds) of boys are corrupted, and clinging to the same fables they grow up to the vigor of full age and in those same opinions miserably grow old, although the truth is obvious, if one were to seek it.

XXV.

25.

"At tamen ista ipsa superstitio Romanis dedit, auxit, fundavit imperium, cum non tam virtute quam religione et pietate pollerent. Nimirum insignis et nobilis iustitia Romana ab ipsis imperii nascentis incunabulis auspicata est! Nonne in ortu suo et scelere collecti et muniti immanitatis suae terrore creverunt?

"But nevertheless that very superstition gave to the Romans, increased and founded the empire, when they were strong not so much by virtue as by religion and piety. Surely the remarkable and noble Roman justice was auspicated by themselves from the very swaddlings of the nascent empire! Were they not in their origin, gathered and fortified by their crime, grown by the terror of their own enormity?

Nam asylo prima plebs congregata est: confluxerant perditi, facinerosi, incesti, sicarii, proditores, et ut ipse Romulus imperator et rector populum suum facinore praecelleret, parricidium fecit. Haec prima sunt auspicia religiosae civitatis! Mox alienas virgines iam desponsatas, iam destinatas et nonnullas de matrimonio mulierculas sine more rapuit, violavit, inlusit, et cum earum parentibus, id est cum soceris suis bellum miscuit, propinquum sanguinem fudit.

For to the asylum the first plebs was gathered: there had flocked the ruined, the felons, the incestuous, the sicarii, the traitors; and that Romulus himself, commander and ruler, might make his people excel in crime, he committed parricide. These are the first auspices of a religious city! Soon he seized foreign virgins already betrothed, already destined, and some little wives taken from wedlock without custom, he raped, he mocked, and with their parents, that is with their fathers‑in‑law, he mixed war and shed kindred blood.

Quid inreligiosius, quid audacius, quid ipsa sceleris confidentia tutius? Iam finitimos agro pellere, civitates proximas evertere cum templis et altaribus, captos cogere, damnis alienis et suis sceleribus adolescere cum Romulo regibus ceteris et posteris ducibus disciplina communis est.
"Ita quicquid Romani tenent, colunt, possident, audaciae praeda est: templa omnia de manubiis, id est de ruinis urbium, de spoliis deorum, de caedibus sacerdotum.
"Hoc insultare et inludere est victis religionibus servire, captivas eas post victorias adorare. Nam adorare quae manu ceperis, sacrilegium est consecrare, non numina.

What could be more irreligious, more audacious, more secure than the very confidence of crime? Already to drive neighbors from the land, to overturn nearby cities with their temples and altars, to compel the captured, to grow by others' losses and by their own crimes — with Romulus, with other kings, and with descendants as leaders, this is a common discipline.
"Thus whatever the Romans hold, cultivate, possess is booty of audacity: all temples from the manubiīs, that is from the ruins of cities, from the spoils of the gods, from the slaughters of priests.
"To insult and mock these is to serve religions that have been conquered, to worship them as captives after victories. For to worship what you have seized by hand is to consecrate sacrilege, not divine power.

Totiens ergo Romanis inpiatum est quotiens triumphatum, tot de diis spolia quot de gentibus et tropaea. Igitur Romani non ideo tanti, quod religiosi, sed quod inpune sacrilegi: neque enim potuerunt in ipsis bellis deos adiutores habere, adversus quos arma rapuerunt. At, quos prostraverant, detriumphatos colere coeperunt: quid autem isti dii pro Romanis possunt, qui nihil pro suis adversus eorum arma valuerunt?
"Romanorum enim vernaculos deos novimus: Romulus, Picus, Tiberinus et Consus et Pilumnus ac Volumnus dii; Cloacinam Tatius et invenit et coluit, Pavorem Hostilius atque Pallorem; mox a nescio quo Febris dedicata: haec alumna urbis istius superstitio, morbi et malae valetudines!

So often, therefore, the Romans were made impious as often as they triumphed: there were as many spoils taken from the gods as from the peoples, and as many trophies. Thus the Romans were great not because religious, but because sacrilegious with impunity: for they could not have the gods as helpers in those very wars against whom they had seized arms. Yet those whom they had overthrown they began to worship after being paraded as defeated; but what can those gods do for the Romans, who availed nothing for their own (people) against Roman arms?
"For we know the Romans’ vernacular gods: Romulus, Picus, Tiberinus and Consus and Pilumnus and Volumnus gods; Cloacina Tatius both discovered and worshipped, Pavor Hostilius and Pallor; soon Febris dedicated by some I know-not-who: these are the foster-children of that city's superstition, of disease and ill health!"

Sane et Acca Larentia et Flora, meretrices propudiosae, inter morbos Romanorum et deos computandae.
     "Isti scilicet adversus ceteros, qui in gentibus colebantur, Romanorum imperium protulerunt: neque enim eos adversum suos homines vel Mars Thracius vel Iuppiter Creticus vel Iuno nunc Argiva, nunc Samia, nunc Poena, vel Diana Taurica vel Mater Idaea vel Aegyptia illa non numina, sed portenta iuverunt.
     "Nisi forte apud istos maior castitas virginum aut religio sanctior sacerdotum, cum paene in pluribus virginibus, ut quae inconsultius se viris miscuissent, Vesta sane nesciente, sit incestum vindicatum, in residuis inpunitatem fecerit non castitas tutior, sed inpudicitia felicior. Ubi autem magis quam a sacerdotibus inter aras et delubra conducuntur stupra, tractantur lenocinia, adulteria meditantur? Frequentius denique in aedituorum cellulis quam in ipsis lupanaribus flagrans libido defungitur.
     "Et tamen ante eos deo dispensante diu regna tenuerunt Assyrii, Medi, Persae, Graeci etiam et Aegyptii, cum Pontifices et Arvales et Salios et Vestales et Augures non haberent nec pullos cavea reclusos, quorum cibo vel fastidio res publica summa regeretur.

Certainly Acca Larentia and Flora too, disreputable prostitutes, are to be reckoned among the maladies of the Romans and among the gods.
     "These men, to be sure, above the others who were worshipped among the nations, advanced the Roman empire: for neither could those gods, set against their own men — whether Mars Thracius or Jupiter Creticus or Juno now Argive, now Samian, now Poenaean, or Diana of Taurica, or the Mother of Idaea, or that Egyptian — be called numina; they were portents that helped.
     "Unless perhaps among those peoples there is greater chastity of virgins or a holier religion of priests, since in almost many virgins — those who had indiscreetly mixed themselves with men, with Vesta indeed unaware — incest was avenged; in the rest, impunity made not chastity safer but shamelessness more fortunate. Where, moreover, are illicit acts more conducted than by priests among the altars and temples, where pimping is carried on, adulteries plotted? Finally, burning lust is discharged more often in the little cells of shrines than in the brothels themselves.
     "And yet before them, with God dispensing, the Assyrians, Medes, Persians, even the Greeks and Egyptians long held kingdoms, when they had no Pontiffs and Arval Brothers and Salii and Vestals and Augurs, nor little chicks shut up in a cage, by whose food or fastidiousness the supreme commonwealth would be governed.

XXVI.

26.

"Iam enim venio ad illa auspicia et auguria Romana, quae summo labore collecta testatus es et paenitenter omissa et observata feliciter. Clodius scilicet et Flaminius et Iunius ideo exercitus perdiderunt, quod pullorum solistimum tripudium exspectandum non putaverunt. Quid?

"For now I come to those Roman auspices and auguries, which you testified were gathered with the greatest toil and, being omitted with regret, were observed happily. Clodius, certainly, and Flaminius and Junius thereby lost their armies, because they did not think that the single most important tripudium of the chickens was to be awaited. What?

Regulus nonne auguria servavit et captus est? Mancinus religionem tenuit, et sub iugum missus est et deditus. Pullos edaces habuit et Paulus, apud Cannas tamen cum maiore reipublicae parte prostratus est.

Did not Regulus observe the auguria and was he captured? Mancinus held to religion, and was sent under the yoke and surrendered. Paulus likewise had ravenous pulli, and at Cannae, however, was prostrated with the greater part of the res publica.

Gaius Caesar, ne ante brumam in Africam navigia transmitteret, auguriis et auspiciis renitentibus, sprevit: eo facilius et navigavit et vicit.
"Quae vero et quanta de oraculis prosequar? Post mortem Amphiaraus ventura respondit, qui proditum iri se ob monile ab uxore nescivit. Tiresias caecus futura videbat, qui praesentia non videbat.

Gaius Caesar, lest he send ships across into Africa before the winter, with the auguries and auspices resisting, scorned them: and all the more easily both sailed and conquered.
"But what and how much shall I pursue about the oracles? Amphiarauus answered that things would come after his death, who did not know that he was to be betrayed by his wife on account of a necklace. Tiresias, blind, saw future things, who did not see present things.

De Pyrrho Ennius Apollinis Pythi responsa confinxit, cum iam Apollo versus facere desisset: cuius tunc cautum illud et ambiguum defecit oraculum, cum et politiores homines et minus creduli esse coeperunt. Et Demosthenes, quod sciret responsa simulata, philippizein Pythiam querebatur.
"At nonnumquam tamen veritatem vel auspicia vel oracula tetigerunt. Quamquam inter multa mendacia videri possit industriam casus imitatus, adgrediar tamen fontem ipsum erroris et pravitatis, unde omnis caligo ista manavit, et altius eruere et aperire manifestius.
"Spiritus sunt insinceri, vagi, a caelesti vigore terrenis labibus et cupiditatibus degravati.

Concerning Pyrrhus, Ennius concocted the Pythian responses of Apollo, when Apollo had already ceased to make verses: and then that cautious and ambiguous oracle failed, since both the more polished men and the less credulous began to be. And Demosthenes, because he knew the responses were fabricated, complained that the Pythia was philippizing.
"But not sometimes nevertheless did truth touch either the auspices or the oracles. Although among many lies the industry of chance may seem to be imitated, I will nevertheless approach the very spring of the error and depravity whence all that mist flowed, and dig deeper and lay it open more plainly.
"The spirits are insincere, wandering, degraded from celestial vigor by terrestrial lips and appetites.

Isti igitur spiritus, posteaquam simplicitatem substantiae suae onusti et inmersi vitiis perdiderunt, ad solacium calamitatis suae non desinunt perditi iam perdere et depravati errorem pravitatis infundere et alienati a deo inductis pravis religionibus a deo segregare. Eos spiritus daemonas esse poetae sciunt, philosophi disserunt, Socrates novit, qui ad nutum et arbitrium adsidentis sibi daemonis vel declinabat negotia vel petebat. Magi quoque non tantum sciunt daemonas sed etiam quicquid miraculi ludunt, per daemonas faciunt: illis adspirantibus et infundentibus praestigias edunt, vel quae non sunt videri, vel quae sunt non videri.

Those spirits therefore, after they had lost the simplicity of their substance and been plunged into vices, do not cease, to the solace of their calamity, now destroyed to destroy, and to pour in the error of depravity, and being alienated from God and led into perverse religions, to separate men from God. Poets know that those spirits are daemons, philosophers discourse about them, Socrates knew, who at the nod and will of the daemon sitting beside him would either shrink from undertakings or pursue them. The Magi likewise not only know the daemons but also perform whatever wonder-play; through daemons they do these things: with them breathing upon and infusing, they produce conjurations, either making what is not to be seen appear, or causing what is to be seen not to be seen.

Eorum magorum et eloquio et negotio primus Hostanes et verum deum merita maiestate prosequitur et angelos, id est ministros et nuntios, dei sedem tueri eiusque venerationi novit adsistere, ut et nutu ipso et vultu domini territi contremescant. Idem etiam daemonas prodidit terrenos, vagos, humanitatis inimicos. Quid?

Of those magi, Hostanes is first in both speech and business, and he attests to the true God with deserved majesty, and knows how to guard the seat of God and to stand by his veneration, so that even the angels, that is ministers and messengers, quake terrified at the very nod and countenance of the Lord. He likewise disclosed that the daemons are earthly, wandering, enemies of humanity. What?

Plato, qui invenire deum negotium credidit, nonne et angelos sine negotio narrat et daemonas? et in Symposio etiam suo naturam daemonum exprimere conititur? Vult enim esse substantiam inter mortalem inmortalemque, id est inter corpus et spiritum mediam, terreni ponderis et caelestis levitatis admixtione concretam, ex qua monet etiam nos amorem informari et inlabi pectoribus humanis et sensum movere et adfectus fingere et ardorem cupiditatis infundere.

Plato, who believed that finding God was a task, does he not also recount angels and daemons as matters of business? and in his Symposium does he not even endeavor to describe the nature of the daemons? For he wishes them to be a substance between the mortal and the immortal, that is, a median between body and spirit, concreted by an admixture of earthly weight and heavenly lightness, from which he also advises that love is formed and glides into human breasts and stirs the senses and shapes affections and infuses the ardor of desire.

XXVII.

27.

"Isti igitur impuri spiritus, daemones, ut ostensum magis ac philosophis, sub statuis et imaginibus consecratis delitiscunt et adflatu suo auctoritatem quasi praesentis numinis consequuntur, dum inspirant interim vatibus, dum fanis inmorantur, dum nonnumquam extorum fibras animant, avium volatus gubernant, sortes regunt, oracula efficiunt, falsis pluribus involuta. Nam et falluntur et fallunt, ut et nescientes sinceram veritatem et quam sciunt, in perditionem sui non confitentes. Sic a caelo deorsum gravant et a deo vero ad materias avocant, vitam turbant, somnos inquietant, inrepentes etiam corporibus occulte, ut spiritus tenues, morbos fingunt, terrent mentes, membra distorquent, ut ad cultum sui cogant, ut nidore altarium vel hostiis pecudum saginati, remissis quae constrinxerant, curasse videantur.

"Those impure spirits, demons, as has been shown more to the philosophers, lurk beneath statues and consecrated images and by their breath attain an authority as of a present numen, while they meanwhile inspire the seers, while they dwell in shrines, while sometimes they animate the entrail-fibres, guide the flights of birds, rule the lots, produce oracles, wrapped in many falsehoods. For they are both deceived and deceive, and, not knowing the sincere truth nor confessing what they know, they bring themselves to ruin. Thus they press downwards from heaven and draw men away from the true God to mere matters; they disturb life, trouble sleeps, even creeping secretly into bodies, like tenuous spirits, they fashion diseases, frighten minds, distort limbs, so that they compel to their cult, so that, fed by the scent of altars or by sacrifices of flocks, with the bonds that had constrained them relaxed, they seem to have cared for them.

Hinc sunt et furentes, quos in publicum videtis excurrere, vates et ipsi absque templo, sic insaniunt, sic bacchantur, sic rotantur: par et in illis instigatio daemonis, sed argumentum dispar furoris. De ipsis etiam illa, quae paulo ante tibi dicta sunt, ut Iuppiter ludos repeteret ex somnio, ut cum equis Castores viderentur, ut cingulum matronae navicula sequeretur.
"Haec omnia sciunt pleraque pars vestrum ipsos daemonas de semetipsis confiteri, quotiens a nobis tormentis verborum et orationis incendiis de corporibus exiguntur. Ipse Saturnus et Serapis et Iuppiter et quicquid daemonum colitis, victi dolore quod sunt eloquuntur, nec utique in turpitudinem sui, nonnullis praesertim vestrum adsistentibus, mentiuntur.

Hence also are the raging ones, whom you see rush out into the public — the seers themselves without a temple; thus they become insane, thus they Bacchant, thus they whirl: in them too the instigation of a daemon is equal, but the token of the frenzy is different. Of these also are those things which a little before were said to you, that Jupiter would repeat the games from a dream, that the Castores were seen with horses, that a little ship followed the girdle of a matron.
"Most of you know all these things; you yourselves confess the daemons concerning yourselves, as often as, by us, with the torments of words and the fires of speech, they are forced forth from the bodies. Saturn himself and Serapis and Jupiter and whatever daemons you worship, overcome by the pain they feel, speak; and certainly they do not lie about their own shame, especially with some of you standing by.

Ipsis testibus, esse eos daemonas, de se verum confitentibus credite: adiurati enim per deum verum et solum, inviti, miseri corporibus inhorrescunt et vel exiliunt statim vel evanescunt gradatim, prout fides patientis adiuvat aut gratia curantis adspirat. Sic Christianos de proximo fugitant, quos longe in coetibus per vos lacessebant. Ideo inserti mentibus imperitorum odium nostri serunt occulte per timorem: naturale est enim et odisse quem timeas, et quem metueris infestare, si possis.

With themselves as witnesses, believe that they are demons — those confessing the truth about themselves: for adjured by the one true God, unwilling and wretched, they shudder in their bodies and either depart at once or vanish gradually, according as the faith of the patient helps or the grace of the healer breathes upon them. Thus they flee from Christians nearby, whom they used to harass at a distance in assemblies through you. Therefore implanted in the minds of the unlearned, they secretly sow hatred of us through fear: for it is natural both to hate him whom you fear, and to assail him whom you dread, if you can.

Sic occupant animos et obstruunt pectora, ut ante nos incipiant homines odisse quam nosse, ne cognitos aut imitari possint aut damnare non possint.

Thus they seize minds and stop up hearts, so that people begin to hate before they know [us], lest, when known, they might either imitate them or be unable to condemn them.

XXVIII.

28.

"Quam autem iniquum sit, incognitis et inexploratis iudicare, quod facitis, nobis ipsis paenitentibus credite. Et nos enim idem fuimus et eadem vobiscum quondam adhuc caeci et hebetes sentiebamus, quasi Christiani monstra colerent, infantes vorarent, convivia incesta miscerent, nec intellegebamus ab his fabulas istas semper ventilari et numquam vel investigari vel probari, nec tanto tempore aliquem existere, qui proderet, non tantum facti veniam, verum etiam indicii gratiam consecuturum: malum autem adeo non esse, ut Christianus reus nec erubesceret nec timeret, et unum solummodo, quod non ante fuerit, paeniteret. Nos tamen cum sacrilegos aliquos et incestos, parricidas etiam defendendos et tuendos suscipiebamus, hos nec audiendos in totum putabamus, ut torqueremus confitentes ad negandum, videlicet ne perirent, exercentes in his perversam quaestionem, non quae verum erueret, sed quae mendacium cogeret.

"But believe us penitents when we say how unjust it is to judge the unknown and unexamined, which you do. For we too were once the same as you, even then blind and dull, we felt as if Christians worshipped monsters, devoured infants, mingled incestuous feasts, nor did we understand that these tales about them were always circulated and never either investigated or proved, nor that in so long a time anyone would exist who would betray them, and that he would gain not only pardon for the deed but even the grace of testimony: that the evil was not so great that a Christian defendant would not blush or fear, and would repent of only that which had not happened before. Yet although we undertook to defend and to protect some sacrilegious and incestuous men, even parricides, we did not judge them wholly to be heard, so that we might torment those confessing into denial, evidently lest they perish, exercising in these matters a perverse questioning, not to elicit the truth, but to force a lie.

Et si qui infirmior malo pressus et victus Christianum se negasset, favebamus ei, quasi eierato nomine iam omnia facta sua illa negatione purgaret. Adgnoscitisne eadem nos sensisse et egisse, quae sentitis et geritis? cum, si ratio, non instigatio daemonis iudicaret, essent urguendi magis, non ut diffiterentur se Christianos, sed ut de incestis stupris, de inpiatis sacris, de infantibus immolatis faterentur.

And if anyone, weaker, pressed by evil and overcome, denied that he was a Christian, we favored him, as if by that denial, with an oath having been made, he now cleansed all those deeds. Do you acknowledge that we felt and did the same things which you feel and do? For if reason, not the instigation of a demon, were to judge, they ought rather to be pressed, not to deny that they are Christians, but to confess concerning illicit sexual crimes, concerning impious sacred rites, concerning infants slaughtered.

His enim et huiusmodi fabulis idem daemones ad execrationis horrorem imperitorum aures adversus nos referserunt. Nec tamen mirum, cum omnium fama, quae semper insparsis mendaciis alitur, ostensa veritate consumitur, sit et negotium daemonum; ab ipsis enim rumor falsus et seritur et fovetur.
"Inde est quod audire te dicis, caput asini rem nobis esse divinam. Quis tam stultus, ut hoc colat?

For to these and such tales the same demons bring back to the ears of the unskilled, against us, for the horror of execration. Nor is it surprising, since the business of the demons is that the reputation of all things, which is always nourished by scattered falsehoods, is consumed when exposed by truth; for from them a false rumor is both sown and fostered.
"Hence it is that you say you hear that the head of an ass is a divine thing to us. Who so foolish as to worship this?

Quis stultior, ut hoc coli credat? Nisi quod vos et totos asinos in stabulis cum vestra vel sua Epona consecratis et eosdem asinos cum Iside religiose decoratis, item boum capita et capita vervecum et immolatis et colitis, de capro etiam et homine mixtos deos leonum et canum vultu deos dedicatis. Nonne et Apin bovem cum Aegyptiis adoratis et pascitis?

Who is more foolish, to believe that this is to be worshipped? Except that you consecrate whole donkeys in the stables with your or his Epona and religiously adorn those same donkeys with Isis; likewise you sacrifice and worship the heads of oxen and the heads of rams, and you dedicate gods mixed of goat and man, gods with the visage of lions and of dogs. And do you not even, Apis, worship and pasture the ox with the Egyptians?

Nec eorum sacra damnatis instituta serpentibus, crocodillis, beluis ceteris et avibus et piscibus, quorum aliquem deum si quis occiderit, etiam capite punitur. Idem Aegyptii cum plerisque vobis non magis Isidem quam ceparum acrimonias metuunt, nec Serapidem magis quam strepitus per pudenda corporis expressos contremescunt.
"Etiam ille, qui de adoratis sacerdotis virilibus adversum nos fabulatur, temptat in nos conferre quae sua sint. Ista enim impudicitiae eorum forsitan sacra sint, apud quos sexus omnis membris omnibus prostat, apud quos tota inpudicitia vocatur urbanitas, qui scortorum licentiae invident, qui medios viros lambunt, libidinoso ore inguinibus inhaerescunt, homines malae linguae etiam si tacerent, quos prius taedescit impudicitiae suae quam pudescit.

Nor are their sacred rites condemned when they consecrate to serpents, crocodiles, other beasts and to birds and fishes, some of which, if any one kills a god, is punished even with his head. The Egyptians likewise with most of you fear no more Isis than the pungencies of onions, nor Serapis more than the clamor expressed through the pudenda of the body makes them tremble.
"Even he who tells fables against us about priests' virile worship attempts to transfer to us what is his own. For perhaps those are sacred rites of their shamelessness, among whom every sex lies exposed with all its members, among whom total shamelessness is called urbanity, who begrudge the license of prostitutes, who lick the middles of men, cling with lascivious mouth to groins, men of a foul tongue even if they were silent, whom their own impudicity nauseates before shame deters them.

Pro nefas! id in se mali facinoris admittunt, quod nec aetas potest pati mollior nec cogi servitus durior.

What impious wickedness! They bring upon themselves that evil deed which neither a milder age can endure nor a more severe servitude be compelled.

XXIX.

29.

"Haec et huiusmodi propudia nobis non licet nec audire, etiam pluribus turpe defendere est: ea enim de castis fingitis et pudicis, quae fieri non crederemus, nisi de vobis probaretis.
"Nam quod religioni nostrae hominem noxium et crucem eius adscribitis, longe de vicinia veritatis erratis, qui putatis deum credi aut meruisse noxium aut potuisse terrenum. Ne ille miserabilis, cuius in homine mortali spes omnis innititur: totum enim eius auxilium cum extincto homine finitur! Aegyptii sane hominem sibi quem colant eligunt: illum unum propitiant, illum de omnibus consulunt, illi victimas caedunt.

"Such things and safeguards of this kind it is not permitted for us even to hear, and it is shameful to defend them even by many: for those things about chaste, fabricated and modest matters, which we would not believe to have been done, unless you proved them about yourselves.
"For in ascribing to our religion a harmful man and his cross you stray far from the neighborhood of truth, you who think that God is believed to have either deserved harm or could have been earthly. Nor that miserable one, on whom all hope in a mortal man is founded: for all his aid indeed ends with the extinct man! The Egyptians, certainly, choose for themselves a man whom they may worship: that one alone they propitiate, to him they consult about all things, to him they slaughter victims.

At ille, qui ceteris deus, sibi certe homo est, velit nolit: nec enim conscientiam suam decipit, si fallit alienam. Etiam principibus et regibus, non ut magnis et electis viris, sicut fas est, sed ut deis turpiter adulatio falsa blanditur, cum et praeclaro viro honor verius et optimo amor dulcius praebeatur. Sic eorum numen vocant, ad imagines supplicant, Genium, id est daemonem, implorant, et est eis tutius per Iouis Genium peierare quam regis.
"Cruces etiam nec colimus nec optamus.

But that man, who to others is a god, to himself at least is certainly a man, whether he will it or not: for he does not deceive his own conscience if he deceives another’s. Even towards princes and kings, not as towards great and chosen men, as is right, but as towards gods, shameful false adulation flatters them, when to a distinguished man honor is offered more truly and to the best man love is bestowed more sweetly. Thus they call it their numen, they supplicate before images, they implore the Genius, that is the daemon, and it is safer for them to swear falsely by Jupiter’s Genius than by the king’s.
"We neither worship nor desire crosses.

Vos plane, qui ligneos deos consecratis, cruces ligneas ut deorum vestrorum partes forsitan adoratis. Nam et signa ipsa et cantabra et vexilla castrorum quid aliud quam inauratae cruces sunt et ornatae? Tropaea vestra victricia non tantum simplicis crucis faciem, verum et adfixi hominis imitantur.

You plainly, you who consecrate wooden gods, perhaps adore wooden crosses as parts of your gods. For both the standards themselves and the cantabra and the vexilla of the camps what else are they than gilded crosses and adorned? Your trophies, victorious, imitate not only the face of a simple cross, but also of a man affixed thereto.

Signum sane crucis naturaliter visimus in navi, cum velis tumentibus vehitur, cum expansis palmulis labitur: et cum erigitur iugum, crucis signum est, et cum homo porrectis manibus deum pura mente veneratur. Ita signo crucis aut ratio naturalis innititur aut vestra religio formatur.

We plainly behold the sign of the cross in a ship, when it is borne by swelling sails, when with outspread little sails it glides: and when the yard is raised, it is the sign of a cross, and when a man with outstretched hands worships God with a pure mind. Thus by the sign of the cross either natural reason leans upon it or your religion is formed.

XXX.

30.

"Illum iam velim convenire, qui initiari nos dicit aut credit de caede infantis et sanguine. Putas posse fieri, ut tam molle, tam parvulum corpus fata vulnerum capiat? ut quisquam illum rudem sanguinem novelli et vixdum hominis caedat, fundat, exhauriat?

"I would now like to meet the man who says or believes that we are initiated by the slaughter and blood of an infant. Do you think it possible that fate should take so soft, so very small a body to wounds? that anyone should cut, pour out, and drain that raw blood of a newborn and scarcely human?

Nemo hoc potest credere nisi qui possit audere. Vos enim video procreatos filios nunc feris et avibus exponere, nunc adstrangulatos misero mortis genere elidere: sunt quae in ipsis visceribus medicaminibus epotis originem futuri hominis extinguant et parricidium faciant, antequam pariant.
"Et haec utique de deorum vestrorum disciplina descendunt: nam Saturnus filios suos non exposuit, sed voravit. Merito ei in nonnullis Africae partibus a parentibus infantes immolabantur, blanditiis et osculo comprimente vagitum, ne flebilis hostia immolaretur.

No one can believe this unless he can dare. For I see you exposing the children you have begotten now to wild beasts and to birds, now crushing those who have been strangled with a miserable kind of death: there are medicines which, poured into the very entrails, extinguish the origin of the future man and make parricide, before they are born.
"And these things indeed descend from the discipline of your gods: for Saturn did not expose his children, but devoured them. With reason in some parts of Africa infants were sacrificed to him by their parents, restraining their crying with blandishments and a kiss, lest the plaintive victim be offered.

Tauris etiam Ponticis et Aegyptio Busiridi ritus fuit hospites immolare, et Mercurio Gallis humanas vel inhumanas victimas caedere, Romani Graecum et Graecam, Gallum et Gallam sacrificii viventes obruere, hodieque ab ipsis Latiaris Iuppiter homicidio colitur, et quod Saturni filio dignum est, mali et noxii hominis sanguine saginatur. Ipsum credo docuisse sanguinis foedere coniurare Catilinam, et Bellonam sacrum suum haustu humani cruoris imbuere, et comitialem morbum hominis sanguine, id est morbo graviore sanare. Non dissimiles et qui de harena feras devorant inlitas et infectas cruore vel membris hominis et viscere saginatas.

Among the Taurians also, and among the Pontic and the Egyptian Busiris, there was the rite to immolate guests, and to Mercury the Gauls to cut human or inhuman victims; the Romans to bury alive a Greek man and a Greek woman, a Gaul man and a Gaul woman for sacrifice, and even today Latian Jupiter is venerated by homicide, and that which is fitting for the son of Saturn is fattened with the blood of an evil and noxious man. I believe he himself taught to conspire Catiline by a blood-foedus, and to steep his Bellona, sacred, with a draught of human gore, and to cure the comitial disease with human blood, that is, to heal a graver sickness. Not dissimilar are those who on the sand devour wild beasts smeared and infected with blood or fattened with the limbs and flesh of man.

Nobis homicidium nec videre fas nec audire, tantumque ab humano sanguine cavemus, ut nec edulium pecorum in cibis sanguinem noverimus.

For us it is neither lawful to see nor to hear of homicide, and we guard so jealously against human blood that we do not even recognize the blood of cattle in our foods.

XXXI.

31.

"Et de incesto convivio fabulam grandem adversum nos daemonum coitio mentita est, ut gloriam pudicitiae deformis infamiae aspersione macularet, ut ante exploratam veritatem homines a nobis terrore infandae opinionis averteret. Sic de isto et tuus Fronto non ut adfirmator testimonium fecit, sed convicium ut orator adspersit: haec enim potius de vestris gentibus nata sunt. Ius est apud Persas misceri cum matribus, Aegyptiis et Athenis cum sororibus legitima conubia, memoriae et tragoediae vestrae incestis gloriantur, quas vos libenter et legitis et auditis; sic et deos colitis incestos, cum matre, cum filia, cum sorore coniunctos.

"And a great tale about an incestuous banquet was fabricated against us, feigning a gathering of demons, that the glory of chastity might be stained by the smear of deformed infamy, that before the proved truth men might be turned away from us by the terror of an unspeakable reputation. Thus about that man even your Fronto did not give testimony as an affirmant, but as an orator cast it as a reproach: for these things rather sprang from your peoples. Among the Persians it is lawful to mingle with mothers, among the Egyptians and Athenians lawful marriages with sisters; your memory and your tragedy boast of incest, which you willingly both read and hear; thus also you worship incestuous gods, joined with mother, with daughter, with sister."

Merito igitur incestum penes vos saepe deprehenditur, semper admittitur. Etiam nescientes, miseri, potestis in inlicita proruere: dum Venerem promisce spargitis, dum passim liberos seritis, dum etiam domi natos alienae misericordiae frequenter exponitis, necesse est in vestros recurrere, in filios inerrare. Sic incesti fabulam nectitis, etiam cum conscientiam non habetis.
"At nos pudorem non facie, sed mente praestamus: unius matrimonii vinculo libenter inhaeremus, cupiditate procreandi aut unam scimus aut nullam.

Therefore rightly incest is often detected among you, always permitted. Even without knowing it, wretches, you can be driven into illicitness: while you promiscuously scatter Venus, while you sow children everywhere, while you even frequently expose at home those born to another’s mercy, it is necessary they recur into your own, to fall upon your sons. Thus you spin a tale of incest, even when you have no conscience.
"But we show modesty not by face but by mind: we gladly cling to the bond of one marriage; in the desire of begetting we know either one or none.

Convivia non tantum pudica colimus, sed et sobria: nec enim indulgemus epulis aut convivium mero ducimus, sed gravitate hilaritatem temperamus casto sermone; corpore castiore plerique inviolati corporis virginitate perpetua fruuntur potius quam gloriantur: tantum denique abest incesti cupido, ut nonnullis rubori sit etiam pudica coniunctio.
"Nec de ultima statim plebe consistimus, si honores vestros et purpuras recusamus, nec factiosi sumus, si omnes unum bonum sapimus eadem congregati quiete qua singuli, nec in angulis garruli, si audire nos publice aut erubescitis aut timetis.
"Et quod in dies nostri numerus augetur, non est crimen erroris, sed testimonium laudis; nam in pulcro genere vivendi et perseverat suus et adcrescit alienus. Sic nos denique non notaculo corporis, ut putatis, sed innocentiae ac modestiae signo facile dinoscimus: sic nos mutuo, quod doletis, amore diligimus, quoniam odisse non novimus: sic nos, quod invidetis, fratres vocamus, ut unius dei parentis homines, ut consortes fidei, ut spei coheredes. Vos enim nec invicem adgnoscitis et in mutua odia saevitis, nec fratres vos nisi sane ad parricidium recognoscitis.

We cultivate banquets not only modestly but also soberly: for we do not indulge in feasts nor lead a feast with wine, but with gravity we temper hilarity with chaste discourse; with chastier bodies most, unviolated in bodily virginity, enjoy rather than boast: indeed so far is the desire for incest removed that for some even a union is modest because of shame.
"Nor do we at once stand at the lowest of the common people if we refuse your honors and purple robes, nor are we factious if, all gathered together, we esteem one good as much in quiet as we do each singly, nor are we talkative in corners if you blush or fear to hear us publicly.
"And that our number increases from day to day is not a crime of error, but a testimony of praise; for in a fair way of living what is one’s own both endures and is increased by another’s presence. Thus finally we are recognized not by a mark of the body, as you suppose, but by the sign of innocence and modesty: thus we love one another mutually, which pains you, because we do not know how to hate: thus we call those whom you envy brothers, as men of one divine parent, as sharers of faith, as coheirs of hope. For you neither know one another nor rage in mutual hatreds, nor do you acknowledge one another as brothers except indeed at parricide.

XXXII.

32.

"Putatis autem nos occultare quod colimus, si delubra et aras non habemus? Quod enim simulacrum deo fingam, cum, si recte existimes, sit dei homo ipse simulacrum? Templum quod ei extruam, cum totus hic mundus eius opere fabricatus eum capere non possit?

"Do you think, then, that we hide what we worship if we have no temples and altars? For what image would I fashion for God, when, if you judge rightly, man himself is the very image of God? What temple would I build for him, when this whole world, fashioned by his work, cannot contain him?"

Et cum homo latius maneam, intra unam aediculam vim tantae maiestatis includam? Nonne melius in nostra dedicandus est mente? in nostro intimo consecrandus est pectore?

And since man is more spacious in his being, shall I enclose the power of so great a majesty within a single little shrine? Is he not rather to be dedicated in our mind? in our innermost heart to be consecrated?

Hostias et victimas deo offeram, quas in usum mei protulit, ut reiciam ei suum munus? Ingratum est, cum sit litabilis hostia bonus animus et pura mens et sincera sententia. Igitur qui innocentiam colit, deo supplicat; qui iustitiam, deo libat; qui fraudibus abstinet, propitiat deum; qui hominem periculo subripit, optimam victimam caedit.

Shall I offer hosts and victims to God, which he has brought forth for my use, that I should cast back to him his own gift? It is ungrateful, when a litigious/propitiatory sacrifice is a good spirit and a pure mind and a sincere intention. Therefore he who cultivates innocence prays to God; he who cultivates justice makes a libation to God; he who refrains from fraud propitiates God; he who drags a man into peril slays the best victim.

Haec nostra sacrificia, haec dei sacra sunt: sic apud nos religiosior est ille qui iustior.
"At enim quem colimus deum, nec ostendimus nec videmus. Immo ex hoc deum credimus, quod eum sentire possumus, videre non possumus. In operibus enim eius et in mundi omnibus motibus virtutem eius semper praesentem aspicimus, cum tonat, fulgurat, fulminat, cum serenat.

These our sacrifices, these are God's sacred things: thus with us he is more religious who is more just.
"But indeed the god whom we worship we neither display nor see. Nay rather from this we believe in God, because we can sense him, we cannot see him. For in his works and in all the motions of the world we always behold his virtue present, when it thunders, when it flashes, when it hurls lightning, when it clears."

Nec mireris, si deum non vides: vento et flatibus omnia impelluntur, vibrantur, agitantur, et sub oculis tamen non venit ventus et flatus. In solem adeo, qui videndi omnibus causa est, videre non possumus: radiis acies submovetur, obtutus intuentis hebetatur, et si diutius inspicias, omnis visus extinguitur. Quid?

Nor be amazed if you do not see God: by wind and breaths all things are driven, vibrate, are agitated, and yet beneath the eyes neither wind nor breath appears. Indeed we cannot see the sun itself, which is the cause of seeing for all: by its rays the visual edge is withdrawn, the beholder’s gaze is dulled, and if you look for a long time, all sight is extinguished. What?

ipsum solis artificem, illum luminis fontem possis sustinere, cum te ab eius fulgoribus avertas, a fulminibus abscondas? Deum oculis carnalibus vis videre, cum ipsam animam tuam, qua vivificaris et loqueris, nec aspicere possis nec tenere?
"Sed enim deus actum hominis ignorat et in caelo constitutus non potest aut omnes obire aut singulos nosse. Erras, o homo, et falleris: unde enim deus longe est, cum omnia caelestia terrenaque et quae extra istam orbis provinciam sunt, deo plena sint?

can you sustain the very artificer of the sun himself, that fount of light, when you turn yourself away from his gleams, hide yourself from his lightnings? Do you wish to see God with carnal eyes, when you cannot even look upon or hold your very soul by which you are vivified and speak?
"But indeed you say that God is ignorant of the deed of man and, being fixed in heaven, cannot either go around all things or know individuals. You err, O man, and are deceived: for how is God far off, when all things heavenly and earthly and those beyond this province of the orb are full of God?

Ubique non tantum nobis proximus, sed infusus est. In solem adeo rursus intende: caelo adfixus, sed terris omnibus sparsus est; pariter praesens ubique interest et miscetur omnibus, nusquam eius claritudo violatur. Quanto magis deus auctor omnium ac speculator omnium, a quo nullum potest esse secretum, tenebris interest, interest cogitationibus nostris, quasi alteris tenebris!

Everywhere he is not only near to us, but he is infused into us. Turn again your gaze to the sun: fixed to the sky, yet scattered over all the lands; equally present everywhere, he is among and mingled with all, nowhere is his clarity violated. How much more is God, author of all and speculator of all, from whom no secret can be, present in the darkness, present in our thoughts, as if in other darknesses!

Non tantum sub illo agimus, sed et cum illo, ut prope dixerim, vivimus.

Not only under him do we act, but also with him, as I might almost say, we live.

XXXIII.

33.

"Nec nobis de nostra frequentia blandiamur: multi nobis videmur, sed deo admodum pauci sumus. Nos gentes nationesque distinguimus: deo una domus est mundus hic totus. Reges tamen regni sui per officia ministrorum universa noverunt, deo indiciis opus non est: non solum in oculis eius, sed in sinu vivimus.
"Sed Iudaeis nihil profuit, quod unum et ipsi deum aris atque templis maxima superstitione coluerunt.

"Nor let us flatter ourselves about our multitude: we seem many to ourselves, but before God we are exceedingly few. We distinguish peoples and nations: to God this whole world is one household. Yet kings came to know the whole of their realm through the offices of ministers; God needs no indications: we live not only in his sight, but in his bosom.
"But it profited the Jews nothing, that they also worshipped the one God at altars and temples with the greatest superstition.

Ignorantia laberis si, priorum aut oblitus aut inscius, posteriorum recordaris. Nam et ipsi deum nostrum, idem enim omnium deus est, [dereliquerunt] -- quamdiu enim eum caste, innoxie religioseque coluerunt, quamdiu praeceptis salubribus obtemperaverunt, de paucis innumeri facti, de egentibus divites, de servientibus reges: modici multos, inermi armatos, dum fugiunt insequentes, dei iussu et elementis adnitentibus obruerunt. Scripta eorum relege, vel, ut transeamus veteres, Flavi Iosephi, vel, si Romanis magis gaudes, Antoni Iuliani de Iudaeis require: iam scies, nequitia sua hanc eos meruisse fortunam, nec quidquam accidisse quod non sit his, si in contumacia perseverarent, ante praedictum.

You slip into ignorance if, being forgetful or unaware of former things, you recall later ones. For even they themselves abandoned our God, for he is truly the same God of all, [dereliquerunt] — for as long as they worshipped him chastely, harmlessly, and devoutly, for as long as they obeyed salutary precepts, from the few they became innumerable, from the needy rich, from servants kings: the modest many, the unarmed armed; while the fleeing are pursued, they overwhelmed (their pursuers) by the command of God and with the elements lending aid. Reread their writings, or, to pass over the ancients, consult Flavius Josephus, or, if you prefer the Romans, seek Antonius Julianus on the Jews: you will then know that by their wickedness they deserved this fortune, and that nothing happened which would not have come upon them, had they persisted in contumacy, as was foresaid.

Ita prius eos deseruisse conprehendes quam esse desertos nec, ut impie loqueris, cum deo suo captos, sed a deo ut disciplinae transfugas deditos.

Thus you will perceive that they deserted him before they were deserted, and not, as you speak impiously, taken captive with their god, but delivered by God as deserters from discipline.

XXXIV.

34.

"Ceterum de incendio mundi, aut improvisum ignem cadere aut deficere umorem non credere, vulgaris erroris est. Quis enim sapientium dubitat, quis ignorat, omnia quae orta sunt occidere, quae facta sunt interire, caelum quoque cum omnibus quae caelo continentur, ita ut coepisse, desinere. Omnem adeo mundum, si solem lunam reliqua astra desierit fontium dulcis aqua et aqua marina nutrire, in vim ignis abiturum, Stoicis constans opinio est, quod consumto umore mundus hic omnis ignescet.

"Moreover, concerning the world's conflagration, to disbelieve that either a sudden fire might fall or that the moisture might fail is a common error. For what wise man doubts, what one is ignorant, that all things which have arisen will perish, that things made will decay, even the sky with all that is contained in the sky, so that what has begun will cease. Indeed, the whole world, if the sun, the moon, and the remaining stars were to cease to nourish by the sweet water of springs and by the sea-water, would be carried into the power of fire — this is the Stoics' constant opinion, that with the moisture consumed this whole world will ignite."

Et Epicureis de elementorum conflagratione et mundi ruina eadem ipsa sententia est. Loquitur Plato partes orbis nunc inundare nunc alternis vicibus ardescere, et cum ipsum mundum perpetuum et insolubilem diceret esse fabricatum, addit tamen, ipsi artifici deo soli et solubilem et esse mortalem. Ita nihil mirum est, si ista moles ab eo, quo exstructa est, destruatur.
"Animadvertis, philosophos eadem disputare quae dicimus, non quod nos simus eorum vestigia subsecuti, sed quod illi de divinis praedicationibus prophetarum umbram interpolatae veritatis imitati sint.
"Sic etiam condicionem renascendi sapientium clariores, Pythagoras primus et praecipuus Plato, corrupta et dimidiata fide tradiderunt: nam corporibus dissolutis solas animas volunt et perpetuo manere et in alia nova corpora saepius commeare.

And among the Epicureans the very same opinion is held concerning the conflagration of the elements and the ruin of the world. Plato says that the parts of the orb now flood, now in alternating turns burn, and although he said that the world itself was fashioned perpetual and indissoluble, he nevertheless adds that it is dissolvable and mortal to the artisan god alone. Thus it is no wonder if that mass should be destroyed by him by whom it was built.
"Do you note that philosophers dispute the same things which we say, not because we have followed their footsteps, but because they, from the divine proclamations of the prophets, have imitated a shadow of interpolated truth?
"Thus also the clearer condition of rebirth among the wise was handed down by Pythagoras first and foremost and especially by Plato, yet with corrupted and halved faith: for, bodies being dissolved, they wish souls alone both to remain perpetually and to pass often into other new bodies.

Addunt istis et illa ad retorquendam veritatem, in pecudes, aves, beluas hominum animas redire. Non philosophi sane studio, sed mimi convicio digni ista sententia est. Sed ad propositum satis est, etiam in hoc sapientes vestros in aliquem modum nobiscum consonare.
"Ceterum quis tam stultus aut brutus est, ut audeat repugnare, hominem a deo, ut primum potuisse fingi ita posse denuo reformari?

Add to these also that, to pervert the truth, the souls of men return into cattle, birds, and wild beasts. That opinion is not worthy of the zeal of philosophers, but of the derision of mimes. But to the point it suffices that even in this your wise men in some measure agree with us.
"But who so foolish or brutish is there, that he would dare to contradict that a man, from God, as he could be formed at first, could thus be formed again?"

nihil esse post obitum, et ante ortum nihil fuisse? sicut de nihilo nasci licuit, ita de nihilo licere reparari? Porro difficilius est, id quod non sit incipere, quam id quod fuerit iterare.

Is there nothing after death, and before rising nothing had been? Just as it was permitted to be born from nothing, so would it be permitted to be restored from nothing? Moreover, it is more difficult for that which is not to begin than for that which has been to be repeated.

Tu perire et deo credis, si quid oculis nostris hebetibus subtrahatur? Corpus omne sive arescit in pulverem sive in umorem solvitur vel in cinerem comprimitur vel in nidorem tenuatur, subducitur nobis, sed deo elementorum custodia reservatur. Nec, ut creditis, ullum damnum sepulturae timemus, sed veterem et meliorem consuetudinem humandi frequentamus.
"Vide adeo, quam in solacium nostri resurrectionem futuram omnis natura meditetur.

Do you believe that you perish and God too, if anything is taken away from our dimmed eyes? Every body, whether it dries to dust or is dissolved into moisture or is compressed into ash or is drawn out into smoke, is withdrawn from us, but is reserved by God in the custody of the elements. Nor, as you believe, do we fear any loss by burial, but we practise the ancient and better custom of interring.
"See, moreover, how all of nature meditates on our future resurrection as a solace.

Sol demergit et nascitur, astra labuntur et redeunt, flores occidunt et revivescunt, post senium arbusta frondescunt, semina nonnisi corrupta revirescunt: ita corpus in sepulcro, ut arbores in hiberno: occultant virorem ariditate mentita. Quid festinas, ut cruda adhuc hieme revivescat et redeat? Expectandum nobis etiam corporis ver est.
"Nec ignoro plerosque conscientia meritorum nihil se esse post mortem magis optare quam credere: malunt enim extingui penitus quam ad supplicia reparari.

The sun sinks and is born, the stars slide and return, flowers perish and revive, after old age the shrubs put forth leaf, seeds, unless corrupted, sprout again: so the body in the tomb, as trees in winter: they hide their greenness, feigning dryness. Why do you hasten, that while winter is yet raw it should revive and come back? We too must await the spring of the body.
"Nor am I ignorant that most, by the conscience of their merits, wish for nothing after death more than to believe it: for they prefer to be utterly extinguished rather than to be restored to punishments.

Quorum error augetur et in saeculo libertate remissa et dei patientia maxima, cuius quanto iudicium tardum, tanto magis iustum est.

Whose error is increased both in the world by liberty relaxed and by God’s very great patience; the judgment of whom, the more it is delayed, the more just it is.

XXXV.

35.

"Et tamen admonentur homines doctissimorum libris et carminibus poetarum illius ignei fluminis et de Stygia palude saepius ambientis ardoris, quae cruciatibus aeternis praeparata, et daemonum indiciis et de oraculis prophetarum cognita, tradiderunt. Et ideo apud eos etiam ipse rex Iuppiter per torrentes ripas et atram voraginem iurat religiose: destinatam enim sibi cum suis cultoribus poenam praescius perhorrescit. Nec tormentis aut modus ullus aut terminus.

"And yet men are admonished by the most learned books and by the poems of poets who often circle that fiery river and the Stygian marsh of heat, which, prepared for eternal torments and known both by the indications of demons and by the oracles of prophets, they have handed down. And therefore among them even the king Jupiter takes an oath reverently by the riverbanks and by the black abyss: for, knowing beforehand the punishment appointed for him and his worshippers, he shudders. Nor is there any measure or limit to the torments.

Illic sapiens ignis membra urit et reficit, carpit et nutrit. Sicut ignes fulminum corpora tangunt nec absumunt, sicut ignes Aetnaei montis et Vesuvi montis et ardentium ubique terrarum flagrant nec erogantur: ita poenale illud incendium non damnis ardentium pascitur, sed inexesa corporum laceratione nutritur.
"Eos autem merito torqueri, qui deum nesciunt, ut impios, ut iniustos, nisi profanus nemo deliberat, cum parentem omnium et omnium dominum non minoris sceleris sit ignorare quam laedere. Et quamquam inperitia dei sufficiat ad poenam, ita ut notitia prosit ad veniam, tamen si vobiscum Christiani comparemur, quamvis in nonnullis disciplina nostra minor est, multo tamen vobis meliores deprehendemur.

There a wise fire burns and renews the limbs, it seizes and nourishes. Just as the fires of lightning touch bodies and do not consume them, just as the fires of Mount Aetna and Mount Vesuvius and of burning lands everywhere blaze and are not exhausted: so that punitive conflagration is not fed by the losses of the burning, but is nourished by the unconsumed laceration of bodies.
"Those, however, are rightly tormented who do not know God, as impious, as unjust—unless no one judges them profane—since to be ignorant of the parent of all and lord of all is no less a crime than to injure him. And although ignorance of God suffices for punishment, so that knowledge avails for pardon, nevertheless, if Christians are compared with you, although in some respects our discipline is less, yet we shall be found much better than you.

Vos enim adulteria prohibetis et facitis, nos uxoribus nostris solummodo viri nascimur: vos scelera admissa punitis, apud nos et cogitare peccare est: vos conscios timetis, nos etiam conscientiam solam, sine qua esse non possumus: denique de vestro numero carcer exaestuat, Christianus ibi nullus nisi aut reus suae religionis aut profugus.

For you forbid and yet commit adulteries; we are born to our wives only as men: you punish crimes when they are committed, among us even to think is to sin; you fear those privy (to deeds), we fear conscience alone, without which we cannot be; finally from your number the prison seethes — there is no Christian there except either an accused of his religion or a fugitive.

XXXVI.

36.

"Nec de fato quisquam aut solacium captet aut excuset eventum: sit sors fortunae, mens tamen libera est, et ideo actus hominis, non dignitas iudicatur. Quid enim aliud est fatum quam quod de unoquoque nostrum deus fatus est? Qui cum possit praescire materiam, pro meritis et qualitatibus singulorum etiam fata determinat.

"Nor should anyone take comfort in fate or excuse an outcome: let chance be the lot of fortune, yet the mind is free, and therefore the act of a man, not his dignity, is judged. For what else is fate than that which a god has decreed concerning each one of us? Who, since he can foreknow the material, also determines fates according to the merits and qualities of individuals."

Ita in nobis non genitura plectitur, sed ingenii natura punitur. Ac de fato satis, vel si pauca, pro tempore, disputaturi alias et uberius et plenius.
"Ceterum quod plerique pauperes dicimur, non est infamia nostra, sed gloria: animus enim ut luxu solvitur, ita frugalitate firmatur. Et tamen quis potest pauper esse qui non eget, qui non inhiat alieno, qui deo dives est?

Ita in nobis non genitura plectitur, sed ingenii natura punitur. Ac de fato satis, vel si pauca, pro tempore, disputaturi alias et uberius et plenius.
"Moreover, in us what is inherited is not punished, but the nature of the mind is punished. And about fate, enough for now, or if a few things, for the present — we will dispute them at another time more copiously and more fully. Ceterum that we are for the most part called poor is not our disgrace but our glory: for the soul, as it is undone by luxury, so is it strengthened by frugality. And yet who can be poor who does not lack, who does not covet another's, who is rich toward God?

Magis pauper ille est, qui cum multa habeat, plura desiderat. Dicam tamen quemadmodem sentio: nemo tam pauper potest esse quam natus est. Aves sine patrimonio vivunt et in diem pecua pascuntur: et haec nobis tamen nata sunt, quae omnia, si non concupiscimus, possidemus.

That man is the more poor who, though he has many things, desires more. Yet I will say how I think: no one can be so poor as he is at birth. Birds live without patrimony and the cattle graze day by day: and these things nevertheless were born for us, which all, if we do not covet, we possess.

Igitur ut qui viam terit, eo felicior quo levior incedit, ita beatior in hoc itinere vivendi, qui paupertate se sublevat, non sub divitiarum onere suspirat. Et tamen facultates, si utiles putaremus, a deo posceremus: utique indulgere posset aliquantum cuius est totum. Sed nos contemnere malumus opes quam continere, innnocentiam magis cupimus, magis patientiam flagitamus, malumus nos bonos esse quam prodigos.
"Et quod corporis humana vitia sentimus et patimur, non est poena, militia est.

Therefore, just as one who wears a road is the happier the more lightly he walks, so the more blessed on this journey of life is he who relieves himself by poverty, and does not sigh under the burden of riches. And yet, if we thought them useful, we would ask faculties from God: certainly one who owns all things might be indulged somewhat. But we prefer to scorn wealth rather than restrain it, we desire innocence more, we crave patience more, we prefer to be good rather than prodigal.
"And that we feel and suffer the human vices of the body is not a punishment, it is military service.

Fortitudo enim infirmitatibus roboratur et calamitas saepius disciplina virtutis est; vires denique et mentis et corporis sine laboris exercitatione torpescunt. Omnes adeo vestri viri fortes, quos in exemplum praedicatis, aerumnis suis inclyti floruerunt. Itaque et nobis deus nec non potest subvenire nec despicit, cum sit et omnium rector et amator suorum, sed in adversis unumquemque explorat et examinat, ingenium singulorum periculis pensitat, usque ad extremam mortem voluntatem hominis sciscitatur, nihil sibi posse perire securus.

For fortitude is strengthened by infirmities, and calamity is more often the discipline of virtue; finally the powers both of mind and of body without the exercise of labor grow torpid. Indeed all your brave men, whom you proclaim as examples, flourished illustrious through their hardships. And so God both can and does not despise to succor us, since he is both the ruler of all and the lover of his own; but in adversities he probes and examines each one, he weighs each man's genius by dangers, even to the extreme of death he inquires into a man's will, secure that nothing can perish to him.

Itaque ut aurum ignibus, sic nos discriminibus arguimur.

Therefore, just as gold is proved by fire, so we are tested by dangers.

XXXVII.

CHAPTER 37.

"Quam pulchrum spectaculum deo, cum Christianus cum dolore congreditur, cum adversum minas et supplicia et tormenta componitur, cum strepitum mortis et horrorem carnificis inridens inculcat, cum libertatem suam adversus reges et principes erigit, soli deo, cuius est, cedit, cum triumphator et victor ipsi, qui adversum se sententiam dixit, insultat! Vicit enim qui, quod contendit, obtinuit. Quis non miles sub oculis imperatoris audacius periculum provocet?

"How beautiful a spectacle to God, when a Christian advances with sorrow, when he readies himself against threats and punishments and torments, when, mocking, he tramples underfoot the clamor of death and the dread of the executioner, when he upholds his liberty against kings and princes, yields to the only God, to whom it belongs, when he, the triumpher and victor, insults him who has pronounced sentence against him! For he has conquered who obtained that for which he strove. Who would not, beneath the eyes of the emperor, more boldly provoke peril?

Nemo enim praemium percipit ante experimentum. Et imperator tamen quod non habet, non dat: non potest propagare vitam, potest honestare militiam. At enim dei miles nec in dolore deseritur nec morte finitur.

For no one receives the reward before trial. And the emperor, however, gives not what he does not have: he cannot bestow life, he can honor the soldiery. But indeed the soldier of God is neither deserted in pain nor brought to an end by death.

Sic Christianus miser videri potest, non potest inveniri. Vos ipsi calamitosos viros fertis ad caelum, ut Mucium Scaevolam, qui cum errasset in regem, perisset in hostibus, nisi dexteram perdidisset. Et quot ex nostris, non dextram solum, sed totum corpus uri, cremari sine ullis eiulatibus pertulerunt, cum dimitti praesertim haberent in sua potestate!

Thus the Christian may seem miserable, but cannot be found so. You yourselves carry these calamitous men to heaven, like Mucius Scaevola, who, when he had erred against the king, would have perished among the enemies, if he had not lost his right hand. And how many of our own have borne not the right hand only, but the whole body to be burned, cremated without any wailings, when especially they had it in their power to be released!

Viros cum Mucio vel cum Aquilio aut Regulo comparo? Pueri et mulierculae nostrae cruces et tormenta, feras et omnes suppliciorum terriculas inspirata patientia doloris inludunt. Nec intellegitis, o miseri, neminem esse qui aut sine ratione velit poenam subire aut tormenta sine deo possit sustinere.
"Nisi forte vos decipit, quod deum nescientes divitiis adfluant, honoribus floreant, polleant potestatibus.

Do I compare men with Mucius or with Aquilius or with Regulus? Our boys and little women mock the crosses and torments, the beasts and all the petty terrors of punishments with an inspired patience of pain. Nor do you understand, O wretched ones, that there is no one who either would wish to undergo punishment without reason or can endure torments without God.
"Unless perhaps it deceives you that, not knowing God, they abound in riches, flourish in honors, and are strong in powers.

Miseri in hoc altius tolluntur, ut decidant altius. Hi enim, ut victimae ad supplicium saginantur, ut hostiae ad poenam coronantur: in hoc adeo quidam imperiis ac dominationibus eriguntur, ut ingenium eorum perditae mentis licentiae potestatis libere nundinentur. Absque enim notitia dei quae potest esse solida felicitas, cum mors sit?

Wretched men are in this raised higher, so that they may fall lower. For these, as victimae are fattened for supplicium, as hostiae are crowned for poenam: in this way indeed some are exalted into imperiis and dominationibus, so that their ingenium is freely nundinated to the licentia of a perditae mentis potestatis. For without the knowledge of God what can be solid felicity, when there is death?

Somnio similis, antequam tenetur, elabitur. Rex es? Set tam times quam timeris, et quamlibet sis multo comitatu stipatus, ad periculum tamen solus es. Dives es? Sed fortunae male creditur et magno viatico breve vitae iter non instruitur, sed oneratur. Fascibus et purpuris gloriaris?

Like a dream, it slips away before it is grasped. Rex es? But you are as much feared as you are fearful, and however much you may be attended by a large comitatus, yet toward danger you are alone. Dives es? But little is trusted in fortune, and a great baggage does not furnish the short journey of life, but burdens it. Do you glory in fasces and the purple?

Vanus error hominis et inanis cultus dignitatis, fulgere purpura, mente sordescere. Nobilitate generosus es? Parentes tuos laudas? Omnes tamen pari sorte nascimur, sola virtute distinguimur.
"Nos igitur, qui moribus et pudore censemur, merito malis voluptatibus et pompis vestris et spectaculis abstinemus, quorum et de sacris originem novimus et noxia blandimenta damnamus.

Vain error of man and the empty cult of dignity, purple to glitter, to grow foul in the mind. Are you noble by birth? Do you praise your parents? Yet we are all born of the same lot, by virtue alone are we distinguished.
"Therefore we, who are judged by morals and by pudor, rightly abstain from your evil pleasures and your pomps and spectacles, whose origin we also know from the sacred and whose noxious blandishments we condemn.

Nam in ludis curulibus quis non horreat populi in se rixantis insaniam? in gladiatoriis homicidii disciplinam? In scenicis etiam non minor furor et turpitudo prolixior: nunc enim mimus vel exponit adulteria vel monstrat, nunc enervis histrio amorem dum fingit, infligit: idem deos vestros induendo stupra, suspiria, odia dedecorat, idem simulatis doloribus lacrimas vestras vanis gestibus et nutibus provocat: sic homicidium in vero flagitatis, in mendacio fletis.

For in the curule games who does not shudder at the people's madness contending against him? in the gladiatorial shows the discipline of homicide? In the stage-plays likewise no less is the frenzy and the more protracted shame: for now the mime either exposes adulteries or displays them, now the enervate actor, while feigning love, inflicts it; the same man, by impersonating your gods, dishonours them with rapes, sighs, hatreds, the same man with simulated pains provokes your tears by vain gestures and nods: thus murder in truth, scandalous shame in reality, and in falsehood you weep.

XXXVIII.

38.

"Quod vero sacrificiorum reliquias et pocula delibata contemnimus, non confessio timoris est, sed verae libertatis adsertio. Nam, etsi omne quod nascitur, ut inviolabile dei munus, nullo opere conrumpitur, abstinemus tamen, ne quis existimet aut daemoniis, quibus libatum est, cedere aut nos nostrae religionis pudere.
"Quis autem ille qui dubitat, vernis indulgere nos floribus, cum carpamus et rosam veris et lilium et quicquid aliud in floribus blandi coloris et odoris est? His enim et sparsis utimur ac solutis et sertis mollibus colla conplectimur.

"But that we despise the relics of sacrifices and the libated cups is not a confession of fear, but an assertion of true liberty. For although everything that is born, as an inviolable gift of God, is not corrupted by any work, yet we abstain, lest anyone suppose that we yield either to the demons to whom libations have been offered, or that we should be ashamed of our own religion.
"But who is he who doubts that we indulge ourselves with spring flowers, when we pluck both the spring rose and the lily and whatever else in flowers is of charming color and scent? For with these, both scattered and used, and with loose and tender garlands, we clasp our necks.

Sane quod caput non coronamus, ignoscite: auram bonam floris naribus ducere, non occipitio capillisve solemus haurire.
"Nec mortuos coronamus. Ego vos in hoc magis miror, quemadmodum tribuatis exanimi aut sentienti facem aut non sentienti coronam, cum et beatus non egeat et miser non gaudeat floribus. At enim nos exsequias adornamus eadem tranquillitate qua vivimus, nec adnectimus arescentem coronam, sed a deo aeternis floribus vividam sustinemus: quieti, modesti, dei nostri liberalitate securi spem futurae felicitatis fide praesentis eius maiestatis animamus.

Indeed, pardon that we do not crown the head: we are accustomed to draw the good breeze of the flower with our nostrils, not to drain it with the back of the head or with the hair.
"Nor do we crown the dead. I marvel at you the more in this: how you bestow a torch on the lifeless, or a crown on one who feels not, when the blessed needs not and the wretch does not rejoice in flowers. But we adorn funerals with the same tranquillity with which we live, nor do we fasten on a withering crown, but by God we sustain it alive with eternal flowers: to the quiet, modest, secure by the liberality of our God, we quicken, by the faith of his present majesty, the hope of future felicity.

Sic et beati resurgimus et futuri contemplatione iam vivimus.
"Proinde Socrates scurra Atticus viderit, nihil se scire confessus, testimonio licet fallacissimi daemonis gloriosus, Arcesilas quoque et Carneades et Pyrrho et omnis Academicorum multitudo deliberet, Simonides etiam in perpetuum conperendinet: philosophorum supercilia contemnimus, quos corruptores et adulteros novimus et tyrannos et semper adversus sua vitia facundos. Nos, non habitu sapientiam sed mente praeferimus, non eloquimur magna sed vivimus, gloriamur nos consecutos quod illi summa intentione quaesiverunt nec invenire potuerunt.
"Quid ingrati sumus, quid nobis invidemus, si veritas divinitatis nostri temporis aetate maturuit? Fruamur bono nostro et recti sententiam temperemus: cohibeatur superstitio, impietas expietur, vera religio reservetur."

Thus both we rise blessed and already live in the contemplation of the future.
"Therefore, although Socrates may have seemed a buffoon to Atticus, having confessed that he knew nothing, and glorious by the testimony of a most deceitful daemon, though Arcesilas and Carneades and Pyrrho and the whole multitude of the Academics deliberate, and though Simonides may also be condemned for ever: we disdain the superciliousness of philosophers, whom we know as corrupters and adulterers and tyrants, and ever fluent against their own vices. We prefer wisdom not by garb but by mind, we do not speak great things but live them, we boast that we have attained what they sought with the greatest intent and could not find.
"How ungrateful are we, what do we envy ourselves, if the truth of the divinity of our time has ripened? Let us enjoy our good and temper the judgment of right: let superstition be restrained, impiety expiated, true religion preserved."

XXXIX.

39.

Cum Octavius perorasset, aliquamdiu nos ad silentium stupefacti intentos vultus tenebamus, et quod ad me est, magnitudine admirationis evanui, quod ea, quae facilius est sentire quam dicere, et argumentis et exemplis et lectionum auctoritatibus adornasset et quod malevolos isdem illis quibus armantur, philosophorum telis retudisset, ostendisset etiam veritatem non tantummodo facilem sed et favorabilem.

When Octavius had finished speaking, for a while we kept our faces intent and stupefied into silence, and as for me, I was dissolved by the magnitude of admiration, because he had adorned those things which are easier to feel than to say with arguments and with examples and with the authorities of readings, and because he had blunted the malevolent with the very weapons with which they are armed, the weapons of philosophers, and had shown the truth not only to be easy but also favorable.

XL.

40.

Dum istaec igitur apud me tacitus evolvo, Caecilius erupit: "Ego Octavio meo plurimum quantum, sed et mihi gratulor nec expecto sententiam. Vicimus et ita: ut improbe, usurpo victoriam. Nam ut ille mei victor est, ita ego triumphator erroris.
"Itaque quod pertineat ad summam quaestionis, et de providentia fateor et de deo cedo et de sectae iam nostrae sinceritate consentio.

While I was therefore silently turning those things over to myself, Caecilius burst out: "I owe very much to my Octavius; how much I will not say, but I also congratulate myself and do not await a judgment. We have conquered, and thus: as wrongfully, I lay claim to the victory. For as he is my victor, so am I the triumphator of error.
“Therefore as to what pertains to the chief question, I confess concerning providence and yield concerning God and agree concerning the sincerity of our sect now.

Etiam nunc tamen aliqua consubsidunt non obstrepentia veritati, sed perfectae institutioni necessaria, de quibus crastino, quod iam sol occasui declivis est, ut de toto congruentes promptius requiremus."
"At ego, inquam, prolixius omnium nostrum vice gaudeo, quod etiam mihi Octavius vicerit, cum maxima iudicandi mihi invidia detracta sit. Nec tamen possum meritum eius verborum laudibus repensare: testimonium et hominis et unius infirmum est: habet dei munus eximium, a quo et inspiratus oravit et obtinuit adiutus."
Post haec laeti hilaresque discessimus, Caecilius quod crediderit, Octavius quod vicerit, ego et quod hic crediderit et hic vicerit.

Even now, however, some things press in together not as a noise against the truth, but necessary to a complete instruction, about which tomorrow, since the sun has already sloped toward its setting, so that we may more promptly inquire of the whole in agreement."
"But I, I say, more at length, rejoice in the stead of all of us, because Octavius has also conquered me, since the greatest envy of judging has been taken away from me. Yet I cannot reckon the merit of his words repayable by praise: the testimony of a man and of one is weak; he has an extraordinary gift from God, by whom, inspired, he prayed and obtained help."
After these things we departed cheerful and merry, Caecilius for what he had believed, Octavius for what he had conquered, and I for both what this man had believed and what this man had conquered.