ture was the Sibyl; that Sibyl, I mean, who was the true prophetess of truth, from whom you borrow their title for the priests of your demons. She in senarian verse expounds the descent of Saturn and his exploits in words to this effect: " In the tenth generation of men, after the flood had overwhelmed the former race, reigned Saturn, and Titan, and Japetus, the bravest of the sons of Terra and Coelus." Whatever credit, therefore, is attached to your older writers and literature, and much more to those who were the simplest as belonging to that age,' it becomes sufficiently certain that Saturn and his family '^ were human be- ings. We have in our possession, then, a brief principle which amounts to a prescriptive rule about their origin serving for all other cases, to prevent our going wrong in individual instances. The particular character ^ of a posterity is shown by the original founders of the race — mortal beings (come) from mortals, earthly ones from earthly; step after step comes in due relation '' — marriage, conception, birth — country, settlements, kingdoms, all give the clearest proofs. s They, therefore, who cannot deny the birth of men, must also admit their death; they who allow their mor- tality must not suppose them to be gods.
CHAP. XIII.^ — THE GODS HUMAN AT FIRST. WHO HAD THE AUTHORITY TO MAKE THEM DI- VINE? JUPITER NOT ONLY HUMAN, BUT IM- MORAL.
Manifest cases, indeed, like these have a force peculiarly their own. Men like Varro and his fellow-dreamers admit into the ranks of the divinity those whom they cannot assert to have been in their primitive condition any- thing but men; (and this they do) by affirming that they became gods after their death. Here, then, I take my stand. If your gods were elected ^ to this dignity and deity,^ just as you recruit the ranks of your senate, you cannot help conceding, in your wisdom, that there must be some one supreme sovereign who h^s the power of selecting, and is a kind of Caesar; and nobody is able to confer » on others a thing over which he has not absolute control. Besides, if they were able to make gods of themselves after their death, pray tell me why they chose to be in an inferior condi- tion at first? Or, again, if there is no one ' Magis proximis quoniam illius aetatis.
* Prosapia.
4Comparantur.
5 Monumenta liquent.
7 AUecti.
8 This is not so terse as Tertullian's " nomcn et aumea."
9 I'raestare.
who made them gods, how can they be said to have been made such, if they could only have been made by some one else? There is therefore no ground afforded you for denying that there is a certain wholesale distributor" of divinity. Let us accordingly examine the reasons for despatching mortal beings to heaven. I suppose you will produce a pair of them. Whoever, then, is the awarder (of the divine honours), exercises his function, either that he may have some supports, or de- fences, or it may be even ornaments to his own dignity; or from the pressing claims of the meritorious, that he may reward all the deserving. No other cause is it permitted us to conjecture. Now there is no one who, when bestowing a gift on another, does not act with a view to his own interest or the other's. This conduct, however, cannot be worthy of the Divine Being, inasmuch as His power is so great that He can make gods outright; whilst His bringing man into such request, on the pretence that he requires the aid and support of certain, even dead persons, is a strange conceit, since He was able from the very first to create for Himself immortal be- ings. He who has compared human things with divine will require no further arguments on these points. And yet the latter opinion ought to be discussed, that God conferred divine honours in consideration of meritorious claims. Well, then, if the award was made on such grounds, if heaven was opened to men of the primitive age because of their deserts, we must reflect that after that time no one was worthy of such honour; except it be, that there is now no longer such a place for any one to attain to. Let us grant that anciently men may have deserved heaven by reason of their great merits. Then let us consider whether there really was such merit. Let the man who alleges that it did exist de- clare his own view of merit. Since the actions of men done in the very infancy of time " are a valid claim for their deification, you con- sistently admitted to the honour the brother and sister who were stained with the sin of incest — Ops and Saturn. Your Jupiter too, stolen in his infancy, was unworthy of botli the home and the nutriment accorded to human beings; and, as he deserved for so bad a child, he had to live in Crete.'- After- wards, when full-grown, he dethrones his own father, who, whatever his parental character may have been, was most prosperous in his reign, king as he was of the golden age. Under him, a stranger to toil and want, '° Mancipem.
" In cunabulis temporalitatis.
'2 The ill-fame of the Cretans is noted by St. Paul, Tit. i. n.
CHAP.
XIV.J AD NATIONES.
peace maintained its joyous and gentle sway; under him — " Nulli subigebant arva coloni; " ' " No swains would bring the fields beneath their sway;" " and without the importunity of any one the earth would bear all crops spontaneously. ^ But he hated a father who had been guilty of incest, and had once mutilated his* grand- father. And yet, behold, he himself marries his own sister; so that I should suppose the old adage was made for him: Tov narpog to naidiov — "Father's own child." There was *' not a pin to choose " between the father's piety and the son's. If the laws had been just even at that early time,^ Jupiter ought to have been " sewed up in both sacks." ^ After this corroboration of his lust with incestuous gratification, why should he hesitate to indulge himself lavishly in the lighter excesses of adultery and debauchery? Ever since '' poetry sported thus with his character, in some such way as is usual when a runaway slave ^ is posted up in public, we have been in the habit of gossiping without restraint ° of his tricks '° in our chat with passers-by;" sometimes sketch- ing him out in the form of the very money which was the fee of his debauchery — as when (he personated) a bull, or rather paid the money's worth of one,'^ and showered (gold) into the maiden's chamber, or rather forced his way in with a bribe; '^ sometimes (figuring him) in the very likenesses of the parts which were acted'* — as the eagle which ravished (the beautiful youth), '^ and the swan which sang (the enchanting song).'^ Well now, are not such fables as these made up of the most disgusting intrigues and the worst of scandals? or would not the morals and tempers of men be Hkely to become wanton from such exam- ples? In what manner demons, the offspring of evil angels who have been long engaged in their mission, have laboured to turn men '^ aside from the faith to unbelief and to such fables, we must not in this place speak of to any extent. As indeed the general body '^ (of your gods), which took their cue '» from their 3 Ipsa.
4 Jupiter's, of course.
5 The law which prescribed the penalty of the paracide, that he be sewed up in a sack with an ape, a serpent, and a cock, and be thrown into the sea.
^ In duos culleos dividi.
7 De quo.
8 De fugitivo.
9 Abusui nundinare.
»o The " operam ejus "—ingenia et artificia (Oehler).
" Percontationi aliehae.
" In the case of Europa.
'3 In the case of Danae.
'4 Similitudines actuum ipsas.
'5 In the case of Ganymede.
'* In the case of Leda.
'7 Quos.
'8 Plebs.
»9 Morata.
kings, and princes, and instructors,"" was not of the self-same nature, it was in some other way" that similarity of character was exacted by their authority. But how much the worst of them was he who (ought to have been, but) was not, the best of them? By a title peculiar to him, you are indeed in the habit of calling Jupiter "the Best," - whilst in Virgil he is " ^.quus Jupiter." ^^ All therefore were like him — incestuous towards their own kith and kin, unchaste to strangers, impious, unjust! Now he whom mythic story left untainted with no conspicuous infamy, was not worthy to be made a god.
CHAP. XIV. — GODS, THOSE WHICH WERE CON- FESSEDLY ELEVATED TO THE DIVINE CON- DITION, WHAT PRE-EMINENT RIGHT HAD THEY TO SUCH HONOUR? HERCULES AN IN- FERIOR CHARACTER.
But since they will have it that those who have been admitted from the human state to the honours of deification should be kept separate from others, and that the distinction which Dionysius the Stoic drew should be made between the native and the factitious ** gods, I will add a few words concerning this last class also. I will take Hercules himself for raising the gist of a reply ^^ {^q tj^g ques- tion) whether he deserved heaven and divine honours? For, as men choose to have it, these honours are awarded to him for his merits. If it was for his valour in destroying wild beasts with intrepidity, what was there in that so very memorable? Do not criminals condemned to the games, though they are even consigned to the contest of the vile arena, despatch several of these animals at one time, and that with more earnest zeal? If it was for his world-wide travels, how often has the same thing been accomplished by the rich at their pleasant leisure, or by philosophers in their slave-like poverty? ^ Is it forgotten that the cynic Asclepiades on a single sorry cow,^^ riding on her back, and sometimes nourished at her udder, surveyed ^^ the whole world with a personal inspection? Even if Hercules visited the infernal regions, who does not know that the way to Hades is open to all? If you have deified him on account of his much carnage and many battles, a much greater number of victories was gained by the 20 Proseminatoribus.
21 Alibi.
22 Optimum.
23 There would seem to be a 'jest here; " aequus" is not only just but equal, i.e., "on a par with " others— in evil^ of course, as well as good.
24 Inter nativos et factos. See above, c. ii., p. 131.
25 Summa responsionis.
26 Famulatoria mendicitas.
27 Vaccula.
28 Subegisse oculis, " reduced to his own eyesight," AD NATIONES.
[book II.
illustrious Pompey, the conqueror of the pirates who had not spared Ostia itself in their ravages; and (as to carnage), how many thousands, let me ask, were cooped up in one corner of the citadel ' of Carthage, and slain by Scipio? Wherefore Scipio has a better claim to be considered a fit candidate for dei- fication =" than Hercules. You must be still more careful to add to the claims of (our) Hercules his debaucheries with concubines a7id wives, and the swathes ^ of Omphale, and his base desertion of the Argonauts be- cause he had lost his beautiful boy/ To this mark of baseness add for his glorification like- wise his attacks of madness, adore the arrows which slew his sons and wife. This was the man who, after deeming himself worthy of a funeral pile in the anguish of his remorse for his parricides,5 deserved rather to die the un- honoured death which awaited him, arrayed in the poisoned robe which his wife sent him on account of his lascivious attachment (to an- other). You, however, raised him from the pyre to the sky, with the same facility with which (you have distinguished in like manner) another hero* also, who was destroyed by the violence of a fire from the gods. He having devised some few experiments, was said to have restored the dead to life by his cures.
He was the son of Apollo, half human, al- though the grandson of Jupiter, and great- grandson of Saturn (or rather of spurious ori- gin, because his parentage was uncertain, as Socrates of Argos has related; he was exposed also, and found in a worse tutelage than even Jove's, suckled even at the dugs of a dog); nobody can deny that he deserved the end which befell him when he perished by a stroke of lightning. In this transaction, however, your most excellent Jupiter is once more found in the wrong — impious to his grandson, envious of his artistic skill. Pindar, indeed, has not concealed his true desert; according to him, he was punished for his avarice and love of gain, influenced by which he would bring the living to their death, rather than the dead to life, by the perverted use of his medi- cal art which he put up for sale.' It is said > ByrssE.
2 Magis obtinendus divinitati deputatur.
3 Fascias. 4Hylas.
S Rather murders of children and other kindred.
♦ jEsculapius.
7Tertullian does not correctly quote Pindar {Pyth. ni. 54-59), who notices the skilful hero's love of reward, but certainly ascribes to him the merit of jcuring rather than killing: _ AAAa icepfici icai «ro<^ia if'icTai erpajre*' Kal KUKt'ivov aydvopi uttrffip xPi"J<'^ '*' X'Pf'>' iavtU av&p (K dai-aToi) KO/iiVai fiSr) aAuKora' x«po'| S' apa Kpoviiav pi\(iai<; (iL atiifioiv ati-irvoav <TT(pvuiv Ka6e\ev wKCuf, aiflioi' Si Kfpavfbf (^■eaK^|J.\|)€v fxopov — " Even wisdom has been bound by love of gain, and gold shining in the hand by a magnificent re- ward induced even him to restore from death a man already seized by it; and then the son of Saturn, hurling with his hands a bolt through both, speedily took away the breath of their breasts, and the flashing bolt inflicted death " (Dawson 'J'urner).
that his mother was killed by the same stroke, and it was only right that she, who had be- stowed so dangerous a beast on the world,' should escape to heaven by the same ladder. And yet the Athenians will not be at a loss how to sacrifice to gods of such a fashion, for they pay divine honours to yEsculapius and his mother amongst their dead (worthies). As if, too, they had not ready to hand' their own Theseus to worship, so highly deserving a god's distinction! Well, why not? Did he not on a foreign shore abandon the preserver of his life,'° with the same indifference, nay heartlessness," with which he became the cause of his father's death?
CHAP. XV. THE CONSTELLATIONS AND THE GENII VERY INDIFFERENT GODS. THE ROMAN MONOPOLY OF GODS UNSATISFACTORY. OTHER NATIONS REQUIRE DEITIES QUITE AS MUCH.
It would be tedious to take a survey of all those, too, whom you have buried amongst the constellations, and audaciously minister to as gods.'^ I suppose your Castors, and Perseus, and Erigona,'^ have just the same claims for the honours of the sky as Jupiter's own big boy "* had. But why should we won- der? You have transferred to heaven even dogs, and scorpions, and crabs. I postpone all remarks '^ concerning those whom you wor- ship in your oracles. That this worship exists, is attested by him who pronounces the oracle." Why; you will have your gods to be spectators even of sadness, '^ as is Viduus, who makes a widrnv of the soul, by parting it from the body, and whom you have condemned, by not per- mitting him to be enclosed within your city- walls; there is Caeculus also, to deprive the eyes of their perception; and Orbana, to be- reave seed of its vital power; moreover, there is the goddess of death herself. To pass hastily by all others,'^ you account as gods the sites of places or of the city; such are Father Janus (there being, moreover, the archer- goddess '» Jana*°), and Septimontius of the seven hills.
Men sacrifice =' to the same Genii, whilst 8 TertuUian does not follow the legend which is usually re- ceived. He wishes to see no good in the object of his hatred, and so takes the worst view, and certainly improves upon it. The " bestia " is out of reason. [He doubtless followed some copy now lost.
9 Quasi non et ipsi. «o Ariadne.
Ji Amentia. ■2 Deis ministratis. n The constellation Virgo. M Jovis exoletus, Ganymede, or Aquarius. 15 He makes a similar postponement above, in c. viL, to Tht Apology, cc. xxii. xxiii. >6 Divini.
'7 Et tristitiaearbitros. '8 Transvolem. •9 Diva arquis.
20 Perhaps another form of DUna. 2» Faciunt =- pi(ov<ri CHAP. XVII.]
AD NATIONES.
they have altars or temples in the same places; but to others besides, when they dwell in a strange place, or live in rented houses.' I say nothing about Ascensus, who gets his name for his climbing propensity, and Clivi- cola, from her sloping (haunts); I pass silently by the deities called Forculus from doors, and Cardea from hinges, and Limentinus the god of thresholds, and whatever others are wor- shipped by your neighbours as tutelar deities of their street doors. =^ There is nothing strange in this, since men have their respective gods in their brothels, their kitchens, and even in their prison. Heaven, therefore, is crowded with innumerable gods of its own, both these and others belonging to the Romans, which have distributed amongst them the functions of one's whole life, in such a way that there is no want of the other ^ gods. Although, it is true,^ the gods which we have enumerated are reckoned as Roman peculiarly, and as not easily recognised abroad; yet how do all those functions and circumstances, over which men have willed their gods to preside, come about,^ in every part of the human race, and in every nation, where their guarantees* are not only without an official recognition, but even any recognition at all?
CHAP. XVI. INVENTORS OF USEFUL ARTS UN- WORTHY OF DEIFICATION. THEY WOULD BE THE FIRST TO ACKNOWLEDGE A CREATOR. THE ARTS CHANGEABLE FROM TIME TO TIME, AND SOME BECOME OBSOLETE.
Well, but' certain men have discovered fruits and sundrj' necessaries of life, (and hence are worthy of deification).^ Now let me ask, when you call these persons "dis- coverers," do you not confess that what they discovered was already in existence? Why then do you not prefer to honour the Author, from whom the gifts really come, instead of converting the Author into ifiere discoverers? Previously he who made the discovery, the in- ventor himself no doubt expressed his grati- tude to the Author; no doubt, too, he felt that He was God, to whom really belonged the religious service,^ as the Creator (of the gift), by whom also both he who discovered and that which was discovered were alike » This seems to be the meaning of an almost unintelligible sen- tence, which we subjoin: " Geniis eisdem illi faciunt qui in isdem locis aras vel aedes haben*.; praeterea aliis qui in alieno loco aut mercedibus habitant." Oehler, who makes this text, supposes that in each clause the name of some god has dropped out.
2 Numinum janitorum.
3 Ceteris. 4lmmo cum. 5 Proveniunt. * Praedes.
7 Sedenim.
^ We insert this clause at Oebler's suggesUoo.
9 Ministeriura.
10 created. The green fig of Africa nobody at Rome had heard of when Cato introduced it to the Senate, in order that he might show how near was that province of the enemy "' whose subjugation he was constantly urg- ing. The cherry was first made common in Italy by Cn. Pompey, who imported it from Pontus. I might possibly have thought the earliest introducers of apples amongst the Romans deserv^ing of the public honour" of deification. This, however, would be as fool- ish a ground for making gods as even the in- vention of the useful arts. And yet if the skilful men " of our own time be compared with these, how much more suitable would deification be to the later generation than to the former! For, tell me, have not all the extant inventions superseded antiquity, '^ whilst daily experience goes on adding to the new stock? Those, therefore, whom you re- gard as divine because of their arts, you are really injuring by your very arts, and chal- lenging (their divinity) by means of rival at- tainments, which cannot be surpassed.'* CHAP. XVII. '5 — CONCLUSION. THE ROMANS OWE NOT THEIR IMPERIAL POWER TO THEIR GODS. THE GREAT GOD ALONE DISPENSES KINGDOMS. HE IS THE GOD OF THE CHRISTIANS.
In conclusion, without denying all those whom antiquity willed afid posterity has be- lieved to be gods, to be the guardians of your religion, there yet remains for our considera- tion that very large assumption of the Roman superstitions which we have to meet in oppo- sition to you, O heathen, viz. that the Romans have become the lords and masters of the whole world, because by their religious offices they have merited this dominion to such an extent that they are within a very little of ex- celling even their own gods in power. One cannot wonder that Sterculus, and Mutunus, and Larentina, have severally '* advanced this empire to its height! The Roman people has been by its gods alone ordained to such dominion. For I could not imagine that any foreign ^^^ would have preferred doing more for a strange nation than for their own people, and so by such conduct become the deserters and neglecters, nay, the betrayers of the native land wherein they were born and bred, and ennobled and buried. Thus not even Jupiter 10 The incident, which was closely connected with the third Punic war, is described pleasantly by Pliny, Hist. Nat. kv. zo.
" Praeconium.
12 Artifices.
>3 " Antiquitas " is here opposed to " novitas,' ' and therefore means " the arts of old times.'
'4 In aemulis. " In," in our author, often marks the instrument- 's Compare The Apology, xxv. x.wi., pp. 39, 40.
'*The verb is in the siiigitlar number.
AD NATIONES.
[book II.
could suffer his own Crete to be subdued by the Roman fasces, forgetting that cave of Ida, and the brazen cymbals of the Corybantes, and the most pleasant odour of the goat which nursed him on that dear spot. Would he not have made that tomb of his superior to the whole Capitol, so that that land should most widely rule which covered the ashes of Jupiter? Would Juno, too, be willing that the Punic city, for the love of which she even neglected Samos, should be destroyed, and that, too, by the fires of the sons of ^Eneas? Although I am well aware that " Hie illius arma, Hie currus fuit, hoc regnura dea gentibus esse, Si qua fata sinant, jam tune tenditque fovetque."'
Here were her arms, her chariot here, Here goddess-Hke, to fix one day The seat of universal sway, Might fate be wrung to yield assent, E'en then her schemes, her cares were bent."'* Still the unhappy (queen of gods) had no power against the fates! And yet the Romans did not accord as much honour to the fates, although they gave them Carthage, as they did to Larentina. But surely those gods of yours have not the power of conferring em- pire. For when Jupiter reigned in Crete, and Saturn in Italy, and Isis in Egypt, it was even as men that they reigned, to whom also were assigned many to assist them.^ Thus he who serves also makes masters, and the bond-slave " of Admetus^ aggrandizes with empire the citizens of Rome, although he destroyed his own liberal votary Croesus by deceiving him with ambiguous oracles.^ Being a god, why was he afraid boldly to foretell to him the truth that he must lose his kingdom. Surely those who were aggrandized with the power of wielding empire might always have been able to keep an eye, as it were,^ on their own cities. If they were strong enough to confer empire on the Romans, why did not Minerva defend Athens from Xerxes? Or why did not Apollo rescue Delphi out of the hand of Pyrrhus? They who lost their own cities pre- serve the city of Rome, since (forsooth) the religiousness* of Rome has merited the pro- tection! But is it not rather the fact that this excessive devotion « has been devised since the empire has attained its glory by the in- 2 Conington.
3 Operati plerique.
4 Dediticius.
s Apollo; comp. The Apology, c. adv., p. 30.
* Religiositas. 9 Superstitio.
crease of its power? No doubt sacred rites were introduced by Numa, but then your pro- ceedings were not marred by a religion of idols and temples. Piety was simple,'" and wor- ship humble; altars were artlessly reared," and the vessels (thereof) plain, and the in- cense from them scant, and the god himself nowhere. Men therefore were not religious before they achieved greatness, (nor great) because they were religious. But how can the Romans possibly seem to have acquired their empire by an excessive religiousness and very profound respect for the gods, when that empire was rather increased after the gods had been slighted? " Now, if I am not mistaken, every kingdom or empire is acquired and enlarged by wars, whilst they and their gods also are injured by conquerors. For the same ruin affects both city-walls and tem- ples; similar is the carnage both of civilians and of priests; identical the plunder of profane things and of sacred. To the Romans belong as many sacrileges as trophies; and then as many triumphs over gods as over nations. Still remaining are their captive idols amongst them; and certainly, if they can only see their conquerors, they do not give them their love. Since, however, they have no perception, they are injured with impunity; and since they are injured with impunity, they are worshipped to no purpose. The nation, therefore, which has grown to its powerful height by victory after victory, cannot seem to have developed owing to the merits of its religion — whether they have injured the religion by augmenting their power, or augmented their power by in- juring the religion. All nations have pos- sessed empire, each in its proper time, as the Assyrians, the Medes, the Persians, the Egyptians; empire is even now also in the possession of some, and yet they that have lost their power used not to behave '^ without attention to religious services and the worship of the gods, even after these had become un- propitious to them,'^ until at last almost univer- sal dominion has accrued to the Romans. It is the fortune of the times that has thus con- stantly shaken kingdoms with revolution. '^ Inquire who has ordained these changes in the times. It is the same (great Being) who dispenses kingdoms,'* and has now put the supremacy of them into the hands of the Ro-