The Seven Books Of Arnobius Against The Heathen

1 Introductory Notice to Arnobius. 2 1 Since I have found some who deem themselves very wise in their opinions 3 2 Let us therefore examine carefully the real significance of that opinion 4 3 Since this is so, and since no strange influence has suddenly manifested itself to break 5 4 When was the human race destroyed by a flood? was it not before us? When 6 5 Did we bring it about, that ten thousand years ago a vast number of men 7 6 Although you allege that those wars which you speak of were excited through hatred of 8 7 But if, say my opponents, no damage is done to human affairs by you 9 8 And yet, that I may not seem to have no opinion on subjects of this 10 9 It rains not from heaven, my opponent says, and we are in distress from some 11 10 And if anything happens which does not foster ourselves or our affairs with joyous success 12 11 Would you venture to say that, in this universe 13 12 It is rather presumptuous, when you are not your own master 14 13 Because of the Christians, my opponents say, the gods inflict upon us all calamities 15 14 And yet do we not see that, in these years and seasons that have intervened 16 15 Sometimes, however, there were seasons of scarcity; yet they were relieved by times of plenty. 17 16 Yet one cannot discover by any rational process of reasoning 18 17 And yet, O ye great worshippers and priests of the deities 19 18 But if this that you say is true, -- if it has been tested and 20 19 Moreover, in this way you represent them as not only unstable and excitable 21 20 Do they on this account wreak their wrath on you too 22 21 To you let them give good health, to us bad 23 22 And since facts themselves testify that this result never occurs 24 23 But the TRUE gods, and those who are worthy to have and to wear the 25 24 These are your ideas, these are your sentiments, impiously conceived 26 25 And lest any one should suppose that we, through distrust in our reply 27 26 Is this, I pray, that daring and heinous iniquity on account of which the mighty 28 27 This is not the place to examine all our traducers 29 28 What say ye, O interpreters of sacred and of divine law? Are they attached to 30 29 And would that it were allowed me to deliver this argument with the whole world 31 30 Does it not occur to you to reflect and to examine in whose domain you 32 31 O greatest, O Supreme Creator of things invisible! O Thou who art Thyself unseen 33 32 Our discussion deals with those who, acknowledging that there is a divine race of beings 34 33 Is there any human being who has not entered on the first day of his 35 34 But in vain, says one, do you assail us with a groundless and calumnious charge 36 35 But suppose they be one, as you wish, and not different in any power of 37 36 But, says my opponent, the deities are not inimical to you 38 37 We worship one who was born a man. 39 38 But in the meantime let us grant, in submission to your ideas 40 39 But lately, O blindness, I worshipped images produced from the furnace 41 40 But He died nailed to the cross. 42 41 And yet, O ye who laugh because we worship one who died an ignominious death 43 42 You worship, says my opponent, one who was born a mere human being. 44 43 My opponent will perhaps meet me with many other slanderous and childish charges which are 45 44 And yet it is agreed on that Christ performed all those miracles which He wrought 46 45 What do you say again, oh you -- ? Is He then a man 47 46 Was He one of us, I say, who by one act of intervention at once 48 47 These facts set forth in sanctuary we have put forward 49 48 But, says some one, you in vain claim so much for Christ 50 49 And since you compare Christ and the other deities as to the blessings of health 51 50 Moreover, by His own power He not only performed those miraculous deeds which have been 52 51 What say ye, O minds incredulous, stubborn, hardened? Did that great Jupiter Capitolinus of yours 53 52 Come, then, let some Magian Zoroaster arrive from a remote part of the globe 54 53 Cease in your ignorance to receive such great deeds with abusive language 55 54 But you do not believe these things; yet those who witnessed their occurrence 56 55 But if this record of events is false, as you say 57 56 But our writers, we shall be told, have put forth these statements with FALSE effrontery 58 57 You do not believe our writings, and we do not believe yours. 59 58 But they were written by unlearned and ignorant men 60 59 Your narratives, my opponent says, are overrun with barbarisms and solecisms 61 60 But, say my opponents, if Christ was God, why did He appear in human shape 62 61 What, then, says my opponent, could not the Supreme Ruler have brought about those things 63 62 But, you will say, He was cut off by death as men are. 64 63 What are these hidden and unseen mysteries, you will say 65 64 What, then, constrains you, what excites you to revile 66 65 Oh ungrateful and impious age, prepared for its own destruction by its extraordinary obstinacy! If 67 1 Here, if any means could be found, I should wish to converse thus with all 68 2 But indeed, some one will say, He deserved our hatred because He has driven religion 69 3 But He did not permit men to make supplication to the lesser gods. 70 4 But all these things will be more clearly and distinctly noticed when we have proceeded 71 5 What say you, O ignorant ones, for whom we might well weep and be sad? 72 6 But perhaps those seem to you weak-minded and silly 73 7 In the first place, you yourselves, too, see clearly that 74 8 And since you have been wont to laugh at our faith 75 9 What, have you seen with your eyes, and handled with your hands 76 10 Finally, do not even the leaders and founders of the schools already mentioned 77 11 But, supposing that these things do not at all hinder or prevent your being bound 78 12 You bring forward arguments against us, and speculative quibblings 79 13 Meantime, however, O you who wonder and are astonished at the doctrines of the learned 80 14 Do you dare to laugh at us when we speak of hell 81 15 Wherefore there is no reason that that should mislead us 82 16 But, they say, while we are moving swiftly down towards our mortal bodies 83 17 But we have reason, one will say, and excel the whole race of dumb animals 84 18 They have not learned, I will be told, to make clothing 85 19 But if men either knew themselves thoroughly, or had the slightest knowledge of God 86 20 And, that we may show you more clearly and distinctly what is the worth of 87 21 Now, as we have prepared a place for our idea 88 22 To what, then, you ask, do these things tend? We have brought them forward in 89 23 If you give a grape to him when hungry 90 24 Why, O Plato, do you in the Meno put to a young slave certain questions 91 25 What say you, O men, who assign to yourselves too much of an excellence not 92 26 But when I hear the soul spoken of as something extraordinary 93 27 So then, if souls lose all their knowledge on being fettered with the body 94 28 And yet, that we may not be as ignorant when we leave you as before 95 29 Now, since it is so, cease, I pray you 96 30 But will he not be terrified by the punishments in Hades 97 31 A certain neutral character, then, and undecided and doubtful nature of the soul 98 32 Since these things are so, and we have been taught by the greatest teacher that 99 33 Seeing that the fear of death, that is, the ruin of our souls 100 34 Since this is the case, what, pray, is so unfair as that we should be 101 35 But, say my opponents, if souls are mortal and of neutral character 102 36 But the gods are said to be immortal. 103 37 But if souls were, as is said, the Lord's children 104 38 For, to begin with what is important, what advantage is it to the world that 105 39 But perhaps, some one will urge, the Ruler of the world sent hither souls sprung 106 40 Was it for this He sent souls hither, that while the other creatures are fed 107 41 Was it for this He sent souls, that they which shortly before had been gentle 108 42 Was it for this He sent souls, that some should infest the highways and roads 109 43 What say you, O offspring and descendants of the Supreme Deity? Did these souls 110 44 But, you say, they came of their own accord 111 45 But let this monstrous and impious fancy be put far from us 112 46 But, to say the same things again and again 113 47 But, you say, if God is not the parent and father of souls 114 48 Here, too, in like manner, when we deny that souls are the offspring of God 115 49 But, you will say, there are good men also in the world 116 50 You say that there are good men in the human race 117 51 But you laugh at our reply, because, while we deny that souls are of royal 118 52 And yet, lest you should suppose that none but yourselves can make use of conjectures 119 53 Since this, then, is the case, we do nothing out of place or foolish in 120 54 Can, then, anything be made, some one will say 121 55 But when, overcome, we agree that there are these things 122 56 As for all the other things which are usually dwelt upon in inquiries and discussions 123 57 While, then, this is the case, and it cannot but be that only one of 124 58 What, then, are we alone ignorant? do we alone not know who is the creator 125 59 If that which it has pleased us to know is within reach 126 60 Seeing, then, that the origin, the cause, the reason of so many and so important 127 61 What business of yours is it, He says, to examine 128 62 And be not deceived or deluded with vain hopes by that which is said by 129 63 But if, my opponents say, Christ was sent by God for this end 130 64 But, my opponents ask, if Christ came as the Saviour of men 131 65 Nay, my opponent says, if God is powerful, merciful 132 66 So, then, even if you are pure, and have been cleansed from every stain of 133 67 Therefore, when you urge against us that we turn away from the religion of past 134 68 On the Alban hill, it was not allowed in ancient times to sacrifice any but 135 69 But our name is new, we are told, and the religion which we follow arose 136 70 But why do I speak of these trivial things? The immortal gods themselves 137 71 But our rites are new; yours are ancient, and of excessive antiquity 138 72 But your religion precedes ours by many years, and is therefore 139 73 But are we alone in this position? What! have you not introduced into the number 140 74 And why, my opponent says, did God, the Ruler and Lord of the universe 141 75 You may object and rejoin, Why was the Saviour sent forth so late? In unbounded 142 76 Inasmuch then, you say, as you serve the Almighty God 143 77 Therefore that bitterness of persecution of which you speak is our deliverance and not persecution 144 78 Wherefore, O men, refrain from obstructing what you hope for by vain questions 145 1 All these charges, then, which might truly be better termed abuse 146 2 Let us now return to the order from which we were a little ago compelled 147 3 And as in the kingdoms of earth we are in no wise constrained expressly to 148 4 But we do not purpose delaying further on this part of the subject 149 5 But let it be assumed that there are these gods 150 6 And yet let no one think that we are perversely determined not to submit to 151 7 But why should I say that men seek from him subtleties of expression and splendour 152 8 And yet, that no thoughtless person may raise a FALSE accusation against us 153 9 What, then, shall we say? That gods beget and are begotten? and that therefore they 154 10 What say you, ye holy and pure guardians of religion? Have the gods 155 11 And you dare to charge us with offending the gods 156 12 Thus far of sex. 157 13 But it is not enough that you limit the gods by forms 158 14 Are, then, the divine bodies free from these deformities? and since they do not eat 159 15 Does any man at all possessed of judgment, believe that hairs and down grow on 160 16 But you will, perhaps, say that the gods have indeed other forms 161 17 But, they say, if you are not satisfied with our opinion 162 18 What, then, some one will say, does the Deity not hear? does He not speak? 163 19 If you are willing to hear our conclusions, then learn that we are so far 164 20 This, then, this matter of forms and sexes, is the first affront which you 165 21 And, I ask, what reason is there, what unavoidable necessity 166 22 You err, my opponent says, and are deceived; for the gods are not themselves artificers 167 23 But you will, perhaps, say that the gods are not artificers 168 24 No one, says my opponent, makes supplication to the tutelar deities 169 25 Unxia, my opponent says, presides over the anointing of door-posts 170 26 We shall not here mention Laverna, goddess of thieves 171 27 Now we may apply this very argument to Venus in exactly the same way. 172 28 Can any man, who has accepted the first principles even of reason 173 29 We might, however, even yet be able to receive from you these thoughts 174 30 But what shall we say of Jove himself, whom the wise have repeatedly asserted to 175 31 Aristotle, a man of most powerful intellect, and distinguished for learning 176 32 Mercury, also, has been named as though he were a kind of go-between 177 33 We here leave Vulcan unnoticed, to avoid prolixity; whom you all declare to be fire 178 34 Some of your learned men -- men, too, who do not chatter merely because their 179 35 Men worthy to be remembered in the study of philosophy 180 36 If we sought to subvert the belief in your gods in so many ways 181 37 We are told by Mnaseas that the Muses are the daughters of Tellus and Coelus 182 38 How, then, can you give to religion its whole power 183 39 There are some, besides, who assert that those who from being men became gods 184 40 Nigidius taught that the dii Penates were Neptune and Apollo 185 41 We can, if it is thought proper, speak briefly of the Lares also 186 42 It is a vast and endless task to examine each kind separately 187 43 For if this deity requires a black, that a white skin 188 44 Wherefore, if you are assured that in the lofty palaces of heaven there dwells 189 1 We would ask you, and you above all, O Romans 190 2 For we -- but, perhaps, you would rob and deprive us of common-sense -- feel 191 3 With regard, indeed, to your bringing forward to us other bands of unknown gods 192 4 Pellonia is a goddess mighty to drive back enemies. 193 5 The sinister deities preside over the regions on the left hand only 194 6 Lateranus, as you say, is the god and genius of hearths 195 7 Does Venus Militaris, also, preside over the evil-doing of camps 196 8 Say, I pray you, -- that Peta, Puta, Patella may graciously favour you 197 9 What then? you say; do you declare that these gods exist nowhere in the world 198 10 But if you urge that bones, different kinds of honey 199 11 What say you, O fathers of new religions, and powers? Do you cry out 200 12 But let them be true, as you maintain, yet will you have us also believe 201 13 Or, if you refuse to believe this on account of its novelty 202 14 Your theologians, then, and authors on unknown antiquity, say that in the universe there are 203 15 And lest it should seem tedious and prolix to wish to consider each person singly 204 16 For suppose that it had occurred to us, moved either by suitable influence or violent 205 17 We may say the very same things of the Mercuries 206 18 But some one on the opposite side says, How do we know whether the theologians 207 19 But perhaps these things will turn out to be false 208 20 But you, on the contrary, forgetting how great their dignity and grandeur are 209 21 But perhaps this foul pollution may be less apparent in the rest. 210 22 And, not content to have ascribed these carnal unions to the venerable Saturn 211 23 Men, though prone to lust, and inclined, through weakness of character 212 24 If you will open your minds' eyes, and see the real truth without gratifying any 213 25 Did we say that Venus was a courtezan, deified by a Cyprian king named Cinyras? 214 26 But what shall I say of the desires with which it is written in your 215 27 But among you, is it only the males who lust 216 28 For where there are weddings, marriages, births, nurses, arts 217 29 And here, indeed, we can show that all those whom you represent to us as 218 30 But in the discussion which we at present maintain 219 31 We wish, then, to question you, and invite you to answer a short question 220 32 But all these things, they say, are the fictions of poets 221 33 Your gods, it is recorded, dine on celestial couches 222 34 But why do I complain that you have disregarded the insults offered to the other 223 35 But is it only poets whom you have thought proper to allow to invent unseemly 224 36 But this crime is not enough: the persons of the most sacred gods are mixed 225 37 But this is the state of the case, that as you are exceedingly strong in 226 1 Admitting that all these things which do the immortal gods dishonour 227 2 What the mind should take up first, what last 228 3 But let us admit that, as is said, Jupiter has himself appointed against himself ways 229 4 But you will perhaps say that the king was a diviner. 230 5 In Timotheus, who was no mean mythologist, and also in others equally well informed 231 6 Now, when it had been often considered in the councils of the gods 232 7 Then Midas, king of Pessinus, wishing to withdraw the youth from so disgraceful an intimacy 233 8 If some one, despising the deities, and furious with a savagely sacrilegious spirit 234 9 But why do we speak of your having bemired the Great Mother of the gods 235 10 But you will perhaps say the human race shuns and execrates such unions 236 11 There was doubt in the councils of the gods how that unyielding and fierce violence 237 12 Would any one say this about the gods who had even a very low opinion 238 13 Through her bosom, we are told, Nana conceived a son by an apple. 239 14 What say you, O races and nations, given up to such beliefs? When these things 240 15 We might long ago have urged you to ponder this 241 16 And yet how can you assert the falsehood of this story 242 17 Or if the things which we say are not so 243 18 The greatness of the subject, and our duty to those on their defence also 244 19 We shall pass by the wild Bacchanalia also, which are named in Greek Omophagia 245 20 It was our purpose to leave unnoticed those mysteries also into which Phrygia is initiated 246 21 Jupiter is troubled enough, being overwhelmed with fear, and cannot find means to soothe the 247 22 I do not think it necessary here also with many words to go through each 248 23 I should wish, therefore, to see Jupiter, the father of the gods 249 24 But, my opponent says, these are not the rites of our state. 250 25 In her wanderings on that quest, she reaches the confines of Eleusis as well as 251 26 If any one perchance thinks that we are speaking wicked calumnies 252 27 Are then your deities carried off by force, and do they seize by violence 253 28 I confess that I have long been hesitating, looking on every side 254 29 Now, to prevent any one from thinking that we have devised what is so impious 255 30 I confess that, in reflecting on such monstrous stories in my own mind 256 31 But you who assert that you are the defenders and propagators of their immortality 257 32 But you err, says my opponent, and are mistaken 258 33 These are all quirks, as is evident, and quibbles with which they are wont to 259 34 But, agreeing with you that in all these stories stags are spoken of instead of 260 35 Finally, if you think it right, returning to our inquiry 261 36 But you will perhaps say that these allegories are not found in the whole body 262 37 Let us examine, then, what is said in this way. 263 38 Either, then, they must all have been written and put forward allegorically 264 39 Whence, then, do we prove that all these narratives are records of events? From the 265 40 And yet, even if we grant you that this is the case 266 41 It was once usual, in speaking allegorically, to conceal under perfectly decent ideas 267 42 But you will perhaps say, for this only is left which you may think can 268 43 But what the meaning of this is, is already clear to all. 269 44 But if you come to the conclusion that these fables have been written allegorically 270 45 Judge fairly, and you are deserving of censure in this 271 1 Having shown briefly how impious and infamous are the opinions which you have formed about 272 2 For -- that you may learn what are our sentiments and opinions about that race 273 3 But, we are told, we rear no temples to them 274 4 But, says my opponent, it is not for this reason that we assign temples to 275 5 Now, if this be not the case, all hope of help is taken away 276 6 What can you say as to this, that it is attested by the writings of 277 7 But why do I speak of these trifles? What man is there who is ignorant 278 8 We have therefore -- as I suppose -- shown sufficiently 279 9 We worship the gods, you say, by means of images. 280 10 And whence, finally, do you know whether all these images which you form and put 281 11 You laugh because in ancient times the Persians worshipped rivers 282 12 From such causes as these this also has followed 283 13 But why do I laugh at the sickles and tridents which have been given to 284 14 We would here, as if all nations on the earth were present 285 15 Lo, if some one were to place before you copper in the lump 286 16 And so unmindful and forgetful of what the substance and origin of the images are 287 17 But you err, says my opponent, and are mistaken 288 18 What then? Do the gods remain always in such substances 289 19 The gods dwell in images -- each wholly in one 290 20 And yet, O you -- if it is plain and clear to you that the 291 21 They say that Antiochus of Cyzicum took from its shrine a statue of Jupiter made 292 22 But you will perhaps say that the gods do not trouble themselves about these losses 293 23 But perhaps, as you say, the goddesses took the greatest pleasure in these lewd and 294 24 Here also the advocates of images are wont to say this also 295 25 For what grandeur -- if you look at the truth without any prejudice -- is 296 26 O dreadful forms of terror and frightful bugbears on account of which the human race 297 1 Since it has been sufficiently shown, as far as there has been opportunity 298 2 Who are the TRUE gods? you say. 299 3 So, then, if these things are so, we desire to learn this 300 4 If perchance it is not this, are victims not slain in sacrifice to the gods 301 5 We have next to examine the argument which we hear continually coming from the lips 302 6 But let us allow, as you wish, that the gods are accustomed to such disturbance 303 7 But neither do I demand that this should be said 304 8 But this, as I said, I do not mention 305 9 So, if some ox, or any animal you please 306 10 But perhaps some one will say, We give to the gods sacrifices and other gifts 307 11 Lastly, if the gods drive away sorrow and grief 308 12 Or the gods of heaven should be said to be ungrateful if 309 13 We have shown sufficiently, as I suppose, that victims 310 14 But all this conceding and ascribing of honour about which we are speaking are met 311 15 What then! some one will say, do you think that no honour should be given 312 16 What say you, O you -- ! is that foul smell 313 17 Lo, if dogs -- for a case must be imagined 314 18 And as we are now speaking of the animals sacrificed 315 19 But you err, says my opponent, and fall into mistakes 316 20 But let us agree, as you wish, that there are both infernal regions and Manes 317 21 But this, too, it is fitting that we should here learn from you 318 22 If, then, these things are vain, and are not supported by any reason 319 23 For as to that which we hear said by you 320 24 Be it so; let it be conceded that these most unfortunate cattle are not sacrificed 321 25 For if whatever is done by men, and especially in religion 322 26 We have now to say a few words about incense and wine 323 27 Finally, that we may always abide by the rule and definition by which it has 324 28 Will any one say that incense is given to the celestials 325 29 Wine is used along with incense; and of this 326 30 But, says my opponent, you are insulting us without reason 327 31 It is worth while to bring forward the words themselves also 328 32 But let there be, as you wish, honour in wine and in incense 329 33 But the games which you celebrate, called Floralia and Megalensia 330 34 Whence, therefore, have these vicious opinions flowed, or from what causes have they sprung? From 331 35 Come now: as the discussion has been prolonged and led to these points 332 36 You say that some of them cause dissensions 333 37 Since these things are so, and since there is so great difference between our opinions 334 38 If the immortal gods cannot be angry, says my opponent 335 39 We have come, then, in speaking, to the very point of the case 336 40 But neither shall we deny that we know this as well 337 41 All these things which have been mentioned, have indeed a miraculous appearance 338 42 And what pollution or abomination could have flowed from this 339 43 If Jupiter sought to have his games celebrated 340 44 In like manner we might go through the other narratives 341 45 And as we read that he used food also 342 46 But, says my opponent, if he was not a god 343 47 But if that snake was not a present deity 344 48 But some one will perhaps say that the care of such a god has 345 49 But the Great Mother, also, says my opponent 346 50 What shall we say then? Was Hannibal, that famous Carthaginian 347 51 But suppose that the deity was present in that very stone 348 Appendix. 349 Elucidations.