[3881] i.e., Pluto.
[3882] Pl.
[3883] Lit., "Castors," i.e., Castor and Pollux.
[3884] i.e., sine ullius seminis jactu.
[3885] Lit., "forms of bodily circumscription."
71. But our rites are [3886] new; yours are ancient, and of excessive antiquity, we are told. And what help does that give you, or how does it damage our cause and argument? The belief [3887] which we hold is new; some day even it, too, will become old: yours is old; but when it arose, it was new and unheard of. The credibility of a religion, however, must not be determined by its age, but by its divinity; and you should consider not when, but what you began to worship. Four hundred years ago, my opponent says, your religion did not exist. And two thousand years ago, I reply, your gods did not exist. By what reckoning, you ask, or by what calculations, can that be inferred? They are not difficult, not intricate, but can be seen by any one who will take them in hand even, as the saying is. Who begot Jupiter and his brothers? Saturn with Ops, as you relate, sprung from Coelus and Hecate. Who begot Picus, the father of Faunus and grandfather of Latinus? Saturn, as you again hand down by your books and teachers? Therefore, if this is the case, Picus and Jupiter are in consequence united by the bond of kinship, inasmuch as they are sprung from one stock and race. It is clear, then, that what we say is true. How many steps are there in coming down [3888] from Jupiter and Picus to Latinus? Three, as the line of succession shows. Will you suppose Faunus, Latinus, and Picus to have each lived a hundred and twenty years, for beyond this it is that man's life cannot be prolonged? The estimation is well grounded and clear. There are, then, three hundred and sixty years after these? [3889] It is just as the calculation shows. Whose father-in-law was Latinus? Æneas'. Whose father was he? [3890] He was father of the founder of the town Alba. How many years did kings reign in Alba? Four hundred and twenty almost. Of what age is the city Rome shown to be in the annals? It reckons ten [3891] hundred and fifty years, or not much less. So, then, from Jupiter, who is the brother of Picus and father of the other and lesser gods, down to the present time, there are nearly, or to add a little to the time, altogether, two thousand years. Now since this cannot be contradicted, not only is the religion to which you adhere shown to have sprung up lately; but it is also shown that the gods themselves, to whom you heap up bulls and other victims at the risk of bringing on disease, are young and little children, who should still be fed with their mothers' milk. [3892]
[3886] Lit., "what we do is."
[3887] Lit., "thing."
[3888] Lit., "how many steps are there of race."
[3889] i.e., Jupiter and Picus.
[3890] The ms. reads genitor...Latinus cujus, some letters having been erased. The reading followed above--genitor is cujus--was suggested to Canterus by his friend Gifanius, and is found in the margin of Ursinus and Orelli.
[3891] Cf. above, "four hundred years ago," etc., and i. ch. 13. It is of importance to note that Arnobius is inconsistent in these statements. [In the Edinburgh edition we have here "fifteen hundred years;" etc., but it was changed, in the Errata, to ten hundred and fifty.]
[3892] Lit., "be nursed with the breasts and dropt milk."
72. But your religion precedes ours by many years, and is therefore, you say, truer, because it has been supported by the authority of antiquity. And of what avail is it that it should precede ours as many years as you please, since it began at a certain time? or what [3893] are two thousand years, compared with so many thousands of ages? And yet, lest we should seem to betray our cause by so long neglect, say, if it does not annoy you, does the Almighty and Supreme God seem to you to be something new; and do those who adore and worship Him seem to you to support and introduce an unheard-of, unknown, and upstart religion? Is there anything older than Him? or can anything be found preceding Him in being, [3894] time, name? Is not He alone uncreated, immortal, and everlasting? Who is the head [3895] and fountain of things? is not He? To whom does eternity owe its name? is it not to Him? Is it not because He is everlasting, that the ages go on without end? This is beyond doubt, and true: the religion which we follow is not new, then, but we have been late in learning what we should follow and revere, or where we should both fix our hope of salvation, and employ the aid given to save us. For He had not yet shone forth who was to point out the way to those wandering from it, and give the light of knowledge to those who were lying in the deepest darkness, and dispel the blindness of their ignorance.
[3893] Lit., "of what space."
[3894] i.e., re.
[3895] So the ms., according to Crusius and Livineius, reading ac; all edd. except Oehler read aut--"head (i.e., source) or fountain."
73. But are we alone in this position? [3896] What! have you not introduced into the number of your gods the Egyptian deities named Serapis and Isis, since the consulship of Piso and Gabinius? [3897] What! did you not begin both to know and be acquainted with, and to worship with remarkable honours, the Phrygian mother--who, it is said, was first set up as a goddess by Midas or Dardanus--when Hannibal, the Carthaginian, was plundering Italy and aiming at the empire of the world? [3898] Are not the sacred rites of mother Ceres, which were adopted but a little while ago, called Græca because they were unknown to you, their name bearing witness to their novelty? Is it not said [3899] in the writings of the learned, that the rituals of Numa Pompilius do not contain the name of Apollo? Now it is clear and manifest from this, that he, too, was unknown to you, but that at some time afterwards he began to be known also. If any one, therefore, should ask you why you have so lately begun to worship those deities whom we mentioned just now, it is certain that you will reply, either because we were till lately not aware that they were gods, or because we have now been warned by the seers, or because, in very trying circumstances, we have been preserved by their favour and help. But if you think that this is well said by you, you must consider that, on our part, a similar reply has been made. Our religion has sprung up just now; for now He has arrived who was sent to declare it to us, to bring us to its truth; to show what God is; to summon us from mere conjectures, to His worship.
[3896] The ms. reads unintelligibly vertitur solæ; for which LB., followed by the later edd. reads, as above, vertimur soli.
[3897] Dr. Schmitz (Smith's Dict., 3. v. Isis) speaks of these consuls as heading the revolt against the decree of the senate, that the statues of Isis and Serapis should be removed from the Capitol. The words of Tertullian (quoting Varro as his authority) are very distinct: "The consul Gabinius...gave more weight to the decision of the senate than the popular impulse, and forbade their altars (i.e., those of Serapis, Isis, Arpocrates, and Anubis) to be set up" (ad Nationes, i. 10, cf. Apol., 6).
[3898] Cf. vii. 49.
[3899] Lit., "contained."
74. And why, my opponent says, did God, the Ruler and Lord of the universe, determine that a Saviour, Christ, should be sent to you from the heights of heaven a few hours ago, as it is said? We ask you too, on the other hand, what cause, what reason is there that the seasons sometimes do not recur at their own months, but that winter, summer, and autumn come too late? why, after the crops have been dried up and the corn [3900] has perished, showers sometimes fall which should have dropped on them while yet uninjured, and made provision for the wants of the time? Nay, this we rather ask, why, if it were fitting that Hercules should be born, Æsculapius, Mercury, Liber, and some others, that they might be both added to the assemblies of the gods, and might do men some service,--why they were produced so late by Jupiter, that only later ages should know them, while the past ages [3901] of those who went before knew them not? You will say that there was some reason. There was then some reason here also that the Saviour of our race came not lately, but to-day. What, then, you ask, is the reason? We do not deny that we do not know. For it is not within the power of any one to see the mind of God, or the way in which He has arranged His plans. [3902] Man, a blind creature, and not knowing himself even, can [3903] in no way learn what should happen, when, or what its nature is: the Father Himself, the Governor and Lord of all, alone knows. Nor, if I have been unable to disclose to you the causes why something is done in this way or that, does it straightway follow, that what has been done becomes not done, and that a thing becomes incredible, which has been shown to be beyond doubt by such [3904] virtues and [3905] powers.
[3900] Pl.
[3901] Lit., "antiquity."
[3902] Lit., "things."
[3903] So Gelenius emended the ms., reading potens--"being able," which he changed into potest, as above, followed by later edd.
[3904] Lit., "by such kinds of."
[3905] The ms. and first edd. read et potestatibus potestatum--"and by powers of powers;" the other edd. merely omit potestatibus, as above, except Oehler, who, retaining it, changes potestatum into protestata--"being witnessed to by," etc.; but there is no instance adduced in which the participle of this verb is used passively.
75. You may object and rejoin, Why was the Saviour sent forth so late? In unbounded, eternal ages, we reply, nothing whatever should be spoken of as late. For where there is no end and no beginning, nothing is too soon, [3906] nothing too late. For time is perceived from its beginnings and endings, which an unbroken line and endless [3907] succession of ages cannot have. For what if the things themselves to which it was necessary to bring help, required that as a fitting time? For what if the condition of antiquity was different from that of later times? What if it was necessary to give help to the men of old in one way, to provide for their descendants in another? Do ye not hear your own writings read, telling that there were once men who were demi-gods, heroes with immense and huge bodies? Do you not read that infants on their mothers' breasts shrieked like Stentors, [3908] whose bones, when dug up in different parts of the earth, have made the discoverers almost doubt that they were the remains of human limbs? So, then, it may be that Almighty God, the only God, sent forth Christ then indeed, after that the human race, becoming feebler, weaker, began to be such as we are. If that which has been done now could have been done thousands of years ago, the Supreme Ruler would have done it; or if it had been proper, that what has been done now should be accomplished as many thousands after this, nothing compelled God to anticipate the necessary lapse [3909] of time. His plans [3910] are executed in fixed ways; and that which has been once decided on, can in no wise be changed again. [3911]
[3906] These words having been omitted by Oberthür, are omitted by Orelli also, as in previous instances.
[3907] The ms. and first ed. read etiam moderata continuatio; corrected, et immod. con. by Gelenius.
[3908] So the edd., reading infantes stentoreos, except Oehler, who retains the ms. reading centenarios, which he explains as "having a hundred" heads or hands, as the case might be, e.g., Typhon, Briareus, etc.
[3909] Lit., "measure."
[3910] Lit., "things."
[3911] Lit., "can be changed with no novelty."
76. Inasmuch then, you say, as you serve the Almighty God, and trust that He cares for your safety and salvation, why does He suffer you to be exposed to such storms of persecution, and to undergo all kinds of punishments and tortures? Let us, too, ask in reply, why, seeing that you worship so great and so innumerable gods, and build temples to them, fashion images of gold, sacrifice herds of animals, and all heap up [3912] boxfuls of incense on the already loaded altars, why you live subject to so many dangers and storms of calamity, with which many fatal misfortunes vex you every day? Why, I say, do your gods neglect to avert from you so many kinds of disease and sickness, shipwrecks, downfalls, conflagrations, pestilences, barrenness, loss of children, and confiscation of goods, discords, wars, enmities, captures of cities, and the slavery of those who are robbed of their rights of free birth? [3913] But, my opponent says, in such mischances we, too, are in no wise helped by God. The cause is plain and manifest. For no hope has been held out to us with respect to this life, nor has any help been promised or [3914] aid decreed us for what belongs to the husk of this flesh,--nay, more, we have been taught to esteem and value lightly all the threats of fortune, whatever they be; and if ever any very grievous calamity has assailed us, to count as pleasant in that misfortune [3915] the end which must follow, and not to fear or flee from it, that we may be the more easily released from the bonds of the body, and escape from our darkness and [3916] blindness.