Chapter XVII. [715] --The Christian Refusal to Swear by the Genius of Cæsar. Flippancy and Irreverence Retorted on the Heathen.
As to your charges of obstinacy and presumption, whatever you allege against us, even in these respects, there are not wanting points in which you will bear a comparison with us. Our first step in this contumacious conduct concerns that which is ranked by you immediately after [716] the worship due to God, that is, the worship due to the majesty of the Cæsars, in respect of which we are charged with being irreligious towards them, since we neither propitiate their images nor swear by their genius. We are called enemies of the people. Well, be it so; yet at the same time (it must not be forgotten, that) the emperors find enemies amongst you heathen, and are constantly getting surnames to signalize their triumphs--one becoming Parthicus, [717] and another Medicus and Germanicus. [718] On this head [719] the Roman people must see to it who they are amongst whom [720] there still remain nations which are unsubdued and foreign to their rule. But, at all events, you are of us, [721] and yet you conspire against us. (In reply, we need only state) a well-known fact, [722] that we acknowledge the fealty of Romans to the emperors. No conspiracy has ever broken out from our body: no Cæsar's blood has ever fixed a stain upon us, in the senate or even in the palace; no assumption of the purple has ever in any of the provinces been affected by us. The Syrias still exhale the odours of their corpses; still do the Gauls [723] fail to wash away (their blood) in the waters of their Rhone. Your allegations of our insanity [724] I omit, because they do not compromise the Roman name. But I will grapple with [725] the charge of sacrilegious vanity, and remind you of [726] the irreverence of your own lower classes, and the scandalous lampoons [727] of which the statues are so cognizant, and the sneers which are sometimes uttered at the public games, [728] and the curses with which the circus resounds. If not in arms, you are in tongue at all events always rebellious. But I suppose it is quite another affair to refuse to swear by the genius of Cæsar? For it is fairly open to doubt as to who are perjurers on this point, when you do not swear honestly [729] even by your gods. Well, we do not call the emperor God; for on this point sannam facimus, [730] as the saying is. But the truth is, that you who call Cæsar God both mock him, by calling him what he is not, and curse him, because he does not want to be what you call him. For he prefers living to being made a god. [731]
[715] Comp. The Apology, c. xxxv.
[716] Secunda.
[717] Severus, in a.d. 198.
[718] These titles were borne by Caracalla.
[719] Or, "topic"--hoc loco.
[720] i.e., whether among the Christians or the heathen.
[721] A cavil of the heathen.
[722] Sane.
[723] Galliæ.
[724] Vesaniæ.
[725] Conveniam.
[726] Recognoscam.
[727] Festivos libellos.
[728] A concilio.
[729] Ex fide.
[730] Literally, "we make faces."
[731] Comp. The Apology, c. xxxiii., p. 37, supra, and Minucius Felix, Octavius, c. xxiii. [Vol. IV. this Series.]
Chapter XVIII. [732] --Christians Charged with an Obstinate Contempt of Death. Instances of the Same are Found Amongst the Heathen.
The rest of your charge of obstinacy against us you sum up in this indictment, that we boldly refuse neither your swords, nor your crosses, nor your wild beasts, nor fire, nor tortures, such is our obduracy and contempt of death. But (you are inconsistent in your charges); for in former times amongst your own ancestors all these terrors have come in men's intrepidity [733] not only to be despised, but even to be held in great praise. How many swords there were, and what brave men were willing to suffer by them, it were irksome to enumerate. [734] (If we take the torture) of the cross, of which so many instances have occurred, exquisite in cruelty, your own Regulus readily initiated the suffering which up to his day was without a precedent; [735] a queen of Egypt used wild beasts of her own (to accomplish her death); [736] the Carthaginian woman, who in the last extremity of her country was more courageous than her husband Asdrubal, [737] only followed the example, set long before by Dido herself, of going through fire to her death. Then, again, a woman of Athens defied the tyrant, exhausted his tortures, and at last, lest her person and sex might succumb through weakness, she bit off her tongue and spat out of her mouth the only possible instrument of a confession which was now out of her power. [738] But in your own instance you account such deeds glorious, in ours obstinate. Annihilate now the glory of your ancestors, in order that you may thereby annihilate us also. Be content from henceforth to repeal the praises of your forefathers, in order that you may not have to accord commendation to us for the same (sufferings). Perhaps (you will say) the character of a more robust age may have rendered the spirits of antiquity more enduring. Now, however, (we enjoy) the blessing of quietness and peace; so that the minds and dispositions of men (should be) more tolerant even towards strangers. Well, you rejoin, be it so: you may compare yourselves with the ancients; we must needs pursue with hatred all that we find in you offensive to ourselves, because it does not obtain currency [739] among us. Answer me, then, on each particular case by itself. I am not seeking for examples on a uniform scale. [740] Since, forsooth, the sword through their contempt of death produced stories of heroism amongst your ancestors, it is not, of course, [741] from love of life that you go to the trainers sword in hand and offer yourselves as gladiators, [742] (nor) through fear of death do you enrol your names in the army. [743] Since an ordinary [744] woman makes her death famous by wild beasts, it cannot but be of your own pure accord that you encounter wild beasts day after day in the midst of peaceful times. Although no longer any Regulus among you has raised a cross as the instrument of his own crucifixion, yet a contempt of the fire has even now displayed itself, [745] since one of yourselves very lately has offered for a wager [746] to go to any place which may be fixed upon and put on the burning shirt. [747] If a woman once defiantly danced beneath the scourge, the same feat has been very recently performed again by one of your own (circus-) hunters [748] as he traversed the appointed course, not to mention the famous sufferings of the Spartans.
[732] Comp., The Apology, c. 50 [p. 54, infra.]
[733] A virtute didicerunt.
[734] With the "piget prosequi" to govern the preceding oblique clause, it is unnecessary to suppose (with Oehler) the omission here of some verb like "erogavit."
[735] Novitatem...dedicavit.
[736] Tertullian refers to Cleopatra's death also in his tract ad Mart. c. iv. [See this Vol. infra.]
[737] This case is again referred to in this treatise (p. 138), and in ad Mart c. iv. [See this Volume, infra.]
[738] Eradicatæ confessionis. [See p. 55, supra.]
[739] Non invenitur.
[740] Eadem voce.
[741] Utique. The ironical tone of Tertullian's answer is evident.
[742] Gladio ad lanistas auctoratis.
[743] We follow Oehler in giving the clause this negative turn; he renders it: "Tretet nicht aus Furcht vor dem Tode ins Kriegsheer ein."
[744] Alicui.
[745] Jam evasit.
[746] Auctoravit.
[747] Vestiendum incendiale tunica.
[748] Inter venatorios: "venatores circi" (Oehler).
[749] "Doubtless the stripes which the Spartans endured with such firmness, aggravated by the presence of their nearest relatives, who encouraged them, conferred honour upon their family."--Apology, c. 50. [See p. 55, supra.]