Pagan and puritan: The "Octavius" of Minucius

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PAGAN AND PURITAN

Pagan and Puritan

THE "OCTAVIUS" OF
MINUCIUS

FREELY TRANSLATED BY

ARTHUR AIKIN BRODRIBB

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LONDON

GEORGE BELL & SONS

1903

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CHISWICK PRESS : CHARLES WHITTINGHAM AND CO.
TOOKS COURT, CHANCERY LANE, LONDON.

INTRODUCTION

THE " Octavius," the only known work
of Marcus Minucius Felix, contains two
speeches on religion, one from the Pagan, and
the other from the Christian point of view.
Short as it is, this almost classical dialogue
holds an important place in literature as the
earliest extant defence of Christianity by a
Latin writer ; that is, if, as there is reason to
believe, Minucius is prior to TertuUian. But,
whether prior to TertuUian or not, he was
highly esteemed in his own time, and by sub-
sequent writers, one of whom, Cyprian, pub-
lished a treatise on "Idols," which is so ab-
solutely plagiarized from the " Octavius " that
the text of Cyprian occasionally serves to
elucidate that of Minucius.

Minucius, however, was unknown during
a great part of the middle ages. The only
manuscript of the " Octavius " is a minuscule
of the ninth century, and has been for many

vi INTRODUCTION

years in the Paris library. It is headed :
"Arnobii liber VII explicit. Incipit liber
VIII feliciter." Now, Arnobius's celebrated
work against the Pagans contains only seven
books ; there is no eighth book of Arnobius.
Unfortunately, when these seven books were
first edited and printed, at Rome in 1543,
this manuscript of the " Octavius " was asso-
ciated with them, and was printed with them
as a Liber Octavus ; a mistake which was re-
peated in the two succeeding editions. Fran-
gois Baudouin, or Balduinus, in his Heidel-
berg edition of 1560, was the first to publish
the supposed Liber Octavus of Arnobius as
the " Octavius " of Minucius. His edition
contains a long Latin dissertation, in which
he claims the work for its real author and
expresses his surprise that the mistake should
have escaped the notice of so great a scholar
as Erasmus.

Since 1560 Minucius has received much
attention from scholars, but the text, after
continual revision and emendation, still offers
a great many doubtful readings.

There is no external evidence for so much
as a single fact in the life of Minucius. All
that is known, or is supposed to be known,

INTRODUCTION vii

of him is derived from the introduction to his
book. From this we gather that he was a
convert to Christianity, a lawyer, and by re-
sidence, if not by birth, a Roman. But this
is all, and if we hold that the introduction,
which certainly resembles a work of art, is
only a contrivance for bringing together ima-
ginary opponents for an imaginary debate, we
shall have to own that we know nothing of
Minucius except his name. That, however,
is not the view taken by the best authorities.
They do not regard the introduction as ficti-
tious, and their opinion is corroborated by
inscriptions found at Cirta in Africa, which
show that one of the speakers, who is de-
scribed by Minucius as a compatriot of the
orator Fronto of Cirta, was, in fact, a native
of that place. We may take it, then, that the
introduction gives a true account, as far as it
goes, of Minucius himself The speeches, it
need hardly be said, owe their literary form
to the author, who must have heard many
similar arguments in the course of his life.

We do not know in what years Minucius
was born and died, and the date of his work
has been the subject of much controversy.
The statements of Lactantius and Jerome do

viii INTRODUCTION

not help us. Apparently, the question is
rendered insoluble by the peculiar nature of
the book itself. Minucius writes his recollec-
tion of a formal argument between two of his
friends, one of whom is described as dead at
the time of writing, while the other is, pre-
sumably, still alive. Internal evidence points
to the year 162 or 163 as the probable date
of the argument. But the date of the argu-
ment, whatever it may be, cannot be the date
of the book, which the author expressly de-
clares to be written from memory, he does
not say how many years later, after his friend's
death. The interval that separates these two
dates must therefore remain uncertain. Per-
haps it will be enough to say that most modern
critics place Minucius in the second and not
in the third century.

In the extremely graceful introduction the
three friends, Marcus Minucius FeHx, Octa-
vius Januarius and Quintus Caecilius Natalis,
take a morning walk on the sands at Ostia, a
seaside place at the mouth of the Tiber, not
far from Rome. Minucius and Octavius are
Christians ; Caecilius adheres to the old re-
ligion. At the beginning of the walk, Octa-
vius makes a casual remark which sounds like

INTRODUCTION ix

a challenge to Caecilius to defend his views.
Later on, the subject is referred to again, and is
then debated, Minucius remaining neutral, and
acting as judge. Caecilius at length owns that
he has been induced to change his opinions.
The argument of Caecilius may be thus
summarized : "Our knowledge of the universe
is necessarily limited, but we have no reason,
on any hypothesis, to postulate divine agency.
The available evidence suggests that chance
prevails rather than providence, but, as the
fact cannot be established, our ancestral faith
is safer and better than vague speculations.
And see how much Rome owes to her ances-
tral faith, and how invincible it has made her.
It is true that we do not know the nature of
the gods ; but they cannot be ignored, and all
history shows that it is prudent to pay atten-
tion to their omens. The Christians, cer-
tainly, are not entitled to attack them, and
they do not seem to have anything better to
offer. They belong to the lowest and most
ignorant classes, their immorality is notorious,
they worship a criminal and his cross, they
reverence the head of an ass, they practice
the ritual murder of infants, their meetings are
nocturnal and secret, their feasts are impure,

X INTRODUCTION

their lives are miserable and colourless, and
they hold absurd notions as to the end of the
world, a resurrection of the dead, and an om-
niscient and omnipresent God. Such are the
people who presume to pronounce an opinion
on subjects as to which philosophers have
wisely maintained an attitude of reserve."

Octavius replies : " Your expressions are
harsh, and I am not sure whether you do or do
not believe in the effective existence of your
gods. Ignorant as we may be, man's place in
nature compels him to an inquiry into the uni-
verse and the attributes of its Governor. For,
unquestionably, it has a Governor, whose
handiwork it is, and is ruled, not by chance
but by Providence. Polytheism is untenable,
and has not the support of philosophers, all of
whom regard God as some phase of intangible
Unity. On the other hand, your own gods,
such as Saturn and Jupiter, are only legendary
human beings who were deified in an age of
credulity. Their rites are undignified, and often
shocking. Can you seriously maintain that the
Roman power owes anything to their patron-
age? As to omens and oracles, it is a fallacy to
connect them with victory or defeat. The truth
is that they are controlled by daemons, fallen

INTRO D UC TION xi

spirits, who actuate the whole machinery of
your rehgion, and do their utmost to excite
prejudice against us. How stale your charges
against us are ! And how is it that none
of them have ever been proved? You say
that we worship the head of an ass ; that we
render divine honours to a crucified criminal ;
that we murder children ; that our meetings
are scenes of debauchery. Nothing of the
sort. These are imputations the like of which,
in an aggravated form, might be retorted
against your own impure superstitions. You
think that we have some mysterious concealed
object of worship. We worship God ; how
can God be concealed anywhere ? You think
our doctrines nonsense. The germs of them
are to be found in your own philosophers.
No ; you are doing us a great injustice ; you
do not understand that, though most of us
are poor, we are also sober, clean-living, hope-
ful, and happy ; happy even under persecution
and torture. I care nothing for your cautious
philosophers who boast of their attitude of
reserve. Let them debate away, by all means,
as long as ever they like. I am only thankful
that God has made us more enlightened."
These speeches are of course the work of

xii INTRODUCTION

Minucius. He has arranged them for publica-
tion, and has made them Uterature ; but there
is no reason to doubt his statement that they
represent the arguments actually used by his
friends. From the speech of Caecilius, who is
apparently a young lawyer, we may gather the
religious views of the average educated Roman.
He is called upon, not quite on the spur of
the moment, to defend his belief, and, having
had time to collect his thoughts, he states his
case in an orderly way, at least as well as most
young men would have stated it. He knows
something of history and philosophy, and,
though he is not well-informed about the
Christians, one or two of their doctrines are
known to him, and he is familiar with all that
was commonly reported to their discredit.
Like other Romans, he feels sure that when
ignorant and eccentric people meet in private
their proceedings will not bear investigation.
Minucius takes care that he shall repeat all
the usual slanders against the Christians, for
these he intends to answer fully in the speech
of Octavius.

The much longer reply of Octavius, full of
learning derived from earlier writers, and espe
cially from Cicero, traverses almost every word

INTRODUCTION xiii

that has been uttered by Caecilius. In this
respect it is so systematic and precise as to be
evidently the work, not of a theologian, but
of a lawyer. Caecilius leans to the doctrine
of chance, believes in a plurality of gods, and
despises the Christians. Octavius substitutes
providence for chance, one God for many
gods, and vindicates the character of the
Christian community. Except for the curious
passage on daemons, he does not once travel
beyond his brief, but contents himself with an
argument strictly limited by that of his op-
ponent. But the lawyer is also a literary
artist. He puts into the mouth of Octavius a
reply that is complete and sufficient for his
purpose, and does not concern himself with
what has not been advanced, or with doctrines
that Caecilius cannot immediately discuss or
accept. His object is simply the refutation of
Caecilius ; to attempt more would spoil the
artistic design of the work, and would render
it imperfect, introductory, and open to further
challenge./ The reticence of Minucius, and the
fact that he has little or nothing to say of the
cardinal doctrines of Christianity, have often
been remarked, and it has even been suggested
that he was himself not so much a Christian

xiv INTRODUCTION

as a Theist. But the explanation is that he is
not as yet instructing a convert, but is only
endeavouring to make one. For the present
he is appealing, not altogether on Christian
grounds but rather on general grounds, to a hos-
tile audience. And the hostile audience, whose
philosophers and poets and historians he sum-
mons as witnesses on his own side, though it
consists nominally of Caecilius alone, com-
prises in reality all Rome, where at this time
hardly one man in twenty was a Christian. If
he can remove prejudice, and show that the
new religion is, on the face of it, more rational
than the old, he may obtain a hearing. That,
and for the present nothing more, seems to
be the purpose of the work.

For the following free translation the edi-
tions of Baehrens, 1886, and of Waltzing,
1903, have been used. They differ in many
places ; but a free rendering may perhaps
adopt the reading sometimes of the one, and
sometimes of the other. The state of the text
is such that finality cannot be claimed for any
particular edition. The places in which im-
portant emendations by Baehrens have been
followed are indicated in the notes.

OCTAVIUS

WHENEVER my thoughts dwell on
my good old friend Octavius, his
charming and lovable personality becomes so
real to me that I seem in a manner to return
to the past, with something more than a mere
recollection of its closed pages. My eyes can
no longer see him, but his portrait is for that
very reason all the more deeply engraved on
my heart and my inmost feelings. He was a
remarkable and saintly man, and his departure
from this world left me with an indefinite
sense of loss. In truth, he was so much at-
tached to me that our thoughts and wishes,
whether grave or gay, always coincided; it
was as though we had only one mind between
us. The result of this unanimity was that,
while he was the only partner of my pleasures,
he shared my errors also. So, again, when I
escaped from the dark slough of ignorance

2 M. MINUCIUS FELIX

into the light of wisdom and truth, he did
not cast off his companion, but, much more
nobly, ran on to show him the way. Conse-
quently, when my thoughts range over the
whole period of our intimacy, my most vivid
recollection is of a discourse of his in which
by sheer force of argument he converted
Quintus Caecilius from his belated supersti-
tion to the true faith.

Octavius had come to Rome partly on busi-
ness, and partly in order to see me; and he had
left his wife and children at home, the little
ones just at the age of innocence, and at that
most lovable time when they try to say short
words with delightfully quaint attempts at pro-
nunciation. I cannot say how pleased I was
to see my greatest friend, especially as his ar-
rival was quite unexpected. After a day or two
of renewed intimacy, when we had to some
extent satisfied our hunger for each other's
company, and had thoroughly compared notes
together, we determined to go to Ostia, an ex-
ceedingly nice place, where I had been advised
to try the bracing effects of sea-bathing. The
vintage holidays had released me from the
law-courts, and after the heat of summer there
was a touch of autumn in the air.

OCTA VIUS 3

Well, early one morning we were walking
down to the sea, to enjoy the cool breeze and
a stroll over the sands, when Caecilius, who
was with us, noticed an image of Serapis,^ and
in the usual superstitious way kissed his hand
to it.

Then Octavius said to me: "Marcus, my
brother, here is a man who is closelyconnected
with you, both in private life and in business.
You are not doing your duty by him if you
leave him in ignorant blindness, and let him
stumble in broad daylight over blocks of
stone, even though they are carved and
anointed and crowned. You must be aware
that his error is as discreditable to yourself
as it is to him."

This remark brought us past the town to
the open shore, where the gentle waves had
made us a promenade of level sand. The
sea, which is never absolutely still, even when
there is no wind, came in, not white and
foaming, but in curling, twisting waves which
it was a pleasure to look at, and, when we
walked quite at the edge of the water, played
round our footsteps and then receded from

' See note at end.

4 M. MINUCIUS FELIX

them. So we walked on, slowly and quietly,
along the slight curve of the shore, amusing
ourselves with conversation and with Octa-
vius's accounts of his experiences on board
ship. When we had gone far enough, walking
and talking, we turned to come back the same
way, and, as we came to a place where some
boats were laid up high and dry upon baulks
of timber, we saw a number of boys playing
at ducks and drakes with bits of tile. The
game, of course, is to choose a flat piece, with
rounded edges, and then, holding it low, to
throw it so that it may skim the surface of
the water and make as many hops and jumps
as possible ; and the boy whose shot goes
farthest and jumps oftenest is the winner.

The sight distinctly amused Octavius and
me, but Caecilius took no notice of it and
did not so much as smile, but showed by his
preoccupied expression that he was trying to
keep to himself something or other that had
annoyed him.

"Now, Caecilius," said I, "what is the
matter with you? What has become of all
your gaiety ? You generally look more cheer-
ful than that even on serious occasions."

" It is that nasty remark of our friend

OCTA VIUS 5

Octavius," he replied, " that has been irri-
tating me all this time. It was addressed
ostensibly to you, because he blamed your
negligence; but that was only his indirect
way of charging me with ignorance, which is
worse. As he has practically raised the whole
question, the matter cannot rest where it is,
so I shall have to have it out with him. All
I know is that, if he wants me to argue on
behalf of the school I belong to, he will soon
find it easier to wrangle among his friends
than to conduct a philosophical discussion.
However, suppose we sit down on this stone
breakwater by the baths, and rest, and thresh
it out."

So we sat down as he suggested, with my-
self in the middle ; not that etiquette de-
manded that I should have the place of
honour, because friendship always assumes
or makes equality, but in order that I might
act as judge, and hear both sides equally, and
part the combatants.

Then Caecilius began :

" I know that you, brother Marcus, have
made up your mind on the main subject of
our discussion, and that, after honestly trying
both ways of life, you have rejected the one

6 M. MINUCIUS FELIX

and have chosen the other. All the same,
your mental attitude for the present must be
that of a judge who holds the scales evenly,
and you must not lean to either side, or your
judgement will seem to result less from our
arguments than from your own sympathies.
Remember, you are sitting judicially, as a
stranger to both parties. Now, that being so,
it ought not to be difficult for me to show
that all our human speculations are doubtful
and provisional ; plausible, it may be, but not
verified. That makes it all the more surpris-
ing that, when people get tired of investigation,
so many of them should fall easy victims to
almost any theory rather than persevere
doggedly in the inquiry. But when unculti-
vated and illiterate persons, without even a
skilled workman's training, pronounce con-
fidently on the highest and most abstract
questions which all schools of philosophy in
all ages have debated and are still debating,
I suppose that everyone must condemn and
regret their presumption. And rightly, for
our human limitations render us quite unequal
to these theological inquiries. We do not
know, and we may not examine, and we can-
not without irreverence theorize about what

OCTA VIUS 7

is high above us in the heavens or is buried
far below us in the earth.

"Truly, we may think ourselves happy
enough, and wise enough, if we take the ad-
vice of the old sage, and cultivate a better
knowledge of ourselves. However, we are so
attracted by the foolish ambition to exceed
our limited capacities that, while we grovel
on earth, we aspire to penetrate to heaven
itself and the very stars. Yet even so we need
not aggravate our blunder by wild and dread-
ful imaginings. Suppose, as the origin of
everything, a natural concourse of atoms ;
why postulate divine agency? Or suppose
that a fortuitous concourse of atoms formed
and consolidated the various parts of the
universe; why introduce a divine artificer?
Or say simply that fire kindled the stars, that
the heavens float because they are light, that
the earth is fixed because it is heavy, and
that the sea is an accumulation of water ; how
do religion, dread of God, and superstition
enter into that statement of the case? The
fact is that man and every animal that is born
and lives and grows, is a spontaneous con-
cretion of elements into which he, with every
living thing, is ultimately resolved. All things

8 M. MINUCIUS FELIX

return to their source in automatic revolution,
without any external interference or agency.
In this way, when particles of fire are col-
lected, new suns are continually formed; when
vapours are exhaled from the land, they
become mists ; when these thicken and are
driven together, they form banks of clouds,
and, when these fall, down come rain and
squalls and hail, or, if the storm-clouds meet,
thunder and lightning and thunder-bolts.
And observe, these fall everywhere ; they
attack the mountains and the trees ; they
affect all places indiscriminately, whether holy
or profane, and strike all men, whether saints
or sinners. I need not remind you of the
uncertainty and caprice of storms, in which
all nature seems to be involved without rule
or reason ; or of shipwrecks, where good and
bad meet a common fate without regard to
their deserts ; or of fires, in which the guilty
and the innocent are alike consumed. In an
epidemic, are not all carried off without dis-
tinction? In battle, do not the best men
generally fall ? In peace, on the other hand,
wickedness is not only put on an equality with
virtue, but is so favoured that in a good many
cases one envies the prosperity of the criminal

OCTA VIUS 9

as much as one detests his crimes. No ; if
the world were governed by divine providence,
and were under the supreme authority of any
one deity, divine justice would never have
awarded thrones to Phalaris and Dionysius,
exile to Rutilius and Camillus, and poison to
Socrates. Look at the loaded fruit-trees, the
ripe cornfields, the juicy vineyards ; look at
them, and see them ruined by rain, or beaten
down by hail. The fact is, either the destined
event is hidden and concealed from us, or, as
is more probable, lawless chance, with its end-
less critical contingencies, rules everything.

" But in either case, with destiny so uncer-
tain, and nature so capricious, how much better
and more reverent it is for us to take the
teaching of our ancestors as the witness of
the truth ; to keep our traditional religion, to
worship the gods whom our parents taught us
to fear before knowing them familiarly, and,
instead of dogmatizing on theology, to follow
our forefathers who, in the first rough ages of
the world, rightly esteemed their gods as either
servants or kings. That is the reason why
every state, province and town has its own
sacred rites, and worships its local civic gods.
The Eleusinians worship Ceres, the Phrygians

lo M. MINUCIUS FELIX

Cybele, the Epidaurians Aesculapius, the
Chaldaeans Belus, the Syrians Astarte, the
Taurians Diana, the Gauls Mercury, the
Romans all of them. The Romans have
filled the whole world with their power and
authority, and have extended their rule be-
yond the paths of the sun and the bounds of
ocean. And why? Because with them re-
ligion and valour go hand in hand ; because
the strength of their city is in the sanctity of
religious rites, pure priestesses, and priests
of many degrees and titles ; because, when
the city was besieged and taken, all but the
Capitol, they remained true to the gods whom
others would have cast off in anger, and,
while the Gauls wondered at their confident
faith, marched through their ranks with no
other arms than religious devotion ; because,
when they take a city, they honour the gods
of their beaten foes even in the first flush of
victory ; because everywhere they seek to
make the gods their guests and their own ;
because they sometimes build altars to un-
known gods and spirits. Thus they have
adopted the religion, and have earned the
dominions, of all nations. And thus the un-
interrupted continuance of our religion has

OCTAVIUS II

endured, not weakened, but fortified by the
lapse of ages ; and the holiness of our cere-
monies and temples has increased with their
lengthening antiquity.

" Still, for I may venture to make the con-
cession, and in doing so to err on the safe
side, our ancestors were well advised in con-
sulting auguries, observing omens, institut-
ing ceremonies, and dedicating shrines. If
you look at the record of history, you will
find that all religious rites originated in the
desire to recompense the gods for their favour,
or to avert coming wrath, or to mitigate its
threatening violence. I may instance the wor-
ship of the Idaean mother, whose coming
proved the virtue of a matron and saved the
city from the fear of the enemy ; the sacred
statues of the twin horsemen by the lake, as
they appeared, breathless on foaming and
smoking steeds, and announced the victory
they had won that very day over Perseus;
the renewal, in consequence of a country-
fellow's dream, of the games in honour of
the offended Jupiter; the determined devo-
tion of the Decii ; and Curtius, who closed
up a yawning chasm by plunging into it on
horseback. Only too often has the neglect of

12 Af. MINUCIUS FELIX

auspices attested the power of the gods. For
this reason, Allia is a name of evil omen ;
and the wreck of the fleet of Claudius and
Junius, if not their battle with the Cartha-
ginians, is a mournful memory. Flaminius
contemned the auguries, and Trasymenus
was swollen and reddened with Roman blood ;
and Crassus laughed at, and deserved, the
imprecations of the Furies with the result that
we are still recovering our standards from the
Parthians.' I say nothing of a number of old
stories, I ignore what the poets have said
about the birthdays of the gods, and their
gifts and presents ; I even pass over instances
of fate foretold by oracles, lest you should
think ancient history too fabulous. But con-
sider the temples and shrines of the gods,
which protect and adorn the Roman state ;
it is no wealth of decoration, of gifts and
offerings, that makes them glorious, but the
indwelling, the presence, the tenancy of the
gods themselves. There divinely inspired
priests dip into the future, give counsel in
danger, medicine in sickness, hope to the
afflicted, help to the desolate, comfort in
calamity, and relief in distress. Deny them,
reject them, forswear them as we may in the

OCTAVIUS 13

daytime, in the quiet of night we see and
hear and recognize the gods.

" And therefore, as there is a substantial
agreement among all nations as to the im-
mortal gods, whatever the explanation and
origin of them may be, it is intolerable that any-
one should be so puffed up with audacity and
profane conceit as to endeavour to destroy or
weaken so old, so useful, so wholesome a
religion. There were, of course, Theodorus
of Cyrene, and his predecessor Diagoras of
Melos, who was formerly surnamed the Atheist.
They declared that there were no gods, and
did their best to abolish the fear and sense
of religion by which the human race is influ-
enced. But these sham philosophies, with
their blasphemous tenets, will never have any
formidable following or authority. Consider-
ing that when Protagoras of Abdera was ar-
guing about the nature of the gods, not pro-
fanely, but only rationally, the Athenians
banished him and publicly burned his writings,

well you must excuse my vehemence — but

is it not lamentable that members of an un-
lawful and hopelessly discredited sect should
assail the gods ? These are the people who
get together the lowest and most ignorant

14 ^f. MINUCIUS FELIX

classes, and foolish women with all the gulli-
bility of their sex, and start a profane society
of conspirators which meets at night and is
bound together by solemn fasts and inhuman
food, and not by any holy rite, but by a crime.
It is a tribe that loves hiding-places and dark-
ness, says nothing in public, but is talkative
enough in secret corners. They despise the
temples as mere burial places, spit at the
gods, and jeer at holy things. They pity our
priests in spite of their own pitiable condition,
and look down upon appointments and robes
of office, though they are themselves almost
in rags. What amazing folly ; what incredible
impudence ! They think nothing of present
torture, but dread what is uncertain and
future ; and they fear death after death, but
are not afraid to die in the meantime, the
fact being that an illusory hope soothes their
terrors and consoles them with the prospect
of another life.

Ill weeds grow apace, and already, with the
daily increase of immorality, there is every-
where an increase of these disgusting and
profane meetings. The conspiracy must be
cut out ^ and utterly uprooted. They recognize
each other by private marks and signs ; they

OCT A VI us 15

profess to love one another before they are
actually acquainted ; everywhere among them
there is a quasi-religious strain of grossness,
and they call each other ' brother ' and ' sis-
ter ' promiscuously in order that these hal-
lowed names may give zest to ordinary sin.
Thus their vain and insane superstition glories
in crime. Nor would rumour, well informed
as it is, say the most atrocious unmentionable
things of them without a substratum of truth.
I hear that they consecrate and worship — I
know not with what absurd idea — the head
of an ass,^ the most abject of all creatures.
Their religion is indeed appropriate to the
customs in which it originates ! Others speak
of a still less decorous object of their venera-
tion.' This may not be true, but suspicion
inevitably attaches to secret and nocturnal
ceremonies. And the story that they accord
a religious sanctity to a man who was put to
death for his crime, and to the wood of the
fatal cross, provides very suitable holy things
for these wretches, and enables them to wor-
ship what they deserve. As for their method
of initiating neophytes, the account is as
horrible as it is notorious. A baby is com-
pletely hidden under a quantity of meal, and

i6 M. MINUCIUS FELIX

is placed before the person who is to be
initiated. The unwary novice is directed to
stab into what looks like a mass of meal, and
in doing so unintentionally kills the child.
Then — how shocking it all is — they greedily
lap up the child's blood, and sever his limbs.
This is the sacrifice that binds them together ;
this is the guilty secret that pledges them all
mutually to silence. Rites like these are worse
than the worst sacrilege. We know, too, about
their feasts ; it is common talk, and is borne
out by the speech of my fellow-countryman,
Fronto of Cirta.*" They meet for their feast
on an appointed day, with all their wives,
children, sisters and mothers ; people of both
sexes and all ages, and then, after a full meal,
when everyone has become excited — but why
describe such a scene of debauchery ? ^

" I pass over many other things deliberately.
These are more than enough, and the mere
secresy of this corrupt religion proclaims the
truth of all, or almost all, of them. Now, why
do they take such great pains to conceal what
they worship? Honesty loves the light of day;
crime hides its head. Why have they no altars,
no temples, no famous images, no public ad-
dresses, no open meetings, if what they wor-

OCTA VIUS 17

ship SO mysteriously is neither illegal nor
shameful ? And whence, and who, and where
is this one solitary lonely God of theirs who
is unknown to ever)' free people and kingdom,
and even to Roman superstition ? The unique
and miserable Jewish race had one God, but
they worshipped him openly, with temples,
altars, sacrifices, and ceremonies \ and he had
so little power and influence that he and his
own peculiar nation have been captured by
mere mortal Romans. But the Christians,
what portentous monsters they invent ! They
pretend that this God of theirs, whom they can
neither show nor see, diligently scrutinizes the
hearts of all, the acts of all, and even words
and secret thoughts, in his ubiquitous ramb-
lings. Their conception is of a troublesome
and restless deity, who is at once ineffective'*
and inquisitive, because, if he is a party to all
that goes on, and roams about everywhere,
his universal cares would make him useless to
individuals, while his attention to individuals
would preclude his universal utility.

" Then again, what is to be said for their
doctrine that the world itself, and the universe
with its stars will some day be burnt up and
ruined? As if the eternal order of nature,

c

1 8 M. MINUCIUS FELIX

settled by divine laws, could be disturbed ;
as if the elements could break their bonds,
and the heavenly framework split, and the vast
mass in which everything is contained be over-
thrown ! And not content with this absurdity,
they tack on to it a parcel of tales fit only for
old women. They say that, after death and
dust and ashes, they are born again ; and they
encourage each other to believe their lies
with such unaccountable confidence that you
would imagine that they had already found
them true. These delusions involve the doubly
lunatic prophecy of destruction to the heavens
and the stars, which we leave exactly as we
found them, and of eternity, when we are dead
and done with, to ourselves, who die as na-
turally as we are born. For that reason, I
believe, they denounce cremation ; as if every
corpse, whether burnt or not, was not sooner
or later resolved into earth ; as if it mattered
whether wild beasts tore it in pieces, or the
sea swallowed it up, or the ground covered it,
or fire consumed it. If corpses feel, every way
of disposing of them must be painful; if they
do not, cremation, as the speediest mode, must
be a benefit. With these mistaken ideas they
deceive themselves, and look forward to a life

OCTA VIUS 19

of endless happiness after death ; while to the
rest, that is, the wicked, they assign eternal
punishment. On this I might say much, only
my argument must hasten on. I need not
labour the point that they are morally bad, for
by this time I have proved it. And yet, if I
pronounced in their favour, I should have to
bear in mind the general opinion that both
badness and goodness are attributable to fate;
and this must also be your own view, because,
while we ascribe all human action to fate, you
ascribe it to God, and people join your sect,
not spontaneously, but when they are called.
Your hypothesis, then, is of an unjust judge,
who punishes men not for their will, but for
their circumstances.

" But as regards this future life, I should
like to know, is this resurrection to be without,
or with, our bodies ; and with what bodies ;
with our old bodies, or with new ones ? With-
out the body? That, as far as I can see, it
neither mind, nor soul, nor life. With the
same body? Well, but it has already perished.
With another body? In that case it is new
birth, not restored existence. And really, in
the whole course of time, after all these in-
numerable ages, is there a single authentic

20 M. MINUCIUS FELIX

instance of any person's return from the lower
regions, even with the short three hours' leave
of absence granted to Protesilaus ? All these
figments of a diseased imagination, all these
purely ornamental poetical legends you have
unblushingly furbished up in order to support
your too" credulous belief in your God.

"And yet you do not perceive from your
present circumstances how you are deceived
by false hopes and empty promises. You
poor people, learn while you are alive what
you may expect after death. Look at the
greater part of your people — the ' better '
part, as you call them — and see how they
suffer from want, cold, drudgery and hunger.
And God allows it all, and pretends that it
is nothing, and is either so powerless or so
unjust that he will not, or cannot, help his
own ! You, who dream of posthumous im-
mortality, when you are unnerved by danger,
parched by fever, or racked with pain, are
you still unconscious of your own condition ?
Do you not recognize your weakness ? My
poor fellow, you are convicted, in spite of
yourself, of an infirmity that you will not
acknowledge. But these are commonplaces,
and I pass on. See what is in store for you,

OCTA VI US 21

pains and penalties and tortures ; and crosses,
not to be adored but endured ; and fires, too,
such as you predict and fear. And where is
that God who can help you when you come
to life again, but not while you are alive?
Do not the Romans rule without any help
from your God? Of course they do; they
enjoy the whole world, and they are your
masters. But as for you, you walk in fear
and trembling, you abstain from honest plea-
sures, you never go to the theatres, you take
no part in public processions and feasts, you
loathe the sacred contests, and you abhor
meat and drink that has been taken from our
altars. Apparently, you are afraid of the gods
whom you deny. You wear no flowers in your ^
hair, and you use no sweet-smelling unguents,
but keep them for funerals. You even refuse
wreaths of flowers for your graves. Truly, a
cheerless, pale-faced set of people, who de-
serve all pity, even from our own gods ; for
you are in this unfortunate position, that you
neither rise again nor live while you may. If
you have any sense or modesty, you will pry
no more into the regions of heaven and into
the hidden destinies of the world. It is
enough for very ignorant and uncultivated

22 M. MINUCIUS FELIX

people to see what is at their feet. When
men cannot understand human affairs, as-
suredly they must not be allowed to argue
about divinity.

" Still, if you positively must philosophize,
let any one of your sect who is equal to it
imitate, if he can, Socrates, the very prince
of wisdom. Whenever he was asked about
heavenly things, he gave the famous answer,
' that which is above us is nothing to us.'
He well deserved the oracle's testimony to
his singular wisdom, and, indeed, suspected
what it was that raised him above other men ;
not that he had discovered everything, but
because he had learned that he knew nothing.
In this way the confession of ignorance is a
very high form of wisdom. From this principle
came the unassailable scepticism of Arcesilaus
and, a good deal later, of Carneades and most
of the Academics on all the most abstruse
speculations ; and this is the kind of philo-
sophy in which the unlearned may indulge
cautiously and the learned with confidence.
Surely, we must all admire and try to follow
the deliberation of Simonides, the lyric poet.
When King Hiero asked Simonides what he
thought the gods were, and of what nature.

OCTA VIUS 23

he took a day to consider the question, and
on the morrow asked for two days more, and
then demanded another. And finally, when
the king asked the reason for so much delay,
he answered that the more he reflected on
the subject the more obscure he found it.
That is my own opinion too. When things
are doubtful, it is best to leave them alone ;
and, when so many great men have debated
them, you must not come, hastily and pre-
sumptuously, to any definite conclusion.
Otherwise, the result will be, either some
foolish superstition, or the destruction of all
religion."

Such was the speech of Caecilius. His in-
dignation had subsided in the flow of his
oratory, and he said with a smile :

"What answer to all this shall we have
from our aggressive friend, Octavius, a most
eminent man among nobodies, but the last
and least of philosophers ? " '°

" Wait a little before you crow over him,"
said I ; " your rejoicings will be out of order
until both sides have been heard, especially
as the object of your discussion is not a per-
sonal triumph, but truth. And I must say
that, though I was much pleased with your

24 M. MINUCIUS FELIX

ingenious and varied argument, what im-
presses me most, not in this particular dis-
cussion, but in all controversy, is the way in
which even obvious truths are affected by the
ability and the eloquence of the speaker.
Very often his hearers are too sympathetic.
Words fascinate them so much that they are
apt to lose their grip of ideas and assent
casually to all sorts of propositions, with no
real perception of truth and error, and no
appreciation of the fact that the incredible
may be more or less true, and the probable
more or less false. Whatever they assent to,
some clever person is sure to prove them in
the wrong ; and the result is that, after being
repeatedly misled by their own hasty con-
clusions, they fancy that what bewilders them
is the inherent uncertainty of the question.
Ultimately, with a fine condemnation of
dogma, they avoid the risk of error by ex-
pressing no opinions at all. This being so,
let us try to avoid everything that has brought
controversy into disrepute, and has led simple-
minded people to detest it. We must re-
member that some people are easy-going and
credulous, and that, when they are misled by
their trusted guides, they naturally suspect

OCTAVIUS 25

everybody and fear the evil designs of their
best friends. In a controversy that is hard-
fought on both sides, truth is often obscure,
and, thanks to eloquence, sheer subtleties are
often made to look like first principles. I am
particularly anxious, then, to weigh every
argument carefully, so that, while recognizing
ingenuity, we may find out and determine the
truth."

" You are departing," said Caecilius, " from
the duty of an impartial judge, for it is very
unfair that you should blunt the edge of my
argument by interpolating these important
considerations. Octavius has to answer my
case, if he can, and he ought to have it before
him fresh and untouched."

" I did what you object to," I rejoined, " for
our mutual advantage, as I thought ; and my
object was that the scales of justice should
be made to respond, not to frothy rhetoric,
but to the solid merits of the case. However,
there shall be no further digression, since you
dislike it. Let us listen quietly to the reply
which our friend Octavius is burning to
make."

Then Octavius said : " I will reply to the
best of my ability, and we must use our joint

26 M. MINUCIUS FELIX

endeavours to wash away the stain of Caeci-
lius's bitter reproaches in the waters of truth.
I must honestly say, at the outset, that our
friend's opinions are so vague and indefinite
as to raise a doubt in my mind whether the
confusion was intentional or was the result of
real misconception. He said at one moment
that he believed in the gods, and at another
that he was making up his mind about them.
It looked as if his object was to make the
basis of my reply even more shifting and more
doubtful than his own position. But really, I
hesitate to charge our friend with anything so
disingenuous. I feel sure that sharp practice
is foreign to his honest nature. But how am
I to account for it ? When a man does not
know his way, and comes to a place where
the road branches off into several roads, he is
pulled up uncomfortably, not venturing to
take any one of them, and not able to try them
all. So it is when a man has no settled con-
victions ; his ideas are at the mercy of every
shallow doubt that presents itself. It seems
to me quite natural that the eddies and cross-
currents of opinion should drive Caecilius
into contrarieties and inconsistencies. How-
ever, this need not happen to him again. I

OCTA VIUS 27

shall be able to refute his arguments, not-
withstanding their diversity, by establishing
the truth, and nothing but the truth ; and
then he ought not to doubt or lose his way
any more. -^

" Our friend expressed a good deal of anger
and disgust and indignation at the thought of
poor and uneducated persons discussing divine
things. I would have him know, however,
that all human beings, no matter of what age
or sex or rank, are endowed at birth with the
faculty of reason and sense, and that men
have acquired wisdom by their natural ability,
and not by virtue of their station in Wie.J
Even the philosophers themselves, and those
pioneers of civilization whose names have
come down to us, were regarded as ignorant
and shabby plebeians until their intellectual
eminence was recognized. While the rich,
engrossed in their wealth, habitually thought
more of money than of the heavens, poverty-
stricken" thinkers made great discoveries, and
handed down the tradition of learning. Evi-
dently, brains cannot be purchased either by
love or money, but are born with us as part
and parcel of our intellectual equipment. You
need not, therefore, be in the least aggrieved

28 M. MINUCIUS FELIX

or indignant that any one, be he who he may,
should inquire into divine things, and form
and express an opinion upon them. What is
important is, not the quahfication of the
arguer, but the truth of the argument. In-
deed, the simpler the discourse, the brighter
its light, since it is not coloured by any show
of eloquence and grace, but is sustained on
its own merits by its directness and honesty.
" I do not deny one of Caecilius's main
contentions, that man ought to know him-
self, and look round and consider what he is,
whence he comes, and why he is here ; and
whether he is a concretion of elements or a
harmonizing of atoms, or whether it is not
more likely that his body and soul are the
work of God. But this involves an inquiry
into the universe, for all these questions are
so closely connected that, until you have
thoroughly investigated the philosophy of
God, you cannot know that of man ; just as
you cannot excel in human politics without
a knowledge of the world of which we are all
of us citizens. And inquire we must, if only
because man differs from wild beasts. These
look downwards, intent on the earth, and food
is the hmit of their natural horizon. But we,

OCTAVIUS 29

with our uplifted face, our gaze into heaven,
our mind, and our reason with which we re-
cognize and feel and imitate God, we can-
not, we must not ignore the celestial bright-
ness which forces itself upon our eyes and our
senses. It would be most irreverent to search
below for that which you ought to find on
high. In my opinion, those who hold that all
this well-ordered cosmic system has not been
perfected by divine reason, but is only a con-
glomeration of casually cohering fragments,
are literally as well as metaphorically blind.
When you look up to heaven and then turn
your eyes to all that is below it and around
you, what can be plainer and more obvious
than that there must be some supremely in-
telligent power by which all nature is inspired,
moved, sustained, and directed ? Look at the
heaven itself, and see how far it stretches and
how fast it revolves, both when it is hung with
stars by night and when the sun lights it by
day ; you cannot but regard it as the mar-
vellous and divinely balanced work of a con-
summate author. See how the year results
from the circuit of the sun, and the month
from the waxing and waning of the moon.
Notice also the alternation of light and dark-

30 M. MINUCIUS FELIX

ness, which permits us our own alternation of
work and rest. I must leave to astronomers
the more complete consideration of the stars
as our guides in navigation, and as determin-
ing the seasons of ploughing and harvest.
The mere phenomena cannot be observed
and understood without much scientific know-
ledge, but for the actual creation and order-
ing of each star a supreme artificer and per-
fect intelligence are demanded. And I put it
to you, if seasons and crops always follow
one another in the same orderly succession,
do not flowers in spring, harvest in summer,
fruit in autumn, and the indispensable olive in
winter all equally proclaim their great ori-
ginal, their parent ? All in due sequence ;
yet the due sequence might easily fail if it
were not ordered by the highest wisdom.
Again, how well providence is shown in the
mild weather of autumn and spring, which
intervenes to prevent us from being frozen or
scorched by the extremes of winter cold and
summer heat, and so renders the passage of
the returning year imperceptible and harm-
less ! Look at every tree, how it is nourished
out of the lap of earth ; notice the streams
with their perennial springs ; and the rivers.

OCTAVIUS 31

always gliding onwards ; look at the sea, how
it is bound within its limits ; and the ocean,
with its flowing and ebbing tides. Why speak
of conveniently placed ranges of mountains,
slopes of hills, and stretches of plain ? Why
speak of the manifold ways in which animals
protect themselves, some with horns, some
with teeth, some with claws, and some with
stings, while others escape danger by their
speed, or their \\'ings ? But most of all, the
beauty of the human form confesses its divine
maker ; the erect posture, the upward coun-
tenance, the eyes high in the summit of the
body as in a watch-tower, and all the other
senses concentrated like a garrison in a
citadel.

" It would take me too long to enumerate
all my proofs. There is nothing in the human
body that does not serve either for use or for
ornament, and, what is most remarkable, we
are all alike, and yet unlike ; the generic re-
semblance does not preclude individual pe-
culiarities. What of the mystery of birth, and
the instinct by which the race is continued,
and the process of lactation ; are they not all
from God ? And God thought not only of the
universal whole, but of each part also. Britain,

32 M. MINUCIUS FELIX

for example, lacks sunshine, but is cheered by
the warmth of the surrounding sea ; the river
Nile tempers the drought of Egypt ; the Eu-
phrates compensates Mesopotamia for the
want of rain ; the Indus is said to plant the
Orient as well as to water it. Now, surely, if you
go into a house and find everything neat and
orderly and well-kept, you assume that it has
a master, and that he himself is of more con-
sequence than his property ? So, in this house
of the universe, when you consider the heavens
and the earth, with every indication of fore-
thought, order, and law, you may safely con-
clude that the lord and father of the universe
is grander than the stars themselves or any
part of the whole world. But perhaps, while
there can be no doubt as to providence, you
may not feel sure whether the heavenly do-
main is governed by the power of one king,
or by the votes of several. This question may
be elucidated by a reference to mundane
kingdoms, which I suppose must be analog-
ous. Now, has any partnership of a throne
ever begun in good faith or ended without
bloodshed? I say nothing of the Persian
method of determining the succession by the
augury of the neighing of horses, and I ignore

OCTA VIUS 33

the story of the Theban brothers as an obso-
lete fable. But the slaying of Remus in order
that his twin brother might rule over a hut
and a few shepherds is a well-known historical
fact. Again, the wars between Pompey and
his father-in-law, Caesar, went on over the
whole world, and even a vast empire could
not find room for them both. Notice also
the parallel of bees, who have one leader, as
has also every flock of sheep, and every herd
of cattle. Can you conceive that in heaven
the majesty and supremacy of true and divine
empire are divided and shared, when it is
evident that God, the father of all things, has
neither beginning nor end ; he who gives its
origin to everything, but is himself eternal \
who before the world was to himself in place
of the world ; who commands all things what-
soever by his word, regulates them by his
wisdom, and perfects them by his goodness ?
He cannot be seen, for he is too bright for
our eyes ; neither can he be handled ; nor
appraised, for he is greater than our senses.
He is infinite and immeasurable, and is known
only to himself in all his greatness. Our own
narrow intellects can only estimate him
worthily when we say that he cannot be esti-

D

34 M- MINUCIUS FELIX

mated. I hold, indeed, that he who thinks
that he knows the greatness of God thereby
lessens it, while he who refuses to lessen it
does not know it. And seek no name for
God. God is his name. Names are needed
when individuals have to be distinguished
from a multitude; but for God, who is alone,
God is the one and only name. If I called
him ' father,' you would think of him as of a
natural father ; if ' king,' you would connect
him with an earthly kingdom ; if ' lord,' you
would surely deem him a mortal. But take
away all that names connote, and you will
realize his clear essence. As to that, I think
everyone agrees with me. I listen to the
common people ; when they lift up their
hands in prayer, ' God ' is the only expres-
sion they use ; ' God is great ' ; ' God is
true '; and ' if God will give.' Is that the dis-
tinctive formula of the professing Christian,
or the instinctive word of the people? I
might add that those who regard Jupiter as
supreme admit the unity of divine power,
though they make a mistake in using that
particular name.

" I find also that the poets speak of one
father of gods and men, and say that ' the

OCTA VIUS 35

minds of mortals correspond to the fortune
assigned to them by the parent of all.' What
says Virgil, the Mantuan ? Are not his words
very clear, very near the mark, and very true?
'In the beginning,' says he, 'a spirit main-
tains the heaven and the land,' and the other
parts of the universe, * and a pervading mind
actuates them. From it come men and cattle,'
and all other living things. And in another
passage he calls this mind and spirit ' God.'
These are his words : ' For God goes through
all the lands, and the tracts of the sea, and
the profundity of heaven.' And how else do
we describe God but as mind, and reason,
and spirit? Let us examine, if you please,
the teaching of philosophers, and you will find
that, with formal differences, they are sub-
stantially united and agreed on this particular
doctrine. I will not lay stress on those primi-
tive thinkers whose fragmentary sayings led
to their being called the Wise Men ; but I
must begin with Thales of Miletus as the first
of all, and the first to discuss divine things.
Thales said that water was the primal element,
and that God was the intelligence that had
made everything from it. Thus the theory
of the earliest philosopher has at the root of

36 M. MINUCIUS FELIX

it something in common with our own view.
Anaximenes, and after him Diogenes of
Apollonia, regard God as air, infinite and
immeasurable. Here, again, is a similar agree-
ment as to the divine nature. The God of
Anaxagoras is said to be the manifestation
and energy of an infinite intelligence ; and
the God of Pythagoras is a spirit moving in,
and occupied with, all nature, from whom
also the life of every living thing is derived.
Xenophanes, as we know, taught that God is
the infinite intelligent All ; Antisthenes, that
there were many popular gods, but one
natural chief. Speusippus viewed God as the
animate energy by which all things are di-
rected. And Democritus, though he was the
first discoverer of atoms, does he not generally
speak of God as nature, which throws off
images, and as intelligence ? Straton says that
he is nature, and the great Epicurus, who
thought that the gods were either inactive or
non-existent, makes nature supreme. Aris-
totle recognizes one power, but wavers, for
sometimes he calls God intelligence, and
sometimes the world, and sometimes he sets
God over the world. Heraclides of Pontus in
one way and another implies that there is

OCTA VIUS 37

divine intelligence in the world. Theophrastus
also wavers; in one place he attributes supe-
riority to the world, and in another to the di-
vine mind. Zeno, Chrysippus, and Cleanthes,
differing as they do, all ultimately return to
the unity of providence. Cleanthes sometimes
speaks of God as mind, soul, or ether, but
generally as reason. Zeno, his master, holds
that the law of nature is divine, and some-
times regards the ether, and sometimes rea-
son, as the first cause of all things. When
he explains Juno as the air, Jupiter as the
heaven, Neptune as the sea, and Vulcan as
fire, and shows that the other popular deities
are only elements personified, he strikes a con-
vincing blow at a vulgar error. In much the
same way Chrysippus believes God to be
divine power, reasoned nature, the order of
the world, and necessity and destiny ; and he
follows Zeno in his interpretation of the
cosmogony of Hesiod, Homer, and the Or-
phic songs. Diogenes of Babylon adopts the
same principle of interpretation, and teaches
that the delivery of Jupiter and the birth of
Minerva, and the other myths, relate to natural
and not to supernatural, things. Xenophon,
the pupil of Socrates, says that the form of

7 'I r, 4 f)

38 M. MINUCIUS FELIX

the true God cannot be seen, and so ought
not to be inquired into. Ariston the Stoic
declares that God can by no means be com-
prehended. Both of them are rendered con-
scious of the majesty of God by the hopeless-
ness of all attempts to understand him. Plato
speaks still more clearly of God, and of the
realities and names of things ; his discourses
would be altogether divine, but for an occa-
sional base alloy of political prejudice. To
Plato, in the 'Timaeus,' God, specifically
called ' God,' is the parent of the world, the
creator of the soul, the maker of things in the
heavens and on the earth. It is difficult to
find him because of his enormous and in-
credible might; 'and even if we found him,
to tell of him to all men would be impossible.'
These are virtually our own doctrines, for we
know God and speak of him as the parent of
all, and never publicly tell of him unless we
are questioned.

" I have now enumerated the opinions of
almost all the best-known philosophers. They
all speak of one God, though under many
different names, so that one might imagine
either that the Christians of to-day are phi-
losophers, or that the philosophers of old

OCTA VIUS 39

were Christians. Now, seeing that the world
is ruled by providence, and governed by the
will of one God, we must not assent to the
polytheistic fables of the poets who pleased
and ensnared the ancients. These are refuted
by the opinions of their own philosophers,
who have on their side the authority both of
reason and of antiquity. Our ancestors had
such a very easy faith in fiction that they il-
logically beheved in all sorts of queer monsters
and marvels, such as the composite Scylla,
the multiform Chimaera, the Hydra whose
wounds invigorated it and renewed its life,
and the Centaurs, that were an amalgamation
of horses and riders. In short, they were ready
to swallow whatever popular fancy chose to
invent. Why, they believed those preposterous
fables of men being turned into birds and
beasts, and trees and flowers; which miracles,
if they ever did happen, might happen now ;
only they do not happen now, for the good
reason that they cannot. In the same way as
regards the gods, our simple ancestors were
to the last degree ignorant and credulous.
They paid religious honours to their kings,
liked to see them again in their images when
they were dead, tried to perpetuate their

40 M. MINUCIUS FELIX

memory by statues, and made things which
could only be comforting memorials into
objects of worship. Also, before the world
was opened up by commerce, and before the
nations had adopted each other's rites and
customs, each separate people worshipped its
founder, or some famous general, or some
chaste queen stronger than her sex, or the
discoverer of some useful thing or art, or
some citizen of happy memory. Thus the
dead were honoured, and an example was
given to posterity.

" Read what historians and wise men haye
written, and you will derive the same impres-
sion as myself, Euhemerus ^' proves that
merit and benefactions went to the making of
gods, and he enumerates their lineage, their
countries, and their burial-places. He localizes
them, as the Dictaean Jupiter, the Delphic
Apollo, the Pharian Isis, and the Eleusinian
Ceres. Prodicus says that those who bene-
fited mankind by their discoveries were pro-
moted to be gods. The philosopher Persaeus
makes the same remark, and applies the same
name to the discovery and to the discoverer,
as in the comic proverb that ' Venus freezes
without Bacchus and Ceres.' Alexander the

OCTA VIUS \\

Great, of Macedon, told his mother in a
famous letter that the priest had been in-
timidated into revealing to him the secret of
these deified men. He puts Vulcan first of
all the gods, and then the race of Jupiter. But
Saturn was the first of all this tribe of gods,
and all the writers of antiquity, both Greek
and Roman, represent him as a man. The
historians Nepos and Cassius admit this fact,
and Thallus and Diodorus say the same.
This Saturn was a refugee from Crete, and
came to Italy to escape the wrath of his son.
King Janus received him kindly, and, in re-
turn, like a polite Greek, he taught the rustic
Italians a number of things, such as writing,
the minting of money, and the making of im-
plements. He named the country in which
he lay hid Latium, and a city, Saturnia, was
named after him, and the Janiculum from
Janus, so both he and Janus immortalized
themselves. Undoubtedly, this refugee,
Saturn, was a man, the father of a man, and
the son of a man. He was called the son of
Earth or Heaven because the Italians did not
know his parentage, just as in the present day
we say that people whom we see unexpect-
edly are sent from heaven, while those whose

42 M. MINUCIUS FELIX

origin is obscure or unknown are called sons

of the earth. His son Jupiter, after he had

turned out his father, reigned over Crete, died

there, and had sons there. The cave of Jupiter

is still visited, and his sepulchre is shown,

and his human origin is implied in the rites

with which he is worshipped. But I need not

explain all these divinities individually, one

after another. The human character of the

first generation has been proved, and must

have been transmitted to the descendants.

Perhaps, however, you may suggest that they

became gods after death, as Romulus was a

god; because Proculus falsely swore to it, and

Juba, because the Moors made him one, and

the other kings who have been deified, not so

much to create a belief in their divinity as to

do honour to well-used power. I may remark,

by the way, that these personages have no wish

to be deified. They would rather remain as

men, and are afraid of deification, even when

they are old. But you cannot in reality make

^ods out of dead men, for God cannot die,

nor from anyone who is born, for all who are

born die. That only is divine which has

neither beginning nor end. And if the gods

were born, why are no gods born now ? Per-

OCTA VI US \2

haps Jupiter is too old ; perhaps Juno has
ceased to bear children ; perhaps Minerva has
grown gray before becoming a mother? Or
has the family come to an end because people
do not believe in these fables ? Why, if the
gods could multiply, but could not die, we
should have more gods than men, and heaven
and air and earth could not contain them.
Clearly, they were not gods, but men, whose
birth we read of,andwhomwe knowto be dead.

" Consider also the sacred rites and the '
mysteries themselves. They are full of tragedy,
and fate, and death, and woe, and lamenta-,
tions of unhappy deities. Isis, with Cyno-
cephalus and the shaven priests, laments for
her son, who is lost and cannot be found.
Her priests beat their breasts, and minjic the
sorrow of the wretched mother ; and then,
when the boy is found, Isis rejoices, the priests
jump for joy, and Cynocephalus is very proud
of having found him. Regularly every year
they repeat this hide and seek, this ridiculous
weeping worship. And these rites, which were
originally Egyptian, have now become Roman
also. Ceres, with burning torches, and girt
with a serpent, anxiously follows up the foot-
prints of the ravished Proserpine. These are

44 M. MINUCIUS FELIX

the Eleusinian rites. And what are the rites
of Jupiter? A she-goat is his nurse, and he is
taken away from his voracious father lest he
should be eaten, and the cymbals of the
Corybantes keep up a jingling noise, so that
his father may not hear the child's crying.
As for the rites of Cybele,! should be ashamed
to describe them.'^ They are not in reahty
sacred rites, but tortures. And what of the
physical appearance and dress of your gods ;
are they not absurd and degrading ? Vulcan
is a lame and weak god ; Apollo, even' as a
grown man, has not a hair on his face, while
Aesculapius, though he is the son of the
young Apollo, has a full beard. Neptune has
blue eyes, Minerva gray ; Juno is ox-eyed.
Mercury has wings on his feet ; Pan hoofs ;
Saturn fetters. Janus has two faces, as if
he now and then walked backwards. Diana
the huntress is short-kilted, but Diana of
the Ephesians is provided with breasts many
and fruitful ; and Diana of the Cross-ways
inspires awe with three heads and many hands.
And your great Jupiter himself is represented
sometimes with a beard and sometimes with-
out ; surname him Ammon, and he has
horns ; Capitolinus, and he wields thunder-

OCTA VIUS 45

bolts; Latiaris, and he is smeared with blood;
Feretrius, and he wears a crown. ^* In short,
there are as many grotesque Jupiters as there
are names for him. Erigone hanged herself
in order to appear as the constellation Virgo ;
the twins, Castor and Pollux, live by dying
alternately; Aesculapius is struck by light-
ning in order that he may become a god;
and Hercules rids himself of mortality in the
flames of Oeta.

"These blundering fables we learn from our
ignorant parents, and, what is more serious,
we inculcate them in our literature. In par-
ticular, our poets have used all their authority
to injure the cause of truth. For that reason,
Plato excluded Homer from his ideal repub-
lic, in spite of his distinction and his laurels.
Homer especially introduces your gods, play-
fully, it may be, among the human combatants
and the human interests in the Trojan war.
He arrays one against the other, wounds
Venus; binds, wounds, and puts to flight
Mars ; and he relates that Jupiter was re-
leased by Briareus to prevent him from being
bound by the other deities, and that he shed
tears of blood for his son Sarpedon, whom
he could not save from death. Elsewhere, we

/

46 M. MINUCIUS FELIX

have Hercules cleaning out a stable, and
Apollo tending sheep for Admetus. Neptune
built walls for Laomedon, and the unlucky
workman was never paid for his work. In
Homer, Jupiter's thunderbolt is forged on
the anvil, together with the arms of Aeneas,
though the heaven and the thunder and
lightning existed long before Jupiter's birth
in Crete, and the Cyclops could not imitate,
and Jupiter could not but dread, the true fire
of lightning. What need I say of the stories
of Mars and Venus, and of Ganymede ? All
these fables are related in order that pre-
cedents may be found for the vices of man-
kind. Young people are corrupted by these
artistic fictions and lies ; they grow up with
a firm belief in them, and unhappily become
old men with these same notions still in their
heads, though the truth is clear enough, if
only one looks for it. Who can doubt, then,
that, if the common people pray to the con-
secrated images of these gods, and publicly
worship them, it is because their ignorance is
deluded by the glamour of art, the glitter of
gold, the sheen of silver, and the radiance of
ivory ? But if a man only considered the pro-
cesses and contrivances by which every image

OCTA VIUS 47

is manufactured, he would blush at the thought
of fearing the raw material which the work-
man has bullied into the shape of a god.^°
Your wooden god, taken perhaps from the
remains of a funeral pile, or a gibbet, is fixed
up, and cut, and chipped, and planed. Your
brazen or silver god, often made out of some
unclean vessel, as was done by the Egyptian
king, is melted down, and hammered and
fashioned on an anvil. Your stone god is
carved and scraped and polished by some
low fellow, and is equally unconscious of
these early insults and of the honours after-
wards paid to him. But perhaps the stone,
or wood, or silver is not as yet a god ? Well,
but when does it become a god ? It is cast,
or carved, or chiselled ; and still it is not a
god. It is soldered, and put together, and
set up on a pedestal, and it is not a god even
then. But when it is decorated, and conse-
crated, and prayed to, then at last it really is
a god ; that is, when some man calls it a god,
and dedicates it.

" How much more accurately the instinct of
dumb animals takes your gods for what they
are worth ! The mice and the swallows and
the kites know that they cannot feel, and

a

M. MINUCIUS FELIX

nibble at them, and attack them, and light
on them, and nest in their very mouths if you
do not drive them away. Spiders come and
spin their webs over your gods' faces, and
hang their threads from their noses, so that
you have continually to clean and dust and
rub up your helpless but revered handiwork.
Meanwhile, it does not occur to any of you
that you ought to know what the god is before
you worship him ; you all blindly follow your
fathers, and would rather err with them than
think for yourselves ; you know nothing, none
of you, of the gods whom you fear. Hence
your gold and silver images are nothing but
holy bullion, and the shapes of your foolish
statues are only conventional ; — and hence
comes your Roman superstition. If you ex-
r amine its forms and ceremonies, how many
of them are ridiculous and even distressing !
Some of the worshippers go half naked in
midwinter, others go about in hats, carrying
round old shields, beating drums, and parad-
ing the images of the gods as they beg from
street to street. Some of the shrines you may
enter once a year, others you may not enter
at all. Some ceremonies are for women only,
others only for men; and there are others

OCTA VIUS [^

again where the presence of a slave renders
an expiation necessary. Then there are rites
for which unchastity is a quahfication, or
which involve ceremonial self-mutilation. ''^
Anyone can see that these are the follies of
diseased and depraved minds, in which a
multitude of insane people aid and abet one
another. In this case, the numbers of the mad-
men is the excuse for the general madness. J

" But you urge that this same superstition
gave the Romans their power, and increased
it and strengthened it, and that they became
mighty not so much by their valour as by their
religion and their devotion* Truly, our won-
derful and noble Roman justice was forecast
in the very cradle of the infant empire ! As a
matter of fact, our infant empire was begotten
in crime and maintained by terrorism. Our
first commons — ruffians, criminals, profligates,
assassins and traitors — congregated together
in what was a city of refuge : and their leader
and ruler, Romulus, by way of acquiring an
infamous pre-eminence, murdered his own
brother. In this manner our most religious
state was inaugurated. Then a number of
young women, some of them promised and
betrothed, and some married, were lawlessly

E

so M. MINUCIUS FELIX

carried off and appropriated, and in the war
that ensued with their fathers, kindred blood,
that is, of fathers-in-law, was poured out. Where
can you find a more impious, a more audacious,
a more cynical piece of wickedness ? To drive
their neighbours from their land, to destroy the
nearest cities, with their temples and altars, to
lead their enemies captive, to wax strong by
the ruin of others and their own villainy, was
the common policy of Romulus and the other
kings, and of your later generals. All that the
Romans hold and worship and possess is the
result of bare-faced robbery. All your temples
have been built out of the sack and ruin of
cities, after despoiling their godsand slaughter-
ing their priests. It is adding insult to injury
to serve a beaten religion, and to pray to your
captives after a victory over them. To adore
the gods whom you have taken by force does
them no honour, but only sanctifies sacrilege.
But every Roman triumph has involved an act
of impiety, every trophy has been stolen from
your enemies' gods. I should say that the
Romans became great, not through religion,
but because their sacrilege went unpunished.
Besides, how could these gods, whom they
had conquered and begun to worship, help the

OCTA VIUS 51

Romans, when they had not been able to do
anything for their own people ? We know who
the native Roman deities were. The gods of
Romulus were Picus, Tiberinus, Consus, Pil-
umnus, and Volumnus. Tatius invented and
worshipped Cloacina ; Hostilius added Pavor
and Pallor. Soon afterwards, Febris was made
a goddess by somebody or other ; such was
the superstition fostered in that city of fever
and illness. And I suppose that Acca Lau-
rentia and Flora, most disreputable persons,
both of them, may be reckoned among the
deities, and the diseases, of the Romans. So
these were the personages who advanced the
Roman power in the teeth of the gods of the
other nations ! Mars of Thrace, Jupiter of
Crete, Juno of Argos, of Samos, of Carthage,
Diana of Tauris, the Idaean Mother, and the
monsters — I cannot call them the gods — of
Egypt could do nothing against them ! But
possibly the Roman priests were more holy,
and the priestesses more pure ? Far from it.
That at any rate cannot be maintained.' ' After
all, before your native gods were heard of,
there were for a long time under God's dis-
pensation the empires of the Assyrians, the
Medes, the Persians, the Greeks, and the

52 M. MINUCIUS FELIX

Egyptians, though they had no Pontifices and
Arvales and SaHi and Vestals and Augurs,
and did not decide affairs of state according
to the appetite of a coop of poultry.

"This brings me to the subject of Roman
auspices and auguries. You have given care-
fully chosen instances of disaster following the
neglect of them and of good fortune attending
their observance. According to you, Claudius
and Flaminius and Junius lost armies because
they did not think fit to wait until the fowls
showed by their feeding that the moment was
favourable. But what of Regulus ? Did not
he regard the auguries, and was not he cap-
tured ? Mancinus did nothing irreligious, but
he had to pass under the yoke and surrender.
Paulus, again, had the good augury of hungry
birds, yet he was overthrown, and with him
the greater part of our manhood, at Cannae.
When the auguries and auspices indicated that
Caius Caesar should not send his fleet over to
Africa before the winter, he ignored them,
and crossed over and conquered all the more
easily. And what shall I say, or rather, what
might I not say, in speaking of oracles ? After
his death, there was an oracle of Amphiaraus
which foretold the future, though while he was

OCTA VI US 53

living he had not foreseen that his wife would
betray him for the sake of a necklace. Tiresias
had visions ; a blind man who could not see
his everyday surroundings. Ennius invented
the reply of the Pythian Apollo about Pyrrhus,
because at that time Apollo had ceased from
his mystic utterances ; the cautious and am-
biguous oracle failed as soon as men became
more civilized and less credulous. And De-
mosthenes, because he knew that a certain
oracular response was manufactured, charged
the oracle with being in the pay of his enemy.
But now and then, no doubt, both auspices
and oracles have happened to be true ; they
have told many lies, but sometimes the event
has chanced to corroborate them. I will try
to get to the bottom of this delusion, and to
throw the clearest possible light upon this
wicked darkness. There are false and vagrant
spirits whose heavenly strength has perished
under the weight of earthly sins and desires. ^'*
These spirits are immersed in wickedness,
and ever seek to console themselves for their
lost original purity by involving others in
their ruin, their depravity, and their alienation
from God. The poets recognize them as
' daemons ;' philosophers discuss them, and

54 M. MINUCIUS FELIX

Socrates knew a familiar daemon at whose
promi)ting he abstained from or undertook
affairs. The Magi, too, not only know the
daemons, but owe all their magical powers to
them. They perform their tricks by their help
and inspiration, when they make non-existent
things visible, and existing things invisible.
Of those Magi, the first in eloquence and
activity is Hostanes. He pays due honour to
the true God, and knows that the angels, his
ministers and messengers, guard his habita-
tion, and while they wait on him in worship
tremble at his will and countenance. This
Hostanes has attested the fact that the dae-
mons are earthly, wandering beings, the ene-
mies of mankind. And what says Plato, who
thought it hard to discover God, but has no
difficulty in speaking of angels and daemons ?
Does he not try in the 'Symposium' to ex-
plain the nature of daemons ? He holds that
there is a substance intermediate between the
mortal and the immortal, a compound of
earthly matter and heavenly imponderability ;
and from this, he says, comes Eros, who takes
possession of men's minds and senses and
produces in them their passions and affections
and desires.

OCTA VIUS 55

" Now, these unclean spirits, the daemons,
as is shown by the Magi and the philosophers,
shelter themselves in consecrated statues and
images, and inspire them with the authority
of a present deity. They prompt the sooth-
sayers, haunt the shrines, generally manage
the omeqs, direct the flight of the birds, rule
the casting of lots, and invent oracles with
an ounce of truth in a bushel of falsehood.
They are at once deceivers and deceived,
since they know not the pure truth, and such
of it as they do know they will not confess to
their own destruction. Thus they degrade
men, and turn them away from heaven to-
wards material things. They cross their lives,
disquiet their sleep, and entering into them
unawares, like impalpable spirits, produce
diseases and mental torture and physical de-
formity in order to compel men to worship
them. Finally, when they have battened on
the steaming sacrifices of the altars, they leave
off tormenting their victims in order that they
may have the credit of the cure. Credit them
also with the fanatical priests whom you see
running about in the streets, raving and be-
having like Bacchanals actually outside the
temple. It is the same demoniac impulse,

56 M. MINUCIUS FELIX

only with a different manifestation. To the
daemons again are referable the legends you
have mentioned of the renewal of the games
in Jupiter's honour in consequence of a dream,
of the apparition of the Twin Brethren on
horseback, and of the vessel that was hauled
by a matron's girdle. Most of your own
people know that the daemons confess to all
this whenever they are driven forth from men's
bodies by the scourge and fire of our words.
Saturn himself, and Serapis, and Jupiter, and
all the daemons whom you worship, confess
what they are when they are thus overcome,
and surely the disgraceful truth, told in the
presence of a number of your people, is no
lie. You may believe their own testimony
that they are daemons. For when they are
adjured by the true and only God, the
wretches involuntarily shudder within the
bodies they occupy, and either come forth at
once, or gradually vanish, according to the
faith of the patient and the grace of the
healer. Consequently, they shun the Chris-
tians at close quarters, though at a safe dis-
tance from our meetings they harass us through
your agency. They possess the minds of the
ignorant and secretly inspire them to hate us.

OCTA VIUS 57

and work upon their fears ; for it is natural to
hate, and, if you can, to injure those whom
you fear. Therefore they harden men's minds,
and prejudice them against us in order that
people may hate us before they know us, and
may neither follow us nor remain neutral.

" You must beUeve me when I say from my
own sad experience how unjust it is to form
an opinion, as you do, on things which you
do not know and have not investigated.
Formerly I did the same, and believed as
blindly as yourself that the Christians wor-
shipped monsters, ate children, and held
licentious feasts. I did not realize that, thanks
to the daemons, these fables were always in
the air, but were never examined and inquired
into, and that in all that length of time no
one ever came forward to betray the Chris-
tians, though he would have been rewarded
as well as pardoned; the fact being that a
Christian had nothing to blush for or to fear,
but regretted only that he had not been con-
verted earlier. And so, while we defended
and protected the profane, the vicious, and
the violent, we gave the Christians no fair
hearing ; and sometimes, when they confessed
their faith, out of sheer pity for them we used

$8 M. MINUCIUS FELIX

to torture them that they might save them-
selves by denying it. In this way our wrong-
headed inquisition was intended not to eUcit
the truth, but to compel a lie. And if any-
one, weaker than the rest, and broken down
by torture, denied that he was a Christian,
we used to favour him as having purged all
his misdeeds by his recantation and denial.
You see, our ideas and conduct in the matter
were exactly like your own. But if common-
sense had governed these proceedings, instead
of the influence of daemons, the proper course
would have been, not to urge these men to
deny Christianity, but to induce them to con-
fess to profligacy, profanity, and the murder
of children ; these being the false charges with
which the daemons, in their endeavours to
raise an outcry against us, had filled the ears
of our ignorant enemies. But what we did
was only natural, for the rumour that lives on
lies, and perishes when the truth is known, is
the work of the daemons, who, in fact, are
always spreading and fostering falsehood.
From them comes the report you mention,
that we regard the head of an ass as a holy
thing. But who would be so foolish as to do
that, or so much more foolish as to believe

OCTA VI US 59

such a story? You however do consecrate
asses in their stables in connexion with Vesta
or Epona, and you decorate asses in the re-
ligious rites of Isis ; you sacrifice and worship
the heads of oxen and sheep, you hallow gods
that are half goats and half men, and gods
with the faces of lions and dogs. You adore
and feed the bull Apis, like the Egyptians.
You tolerate the Egyptian worship of serpents,
crocodiles, and wild beasts generally, the
slaying of any one of which gods is punish-
able by death. The other foul charge against
us originates in the fouler imaginations and
fouler habits of those who make it."

" These shocking allegations are such as we
ought not to notice, and in most cases it
would be to our discredit to defend ourselves.
You charge virtuous and clean-living people
with conduct that would have been incon-
ceivable had not you yourselves proved the
contrary. When you say that a criminal and
his cross are objects of our worship, you
wander very far from the truth. You fancy
that a criminal might merit, and an earthly
being might succeed in inducing, a behef in
his divinity. If so, he is indeed to be pitied
whose whole hope is fixed on a mortal man,

6o M. MINUCIUS FELIX

for with the death of that man his only help
has perished. But the Egyptians really do
choose a man to worship. They propitiate
him alone, consult him about everything, and
sacrifice to him. He is supreme, a god to
others, but human enough to himself, whether
he likes it or not, for, though others may be de-
luded, he cannot impose upon himself. Princes
and kings, again, are treated not as great
and exceptional men, which would be proper
enough, but are falsely and disgracefully flat-
tered as though they were gods. To the great,
honour is due ; to the good, love is the more
acceptable tribute. However, people address
these royal deities, pray to their images, and in-
voke their spirits, that is, their daemons ; and
it is safer to swear falsely by Jupiter than by
the king. Again, we do not worship crosses,
and we do not wish them to be worshipped.
But you worship wooden gods, and so perhaps
adore wooden crosses when they form part
of your gods. After all, your ensigns and
military standards are practically crosses, gilt
and ornamented, and your trophies of victory
are not only in the shape of a simple cross,
but have something of the semblance of a
man fixed upon them.^° And surely the cross

OCTA VIUS 6i

occurs naturally in the case of a ship under
full sail, or when it glides along with its oars
outspread ; and the sign of a cross is made
whenever a crossbeam is set up, and when-
ever a man stretches out his hands in pure
prayer. The sign of the cross, therefore, is a
fact in nature, and an element of your own
religion.

" I wish I had here the man who asserts or
believes that our initiation is by the blood of
slaughtered infants. Can you really think that
the practice exists among us of murdering
tender babes and drinking their young blood ?
No one can possibly credit it, unless he is
himself equal to such wickedness. Your peo-
ple, however, sometimes expose new-born
children to beasts and birds of prey, and
sometimes strangle them, and sometimes kill
them before they are born. These customs
only follow the precedents set by your own
gods. Saturn did not expose his children, but
he ate them, and in many parts of Africa
children were appropriately sacrificed to him
by their parents, who smothered their cries
by endearments and kisses so as not to offer
a weeping victim. With the people of the
Taurian Chersonese, and with the Egyptian

62 M. MINUCIUS FELIX

Busiris, it was the custom to immolate
strangers, and the Gauls offered human, or,
rather, inhuman sacrifices to Mercury. The
Romans themselves have been known sacri-
ficially to bury alive a Greek man and a
Greek woman, and a Gaul of either sex ; and
even in the present day Jupiter Latiaris is
worshipped with manslaughter, and, as be-
comes a son of Saturn, is fed on the blood
of some base criminal. I believe that this
same Jupiter taught Catiline the covenant of
blood, taught Bellona to stain her rites by
draughts of human blood, and taught people
to cure epilepsy by blood ; a remedy worse
than the disease. Very similar is the conduct
of those who eat the bloodstained animals of
the arena after their meal of human flesh.
But as for us, we have no part in the slaughter
of men either as spectators or auditors, and
so scrupulous are we as regards blood that
we do not consider the blood even of cattle
to be fit for food.

"As for the allegation that our common
feasts are scenes of debauchery, that is an
enormous invention of the whole lying assem-
blage of daemons, who try to stain our credit
for purity with an infamous aspersion in order

OCTA VIUS 63

that people may be disgusted with us before
they find out the truth. What your friend
Fronto said on that subject was not the tes-
timony of a witness, but the professional
slander of an orator. Such scandals occur
rather among your own people. Are the mar-
riage laws pure in Persia, Egypt, and Athens ?
Are your traditional histories pure, and the
tragedies you admire, and your gods, and,
for the matter of that, yourselves ? "' On the
other hand, we show our modesty, if not in
our faces, in our souls. A Christian has either
one duly married wife, or none. Our feasts
are not only pure, but moderate. We have
no great delicacies, and do not linger over
our wine, but temper our mirth with sobriety.
Pure in speech, and even more so in person,
many of us willingly remain in single life
without boasting of it. So far, indeed, are
we from unchastity, that some of us shrink
conscientiously even from lawful marriage.
Nor do we consist entirely of the lowest
classes, though we do refuse your official
honours and decorations. Neither are we
disloyal if both in our peaceful meetings and
separately we pursue the same good object.
Neither are we ' talkative in secret corners '

64 M. MINUCIUS FELIX

if you are ashamed or afraid to hear us in
public. As for the daily increase of our num-
bers, that does not suggest that we are in
error, but is evidence in our favour, for it
shows that the good life retains its hold on
its own people and attracts others.^'" Again,
we recognize each other, not, as you say, by
some outward sign, but only by the mark of
innocence and modesty. We love one another,
apparently to your regret, because we have
not learned to hate ; and we call each other
' brother,' which you seem to object to, be-
cause all of us are the children of one God
and father, comrades in faith, and coheirs in
hope. But your people have mutual hatred
instead of mutual recognition, and fratricide
is your only acknowledgement of brother-
hood.

" Do you really imagine that we conceal the
object of our worship because we have no
shrines and altars ? What image can I possi-
bly make of God when man himself, rightly
regarded, is God's image ? And what temple
shall I build for him when the whole world,
his handiwork, cannot contain him ? Shall I,
who have a more spacious dwelling myself,
though I am only a man, try to inclose him

OCTA VIUS 65

within the four walls of one small building ?
Is he not better hallowed in the soul, and
consecrated in the inmost heart? Shall I
offer as victims and sacrifices to God the
things which he has given me for my use,
and so fling back his gift? That would be
ungrateful. The fit sacrifice is a good spirit,
a pure mind, and a clear conscience. He,
then, who follows after innocence prays to
God ; he who pursues righteousness sacrifices
to God ; he who abstains from deceit pro-
pitiates God ; he who saves a fellow-man from
peril offers the chiefest victim. These are our
sacrifices, these are the sacred rites of our
God. With us, the most upright man is the
most religious. But, as you say, we neither
show to others, nor ourselves see, the God
whom we worship. In truth, it is a reason
for believing him to be God, that we can
perceive, but cannot see him. In his works,
and in all the forces of nature, in thunder, in
lightning, and in the unclouded blue, we see
his ever-present power. You need not wonder
that you cannot see God himself. Winds and
storms blow and shake everything, but the
winds are not actually visible to the eyes. It
is the sun that enables us to see everything ;

F

66 M. MINUCIUS FELIX

but you cannot look into the sun, for his rays
dull your sight, and, if you persevere in the
attempt, you see nothing at all. Do you think
that you could bear to gaze at the maker of
the sun, the very source of light, when you
have to turn away from the lightning and
hide from the thunderbolts ? Do you expect to
see God with your physical eyes, while your
soul, which gives you life and speech, is in-
visible and intangible ? You have urged that
God does not heed the actions of men, and
that from his place in heaven he cannot at
once pervade the whole and regard individuals.
Man, you are mistaken and deceived. From
what place can God be far distant when all
the regions of heaven and earth, and all be-
yond our earthly sphere, are filled with him
who made them ? In every place he is not
only very near to us, but is mingled with us.
To take another illustration from the sun, it
is set high in the heavens, but it throws its
light over all lands, and diffuses its beams
everywhere with unfailing glory. Much more
is God, the author of all things, the observer
of all men, and from whom no secrets are
hid, present in darkness, and in that other
darkness of our thoughts. Not only do we

OCTAVIUS 67

live under his eye, but I may almost say we
live with him.

" We do not take credit to ourselves for our
numbers. Many as we may seem to be to
ourselves, we are very few in the sight of God.
Men make their human distinctions of race
and nation, but to God the whole world is
one household. Kings know the affairs of
their kingdoms only through their ministers :
God has no need to be so informed, seeing
that we live not only in his sight, but, so to
speak, in his bosom. You say that it has not
helped the Jews to worship one God with
altars, and temples, and the utmost veneration.
You are making a mistake if you forget or do
not know their early history and recall only
their later misfortunes. They had reason to
know the strength and power of our God —
for he is the same God of all — and as long as
they worshipped him in purity, innocence, and
holiness, as long as they kept his wholesome
laws, they became a multitude instead of a
handful, rich instead of poor, rulers instead
of slaves ; and at the bidding of God, the
elements fighting for them, a few unarmed
men overthrew and pursued great armies.
Read their books, or, if you prefer Roman

68 M. MINUCIUS FELIX

writers, pass from more ancient records and
see what Flavius Josephus and Antonius
Julianus say of the Jews ; then you will find
that they brought their misfortunes upon
themselves by their wickedness, and that no-
thing happened to them which was not pre-
dicted in the event of persistent disobedience.
They deserted God before he deserted them,
and they were not, in your profane phrase,
' captured with their God,' but were sur-
rendered by him as renegades from his
teaching.

" Now, with regard to the burning of the
world, it is a vulgar error to hold that there
cannot be an unexpected conflagration or a
failure of moisture. No philosopher doubts
that everything that has a beginning has also
.an end, and that all created things perish.
The Stoics uniformly think that the heavens
with all that they contain will be overcome by
fire whenever the springs of water fail them,
.and that the world itself will take fire when
all the moisture has been used up.'' The
Epicureans agree with them as to the con-
flagration of the elements and the wreck of
the universe. Plato speaks to a like effect;
he says that parts of the world are alternately

OCTA VIUS 69

flooded and alternately overheated, and, though
he describes the world as having been made
eternal and imperishable, he adds that God
alone, its maker, can unmake it. What wonder,
then, if this massive structure of ours should
be destroyed by its builder ? And so with the
renewal of life, the best philosophers, from
Pythagoras downwards, and especially Plato,
have held it with a sort of imperfect and par-
tial behef They say that after the dissolution
of the body the soul alone remains eternally,
and finds new habitations ; and they so far
pervert the truth as to suggest that the souls
of men migrate into birds and beasts. That
idea is more suitable for pantomime than for
philosophy. However, it is enough for my
purpose that on the general question your
philosophers do to some extent agree with us.
And surely, no one would be so dull or so
stupid as to deny that God, who made man
originally, can make him again and afresh?
If he was born from nothing, so he can be
renewed from nothing, for renewal must needs
be less difficult than creation. Do you believe
that that which is withdrawn from our dull
eyes is necessarily dead in God's sight also ?
Every human body, whether it becomes dry

70 M. MINUCIUS FELIX

dust, or moisture, or a handful of ashes, or
thin vapour, is removed from us, but is re-
served for the purpioses of God, who guards
the elements. Nor, as you suppose, do we
fear that our dead will be prejudiced if they
are not buried ; it is only that we prefer burial
to cremation as being the older and better
custom. But see how all nature offers us con-
solatory suggestions of a future resurrection.
The sun sets and rises again, the stars sink
and return, flowers wither and grow again,
shrubs grow green after their old age, seeds
cannot spring up except they perish. So the
body in its sepulchre is like trees in winter,
which show no sign of sap and seem quite
dry. You are not so impatient as to expect a
tree to grow green in midwinter ; and we in
like manner wait for the spring-time of the
body. I am aware that many men, conscious
of their misdeeds, rather wish than believe
that death may prove annihilation. They
would rather be snuffed out altogether than
survive and be punished. They are in error,
and the more so because of their long im-
punity and the extreme patience of God, whose
judgement is equally just and tardy. And yet
men are warned by philosophers and poets

OCTA VIUS 71

alike of the infernal river of fire, with its en-
compassing flames ; and so terrible is it that
even their king Jupiter swears solemn oaths
by its scorching banks and its dreadful depths,
foreseeing and fearing the punishment of
himself and his worshippers. Of those tor-
ments there is no limit nor end. There the
cunning fire roasts and restores the limbs,
wastes and refreshes them. And just as light-
ning may strike the body without consuming
it, and the flames of Aetna and Vesuvius and
other volcanoes burn and are never spent, so
that penal fire does not make an end of those
on whom it feeds, but is maintained by their
continuing torture. That the punishment is
deserved by those who know not God, such as
the impious and the wicked, no one can doubt
without profanity. It must be as wrong not to
recognize the father and lord of all as to
oppose him. And although ignorance of God
is punishable, even as the knowledge of him
helps to procure pardon, yet^' . . . our Chris-
tian morality, lax as our system is in some
respects, will be found on comparison much
better than your own. For instance, your
people forbid adultery, but practise it, while
we are true husbands all our lives ; you punish

72 M. MINUCIUS FELIX

crimes when they have been committed, with
us the mere contemplation of them is sinful;
you fear your accomplices, we fear conscience
alone, of which we cannot divest ourselves.
Besides, the gaols are full of your people, but
no Christian who is not an apostate is to
be found there, except on account of his re-
ligion.

" Let no one attempt to comfort himself, or
excuse the results of his life, by the doctrine
of fate. For, granting an element of luck in
our circumstances, still the mind is free, and
consequently a man is judged by his acts and
not by his position. And what is fate but the
determination of God with regard to each one
of us? God, who has a foreknowledge of
human nature, determines the destinies of
individuals according to their deserts. It is
not our birth, then, that is visited upon us,
but the evil character of our nature that is
punished. On this subject let this slight re-
mark serve for the present ; we may discuss
it more fully at some other time. I turn to
another matter. It is not to our discredit,
but just the reverse, if most of us are reputed
to be poor. Luxury relaxes the mind, poverty
braces it. Besides, who can be poor if he

OCTA VIUS 73

wants nothing, if he does not envy his neigh-
bour, if he is rich towards God ? You should
rather call a man poor if he has a great deal
and wants more. After all, nobody can pos-
sibly be as poor as when he is born. The
birds and the cattle have no incomes, but

ERRATUM.
P. 73, line 23, for disease read disuse.

spires fortitude, adversity often teaches cour-
age, and both mental and bodily powers grow
rusty with disuse and idleness. Your own itj
famous men, by the way, whom you have had
occasion to mention, all came to greatness
through suffering. It is not that God cannot
help us or despises us, for he rules all and

72 M. MINUCIUS FELIX

crimes when they have been committed, with
us the mere contemplation of them is sinful;
you fear your accomplices, we fear conscience
alone, of which we cannot divest ourselves.
Besides, the gaols are full of your people, but
no Christian who is not an apostate is to
be found there, f^vrpnt i\r\ o/^/^r^..*-*^ -^^ ^'-

punished. On this subject let this slight re-
mark serve for the present ; we may discuss
it more fully at some other time. I turn to
another matter. It is not to our discredit,
but just the reverse, if most of us are reputed
to be poor. Luxury relaxes the mind, poverty
braces it. Besides, who can be poor if he

OCTA VIUS 73

wants nothing, if he does not envy his neigh-
bour, if he is rich towards God ? You should
rather call a man poor if he has a great deal
and wants more. After all, nobody can pos-
sibly be as poor as when he is born. The
birds and the cattle have no incomes, but
they find their daily food ; and all these are
ours, to possess and to use in moderation.
Just as the man with the lightest burden goes
easiest on the road, so the happiest man in
the Journey through life is he who is cheer-
ful with a light purse and does not groan
under the weight of riches. We would ask
God for comforts, if we thought them de-
sirable, and he who owns all would, no doubt,
give us a part ; but our ideals of innocency,
patience, and virtue lead us to despise, and
not to acquire, wealth. As for our experience
of human infirmity, it is no punishment to
us, but a species of training. Infirmity in-
spires fortitude, adversity often teaches cour-
age, and both mental and bodily powers grow
rusty with disuse and idleness. Your own \JiJj
famous men, by the way, whom you have had
occasion to mention, all came to greatness
through suffering. It is not that God cannot
help us or despises us, for he rules all and

//

74 -V. MINUCIUS FELIX

loves his own ; but he tests every man by
adversity, tries every man's character by dan-
gers, and examines it down to the very day
of death, knowing that in his sight nothing
can perish. As gold is assayed by fire, so are
we proved by perils.

" How noble a spectacle it must be in God's
sight when a Christian does battle with pain,
and is matched like a gladiator against threats
and torments and tortures ; when he laughs
at the terrors and din of the fatal theatre and
offers himself to the executioner ; when he
asserts his liberty against kings and princes,
and yields only to God, whose he is ; and
when, with the triumphant air of a conqueror,
he beards the very man who pronounced
sentence upon him ! He is indeed a con-
queror, for he has won that for which he
fought. What soldier does not adventure
himself the more bravely under the eye of his
general? But the reward comes only after
the deed of valour, and if the soldier is killed,
the earthly general cannot give what he has
not got ; — he cannot prolong the man's life,
but can only honour his good service. But
the soldier of God is not deserted in trouble,
nor put an end to by death. The Christian

OCTA VIUS 75

may seem unhappy, but cannot be so in
reality. You yourselves laud to the skies the
behaviour of unfortunate people like Mucius
Scaevola, who, when he made a mistake and
failed to kill the king, would have lost his
life if he had not voluntarily sacrificed his
right hand. But how many of our folk have
borne in silence the burning, not of the right
hand, but of the whole body, and that, too,
when it was in their power to procure their
release ? Need I compare our grown men to
Mucius and Aquilius and Regulus ? Why, our
boys and girls are so inspired to bear pain
that they make light of crucifixion, wild beasts,
and all the tortures and penalties of the law.
You wretched people, you do not understand
that no one submits to pain voluntarily with-
out good reason, or can endure torture without
God's help. What misleads you, perhaps, is
the fact that the godless are rich and honoured
and powerful. So much the worse for them.
They are raised the higher that they may have
the greater fall. They are as victims fattened
for slaughter and garlanded for sacrifice, and
some of them are raised to high places in
order that the natural madness of an aban-
doned soul may have full play." But where

76 M. MINUCIUS FELIX

is true happiness without God ? When death
comes, it eludes us like a dream, before it is
grasped. Are you a king ? Your fears will be
in proportion to the fear that you inspire, and,
for all your guards, you will be alone in the
hour of danger. Are you rich ? It is not well
to trust to fortune, and life's short road is
made none the easier, but is only burdened,
by your money-bags. Are you proud of your
official dignities ? It is a poor and mistaken
ambition to swagger in purple while your soul
wants a wash. Are you noble by birth and
ancestry ? We are all equal at birth, and virtue
is the only true distinction. We, then, who
value virtue and modesty necessarily have no
part or lot in your evil pleasures and pomps
and shows. We know how they originated from
your ritual, and we condemn their dangerous
attractions. And who can help condemning
the disreputable excitements of the circus,
and the organized teaching of murder in your
gladiatorial shows? In your stage-plays also
there is just as much wild passion, but more
long-drawn-out infamy. The obscenities of
the actor dishonour your own gods,*" and his
sham tears evoke your sympathy, so that,
while you insist on real murder in the arena.

OCTA VIUS 77

you deplore the imitation of it on the
stage.

" Once more, our refusal of meat and drink
that has been offered on your altars is not a
confession of weakness, but an assertion of
true Uberty. For though everything that is
produced is the pure gift of God, still we reject
these things in order that no one may suppose
that we are making any concession to the
daemons to whom they are offered, or that
we are ashamed of our religion. As to flowers,
it is well known that we use and enjoy them ;
spring roses and liUes and all that have fine
colours and sweet scents. We use them both
scattered about and as ornaments for the
neck. You must excuse us for not crowning
our heads with them ; we prefer to enjoy
their scent in the usual way, and not to waste
their sweetness on our heads and our hair.
It is true also that we do not place wreaths
on our dead. In truth, I am rather surprised
at your own custom ; you burn a corpse on
the hypothesis that it cannot feel, and you
crown it on the contrary supposition, although
the dead man does not want flowers if he is
happy, and cannot enjoy them if he is not.
However, our funeral rites are adorned by the

78 M. MJNUCIUS FELIX

same tranquillity as our lives. We weave no
perishable crowns, but obtain from God a
living crown of eternal flowers. Quietly and
humbly, and with confidence in God's good-
ness, we cherish our hope of future happiness
by our faith in his ever-present majesty. So
do we rise again in bliss, and live already in
the contemplation of the future. Socrates
must look out for himself; — the Athenian
buffoon who admitted that he knew nothing,
though he was proud of the prompting of his
most untrustworthy daemon. Arcesilaus and
Carneades and Pyrrho, and all the multitude
of Academics, may deliberate as long as they
like, and Simonides may postpone his decision
indefinitely, for all I care. We despise the
I^ride of the philosophers, whom we know to be
misleaders and flatterers" of the great, not-
withstanding their eloquent censure of their
own faults. For ourselves, we wear our wis-
dom not in our dress, but in our minds ; we
do not say great things, but do them ; and we
glory in having attained that which the philo-
sophers, with all their diligent search, could
not find. How can we be thankless and dis-
contented if the truth of God has borne fruit
in our own time? Let us enjoy our good

OCTA VIUS 79

fortune, and direct our minds aright so that
superstition may be restrained, impiety ban-
ished, and the true faith upheld."

When Octavius had done speaking, we sat
still for a minute or two, too much surprised
to say anything. For myself, I was reduced
to silence by my extreme admiration for the
arguments, the instances, and the wide read-
ing with which he had illustrated what it is
much easier to feel than to express. I admired
also the way in which he had turned against
his opponents their own philosophical wea-
pons, and had shown that truth was such as
it was easy to understand and to welcome.

Caecilius was the first to speak, and in-
terrupted my reflections by saying : " I con-
gratulate my friend Octavius most heartily,
and myself too, and I need not wait for the
verdict. We have won, as things are, and I
say ' we ' because I am unprincipled enough
to claim a share in the victory ; for if Octa-
vius has overcome me, I have got the better
of my errors. As for the main question, I
admit what he has said of providence and
the unity of God, and I agree with him as to
the merits of what is now the sect of both of

So M. MINUCIUS FELIX

us. But as it is past midday, let us reserve
for to-morrow certain matters, not serious
objections, on which I should like fuller in-
formation. The inquiry will be all the easier
for our being agreed in principle."

" For the sake of all three of us," said I,
" I am delighted with the happy result ; with
my friend Octavius's victory, and with my
own escape from the invidious duty of de-
livering judgement. I will not attempt to
reward him with mere words of praise ; and,
besides, the testimony of man — especially of
one man — would be inconclusive. But he
has a noble reward from God, to whose in-
spiration and help he owes his eloquence and
his success."

After this we parted in good spirits and
good humour ; Caecilius rejoicing that he had
become a believer, and Octavius because he
had made him one ; and I for both reasons.

NOTES

Note i, page 3, line 4.

SERAPIS, or Osiris, was one of the Egyptian
deities which, as Minucius says in another
passage, had become Roman also. In his second
chapter, Gibbon writes : " Rome, the capital of
a great monarchy, was incessantly filled with
subjects and strangers from every part of the
world, who all introduced and enjoyed the favour-
ite superstitions of their native country. Every
city in the empire was justified in maintaining
the purity of its ancient ceremonies; and the
Roman senate, using the common privilege>
sometimes interposed to check this inundation
of foreign rites. The Egyptian superstition, of all
the most contemptible and abject, was frequently
prohibited ; the temples of Serapis and Isis de-
molished, and their worshippers banished from
Rome and Italy. But the zeal of fanaticism pre-
vailed over the cold and feeble efforts of policy.
The exiles returned, the proselytes multiplied,
the temples were restored with increasing splen-

G

82 M. MINUCIUS FELIX

dour, and Isis and Serapis at length assumed
their place among the Roman deities. Nor was
this indulgence a departure from the old maxims
of government. In the purest ages of the com-
monwealth, Cybele and Aesculapius had been
invited by solemn embassies ; and it was cus-
tomary to tempt the protectors of besieged cities
by the promise of more distinguished honours
than they possessed in theirnativecountry. Rome
gradually became the common temple of her
subjects ; and the freedom of the city was be-
stowed on all the gods of mankind."

Note 2, page 12, line 11.
This reference to the Parthians is part of the
internal evidence as to the date of the book. The
words are, ut Parthos signa repetajtms. Repct-
eremus would seem more natural, but the great
majority of editors refuse to alter the MS. read-
ing from the present to the past tense. Crassus
lost the standards in the year B.C. 53 ; they were
restored to Augustus in B.C. 20. The use of the
present tense implies an existing state of war,
and suggests the expedition of L. Aurelius
Verus against the Parthians during the years 162
to 165. The old and well-known phrase, "re-
covering standards," seems to be applied to the
new war.

Note 3, page 14, line 26.
The reading of Baehrens has been followed.

NOTES 83

Note 4, page 15, line 13.

As many of the early Christians in Rome
were Jews, they inherited, so to speak, the pre-
judices with which the Jewish race was regarded
by other nations. Whatever seemed ridiculous or
odious in a Jew was imputed also to the Christian,
It will be enough to say that the charges brought
forward by Caecilius were due to the public ig-
norance both of Judaism and of Christianity.

Tacitus, giving a general account of the Jews
in the fifth book of his History, says that in the
course of their sojourn in the wilderness a troop
of wild asses led them to a spring of water. He
adds : " In their holy place they have consecrated
an image of the animal by whose guidance they
found deliverance from their long and thirsty
wanderings."

There has been discovered at Rome, rudely
scratched upon an ancient wall, the figure of a
crucified man with the head of an ass. Another
figure stands by as if in prayer, and underneath
is a scrawl, "Alexamenos is worshipping God."

It may be noted that even in these days the
ritual murder of children is occasionally alleged
against the Jews by their ignorant enemies in
parts of south-eastern Europe. Tacitus at least
does them the justice to state that " it is a crime
among them to kill any new-born infant."

S4 M. MINUCIUS FELIX

Note 5, page 15, line 17.
In this sentence, only the purport of the Latin
is indicated.

Note 6, page 16, line 13.
The references to Fronto of Cirta suggest that
he was alive at the time of the dialogue. He
lived from about 100 to 170.

Note 7, page 16, line 18.
In the Latin, instead of the words that ask
this question, a description of the scene is given.

Note 8, page 17, line 18.
The reading of Baehrens is here followed.

Note 9, page 20, line 7.
The reading of Baehrens is here followed.

Note 10, page 23, line 21.
This seems to be the sense of a sentence
which, if literally translated, would convey no
meaning to an English reader. The Latin is :
'■'• ecqtcid ad haec" ait ^^ audet Octavius, homo
Platitinae prosapiae, ut ptstoruvt praecipuus, ita
posiretnns philosophorwn?" "What reply can
Octavius venture to make ; a scion of the old
Plautine stock, like his forbear, the first of bakers,
but certainly the worst of philosophers ? " The
words homo Plauiitiae prosapiae indicate a

NOTES 85

quarrelsome or aggressive person ; for Caecilius
has not forgotten the disparaging remark of Oc-
tavius which provoked the dispute. Plautus, in
the poverty of his younger days, had been a
pistor. Perhaps a sneer is intended at journey-
men and small tradesmen, and the classes from
whom the Christians at that time were mainly
recruited. The manuscript has pistonan, but, as
this reading is not free from difficulty, various
other words have been suggested by editors who
have thought the manuscript patient of almost
any emendation. Chrtstianormn, from the con-
tracted form XPianorum ; juris consultorum^
from the contraction ICtoriim ; and disej-torum,
from dts'tortim, have been conjectured. Either of
these would help the translator, but the fact that
Plautus was a pistor is a cogent, if not an over-
powering argument for the manuscript reading.

Note ii, page 27, line 22.
The reading of Baehrens has been followed.

Note 12, page 40, line 15.
It is strange that so cultivated a man as Minu-
cius should accept the shallow rationalism of
Euhemerus as accounting sufficiently for the
pagan deities. Paganism, as he saw it, was far
advanced in its decadence, and deserved his con-
tempt ; but he can hardly have failed to recog-
nize in its origin something more than an easily
explained imposture.

86 M. MINUCIUS FELIX

Note 13, page 44, line 8.
The translation omits the succeeding sentence.

Note 14, page 45, line 2.
The reading of Baehrens has been followed.

Note 15, page 47, line 3.
This passage on idols is closely paralleled by
Clemens Alexandrinus in his Protrepticon, an
appeal to the Greeks written at the end of the
second century. He says : "Your idols must rank
below the lowest animals. . . . Many animals
cannot see, or hear, or make a sound ; molluscs,
for instance, cannot ; but they live and grow, and
are affected by the changes of the moon, while
images do nothing at all, but are simply passive
under the rough hand of the workman and the
processes of manufacture. . . . Birds, again, such
as swallows, and others, come in flocks and be-
foul the images without the slightest reverence
for Olympian Jove, Aesculapius of Epidaurus,
Minerva Polias, or Egyptian Serapis. . . . Parian
marble is beautiful, but it is not yet Neptune.
Ivory is beautiful, but it is not yet Jupiter. Matter
always needs the help of art, while God needs
nothing. Apply art to matter, and it receives
form. It may be intrinsically valuable, but it is
its form that renders it an object of veneration.
It comes to this, then, that your statue is gold
or wood, or stone— earth, in fact, if you regard

NOTES 87

its ultimate origin— which has derived its form
from the workman."

Note 16, page 49, line 4.
In this sentence the Latin is paraphrased.

Note 17, page 51, line 23.
In this, and in the preceding sentence only the
purport of the Latin is indicated.

Note 18, page 53, line 21.

This is one of the passages on which Gibbon,
in his fifteenth chapter, bases his remarks on the
daemons. To that chapter we may refer the
reader, reminding him, however, of Guizot's per-
tinent obser\-ation that "Gibbon has too often
allowed himself to consider the peculiar notions
of certain Fathers of the Church as inherent in
Christianity."

The Magi were the priests of the Medes and
Persians ; but in the Acts of the Apostles, and
here, the word is used in a secondary sense for
those who practised occult or magical arts, per-
haps combining sleight-of-hand with the wonders
of elementary natural science.

Note 19, page 59, line 14.
This represents the purport of three sen-
tences that are unfit for translation.

88 M. MINUCIUS FELIX

Note 20, page 60, line 27.
Trophies were usually made by setting up
the arms and armour of the vanquished on a
short pole or stump. In this way, the semblance
of a human figure was, of course, produced.

Note 21, page 63, line 10.
This represents the purport of five sentences
that are not translated.

Note 22, page 64, line 6.
In his fifteenth chapter Gibbon gives an es-
timate of the number of the Christians in Rome
about fifty years later than the time of Minucius.
He says : "The Church of Rome was undoubt-
edly the first and most populous of the empire j
and we are possessed of an authentic record
which attests the state of religion in that city
about the middle of the third century, and after
a peace of thirty-eight years. The clergy,'at that
time, consisted of a bishop, forty-six presbyters,
seven deacons, as many sub-deacons, forty- two
acolytes, and fifty readers, exorcists, and porters.
The number of widows, of the infirm, and of the
poor, who were maintained by the oblations of
the faithful, amounted to 1,500. From reason, as
well as from the analogy of Antioch, we may
venture to estimate the Christians of Rome at
about 50,000. The populousness of that great
capital cannot, perhaps, be exactly ascertained ;

NOTES 89

but the most modest calculation will not surely
reduce it lower than a million of inhabitants, of
whom the Christians might constitute at the most
a twentieth part."

Note 23, page 68, line 23,
This appears to be the sense of a corrupt
passage, as to the reading of which no two
editors are agreed.

Note 24, page 71, line 22.
A lacuna occurs here, according to Baeh-
rens. Grammatically, the words on either side
of the lacuna may be read together as one com-
plete sentence ; but there is little or no logical
connexion between them.

Note 25, page 75, line 27,
A corrupt sentence, tentatively and conjectur-
ally emended by many editors. The English is
but a paraphrase of its apparent meaning.

Note 26, page 76, line 25.
This clause of the sentence paraphrases two
clauses that are unfit for translation.

Note 27, page 78, line 18.
The reading of Baehrens has been followed.

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