I. 6. 14 Drought removed by prayers of Christians. Antonine's edict. APOL. openly take off the penalty from the men of that sect", so in another way he openly made away with it by adding a sentence, and that a more horrid one, against the accusers also. What sort of laws then be those which only the impious, the unjust, the infamous, the cruel, the foolish, the insane, execute against us? which Trajan in part foiled by forbidding that the Christians should be enquired after; which no Adrian, though a clear searcher into all things curious, no Vespasian, though the vanquisher of the Jews, no Pius, no Verus, hath pressed against us? Surely the worst of men, it might be thought, ought to be more readily rooted out by the best, as being their antagonists, than by their own fellows. VI. Now I would have these most religious guardians and Jultores avengers1 of the laws and institutions of their fathers answer touching their own fealty, and their respect and is confessed by the heathen also; Antoninus, or (as the copies now bear) by Marcus, (ib. c. 13.) a In the extant Rescript (Eus. 1. c.) it is taken off, "If any one persevere in troubling any such, as such, let him who is accused, be acquitted of the charge, though he appear to be such; and let the accuser be subject to punishment." This, however, may have been local; at Rome the old law was still enforced under Commodus, Apollonius martyred, his accuser's legs broken. (Eus. v. 21.) b Ap. Plin. Ep. x. 98. Spartianus in Adriano Hist. Rom. Scriptt. t. ii. p. 190 sqq. d The martyrdom of S. Polycarp and Justin, and many others in Asia Minor, took place under M. Aurelius Verus Antoninus, Eus. H. E. iv. 15-17. as also those at Vienne and Lyons, (ib. v. 1.) It is supposed then, that by Verus, T. means L. Verus, the brother of M. Aurelius, after whose death Paulus Diac. states the persecution under M. Aurelius to have taken place, or that he means that he passed no decrees against the Christians, though the persecutions were carried on under the old laws. This seems the more probable, on account of the character given to L. Verus; so Baronius, A. 164 init. Romans respected not laws opposed to their corruptions. 15 deference towards the decrees of their ancestors, whether they have fallen off from none, whether they have deviated in none, whether they have not annulled such as are necessary, and in proportion as they are the best fitted, to good discipline. Whither have gone those laws which checked extravagance and ambition? which enacted that an hundred assés, and no more, should be allowed for a supper; and that not more than one fowl, and that not a fatted one', should be introduced? which expelled from the Senate a Patrician on grave proof of ambition, because he possessed ten pounds of silver? which forthwith pulled down the theatres as they rose for the corruption of morals"? which suffered not the badges of dignities and honourable birth to be assumed without cause or without a penalty? For I see centenarian suppers, which must now be so named from an hundred sesterces, and silver mines wrought out into dishes, (it were a small matter if only for Senators, and not for freed men", or those who are even now having the whip broken upon them.) I see too that it is not enough that theatres should be single or uncovered. For it was for the games forsooth that the Lacedæmonians first invented their odious cloak', that immodest pleasure might not be chilled even in the winter. I see too no distinction left in dress between matrons and harlots ". Touching women indeed, even those rules of their forefathers have dropped, which supported modesty and sobriety, when no woman knew ought of gold, save on the one finger on which her husband had placed the pledge of the nuptial ring"; when women were so entirely kept from wine, that her own friends starved a matron to death for unsealing the stores of a wine And that on the great festivals only Lex Fannia, 11 years before the third Punic war, (lex centussis" Lucilius,) renewed in the Lex Licinia. (A. Gell. ii. 24. Macrob. Sat. ii. 13.) f Lex Fannia, Plin. x. 50. (al. 71.) i. e. wrought silver, A. U. C. 458. The Censor was Fabric. Luscinius; the expelled, Corn. Rufinus, had been Dictator and twice Consul. (Val. Max. ii. 9. 4.) Five pounds only were allowed, Plin. xxxiii. 50. h See de Spectac. c. 10. £8072 18s. 4d. Esop spent as much on a single dish, Tert. de Pall. c. 5. See other instances ib. and in Adam's Rom. Ant. art. Money. Drusillanus, a slave of Claudius, de m De Cult. Fem. ii. 12. de Pallio, c. 4. Varied and florid garments harlots use for their trade, rich women for their luxury." Artemid. ii. 3. "See Plin. xxxiii. 4. De Idol. c. 16. I. 6. I truci data sit 16 Romans changed in every thing, even in religion. APOL. cellar; and under Romulus one who had touched wine was slain' with impunity by her husband Mecenius. Wherefore also they were obliged to offer kisses to their nearest kinsfolk, that they might be judged by their breath". Where is that happiness in marriages, favoured doubtless by good morals, through which, during nearly six hundred years from the founding of the city, no one family wrote a writing of divorcement? In the women, now, owing to their gold, no limb is light', owing to their wine, no kiss is free: and for divorce, it is now even the object of a wish, as though it were the proper fruit of matrimony'. As touching even your gods themselves, the decrees, which your fathers had providently enacted, ye, these same most obedient persons, have rescinded. Father Bacchus, with his mysteries, the Consuls by the authority of the Senate, banished not only from the city, but from the whole of Italy'. Serapis, and Isis, and Harpocrates with his dog-headed monster, having been forbidden the Capitol", that is, turned out of the palace of the gods, the Consuls Piso and Gabinius (certainly not Christians) renounced, overturning even their altars, thus checking the vices of base and idle superstitions. These ye having bestowed, have conferred the highest dignity upon them. Where is your religion? Where is the reverence due from you to your ancestors? In dress, food, establishment, income, finally in your very language, ye have renounced your forefathers. Ye are ever lauding the ancients, yet fashioning your lives anew every day. By which it is manifest, that, while ye fall back from the good customs of your ancestors, ye retain and guard those things which ye ought not, while ye guard not those which ye • Plin. xiv. 13. (al. 12.) Val. Max. 6. 3. 9. P Ib. and Arnob. 1. ii. p. 91. ed. Lugd. q 520. Val. Max. ii. 1. 4. And that for barrenness. r De Cult. Fem. i. fin. • See Senec. de Benef. iii. 16. Juv. vi. 20. Martial. vi. 7. ap. Hav. Liv. l. xxxix. Val. Max. i. 3. Aug. de Civ. D. vi. 9. " And their altars destroyed (Varro ap. Tert. ad Nat. i. 10.) by the Senate, and allowed only to be without the walls, Dio. xl. 47. xlii. 26. they were restored by popular tumult, but forbidden by Gabinius chiefly, A. U. C. 695. (Tert. ib.) Arnobius, ii. 95. mentions both. Afterwards M. Emil. Paulus himself broke down the walls of the temple, Val. Max. i. 3. fin. The worship was vix agreque admissum, Macrob. i. 7. in the triumvirate by Augustus, Dio. xlvii. 15. Lucan. vii. 83. but even afterwards only without the city, Dio. liii. 2. and a mile from it, liv. 6. The worship appears to have been that of the populace. (Tert. I. c. Val. Max. 1. c.) adhuc Christians, so beset with enemies, must have been detected. 17 ought. Besides1 that very thing, which being handed down' Ipsum from your fathers ye seem most faithfully to observe, in which ye mark out the Christians as specially guilty of transgression,-I mean diligence in worshipping the gods, wherein antiquity hath mostly erred,-although ye have rebuilt the altars of the now Roman Serapis, although ye offer your frantic orgies to the now Italian Bacchus, I will immoshew in the proper place to have been just as much despised and neglected and destroyed by you, contrary to the authority of your ancestors. For I shall now make answer to the evil report touching secret crimes, that I may clear my way to such as are more open. X 1 letis VII. We are said to be the most accursed of men, as touching a sacrament of child-murder, and thereon a feast, and incest after the feast, where the dogs that overturn the candles, our panders forsooth, procure darkness and an absence of all shame besides, for impious lusts. Yet' said to be' is ever the word, and ye take no care to expose that which we have been so long said to be. Wherefore either expose it, if ye believe it, or be unwilling to believe it, seeing ye have not exposed it. Through your own connivance it is ruled against you, that that hath no existence which even yourselves dare not expose. Far other is the task which ye impose on your executioner against the Christians, not that they should confess what they do, but deny what they are". This religion dateth, as we have already set forth, from Tiberius. Truth set out with being herself hated; as soon as she appeared, she is an enemy3. As many as are strangers 3inimica to it, so many are its foes: and the Jews indeed appropriately from their rivalry, the soldiers from their violence, 14. even they of our own household from nature. Each day are we beset, each day betrayed; in our very meetings and assemblies are we mostly surprised. way come upon a screaming infant? judge the mouths of these Cyclopses and Sirens, bloody as he found them? Who hath discovered any marks of impurity even in our wives? Who hath concealed such crimes, c. 13. y See above, c. 2. 1 c. 5. C Who hath ever in this a Athenag. Leg. §. 3. Orig. c. Cels. i. 3. est Luke 3, Mat. 10, 36. APOL. when he hath discovered them, or hath taken a bribe to do 1. 7. so, while haling the men themselves"? If we be always concealed, when was that, which we commit, divulged? Yea, by whom could it be divulged? By the criminals themselves forsooth! Nay, verily since the fidelity of vel ex secresy is, by the very rule of all mysteries', due to them. omnium The Samothracian and Eleusinian are kept secret; how myste- much more such as, being divulged, will in the mean time forma riorum provoke even the vengeance of man, while that of God is kept in store! If themselves then be not their own betrayers, it followeth that strangers must be. And whence have strangers the knowledge, when even holy mysteries ever exclude the profane, and beware of witnesses? unless it be that unholy men have the less fear! The nature of fame is known to all. It is your own saying, "Fame is an ill, than which more speedy none.' 6 (VIRG.) Why "Fame an ill?" because "speedy?" because a telltale or because mostly false? who, not even at the very time when she beareth any thing true, is without the vice of falsehood, detracting, adding, changing from the truth! What, when her condition is such, that she endureth only while she lieth, and liveth only so long as she proveth not her words? for when she hath proved them, she ceaseth to be; and, as having discharged her office of talebearer, delivereth up a fact. And thenceforward the fact is laid hold of, the fact is named, and no one saith, (for instance,) They say that this happened at Rome,' or 'The report is that he hath obtained the province,' but, ' He hath obtained the province,' andThis happened at Rome.' Fame, a name for uncertainty, hath no place when a thing is certain. But would any, but an inconsiderate man, believe Fame? since a wise man believeth not that which is uncertain. All may judge that, over whatever extent it be spread, with whatever assurance framed, it must needs have at some time sprung from some one author, and thence creep into the channels of tongues and ears. And a fault in the first little seed doth so darken the rest of the tale, that none enquireth whether that i. e. had they been bribed, they had let them go altogether |