The Society for Ancient Languages
Week Eight
S. AUGUSTINI |
ST. AUGUSTINE |
DUCTORIBUS AC PRINCIPIBUS VEL SENIORIBUS COLONIAE SUFETANAE AUGUSTINUS EPISCOPUS |
BISHOP AUGUSTINE TO THE LEADERS AND
MAGISTRATES OR ELDERS OF THE COLONY OF |
| Immanitatis vestrae famosissimum scelus et inopinata crudelitas terram concutit et percutit caelum, ut in plateis ac delubris vestris eluceat sanguis et resonet homicidium. Apud vos Romanae sepultae sunt leges, uidiciorum rectorum calcatus est terror, imperatorum certe nulla veneratio nec timor. Apud vos sexaginta numero fratrum innocens effusus est sanguis et, si quis plures occidit, functus est laudibus et in vestram curiam tenuit principatum. Age nunc principalem veniamus ad causam. Si Herculem vestrum dixeritis, porro reddemus; adsunt metalla, saxa nec desunt; accedunt et marmorum genera, suppeditat artificum copia. Ceterum deus vester cum diligentia sculpitur, tornatur et ornatur; addimus et rubricam, quae pingat ruborem, quo possint vota vestra sacra sonare. Nam si vestrum Herculem dixeritis, conlatis singulis nummis ab artifice vestro vobis emimus deum. Reddite igitur animas, quas truculenta vestra manus contorsit, et sicuti a nobis vester Hercules redhibetur, sic etiam a vobis tantorum animae reddantur. | Earth quakes and the heavens shake at the most glaring criminality and shocking barbarity of your fiendish conduct, which has made your streets and shrines run red with blood and resound with cries of murder. Among you the laws of Rome have been consigned to oblivion, the fear of righteous judgment has been trampled under foot, and for the Crown you have assuredly neither respect nor awe. Among you the immocent blood of exactly sixty Christian brethren has been spilt, and he who has the more murders to his credit has enjoyed various honors and been appointed to the chief post in your assembly. See now, let us come to the chief point. If you mention your Hercules, we shall straightway restore it to you; we have quarries at hand, and there is no lack of stone; there are in addition various kinds of marble and a sufficient supply of craftsmen. Moreover, your god will be chiseled, smoothed off and ornamented; we shall even add red ochre to paint the blush with which your holy prayers may be uttered. For if you say the Hercules is your own, we shall contribute a penny each and buy a god for you from your own craftsman. Restore then the souls that your ferocious hand has destroyed, and as we give back your Hercules, so do you restore these many souls. |
S. AUGUSTINI |
SAINT AUGUSTINE |
| Inde est quod deorum multorum falsorumque simulacra et praedixit eversum iri et praecepit everti. Nihil enim homines tam insociabiles reddit vitae perversitate quam illorum deorum imitatio, quales describuntur et commendantur litteris eorum. | From that is the reason that He predicted the future overthrow of the many false gods and enjoined that that overthrow should begin now. For there is nothing that makes men so unsuited for fellowship by reason of their depraved lives as does the imitation of those gods, such as they are described and commended by pagan literature. |
| Denique illi doctissimi viri qui rem publicam civitatemque terrenam, qualis eis esse debere videbatur, magis domesticis disputationibus requirebant vel etiam describebant, quam publicis actionibus instituebant atque formabant, egregios atque laudabiles quos putabant homines potius quam deos suos imitandos proponebant erudiendae indoli iuventutis. Et re vera Terentianus ille adulescens qui spectans tabulam pictam in pariete, ubi pictura inerat de adulterio regis deorum, libidinem qua rapiebatur, stimulis etiam tantae auctoritatis accendit, nullo modo in illud flagitium vel concupiscendo laberetur vel perpetrando inmergeretur, si Catonem maluisset imitari quam Iovem; sed quo pacto id faceret, cum in templis adorare cogeretur Iovem potius quam Catonem? | In short, those learned men who in private discussion sought after and even portrayed what seemed to them the model republic and earthly state instead of bringing it into being and giving it shape by public service, usually put forward as examples for the training of the youthful character those men they deemed famous and praiseworthy rather than their own gods. And, in fact, that young man in Terence who, on gazing upon a painted wall-panel which represented the adultery of the king of the gods, felt fuel added to the fire of passion that was consuming him by the encouragement given by an authority so eniment, would certainly not have fallen into that sin through desire nor have been overcome by it through bringing it to pass, if he had chosen Cato as his model rather than Jove. But how could he do that when in the temples he was compelled to reverence Jove instead of Cato? |