| Keywords |
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| ID |
2622 |
| Text |
De civitate Dei (413 - 427) Augustine of Hippo |
| Quotation |
ne quis itaque existimaret in deos conuicia potius quam eis dignum aliquid scriptitasse, ubicumque
illos inter se pugnasse poetae commemorarunt, ipsi ad decipiendos homines poetarum carmina
firmauerunt, pugnas uidelicet suas non solum per scaenicos in theatro, uerum etiam per se ipsos in
campo humanis oculis exhibentes.
haec dicere compulsi sumus, quoniam pessimis moribus ciuium romanam rem publicam iam antea
perditam fuisse nullam que remansisse ante aduentum christi iesu domini nostri auctores eorum
dicere et scribere minime dubitarunt.
quam perditionem diis suis non inputant, qui mala transitoria, quibus boni, seu uiuant seu moriantur,
perire non possunt, christo nostro inputant: cum christus noster tanta frequentet pro moribus optimis
praecepta contra perditos mores; dii uero ipsorum nullis talibus praeceptis egerint aliquid cum suo
cultore populo pro illa re publica, ne periret; immo eosdem mores uelut suis exemplis auctoritate
noxia corrumpendo egerunt potius, ut periret. |
| Translation |
Also, they did not wish anyone to suppose that the poets had reproached the gods rather than honoured them by what they wrote wherever they portrayed them as fighting among themselves. Thus, they confirmed the songs of the poets in order to deceive mankind: that is, by displaying their clashes to human eyes not only through actors in the theatre, but also in their own persons on the battlefield.
We have been moved to say these things by the fact that even their own authors have not at all hesitated to say and write that the commonwealth of the Romans had already been destroyed by the depraved morals of its citizens, and that nothing remained of it, long before the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. They do not impute this ruin to their own gods. To our Christ, however, they attribute transient evils by which good men cannot be destroyed regardless of whether they live or die. And they do this even though our Christ so often delivered precepts directed towards the highest morals and against wicked ways, whereas their gods never gave such precepts to the nation that worshipped them, to save that commonwealth from destruction. On the contrary, they made its destruction all the more certain by corrupting its morals by the harmful authority of their own example. (Trans. Dyson) |
| Quotation source |
Lib. 2, Cap. 25 (lin. 39) |
| Associated use case(s) |
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| Comment |
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