| Keywords |
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| ID |
2627 |
| Text |
De civitate Dei (413 - 427) Augustine of Hippo |
| Quotation |
quid ipse uarro, quem dolemus in rebus diuinis ludos scaenicos, quamuis non iudicio proprio,
posuisse, cum ad deos colendos multis locis uelut religiosus hortetur, nonne ita confitetur non se illa iudicio suo sequi, quae ciuitatem romanam instituisse commemorat, ut, si eam ciuitatem nouam
constitueret, ex naturae potius formula deos nominaque eorum se fuisse dedicaturum non dubitet
confiteri?
sed iam quoniam in uetere populo esset, acceptam ab antiquis nominum et cognominum historiam tenere, ut tradita est, debere si dicit, et ad eum finem illa scribere ac perscrutari, ut potius eos magis colere quam despicere uulgus uelit. |
| Translation |
What does Varro think? We are sorry to say that he places theatrical displays among things divine. This is not by his own judgment, however. For although, in many places, he, as a religious man, exhorts the people to worship the gods, does he not also admit that it is not by his own judgment that he follows the institutions established by the city of Rome? For he does not hesitate to confess that, if he were founding the city anew, he would consecrate the gods, and give them names, according to the principles of nature rather than following what is done now. As it is, however, finding himself among a people already ancient, he says that he must adhere to the names and titles of the gods traditionally received from antiquity, and that the purpose of his writing and study is to encourage people to worship the gods rather than to despise them. By these words, this most acute of men indicates clearly enough that he is not revealing all that he knows, for had he done so, he would have said much that would not only have been contemptible to himself, but would have seemed despicable even to the vulgar mob. (Trans. Dyson) |
| Quotation source |
Lib. 4, Cap. 31 (lin. 1) |
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| Comment |
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