| Keywords |
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| ID |
5880 |
| Text |
De gubernatione dei (439 - 451) Salvian of Marseilles |
| Quotation |
Et quidem, quia ita infelix necessitas cogit, ferenda utcumque erat extrema haec sors eorum, si non esset aliquid extremius. Illud gravius et acerbius, quod additur huic malo saevius malum. Nam suscipiuntur ut advenae, fiunt praejudicio habitationis indigenae; et exemplo quodam illius maleficae praepotentis quae transferre homines in bestias dicebatur, ita et isti omnes qui intra fundos divitum recipiuntur, quasi Circei poculi transfiguratione mutantur. Nam quos suscipiunt ut extraneos et alienos, incipiunt habere quasi proprios; quos esse constat ingenuos, vertuntur in servos. Et miramur si nos barbari capiunt, cum fratres nostros nos faciamus esse captivos? Nil ergo mirum est quod vastationes sunt atque excidia civitatum. Diu id plurimorum oppressione elaboravimus ut captivando alios, etiam ipsi inciperemus esse captivi. Sentimus enim, etsi tardius multo quam merebamur, sentimus tandem illa quae fecimus, et, juxta sermonem sacrum, labores manuum nostrarum manducamus, ac justo judice Deo solvimus quae debemus. Miserti quippe exsulum non sumus; ecce ipsi exsules sumus. Peregrinos fraude cepimus; ecce ipsi peregrinamur
atque fraudamur. Praejudiciis temporum ingenui status homines circumvenimus; ecce ipsi nuper quidem in alieno solo vivere coepimus, sed praejudicia jam timemus. Et o quanta est infidelis malarum mentium caecitas! damnationem perferimus judicantis Dei, et necdum nos agnoscimus judicari. |
| Translation |
Indeed, because unhappy necessity thus compels them,
their extremely straitened lot would be bearable to a certain
extent, if there were not something more extreme. What is
more grievous and bitter is that a more cruel evil is added
to this evil. They are received as newcomers. They become
natives by the mere legal fiction of a dwelling place and,
following the example of that commanding evil-doing woman who was said to change men into beasts, so all these
men who are received within the estates of the rich are changed, as it were, by the transformation of Circe's cup. Those
whom the rich receive as outsiders and newcomers they be-
gin to consider as their own. Those who were known to be
freemen are turned into slaves.
And we wonder why the barbarians capture us when we
make our own brothers captives. There is nothing strange
that there are invasions and the destruction of states. We
have for a long time been striving toward this by the oppression of the many, so that by capturing others even we
ourselves have begun to be captives. For we feel, although
much later than we deserve, we feel at length those things
which we have done to others, and according to the words of
Holy Scripture we are eating the labor of our own hands,20
and under a just Judge, God, we are paying back what we
owe.
Indeed, we have not been merciful to the exiled, and be-
hold, we ourselves are exiles. We defrauded wanderers; be-
hold, we ourselves are wanderers and are cheated. We circumvented men of freeborn status by taking advantage of
the ruinous circumstances of the times; behold, we ourselves
have recently begun to live on foreign soil and we already
fear the same ruinous circumstances. How great is the faith-
less blindness of evil-minded men! We are carrying out the
condemnation of a God who judges, but we do not acknowledge that we are being judged. |
| Quotation source |
Lib. 5, Cap. 9 (p. 64, trans. O'Sullivan, pp. 144-5) |
| Temporal Coverage |
439 - 451 |
| Associated use case(s) |
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| Comment |
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