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| ID |
5886 |
| Text |
De gubernatione dei (439 - 451) Salvian of Marseilles |
| Quotation |
Exceptis enim paucissimis Dei servis, quid fuit totum Africae territorium quam domus una vitiorum aeneo illi similis de quo propheta dicit: O civitas sanguinum!
Aeneum in quo est aerugo, non exiet de eo, quia sanguis non exiet de eo.
...
Nulla unquam his malis Romana civitas caruit. Etsi specialius hoc scelus Afrorum omnium fuit. Nam sicut in sentinam profundae navis conluviones omnium sordium, sic in mores eorum quasi ex omni mundo vitia fluxerunt. Nullam enim improbitatem scio quae illic non redundaverit; cum utique etiam paganae ac ferae gentes etsi habeant specialiter mala propria, non sint tamen in his omnia exsecratione digna. Gothorum gens perfida, sed pudica est; Alanorum impudica, sed minus perfida; Franci mendaces, sed hospitales; Saxones crudelitate efferi, sed castitate mirandi. Omnes denique gentes habent, sicut peculiaria mala, ita etiam quaedam bona. In Afris pene omnibus nescio quid non malum. Si accusanda est inhumanitas, inhumani sunt; si ebrietas, ebriosi; si falsitas, fallacissimi; si dolus, fraudulentissimi; si cupiditas, cupidissimi; si perfidia, perfidissimi. Impuritas eorum atque blasphemia his omnibus admiscenda non sunt: quia illis quae supra diximus malis, aliorum gentium vitia; his autem etiam sua ipsa vicerunt.
Ac primum ut de impuritate dicamus, quis nescit Africam totam obscenis libidinum taedis semper arsisse, non ut terram ac sedem hominum, sed ut Aethnam putes impudicarum fuisse flammarum? Nam sicut Aethna intestinis quibusdam naturae ferventis ardoribus, sic illa abominandis jugiter fornicationum ignibus aestuavit. Nec volo in hac re assertionibus meis credi: testimonium requiratur generis humani. Quis non omnes omnino Afros generaliter sciat impudicos, nisi ad Deum forte conversos, id est, fide ac religione mutatos? ... Nec discurram per loca singula, aut cunctas discutiam civitates; ne studiose videar quaerere atque investigare quae dicam. Una tantum universarum illic urbium principe et quasi matre contentus sum, illa scilicet Romanis arcibus semper aemula, armis quondam et fortitudine, post splendore et dignitate. Carthaginem dico, et urbi Romae maxime adversariam, et in Africano orbe quasi Romam: quae mihi ideo in exemplum ac testimonia sola sufficit, quia universa penitus quibus in toto mundo disciplina rei publicae vel procuratur vel regitur, in se habuit. Illic enim omnia officiorum publicorum instrumenta, illic artium liberalium scholae, illic philosophorum officinae, cuncta denique vel linguarum gymnasia vel morum: illic quoque etiam copiae militares, et regentes militiam potestates: illic honor proconsularis: illic quotidianus judex et rector; quantum ad nomen quidem proconsul, sed quantum ad potentiam consul: illic denique omnes rerum dispensatores, et differentes inter se tam gradu quam vocabulo dignitates; omnium, ut ita dicam, platearum et compitorum procuratores, cuncta ferme et loca urbis et membra populi gubernantes. Hac ergo tantum contenti sumus ad exemplum ac testimonium caeterarum; ut intelligamus scilicet quales illae fuerint civitates quae minores habuerunt probi officii procurationes, cum viderimus qualis exstiterit ubi summi semper fuere rectores. Quo loco prope est ut poeniteat me promissionis meae, id est, quod superius spopondi, cunctis prope Afrorum criminibus praetermissis, de impuritatibus praecipue ac blasphemiis eorum esse dicturum. Video enim quasi scaturientem vitiis civitatem, video urbem omnium iniquitatum genere ferventem, plenam quidem turbis, sed magis turpitudinibus; plenam divitiis, sed magis vitiis; vincentes se invicem homines nequitia flagitiorum suorum, alios rapacitate, alios impuritate certantes, alios vino languidos, alios cruditate distentos, hos sertis redimitos, illos unguentis oblitos, cunctos vario luxus marcore perditos, sed pene omnes una errorum morte prostratos; non omnes quidem vinolentia temulentos, sed omnes tamen peccatis ebrios. Populos putares non sani status, non sui sensus, non animo incolumes, non gradu, quasi in morem
baccharum crapulae catervatim inservientes. Jam vero illud cujusmodi aut quam grave, genere quidem dispar, sed iniquitate non dispar, nisi hoc dispar forte quia majus? Proscriptiones dico orphanorum, viduarum afflictiones, pauperum cruces: qui ingemiscentes quotidie ad Deum, ac finem malorum imprecantes, et quod gravissimum est, interdum vi nimiae amaritudinis etiam adventum hostium postulantes, aliquando a Deo impetraverunt, ut eversionem tandem a barbaris in commune tolerarent, quam soli a Romanis ante toleraverant. |
| Translation |
With the exception of a very few servants of God,
what was the whole land of Africa but one house of sin. It
was like to that bronze vessel about which the prophet says:
'0 city of blood! the bronze vessel, in which there is a rust
which does not go right out of it, because the blood shall not go out of it.'
... 15. ...
There never was a Roman city without these evils, although
this was more especially the crime of all the Africans.
As all dirt flows into the bilge in the bowels of a ship, so
vices flowed into the African way of life, as if from the whole
world. I know of no baseness which did not abound there.
Even though pagans and wild peoples have their own special
vices, yet, all their crimes do not merit reproach.
The Gothic nation is lying, but chaste. The Alani are unchaste,
but they lie less. The Franks lie, but they are generous.
The Saxons are savage in cruelty, but admirable in chastity.
In short, all peoples have their own particular bad habits,
just as they have certain good habits. Among almost all
Africans, I know not what is not evil. If they are to be accused
of inhumanity, they are inhuman; if of drunkenness, they are
drunkards; if of forgery, they are the greatest of forgerers;
if of deceit, they are the most deceitful; if of cupidity, they
are the most greedy; if of treachery, they are the most treacherous.
Their impurities and blasphemies must not be mentioned
here, because in the evils about which I have just
spoken they have surpassed the evils of other races, but in
impurity and blasphemy they have even surpassed themselves.
16. I will speak about their impurity first. Who does not
know that all Africa always burned with the obscene resinous
tree of lust, so that you might think it was not a land and site of men, but an Aetna of unchaste flames? Just as Aetna
is naturally heated with certain inner burning fires, so that
land is constantly heated by the abominable fires of fornication.
Nor do I wish my assertations to obtain full credence
in this matter. The testimony of the human race is required.
Who does not know that almost all Africans are unchaste,
with the exception, perhaps, of those converted to God, that
is, those changed by faith and religion?
...
I shall content myself with one city of all the cities in that
land; the city that is the head and mother, as it were, of all
the other cities there; that city, formerly the continual rival
of the citadel of Rome in its arms and prowess, and afterwards
in splendor and dignity. I am speaking of Carthage,
the greatest adversary of the city of Rome and, as it were, a
Rome in Africa. This city alone suffices as my example and
witness, because she had completely within herself all the
materials which are used for the provisioning, ruling, and
governing of the State, anywhere in the whole world.
In that city were located all the agencies of public office,
there were the schools of liberal arts, there the workshops of
the philosophers, and finally all the schools for languages
and ethics. There also the military stores and the military headquarters, there the proconsular dignity, there the daily
judge and provincial ruler, a proconsul indeed in name, but
a consul in power. There also were all the administrators
and dignitaries differing among themselves in grade and title,
the keepers, so to speak, of streets and crossroads, governing
almost all parts of the city and members of the population.
Thus, I am content with this city as an example and witness
of all other cities, in order that we may understand what kind
were these cities which were under the administration of less
honored officials, when we see what was the quality of that
one city where there were always_ the highest officials. At this
point I almost repent of my promise made above, which was
to pass over almost all the vices of the Africans and speak
chiefly about their impurities and blasphemies. For I see a
city bubbling over, as it were, in vice; I see a city burning
with every kind of iniquity; filled, indeed, with crowds, but
more with iniquity; filled with riches, but more with vice; men
surpassing each other in the villainy of their depravity; some
struggling to outdo in rapacity; others to outdo in impurity;
some drowsy with wine; others distended with too much food;
some bedecked with flowers; others besmeared with oil; all
wasted by varied kinds of indolence and luxury and almost
all prostrate in the death of their sins. Not all were intoxicated
from drinking wine, but all were drunk from their sins. You
would think that the people were insane and not in their
proper senses; whole neither in their mind nor in their step,
falling against each other, as is the manner of drunken
crowds.
Now, there is another evil of this kind, graver and, indeed,
unlike it in kind, but not unlike it in inquity. Perhaps it is unlike
in this respect, that it is greater. I speak about the proscriptions
of orphans, the affliction of widows, and the torture of
the poor. They groaned daily to God, praying for an end of their evils. What is most serious, in the force of their utter
bitterness they sometimes even prayed for the coming of the
enemy. They have obtained from God that at least all suffer
in common from the barbarians the depredations which formerly
they alone suffered at the hands of the Romans. |
| Quotation source |
Lib. 7, Capp. 14-16 (pp. 94-7, trans. O'Sullivan, pp. 204-10) |
| Temporal Coverage |
439 - 451 |
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