| Keywords |
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| ID |
5887 |
| Text |
De gubernatione dei (439 - 451) Salvian of Marseilles |
| Quotation |
XVII. Sed esto: haec omnia praetermittantur, quia et in omni ferme aguntur orbe Romano, et spopondi me de his malis hoc loco pauca dicturum. Quid ergo impudicitia atque impuritas de qua loquor, nunquid non ad eversionem Afrorum sola suffecerat? Quae enim fuit pars civitatis non plena sordibus, quae intra urbem platea aut semita non lupanar? Adeo omnia pene compita, omnes vias aut quasi foveae libidinum interciderant, aut quasi retia praetexebant; ut etiam qui ab hac re penitus abhorrerent, tamen vitare vix possent. Latronum quodammodo excubias videres commeantium viatorum spolia captantes, qui insidiarum frequentium densitate ita omnes admodum calles, omnes anfractus ac diverticula sepsissent, ut nullus ferme tam cautus esset qui non in aliquos insidiarum laqueos incurreret, etiam qui se de plurimis expedisset. Fetebant, ut ita dixerim, cuncti urbis illius cives coeno libidinis, spurcum sibimet ipsis mutuo impudicitiae nidorem inhalantes.
...
XVIII. ... Sed finis aliquando forsitan mali aut emendatio aliqua labis istius fuit? Quis credere aut etiam audire possit convertisse in
muliebrem tolerantiam viros non usum tantum atque naturam, sed etiam vultum, incessum, habitum, et totum penitus quidquid aut in sexu est aut in usu viri: adeo versa in diversum omnia erant, ut cum viris nihil magis pudori esse oporteat quam si muliebre aliquid in se habere videantur; illic nihil viris quibusdam turpius videretur quam si in aliquo viri viderentur. |
| Translation |
Let us put these depravities to one side, because
they are committed in almost all the Roman world. Besides,
I had promised to say only a few words about them here.
Would not the impurity and license about which I speak
suffice for the destruction of the Africans? What portion of
the city was not filled with indecency, what street or path
within the city was not a brothel? The snares of lust were, so
to speak, astride almost all crossroads and all streets and had
spread their nets over them, so that even they who thoroughly
abhorred this vice could scarcely avoid it.
They were like ambushing brigands who captured the spoils
of the passing travelers. They were like those brigands who
by the density of their frequent snares so fenced in almost all
footpaths, all bends in the roads, all byways that scarcely
anybody could be so cautious that he would not fall into some
noose of their snares, even though he had disengaged himself
from the greater part of them. As I have said, all citizens of
that city stank from the mire of lust as they inhaled the unclean
vapor of their mutual impurity.
...
You are saying, the evil was at last ended and the wrong
corrected. Who could believe or even hear that men converted
to feminine bearing not only their habits and nature, but
even their looks, walk, dress, and everything that is proper
to the sex or appearance of a man? Therefore, everything
was put contrariwise, so that, since nothing should be more
shameful to men than if they seem to have something feminine
about them, in Carthage nothing seemed worse to certain men
than to have something masculine about them. |
| Quotation source |
Lib. 7, Cap. 17-18 (pp. 97-8, trans. O'Sullivan, pp. 210-13) |
| Temporal Coverage |
439 - 439 |
| Associated use case(s) |
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| Comment |
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