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| ID |
5888 |
| Text |
De gubernatione dei (439 - 451) Salvian of Marseilles |
| Quotation |
XX. Iterum, quia dolor exigit, ab his qui irascuntur requiro: in quibus haec barbaris gentibus aut facta sunt unquam, aut fieri publica impunitate licuerit? Denique, ne longius de hac re ambigi aut investigari necesse sit, ipsos illos Africae vastatores Afrorum populis comparemus. Videamus quid simile a Wandalis factum sit. Et certe barbari elatione tumidi, victoria superbi, divitiarum ac deliciarum affluentia dissoluti, qui profecto etiamsi continentissimi et castissimi semper fuissent, mutari tamen tanta rerum obsecundantium felicitate potuerunt, ingressi scilicet, ut in divinis litteris scriptum est, terram lacte et melle manentem, fecundam, opulentissimam, omnium deliciarum copiis quasi ebriam; in qua utique minime mirum fuerat si luxuriasset gens barbara, ubi similis quodammodo luxurianti erat ipsa natura. Ingressos haec loca Wandalos quis non putet omni se vitiorum atque impuritatum coeno immersisse, aut, ut levissime dicam, saltem illa fecisse quae ab Afris jugiter facta fuerant, in quorum jura migrarant? Et certe si ea tantum, continentissimi ac modestissimi judicandi erant, quos non fecisset corruptiores ipsa felicitas. Quotus enim quisque sapientum est, quem secunda non mutent, cui non crescat cum prosperitate vitiositas? Ac per hoc temperatissimos fuisse Wandalos certum est, si quales illi fuerunt qui capti ac subjugati sunt, tales illi fuissent victores. Igitur in tanta affluentia rerum atque luxuria nullus eorum mollis effectus est? Nunquid parum videtur? Certe familiariter etiam nobiles hoc fuere Romani. Sed quid adhuc addo? Nullus vel qui Romanorum illic mollium pollueretur incestu? Certe hoc apud Romanos jam pridem tale existimatum est, ut virtus potius putaretur esse quam vitium, et illi se magis virilis fortitudinis esse crederent qui maxime viros feminei usus probrositate fregissent. Unde etiam illud fuit, quod lixis puerorum quondam exercitus prosequentibus, haec quasi bene meritis expeditionibus stipendia laboris decernebantur ut quia viri fortes essent, viros in mulieres demutarent. Prohnefas! et hoc Romani. Plus addo, et hoc Romani non hujus temporis; attamen, ne veteres accusemus, Romani, sed non antiqui, jam scilicet corrupti, jam dissoluti, jam sibi et suis dispares, et Graecis quam Romanis similiores. Ut (quod saepe jam diximus) minime mirum sit, si Romana respublica aliquando patitur quod jam dudum meretur.
XXI. Haec ergo impuritas in Romanis et ante Christi Evangelium esse coepit, et, quod est gravius, nec post Evangelia cessavit. Et quis post haec non admiretur populos Wandalorum? qui ingressi urbem opulentissimam, ubi haec omnia passim agebantur, ita delicias corruptorum hominum indepti sunt, quod corruptelas morum repudiarunt, et usum bonarum rerum possident, malarum inquinamenta vitantes. Sufficere igitur ad laudem eorum haec possunt, etiam si alia non dicam: abominati enim sunt virorum impuritates. Plus adhuc addo: abominati etiam feminarum, horruerunt lustra ac lupanaria, horruerunt concubitus contactusque meretricum.
...
Quis credat Wandalos in civitatibus Romanis ista fecisse? Remota quippe est ab illis omnis carnis impuritas. At quomodo remota? Non sicut removeri aliqua a Romanis solent, qui statuunt non adulterandum, et primi adulterant; statuunt non furandum, et furantur. Quamvis pene non possim dicere quod furentur. Non enim sunt quae agunt furta, sed latrocinia. Punit enim judex in alio
peculatum, cum sit ipse peculator; punit rapinam, cum ipse sit raptor; punit sicarium, cum ipse sit gladiator; punit effractores claustrorum et ostiorum, cum ipse sit eversor urbium; punit exspoliatores domorum, cum ipse sit exspoliator civitatum atque provinciarum. |
| Translation |
(20) Because sorrow once more demands it, I ask those
who are angry, among what barbarian peoples were these
things done or was it lawful to do them with public impunity?
So that there be no further necessity of investigation or debate
about this subject, let us compare the destroyers of Africa
with the African peoples. Let us see what like evils were done
by the Vandals.
Certainly the barbarians, swollen with elation, prideful in
their victory, made licentious by the abundance of riches and
delicacies, could have been changed by such great good fortune
of things that were agreeable to them, even though they
had always been most continent and chaste. They had entered, as it is written in the divine books, 'a rich land abiding in milk
and honey,'50 a land most rich and, as it were, intoxicated
with the wealth of all delicacies. In this land it would have
been very strange if a barbarian people had not given themselves
to luxury where nature itself was, so to say, given to
luxury.
Who does not think that the Vandals, when they entered
this land, would have plunged into every mire of vices and
impurities? To speak most lightly, who does not think they
would have done what had been constantly done by the Africans,
into whose province they were migrating? Certainly if
that were all they did, they, whom good fortune itself had not
made corrupt, should be adjudged most continent and restrained.
How many are there among the wise whom prosperity
does not change, in whom viciousness does not increase
with prosperity? Therefore, it is certain the Vandals were
most temperate if they, the victors, were like their captive and
conquered subjects.
In so great abundance and luxury, none of them became
effeminate. Does this seem a small matter? Certainly, the
Roman families, even those of noble birth, were in general
effeminate. What do I say in addition? None of the Vandals
was stained by the incest of the effeminate Romans in that
country. Certainly, effeminacy had been long considered a
virtue rather than a vice by the Romans. They who subdued
men to the worst infamy of feminine use believed they were
possessors of great manly strength.
Hence also, boy camp-followers who formerly followed the
army were given as the wages of labor for services well done
on campaigns. Since they were brave men, they could change
men into women! How criminal this was! Yet the Romans did this. I further add, the Romans and not of our time did this!
Nevertheless, I do not accuse the men of old. The Romans, but
not the Romans of old, were already corrupt, already licentious,
already unlike themselves and their people, and more resembling
Greeks than Romans. As I have often said already, it
would not be very strange if the Roman State did not at some
time suffer what it had long since deserved.
(21 ) This impurity began among the Romans before
Christ's Gospel and, what is more serious, it did not cease
after the advent of the Gospels. Who, after all this, does not
admire the Vandals? They entered the richest towns where all
these vices were rampant and took possession of the wealth
of corrupt men in such a manner that they repudiated the
daily corruption of Roman life and took possession of the use
of good things, avoiding the filth of the bad. These facts
should be enough for their praise, although I were to add no
more. They have abominated the impurities of men. I still
add, they have abominated even the impurities of women.
They have abstained from houses of ill-repute and brothels.
They have abstained from cohabitation and contacts with
prostitutes.
...
Who believes that the Vandals did this in Roman cities?
The impurity of the flesh has been removed from all these
cities. How was it removed? Not as some vices are wont to
be removed by the Romans who outlaw theft, yet continue to
steal, who outlaw adultery, yet are the first to commit adultery.
I can scarcely say they steal; they do not commit theft, but
brigandage. A judge punishes a small theft in another when
he himself is an embezzler of public money. He punishes
rapine when he himself is a plunderer. He punishes an assassin
when he himself is a swordsman. He punishes the breaker
of doors and bars when he himself is the destroyer of towns.
He punishes the burglars of houses when he himself is the
ravager of provinces. |
| Quotation source |
Lib. 7, Cap. 20-21 (pp. 99-100, trans. O'Sullivan, pp. 214-17) |
| Temporal Coverage |
439 - 451 |
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