| Keywords |
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| ID |
5890 |
| Text |
De gubernatione dei (439 - 451) Salvian of Marseilles |
| Quotation |
Et quae esse, rogo, Romano statui spes potest, quando castiores ac puriores Barbari quam Romani sunt? Parum est quod dicimus. Quae nobis, rogo, ante Deum aut vitae esse aut veniae spes potest, quando castitatem in Barbaris cernimus, et nec sic casti sumus? Erubescamus, quaeso, et confundamur. Jam apud Gothos impudici non sunt nisi Romani, jam apud Wandalos nec Romani. Tantum apud illos profecit studium castimoniae, tantum severitas disciplinae, non solum quod ipsi casti sint, sed, ut rem dicamus novam, rem incredibilem, rem pene etiam inauditam, castos etiam Romanos esse fecerunt. Si infirmitas id humana pateretur, exclamare super vires meas cuperem, ut toto orbe resonarem: Pudeat vos, Romani ubique populi, pudeat vitae vestrae. Nullae pene urbes lustris, nullae omnino impuritatibus vacant, nisi illae tantum in quibus Barbari esse coeperunt. Et miramur si miseri, qui tam impuri sumus; miramur si ab hoste viribus vincimur, qui honestate superamur; miramur si bona nostra possident, qui mala nostra exsecrantur? Nec illos naturale robur corporum facit vincere, nec nos naturae infirmitas vinci. Nemo sibi aliud persuadeat, nemo aliud arbitretur: sola nos morum nostrorum vitia vicerunt. |
| Translation |
I ask: What hope can there be for the Roman State when
the barbarians are more chaste and more pure than the
Romans? What I say is of little value. I ask: What hope of
pardon or of life can there be for us in the sight of God
when we see chastity among the barbarians and are, ourselves,
unchaste? I say: Let us be ashamed and confused.
Among the Goths, the only impure ones are the Romans.
There are no impure ones among the Vandals except the
Romans. Among them, so much has the eagerness for chastity
and the severity of discipline profited them that not only
are they themselves chaste, but let me say something novel
and unbelievable, something almost even unheard of, they
have even made the Romans chaste.
If human weakness allowed it, I would wish to shout beyond
my strength, so that I would be echoed over the whole
world: You, 0 Roman people, be ashamed; be ashamed of
your lives. Almost no cities are free of evil dens, are altogether
free of impurities, except these cities in which the barbarians have begun to live. And we in our misery, who are so impure,
wonder if we are conquered by enemy forces, we who are
surpassed by them in character. We wonder if they who
curse our evils have taken possession of our property. It is
not the natural vigor of their bodies that enables them to
conquer us, nor is it our natural weakness that has caused
our conquest. Let nobody persuade himself otherwise. Let
nobody think otherwise. The vices of our bad lives have alone
conquered us. |
| Quotation source |
Lib. 7, Cap. 23 (p. 103, trans. O'Sullivan, pp. 222-3) |
| Temporal Coverage |
439 - 451 |
| Associated use case(s) |
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| Comment |
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