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It is best to add the original of this almost unintelligibie passage:
Plano religiosiores estis in gladiatorum cavea, ubi super Savguinem humanum, super inquinamenta poenarum proinde saltant dei vestri argumenta et historias nocentibus erogandis, aut in ipsis deis nocentes puniuntur
Somo litile light may be derived irom the parallel passage of the Apology
c. xv.), Whicli is expressed some hat ima obscurely. Instein of the worta in italica, Tertullian there substitutes theae: Argumenta et historias noxiis ministrantes, nisi quod et ipsos deos Vestros saeps noxii induunt V vhilat furnishing the prooss and the plots ior sexecutin Jcriminals, only that the said criminals osten aci the part of your godsthenisvives. ' Oeliter refers, in illustration of tho last clause, to tho instance of the notorioua robber Laureolus, Who personated Prometheus; othera, again, personated Laureolus bimself : some criminals hin to play the part oi Orpheus; othere Oi Mutius Scaevola. It will bo observod that these executiona mere With infamous perversenem set oss With scenie
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consistent and entire aversion to them. CHAP. XI. - The absurd eavit of THE Ass'A MAD' disposed os in some senu es of humor a irony.
In this matter .e are said in beJ milty not merely offorsahing the religion of the communi , but os introducinga monstrous superstition; for some among Du have dreamed that our god is an ass's head,-an absurdi whicli Cornelius
Tacitus firet suggestia. In the fourth book of his Historias, where he is treating of the Jewish war, he begins his
description with the origin os that nation, and oves his o nuteWs respecting both the origin and the name of theirreligion. He relates that the Jews, in their migration in thodoseri, When suffering for Want of Water, escaped by folloWing for Mides sOme Wild asses, whicli they supposed to begoing in quest of Water aster pasture, and that on this account the image of one of these animais Was Worshipped by the Je s. Froni this, I suppose, it Was presumed that We,too, from our close connection mitti the Jewisti religion, have
oura consecrated under the fame emblematic form. Thosame Cornelius Tacitus, hoWever-who, to say the truth, ismost loquacious in salsehood-forgetting his later statement, relates hoW Pompey the Great, after conquering the Je sand capturing Jerusalem, enterod the temple, but found nothing in the shape of an image, though he examinod thoplace caresully. Where, then, should thoir God have beenseundi Nowhere else, of course, than in so memorabie a temple, which Was caresully shut to ali but the priesis, and into whieli there could be no fear os a stranger entering. But what apology must I here offer sor What I am going tosay, When I have no other object at the moment than to
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then, be an asinine person, mill you at ali eventa deny thatyou possess the fame characto istics with ourselves in that matter Ot their heads ontri bud entire asses, are, in besure, objecta os adoration to you, along missi their tutelar Epona; and ali herds, and catile, and beasts Fou consecrate,
and their stabies into tho bainaint This, perhaps, is y0ur
portion os ita mass. But an entire cross is attributed to us,
with ita transverse beam,yy of course, and iis projecting seat.
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consecrate to the sacred purpose a complete structum. The
as iis natural position the latent and concealed ouilino os across. Since the head rises up ariis, and the bach takes astraight direction, and the shoulders project lateralty, ii yousimply place a man with his arms and hands ouistretched, you will mahe the generat ouiline os a cross. Starting, then, from this rudimental forna and prop, as it Were, he applies a covering of clay, and so gradually completes the limbs, and forms the body, and covers the cross within With the shape Whicli ho meant to impress upon the clay; thon from this
design, With the hel p of compasses and leaden moulds, he hasgot ali ready for his imago whicli is to bo brought out into
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AD NATIONES 449og iis branches sor another plant, to What mill you attributo What is produced by the propagation Will it not be to thograin, or the sisne, or the herneli Because, as the third stago is attributable to the second, and the second in like manner to the fidit, so the third mill havo to bo referred tollio fidit, throuo tho second as tho mean. - need notstay any longer in the discussion of this potnt, since by a natural law every End of produce throughout nature r sors bach iis growin to iis original source; and just as the produci is comprised in iis primat cause, so does that causeanee in character With the thing produced. Since, then, in the production of your gods, you Worship the cross Whichoriginates them, here mill be the original hernei and grain, from whicli are propagated the w den materials of your idolatrous images. Examples are not far to seeh. Your victories Du celebrate With religious ceremony as deities; and thsy are the more august in proportion to the joy theybring you. The frames on Which you hang up yοur trophies must be crosses e these are, as it Were, tho very core os yοurpageants.' Thus, in Four Victories, the religion of your
standards it presera bosore Jupiter himself. But ali that parado ' os images, and that display of pure gold, are fas so
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ε fon tho coena pura,' Mo our Anti-Marcion, p. 386, note 4.J o Lev. xxiv. 2; also 2 Chron. xiii. 11. Witai AEgyptiaca, ii 16, 17 eompares the Jo in viis ino Egyptian ritus lucernarum. Jη ertullian, in his traei de Jejun. xvi., spesis os ino Jem pruing alter tho Iosa of their templo, and in their dispersion in the open ala, per omne litus. J
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our comparison hom another fore of Oviden . - beginour religious service, or iuitiato our mysteries, With HVingan infant. As for you, since your om transactions in human
postpone most of the instances, stat me may not mem to bo
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aggraVate, on yοur Side of the question, Whateuer is defectivo in us on other grounds. Well, but me are said in sup ost our implous sacrificol Whilst We postpone to a more sultabis place ' ulatover resemblance even to this practice is discovem able amongst youraeives, we are not far removed Dom you
s refers in thia passage to his Apolon, especialty c. ix.Js Tabellis. R Unius aetatis. Ihia Oehler explaius by per unam jam totam
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light thing in your vlew to feed on an insant, When you consume one Wholly besore it is como to tho birili ' CHAP. XVI. - Other charges repelled by the fame method ofretori, espeetally that of INCEST. The atory of the nobis Roman youth and his parenta. I am noW come to the liour sor extinguishing the lamps, and sor using the dogs, and practising the deeds os darkness. d on this potnt Ι am ahaid I must succumb to you; forviliat similar accusation shali I have to bring against you 'But you aliould at once commend the cleverness with whichWε mahe our incest look modest, in stat me havs devised a spurious night,' to avoid polluting the real light and daris ness-have even thought it right to dispense mitti earthlylighis, and to play triclis also With our conscience. For
proportion to their successsul issue is your own ignorance of
the result, since Fou publicly indulge in your incestuous intercourso in the fuit cogntgance of broad da light. 'o
i Infantem totum praecocum. Comp. The Apoton, c. ix.J
Adulteram noctem. ' Ceterum. β Plane. ' Trucidatus oculos.
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co se have insected the very mn, polluted the entire ocean lQuote, then, One nation Which is Dee fram the passions hich assure the wholo meo of men to incesti ΙΤ there is a single nation Which knows nothing of concubinage throuo the necessity os age and w-ω say nothing os lusi and
aio as is they were tho Winti, and consider Whether inerebo any communities Which sto stili and strong tides of passion fail in Waft to the commission of this great sin. Utho firat place, When yοu expose your infandi to the mercyos othera, or leave them foe adoption to beller parenta than D selVes, do Fou i get What an opportunity for incest is furnished, hoW Wido a scopo is o ned for ita accidental commissioni Undocibi ly, such of you as are more Serio hom a principio of set restraint and careses reflection, a stata from lusis whicli conld produco resulis of such a hinriin Whatever place you may happen to be, at home or abroad, so that no indiscriminato diffusion os seed, or licentious reception thereos, Will produce children to Du unamares, Suchas their Very parenis, or eivi other chilhen, might encounter in inadvertent incest, sor no restraint hom age is regataedin the importunities o lust. All acts os adulter' alicases of fornication, Hl tho licentiousnem os public brotheis, hether committed at homo or perpetrated out of doors, serve to produce confusions of blood and complications os natural relationship,' and thence to conduce to incest; hom