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Q. SEPTIMI FLORENTIS 

TERTVLLIANI 

APOLOGETICVS 



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SEPTIMI FLORENTIS 

TERTVLLIANI 

APOLOGETICVS 

The text of Oehler 
Annotated, witli an Introduction, by 

JOHN E. B. MAYOR, M.A. 

Professor of Latin in the University of Cambridge 
Fellow and President of St John s College 

With a translation by 
ALEX. SOUTER, B.A. 

Regius Professor of Humanity in the University of Aberdeen 
Late Scholar of Gonville and Caius College 



Cambridge : 

at the University Press 

1917 



T 

\Q 



STOR 



- 3L-I9 



PREFACE 

THE late Professor John E. B. Mayor, during his tenure of 
the professorship of Latin at Cambridge, frequently lectured 
on the Apology of Tertullian in the Divinity Schools. About 
the year 1892 he wrote out his notes in a copy of Oehler s 
earlier edition (Halle, 1849), that had been interleaved with 
sheets of paper about twice the size of the pages of the book 
itself. These notes were added to from time to time down to 
the year 1907, if not later, and they formed the matter of his 
lectures. Already in 1893 he began to publish them in The 
Journal of Philology, but the publication never went beyond 
the end of the fifth chapter. 

After his death on December 1, 1910, his executors considered 
the advisability of publishing the whole of the notes, and 
honoured me with the request to edit them for publication. 
I had heard the lectures throughout two or more terms of my 
undergraduate period at Cambridge, and had been profoundly 
influenced by them. I therefore felt it binding on me to 
suspend my own work and perform this act of pietas. 

The executors first arranged with Mr E. S. Payne of Clifton, 
Bristol, for a copy of the notes as a basis for the proposed 
publication. Though the Professor s handwriting is beautifully 
clear, it is at the same time so microscopic that this was no 
light task to perform. Mr Payne also verified many of the 
references, and appended a number of useful remarks on the 
notes themselves. 

It may be at once admitted that only the Professor himself, 
or some one equally learned, could edit these notes in a satis 
factory manner. I am fully conscious of my own unfitness 
for the task, which has been very heavy. I have felt it necessary 
to compare Mr Payne s copy with the original MS, in which 
work I received valued help from the friend of thirty years, 
Mr James Taylor of the Aberdeen Centre for the Training of 
Teachers; but this is only part of what was required. I have 
had to put the notes in correct sequence, to reduce to order 
the somewhat chaotic state of the references and quotations 
within the notes themselves, to supply references never filled 



vi PREFACE 

in, and to cut out references or quotations given twice in the 
same note. I have brought the references to the works of 
Tertullian that have appeared in the Vienna edition, into 
conformity with that edition, as the Professor himself would 
have wished. In the few cases where references have in some 
way baffled me, I have placed a point of interrogation within 
brackets as a danger signal. It is not often that I have added 
anything of my own. When this has been done, I felt sure 
that Prof. Mayor himself would have made the addition prior 
to publication. Such additions are enclosed within square 
brackets, and the editor s initials are appended. 

The notes were not intended by their author to constitute 
a complete commentary, but rather to form a useful supplement 
to those already published, such as Havercamp s and Oehler s. 
They provide, however, so vast a body of illustration, both 
of the subject-matter and of the language of the Apology, that 
not only are they to be regarded as a commentary, but as by 
far the best commentary ever published. Nevertheless, as 
Tertullian is the most difficult of all Latin prose writers, and 
the notes are not of a type intended for schoolboys, it has 
been deemed advisable to add an English translation of the 
text. This translation has had the inestimable advantage of 
thorough revision by the veteran brother of the commentator, 
Emeritus-Professor Joseph B. Mayor, of King s College, London, 
who has spared no pains to make the whole book as perfect as 
possible. 

The Provost of King s, Dr M. R. James, has given kind 
help in cases of extreme difficulty. I am also indebted to my 
assistant, Mr Robert Weir, formerly of Pembroke College, 
Oxford, for help in the reading of the proofs and the verifi 
cation of references. Nor must I forget the extreme care of 
the press readers. 

Prof. Mayor s introduction, with the notes on chapters I 
to V, has been reprinted from The Journal of Philology by kind 
permission of the editors. I have ventured to add a biblio 
graphy of the chief works on Tertullian. which have appeared 
since that article was published. I have also compiled the index. 

A. SOUTER. 

THE UNIVERSITY, 
ABERDEEN. 

22nd November, 1916. 



CONTENTS 

PAGE 

PREFACE . . v vi 

ADDENDA ET CORRIGENDA . . . . . viii 

INTRODUCTION ix xx 

TEXT 2146 

TRANSLATION . 3147 

NOTES ON READINGS. . . . . . . 148 

NOTES . 149486 

INDEX 487496 



ADDENDA ET CORRIGENDA 

page 13, line 24. For It is read * Is it, and add ? at end of sentence. 
16 v , 7. Read damnandi. 
19 30. For * the emperor read a general. 
,. 43. For in read on. 
.., 21 4. Omit could have. 
27 ., 8. For their divine character is preserved read the divine 

is kept in reserve. 

.., 131 ,, 18, For equanimity read -endurance. 
135 ,. 12. For commentators read gar biers. 
237 ,, 18. A full stop should be placed after 2, and Hav. separated 

from it. 

279 6. Mr R. Weir has found the reference to be xi 13. 
287 12. The reference to John 16, 13 should be added, and 

cf. C. H. Turner in Journ. Theol. Stud, xiv (1912-13), 

p. 563. His article Tertullianea. I, pp. 556-564, 

was accidentally omitted from the Bibliograplry. 
297 5. The reference is wrong. 
311 19. After 13 add 1. 
,, 313 24. Add another example of pascua (sing.), Gen. 47, 4 (in 

Lyons Heptateuch). 
320 35. For vn read 7. 
322 21. Before* 163 add 97. 
325 ,. 1. The passage of Prudentius Peris teph. intended is x 919-920. 

The Vincent. intended is perhaps Vincent of Beauvais. 
332 5. Omit n. 

, 38. There should be a space between Plin. and inscr. 
337 10. For 7 7 read 4 8. For 7 3 read 13 13. 
373 13. Delete ? 
405 29. For * OBA read ORO. 

429 8. Add [add Aug. Serm. 393, Ps.- Aug. Serm. 261, 3. A.S.]. 
450 28f. lexx. etc. refer to SCRVPVLOSITAS, line 16. 
465 , 27. For 22 read 23. 



INTRODUCTION 

In my Bibliographical Clue to Latin Literature (Cambr. 

1875, pp. 163 6) I collected the titles of the principal editions 
of Tertullian, and of works or essays published in illustration 
of him and his writings. I now add : 

J. P. Condamin, De Q. S. F. Tertulliano, uexatae religionis 
patrono, et praecipuo apud Latinos Christianae linguae artifice. 
Bar-le-Duc 1877. 8vo. 

Q. S. F. T. libellus de spectaculis. Ad cod. Agobardinum 
denuo collatum recensuit, adnotationes criticas nouas addidit 
Ern. Klussmann. Lips. 1877. Large 8vo. 

id. Adnotationes crit. ad Tert. de spect. in Gymnasium 
lenense ipsis Non. Oct. anni 1876 bonis litteris dedicandum 
pientissimis notis prosequuntur Director et Collegae Gymnasii 
Rudolphopolitani. Rudolphopoli, Froebel. (Reviewed by H. 
Ronsch in Liter. Centralblatt, 31 March 1877.) 

Is. Pelet, Essai sur 1 apologetique de Tertullien. Strasb. 
1868. 8vo. Keim, Die Zeit des T. apol. in his Aus dem 
Urchristenthum i (Zurich 1878) 1748. In the Zeitschr. f. 
oest. Gymn. 1869, pp. 348368 W. Hartel reviewed Ebert s 
dissertation on Tertullian s relation to Minucius Felix. 

The same Hartel in his Patristische Studien I (Wien, 
Tempsky, 1890, pp. 58. 8vo) wrote : Zu Tert. de spect. de idol. 

Dr Ernst Noeldechen, who in 1890 published : Tert. darge- 
stellt von E. N. Gotha, Perthes. 8vo, pp. viii 496 ; also wrote 
in Brieger s Zeitschr. f. Kirchengeschichte XI, on Tert. de cor., 
and many other essays on this father in other periodicals. 

Dr Aug. Oxe, Prolegomena de carmine aduersus Marcionitas. 
Leipz. Fock. 1888. 8vo, pp. 51. Cf. Ztschr. f. wiss. Theol. 

1876, pp. 113120, 154158. 

R. A. Lipsius, Die Quellen der altesten Ketzergeschichte, 
Leipz. 1875, pp. 6483. 

a5 



x INTRODUCTION 

G. R. Hauschild, Die Grundsatze und Mittel der Sprach-. 

bildung bei Tertullian. Leipz. 1876. 4to. The same : Tertul- 

lians Psychologic und Erkenntnisstheorie. Frankf. 1880. 4 to. 

P. Schwenk, Uber die Zeit des Minucius Felix (Jahrbb. f. 

prot. Theol. 1883 n. 2). 

Fr. Wilhelm, De Minucii Felicis Octauio et Tertulliani 
apologetico. Bresl. Philol. Abhandl. 1887. 

The first part of the Vienna edition of Tertullian, prepared 
by ReifTerscheid, appeared, completed by Wissowa, in 1890, but 
it does not contain the Apology; however it is so far helpful 
that it gives an instalment of cognate pieces, spect., idol., ad 
nat., test. an. 

[The third part of the Vienna edition of Tertullian, edited 
by Emil Kroymann, appeared in 1906. It contains pat., 
earn, resurr., adu. Hermog., adu. Val., adu. omn. haer., adu. 
Prax., adu. Marc, (see Eb. Nestle in Philologus, LXVII (1908), 
477 479). The second and fourth parts, to be edited by E. 
Kroymann and H. Hoppe, are as yet (1916) unpublished. A.S.] 
See Engelmann, Bibliotheca Scriptorum Classicorum. 8th 
ed. by E. Preuss. n 1882, pp. 663666, and TeufM-Schwabe, 
Gesch. d. rom. Lit. 5 373. 

[J. Schmidt, Ein Beitrag zur Chronologie der Schriften 
Tertullian s und der Proconsuln von Afrika (Rheinisches 
Museum, XLVI (1891), 7798). 

A. Harnack, Die griechische Uebersetzung des Apologeticus 
Tertullian s (Texte und Untersuchungen, vm 4), Leipzig, 1892. 
M. Klussmann, Excerpta Tertullianea in Isidori Hispalensis 
Etymologiis, Hamburg, 1892. 

A. Harnack, Geschichte der altchristl. Lit. bis Eusebius, i, 
Leipzig, 1893, 667687, n (2), Leipzig, 1904, 256296. 

E. Noeldechen, Tertullians Gegen die Juden, auf Einheit, 
Echtheit und Entstehung gepriift (Texte und L T ntersuchungen, 
xii 2), Leipzig, 1894. 

M. Schanz, Die Abfassungszeit des Octavius des Minucius 
Felix (Rheinisches Museum, L (1895), 114136). 
H. Gomperz, Tertullianea, Vienna, 1895. 
E. Norden, De Minucii Felicis aetate et genere dicendi, 
Oreifswald, 1897, 



INTRODUCTION xi 

K. Holl, Tertullian als Schriftsteller (Preussische Jahrbiicher, 
LXXXVIII (1897), 262278). 

E. Kroymann, Die Tertullianiiberlieferimg in Italien (Sit- 
zungsberichte d. kaiserl. Akad. in Wien, cxxxvni (3), 1898). 

P. Monceaux, Chronologic des oeuvres de Tertullien (Revue 
de Philologie, xxn (1898), 7792). 

E. Kroymann, Kritische Vorarbeiten fur den 3. und 4. Band 
der neuen Tertullian- Ausgabe (Sitzungsberichte d. kais. Akad. 
in Wien, CXLIII (6), 1901). 

A. Ehrhard, Die altchristliche Literatur und ihre Erforschung, 
v. 18841900, Freiburg, 1901. 

F. Kotek, Anklange an Ciceros De Natura Deorum bei 
Minucius Felix und Tertullian, Vienna, 1901. 

P. Monceaux, Histoire litteraire de FAfrique chretienne, 
i, Tertullien et les Origines, Paris, 1901. 

H. Waitz, Die pseudotertullianische Gedicht adv. Marcionem, 
Darmstadt, 1901. 

C. Callewaert, Le Codex Fuldensis, le meilleur ms. de 
I Apologeticum de Tertullien (Revue d Histoire et de Litterature 
Religieuses, vn (1902), 322353). 

H. Hoppe, Syntax und Stil des Tertullian, Leipzig, 1903. 

0. Bardenhewer, Geschichte der altkirchlichen Literatur, 
n, Freiburg i. B. 1903, 332394. 

S. Turmel, Tertullien (La Pensee Chretienne), Paris, 1904. 

M. Schanz, Geschichte der romischen Literatur, 3. Teil, 
2 Aufl. Munich, 1905, 280351. 

A. d Ales, La Theologie de Tertullien, Paris, 1905. 

A. Engelbrecht, Neue lexikalische und semasiologische 
Beitrage aus Tertullian (Wiener Studien, xxvm (1906), 142 
159). 

G. Rauschen, Tertulliani Apologetici Recensio Nova, Bonn, 
1906 (ed. alt. 1912). 

A. Souter, A Tenth-Century Fragment of Tertullian s 
Apology (Journal of Theological Studies, vm (19061907), 
297300). 

H. Goelzer, Le Style de Tertullien (Journal des Savants 
(1907), 202211). 

R. Heinze, Tertullians Apologeticum, Leipzig, 1910. 



xii INTRODUCTION 

P. Henen, Index verborum quae Tertulliani apologetico 
continentur, Louvain and Paris, 1910 (from Musee Beige, vols. 

XIII, XIV, XV). 

J. P. Waltzing, L Apologetique de Tertullien...Traduction 
litterale suivie d un commentaire historique, Louvain, 191 1 1 . 

A. Bill, Zur Erklarung und Textkritik des 1. Buchs Ter- 
tullians Adv. Marc. (Texte und Untersuchungen, xxxvni, 2), 
Leipzig, 1911. 

J. P. Waltzing, Les trois principaux MSS de 1 Apologetique 
de Tertullien (Musee Beige, xvi (1912), 181241). 

H. Schrors, Zur Textgeschichte und Erklarung von Ter- 
tullians Apologetikum (Texte und Untersuchungen, XL, 4), 
Leipzig, 1914. 

E. Lofstedt, Tertullian s Apologeticum textkritisch unter- 
sucht. Lund and Leipzig, 1915. 

J. Moffatt, The Theology of Tertullian (intended for publi 
cation in 1916). 

See R. Klussmann, Bibliotheca Scriptorum Classicorum et 
Graecorum et Latinorum, n (2), Leipzig, 1913, 280287, and 
Teuffel, Gesch. d. rom. Lit. 6 , Leipz. 1913, 373. A. S.] 

To scholars whose reading is confined to the handful of 
writers, barely filling a single shelf, which are counted as Latin 
classics, I would venture to offer a few reasons for following 
Scaliger, Casaubon, Gataker, Bentley, Wasse, Haupt, Bernays, 
in widening their ken to the entire range of Latin authors, of 
whatever creed or profession, down to the contemporaries of 
Bede and Alcuin. Even such a self-taught giant as Madvig 
often shews pitiable weakness from the limits to which he 
restricted himself 2 . 

When a Greek or Roman philosopher or rhetorician became 
a Christian (fiunt, non nascuntur Christiani), he did not at once 
forget all the learning of the past. A very large part of what 

1 Has a large bibliography on pp. 336 356. 

2 At the Leyden tercentenary Madvig told me that he had read no Greek 
or Latin theological author but Josephus, and that only for information 
respecting ancient warfare. He was however a diligent student of the New 
Testament, as may be seen by his copy in the Cambridge Divinity Library. 



INTRODUCTION xiii 

we know of ancient religion, a very large number of perfectly 
classical words, have been preserved to us only by the fathers 1 . 
Look at the fragments of Seneca, collect the fragments of 
Varro, and you will see that it is not safe to say to Christian 
authors: non licet esse uos. I have found abundant evidence 
in patristic Greek and Latin for many words known to the 
lexicons only by citations in glossaries. Ronsch, Paucker, 
Georges, supply students of Romance languages with hundreds 
of words hitherto unregistered, the parents of a numerous 
Italian, Spanish, French progeny. 

Again, many of the chief classics, as Pindar and Thucydides, 
are very difficult 2 , or (as tragic choruses) very corrupt. Many of 
the fathers write very simply, and might serve admirably for 
the neglected discipline of the ear; even as Cicero and the 
younger Pliny pursued their studies by the aid of readers. It 
is certain that an entire volume of either Chrysostom (Dio to 
name a heathen or John) could be read carefully in shorter 
time than is spent on the study of the few hundred lines of the 
Agamemnon. And the path through the former would be all 
luminous, through the latter dark with corruptions and conjec 
tures and despairing interpretations. Many of the best scholars, 
as in England Pearson, John Davies, Wasse (much of whose 
work remains in manuscript), Routh, Kaye, F. Field, Chr. 
Wordsworth, Lightfoot, have devoted their best energies to the 
elucidation of the fathers. As a rule patristic and biblical texts 
are preserved in earlier manuscripts than those of heathen 
classics ; so that palaeographers must necessarily sit at the feet 
of divines. 

For the order of study, I would say : Leave to the infallible 
oracles of monthly magazines sweeping hypotheses, no whit less 
hazardous than those of Father Hardouin. First become 
thoroughly familiar with the ancients themselves, before you 

1 In the Journal of Classical and Sacred Philology n (Cambr. 1855) 82 
I shewed that liic esto (also hie sum) the correlative of the istic sum ( I am 
with you, i.e. I am attending ) of Cicero and Terence, is to be gleaned from 
Augustine. 

2 This remark was once made to me by Mr By water. He said: "one 
could read a very large part of such a writer as Plutarch, in the time that is 
occupied on the small volume of Thucydides." 



xiv INTRODUCTION 

listen to guesses about them It is characteristic of the sobriety 
of Englishmen, that our scholars, as Lardner, Routh, Kaye, 
Clinton, Lightfoot, have followed in the modest steps of Tille- 
mont, content to collect evidence for the reader s information, 
not without a guiding clue. 

A once popular book, of solid but unobtrusive learning, now 
forgotten 1 , by an accomplished Cambridge scholar (Biography 
of the Early Church. By R. W. Evans. 2nd ed. London 1859. 
2 vols. sm. 8vo), if read with the authorities cited in the notes, 
will form an excellent introduction to patristic study. Listen to 
this character of Tertullian s apology (i 336 8) : 

Its power is far superior to that of any former defence. Tertullian 
not only surpassed his predecessors in information and talent, but 
was peculiarly fitted by temper to treat such a subject. No one 
could express in such forcible language the indignant sense of in 
justice, or represent its detail in a more lively manner. None could 
press his arguments so closely, and few had so learned an acquaintance 
with heathenism, and could expose its follies with more bitter sarcasm 
(Apol. 42), or whip its wickedness with a heavier lash (Apol. 35). 
The subject too, while it gave free scope to the range of his argu 
mentative powers, neither allured him, nor compelled him to sophis 
tical subtilties. The free and elastic vigour of a mind that had still 
half its strength in reserve pervades the composition ; and if we put 
the mere mechanism of style out of the question, and consider the 
copiousness, the variety, the interest of the matter, the skilmlness 
of selection of topics, and the powerful grasp with which they are 
handled, together with the greatness of the occasion, it will not be 
too much to say, that it is the noblest oration among all which 
antiquity has left us.... In what a state of mind do we rise up from 
it! Its brilliant pictures are glowing before our eyes, its deep tone 
of declamation is sounding in our ears, its imploring, its condemning, 
its expostulating accents have touched our feelings to the quick.... 
Heaven and hell have been moved, and have entered into a mortal 
struggle, of which we are now enjoying the fruits, in a victory which 
has decided the fate of mankind for all eternity. What literary 
gew-gaws do the finest orations of Cicero and Demosthenes appear 

1 Dr Thompson once lamented to me the change of taste for the worse: 
"When you wanted to make a present to a young lady, that was the kind of 
book to give: but now they take no interest in such things." 



INTRODUCTION xv 

after this ! How do we put them away as childish things, and feel 
ashamed that we should set such value on the vituperative filth 
which is poured forth upon Aeschines and Antony, political rivals 
on the narrow stage of a corner of this little world. 

I believe that of those who have really grappled with 
Tertullian s difficulties, few will challenge this verdict of a 
most competent judge. 

I can conceive few more valuable aids to classical scholar 
ship than a digest, not on the plan of the Dutch uariorum 
editors, nor yet on the scissors-and-paste plan of Dindorf, of 
all that is permanently valuable in commentaries and miscel 
laneous remarks on the Christian apologists, say to 500 A.D. 
The work should appear by itself, and would have a permanent 
value, whatever manuscripts might spring to light. Critics and 
commentators should be read in order of time and each allowed 
credit for his contributions I would not ruthlessly clip away 
even the biographical confidences with which old scholars en 
livened their learning ; no quotation should be repeated, but 
the entire composite note should be fused into unity, references 
being reduced to one uniform pattern. Each special subject, as 
the calumny about Thyestean feasts, should be exhausted in 
some one note, and cross references given. The editor would 
be in excellent company for some years, and would learn some 
thing of the meaning of catholic communion, as he forgathered 
with the Spanish Jesuit La Cerda, the French jurists Didier 
Herauld (Heraldus) and Nic. Rigault, with Le Nourry and Tille- 
mont and Ceillier, Mosheim and Semler, Oehler and Ebert. 
Kaye and Blunt 1 and Pusey 2 , Neander and Oehler (sic) and 
Bohringer and Noldechen 3 . Perhaps no two men ever more 
thoroughly mastered every detail in the field of the early apolo- 

1 Right Use of the Early Fathers. Here p. 432 Lightfoot might have 
found, cited from Theoph. ad Autol. I 1 f., a far more apt parallel to Philem. 11 , 
than that which he cites from c. 12 of the same book. 

2 Notes (ascribed by Kaye to Dodgson) on Dodgson s excellent translation 
in the Library of the Fathers. It is interesting to learn that the citations 
in these notes were verified by one who left us, J. B. Morris. 

3 On this latest monograph see Liidemann in Theol. Jahresber. hrsg. v. R. A. 
Lipsius, x, 1891, pp. 128 9. Lipsius, alas, is no more, but this annual, of 
unrivalled excellence, is continued by his Jena colleagues. 



xvi INTRODUCTION 

gists than Le Nourry (whose Apparatus, Par. 1715, is reprinted 
in Migne and in Oehler) and Christian Kortholt (15 Jan. 
163f 31 March 1694), whose Paganus obtrectator (Kiel 
1698 4to, 2nd ed. Lubeck 1703 4to), comment, on lust. M., 
Athenag., Theophil., Tatian (ibid. 1675 fol. profundae erudi- 
tionis, says Walch); de persecutionibus ecclesiae primaeuae 5 
(Kiel 1689 4to) and other works (see the Bodleian catalogue 
and Joecher) are in my judgement still necessary to the student. 
If Mr Carstens, in a slight article in the Allg. deutsche Bio 
graphic xvi (Leipz. 1882) 726 says that K. s books "have been 
long overtaken by the advance of science and have no longer 
any importance," I comfort myself by the remembrance that 
this Biography is weakest in the lives and works of scholars. 
I should like to cross-examine Mr Carstens on Kortholt. 
Of works on the other apologists that of Semisch on Justin 
and Keim s Celsus, are, so far as I know, the most helpful. 

Beside printed sources, my ideal editor should inquire for 
manuscripts 1 . My mouth watered when I read Blunt s casual 

1 [May I again call attention to the fact that there is a tenth-century MS 
of chapters 38, 39 and part of 40 of the Apologeticus in the Kantons-Bibliothek 
at Zurich (Rheinau xcv), which is closely related to the lost Fulda MS (Journal 
of Theological Studies, vin (19061907), pp. 297300)? This fact has been 
overlooked by Rauschen and others. Also, why has it been left to me to point 
out that the MS containing "Tertulliani Quaedam," alluded to by Oehler, 
vol. i, p. xxi, after Montfaucon Bibl. bibl. torn, i, p. 1134, as in the catalogue 
of the library of St Germain-des-Pres, and doubtless identical with the MS of 
the Apologeticus at Petrograd, also alluded to by Oehler (p. xii), is still as a 
matter of fact at Petrograd (Q. v. 1, No. 40), having been brought there by 
Peter Dubrowsky? It is of the ninth century, is probably the oldest existing 
MS of the Apologeticus, and is mentioned in K. Gillert s catalogue, printed in 
the Neues Archiv, v (1880), 241265, 597617, vi (1881), 497512, and 
described (with a photograph of one page) in A. Staerk, Les Manuscrits Latins 
du V e au XIII e Siecle conserve s a la Bibliothegue Imperial?, de Saint-Peter -sbourg 
(2 tomes, St Petersbourg, 1910), Tome i, p. 130, Tome n, planche 57. Further, 
Kroymann, the new Vienna editor of Tertullian, is entirely ignorant of the 
Luxemburg MS of Tertullian, no. 75 (saec. xv ex.), though it appears to have 
been used by Semler, and a catalogue of the Luxemburg collection was published 
in 1894. The MS contains earn. Chr., earn, resurr., cor. mil., mart., paenit., 
uirg. uel., hab. mul., cult.. fern., ad ux. i and n, de fug. in pers., Soap., exh. 
cast., monog., pall., pat. Dei (sic), adu. Prax., adu. Val., adu. Marc., adu. lud., 
adu. omn. haer., praescr. her., adu. Hermog. The contents thus bear a striking 
resemblance to those of certain Italian MSS, e.g.Vat.Urb.64 (saec. xv), described 
by Kroymann in the first article mentioned on p. xi, pp. 4, 5. A. S.] 



INTRODUCTION xvii 

remark that Rigault s glossary is convenient for annotation. 
This book and Blunt s manuscript lectures on the early fathers 
should certainly be secured for the university which he adorned. 
The Germans are no doubt the most active workers in the 
patristic vineyard; but how few of them are scholars like 
Burton or Blunt, Kaye or Field! 

LANGUAGE. 

Of existing glossaries to Tertullian, those of Rigault, 
Semler (also in Migne) and (the best) Oehler, all are necessary. 
[The language of Tertullian, so far as comprised in the two 
already published volumes of the Vienna edition, has been 
completely recorded on slips for the Thesaurus Linguae Latinae. 
A complete index to the Apologeticus has been made by Henen : 
see the additions to the Bibliography. A. S.] General lexicons 
of independent value are Faber 1 (best ed. by Leichius, Francof. 
1749, fol.), a favorite with Dr Westcott; Rob. Stephens (ed. 
Gesner, 4 vols. 1749; the ed. of Ant. Birr, Basil. 1740, fol. 
4 vols., has inedited notes of Henry Stephens) ; Forcellini, 
two editions of which are still incomplete, that by De Vit 
(lexicon and glossary and a large part of the valuable Ono- 
masticon have appeared), and that by Corradini (incorporating 
Klotz) ; Scheller (3rd ed. Leipz. 18045, 5 vols. 8vo ; I have 
Madvig s copy), translated, without the instructive and pathetic 
preface, by Riddle for the Oxford Press (fol.) ; Klotz ; (Freund s 
book, which has supplied the basis of ninety-nine hundredths 
of the lexicons sold in England for many years, is, after the 
letter C, a most careless compilation from Forcellini) ; and, 
fullest of all in vocabulary, and necessary as a supplement 
even to Forcellini, Georges. [This honour now belongs to 
Nouveau Dictionnaire Latin- Frangais...pa,i E. Benoist et H. 
Goelzer, Paris 1893, for the whole alphabet, to the 8th edition 
of Georges by his son H. Georges, Hannover and Leipzig, 
1912 1916, for three quarters, and to the Thesaurus Linguae 
Latinae, Leipzig, 1900 ff., for A Dimico, F Familia. A. S.] 

1 Of Faber, Gesner, Forcellini, Scheller, I said something in the Journal 
of Classical and Sacred Philology n (Cambr. 1855), 277290. 



xviii INTRODUCTION 

Of the adaptations of Freund I have for many years employed 
two copies of Kiddle- White, and (of late) two copies of Lewis- 
Short, as a basis for annotations; but young scholars, who 
use a lexicon not so much to add to or correct its statements, 
as to learn the usage of the language, ought to employ Gesner 
or Forcellini or Scheller habitually. For a portion of the 
alphabet (from D K) by far the completest storehouse is the 
Thesaurus der klassischen Latinitat, begun by Georges, and 
continued from D onwards by Gustav Miihlmann (Leipz. 
185468). 

Any of the old Latin-English lexicons, from Cooper to the 
complete editions of Ainsworth, give far more racy, homespun 
English for the Latin words, than the books which now com 
mand the market. Lewis-Short has an improved orthography 
and some additions from Georges and various commentaries; 
also a few articles (e.g. cum conj. and prep., sui, suus) are care 
fully and independently executed; but in some points the 
changes from Riddle- White are for the worse. 

In the Bibliographical Clue to Latin Literature I recorded 
under each author the then aids (indexes cet.) to the study of 
his language; it is well to remember that the Delphin 
classics (Valpy s reprint is very accurate, and adds many useful 
commentaries to the original quartos) and also Lemaire s supply 
complete indexes to many authors. Merguet is about half way 
through the Herculean task of a concordance to Cicero; he 
and others have brought out three rival lexicons to Caesar: 
Teubner s press is engaged on lexicons to Livy and Tacitus 1 . 
In Teubner s bibliotheca some authors, chiefly technical, as 
Cassius Felix, lulius Valerius cet., are furnished with indexes. 
The Berlin Monumenta Germaniae historica and the Vienna 
library of the fathers have indeed indexes, but in many cases 
by no means exhaustive ; e.g. not Reifferscheid, but Forcellini, 
informs us that the rare word bacula (dim. of baca) occurs 
thrice in Arnobius. Of late years the French have returned to 
the field in which they reigned supreme in the 16th and 17th 

1 [Fiigner s Lexicon Limanum advanced no farther than B, but Gerber 
and Greef s Lexicon Taciteum is complete. The Scriptores Historiae Augustae 
have been done by Lessing, and other authors by others. A. S.] 



INTRODUCTION xix 

centuries. Thus : Henri Goelzer, fitude lexicographique et 
grammaticale de la Latinite de Saint Jerome (Paris, Hachette, 
1884), and (a perfect model in its way) Max Bonnet, Le Latin 
de Gregoire de Tours (ibid. 1890). The Archiv fur lat. 
Lexikographie, published since 1884 by Teubner, has, thanks to 
the self-sacrifice of the publisher and the editor Ed. WolfHin, 
done a great work in surveying the whole field of Latin letters, 
and training readers to gather in the whole mass of Latin words. 
There too may be seen reviews of all new books and articles 
bearing on the subject. 

There is yet an opening for two lexicons, of moderate 
compass, but of great value to critics, lexicographers and 
grammarians. 

(A) We possess two lexicons of terminations in Greek, but, 
to my knowledge, none in Latin. [The want was supplied in 
1904 by 0. Gradenwitz, Later uli Vocum Latinarum: Voces 
Latinas et a fronte et a tergo ordinandas curauit (Leipzig). A. S.] 
I refer to: (I) Henrici Hoogeveen, opus postumum exhibens 
dictionarium analogicum linguae graecae (Cambr. typis acad. 
1800. 4to), a book recommended by the late Dr Thompson ; 
and (II) Etymologisches Worterbuch der griechischen Sprache 
zur Uebersicht der Wortbildung nach den Endsylben geordnet 
von Dr Wilhelm Pape (Berl. 1836, 8vo). 

(B) Faber and Gesner frequently record under one word 
other words with which it is liable to be confounded by scribes ; 
they also cite lexicographical collections in commentaries and 
journals. Whoever has traced with attention the course of 
lexicography knows that almost every word well treated by any 
lexicon owes its good fortune to some exhaustive note of N. 
Heins, or J. F. Gronov, or Bentley cet. The indexes to such 
books as Drakenborch s Livy and Duker s Florus will shew how 
the thing should be done. To go down the whole course of 
classical learning, from such treasuries as Gruter s Fax 
Artium, to the aduersaria of Madvig and the lectiones of 
Cobet, would be the making of any young scholar. 

The most useful commentary, on the whole, is Oehler s. 
Herauld also and Rigault should be read, and Dr Pusey. La 
Cerda is copious in parallels. Pamelius takes a polemical 



XX 



INTRODUCTION 



rather than a literary interest in his author, but his index of 
things is the completest of all; Rigault also and Oehler are 
good. Kaye, Ebert (literary history) and Bohringer will well 
repay the labour of perusal. 

My notes are not exhaustive, but are intended chiefly as a 
supplement to earlier commentaries. May they prove that there 
is much in Tert. of interest to any student, though no more of 
a technical theologian than was Jakob Bernays. 



TERTVLLIANI APOLOGETICVS 



TERTVLLIANI APOLOGETICVS 

1. Si non licet uobis, Romani imperii antistites, in aperto 
et edito, in ipso fere uertice ciuitatis praesidentibus ad iudi- 
candum palam dispicere et coram examinare quid sit liquido in 
causa Christianorum, si ad hanc solam speciem auctoritas 
uestra de iustitiae diligentia in publico aut timet aut erubescit 5 
inquirere, si denique, quod proxime accidit, domesticis iudiciis 
nimis operata infestatio sectae huius obstruit defensioni, liceat 
ueritati uel occulta uia tacitarum litterarum ad aures uestras 
peruenire. Nihil de causa sua deprecatur, quia nee de con- 
dicione miratur. Scit se peregrinam in terris agere, inter 10 
extraneos facile inimicos inuenire, ceterum genus, sedem, 
spem, gratiam, dignitatem in caelis habere. Unum gestit 
interdum, ne ignorata damnetur. Quid hie deperit legibus in 
suo regno dominantibus, si audiatur ? An hoc magis gloriabitur 
potestas eorum, quo etiam auditam damnabunt ueritatem? 15 
Ceterum inauditam si damnent, praeter inuidiam iniquitatis 
etiam suspicionem merebuntur alicuius conscientiae, nolentes 
audire quod auditum damnare non possint. Hanc itaque 
primam causam apud uos collocamus iniquitatis odii erga 
nomen Christianorum. Quam iniquitatem idem titulus et 20 
onerat et reuincit qui uidetur excusare, ignorantia scilicet. 
Quid enim iniquius, quam ut oderint homines quod ignorant, 
etiam si res meretur odium? Tune etenim meretur, cum 
cognoscitur an mereatur. Vacante autem meriti notitia, unde 



TERTULLIAN S DEFENCE OF THE CHRISTIANS 
AGAINST THE HEATHEN 

CHAP. I. If it is not permitted even to you, who are the 
governors of the Roman Empire, seated on a lofty and con 
spicuous tribunal, which I might almost call the very summit of 
our state ; if, I say, even you may not openly investigate and 
judge in the presence of both parties, what are the real facts in 
the case of the Christians ; if in this instance alone your authority 
is either afraid or ashamed to make public inquiry with regard 
to the scrupulous observance of justice; if, finally, as has 
recently happened, the persecution of this sect, having been 
too much exercised in trials connected with households, has 
blocked up the way to defence , then let the truth be permitted 
to reach your ears, if only by the hidden path of silent literature- 
She asks no mercy in her case, because she does not feel any 
surprise either as to her circumstances. She knows that her 
part is that of a foreigner upon earth, that amongst aliens she 
easily finds enemies, while she has her race, her home, hope, 
welcome and honour in heaven. One thing only does she 
eagerly desire in the meantime, namely that she be not con 
demned without being known. What loss is herein inflicted on 
the laws, which are absolute masters in their own realm, if she 
should be heard ? Or will this make them boast all the more of 
their power, in that they condemn the truth even when they 
have heard it? Further, if they should condemn it unheard, 
besides the odium attached to unfair dealing, they will also earn 
the suspicion of a certain complicity, by their refusal to hear 
what, if heard, they could not condemn. This then is the first 
proof that we lay before you of the injustice of your hatred 
towards the name of Christian. This unfairness is at once 
exaggerated and refuted by the same plea that seems to excuse 
it, namely ignorance. For what could be more unfair than that 
men should hate that of which they know nothing, even if the 
fact deserve this hatred? For then only does the fact deserve 
hatred, when it is already ascertained whether it deserves it. 
In default of the knowledge of its deserts, whence can the justice 

12 



4 TERTVLLIANI 

odii iustitia defenditur, quae non de euentu, sed de conscientia 
probanda est? Cum ergo propterea oderunt homines, quia 
ignorant quale sit quod oderunt, cur non liceat eiusmodi illud 
esse, quod non debeant odisse? Ita utrumque ex alterutro 
redarguimus, et ignorare illos, dum oderunt, et iniuste odisse, 5 
dum ignorant. Testimonium ignorantiae est, quae iniquitatem 
dum excusat, condemnat, cum omnes qui retro oderant, quia 
ignorabant quale sit quod oderant, simul desinunt ignorare, 
cessant et odisse. Ex his fiunt Christiani, utique de conperto, 
et incipiunt odisse quod fuerant, et profiteri quod oderant, et 10 
sunt tanti quanti et denotamur. Obsessam uociferantur 
ciuitatem ; in agris, in castellis, in insulis Christianos ; omnem 
sexum, aetatem, condicionem, etiam dignitatem transgredi ad 
hoc nomen quasi detrimento maerent, nee tamen hoc modo ad 
aestimationem alicuius latentis boni promouent animos. Non 15 
licet rectius suspicari, non libet propius experiri. Hie tantum 
curiositas humana torpescit. Amant ignorare, cum alii gau- 
deant cognouisse. Quanto magis hos Anacharsis denotasset 
inprudentes de prudentibus iudicantes quam inmusicos de 
musicis ! Malunt nescire, quia iam oderunt. Adeo quod 20 
nesciant praeiudicant id esse quod, si sciant, odisse non poterant, 
quando, si nullum odii debitum deprehendatur, optimum 
utique sit desinere iniuste odisse, si uero de merito constet, non 
modo nihil odii detrahatur, sed amplius adquiratur ad per- 
seuerantiam, etiam iustitiae ipsius auctoritate. Sed non ideo, 25 
inquit, bonum, quia multos conuertit: quanti enim ad malum 
performantur ? quanti transfugae in peruersum? Quis negat? 
tamen quod uere malum est, ne ipsi quidem, quos rapit, 
defendere pro bono audent. Omne malurn aut timore aut 
pudore natura perfudit. Denique malefici gestiunt latere, 30 
deuitant apparere, trepidant deprehensi, negant accusati, ne 
torti quidem facile aut semper confitentur, certe damnati 
maerent. Dinumerant in semetipsos mentis malae impetus, 



APOLOGETICVS 1 



of hatred be defended, seeing that it is to be tested not by the 
verdict passed but by a good conscience? When therefore men 
hate because they do not know the character of what they hate, 
what is to hinder the thing hated from being of the sort they 
ought not to hate ? So we refute either position from the other, 
showing that in hating they do not know, and that in not 
knowing, their hatred is unjust. It is an evidence of the 
ignorance, which, while it is made the excuse, is really the 
condemnation of injustice, when all who hated in the past, 
because they did not know the character of that which they 
hated, cease to hate as soon as they cease to be ignorant. It 
is from this class that Christians are produced, of course from 
conviction, and begin to hate what they had been, and to pro 
fess what they hated, and are indeed as numerous as we who 
are branded with that name. They cry aloud that the state 
is besieged : that (even) in the country-districts, in the (walled) 
villages, in the islands, you will find Christians. They mourn 
as for a loss that all, without distinction of sex, age, circumstances, 
or even position, are deserting to this name. And yet even in 
this very way they do not carry on their minds to the appraise 
ment of some good hidden therein ; they do not care 1 to form 
a truer conjecture upon a closer inquiry, they have no pleasure 
in trying it at closer quarters. In this sphere alone is human 
curiosity apathetic; they delight to be ignorant, while others 
rejoice to have learned. How much more severely would 
Anacharsis have condemned these men, as specimens of the 
unwise judging the wise, than as the unmusical judging the 
musical ! They had rather be ignorant, because they already 
hate; such a strong suspicion have they that what they are 
ignorant of is that which, if they knew it, they could not hate ; 
since, if no duty to hate were discovered, it would of course be 
best to cease to hate unjustly, but if there were no doubt as to 
desert, not only would there be no withdrawal of hatred, but 
persistence would gain greater force, even through the sanction 
of justice itself. But it is not therefore good, they say, because 
it makes many converts : for how many are fashioned for evil ! 
how many deserters are there to what is wrong ? Who denies 
it? Yet what is truly evil, even those who are in its clutches 
do not dare to defend as good. Nature has stamped on every 
evil thing the character either of fear or of shame. Accordingly 
evil-doers are eager to hide, they shrink from showing themselves, 
they tremble when caught, deny their guilt when charged, and 
even when tortured do not readily or always confess. To 
be sure when condemned they mourn, and they either sum up 
1 Reading libet (J. B. M.). 



6 TERTVLLIANI 

uel fato uel astris imputant; nolunt enim suum esse, quia 
malum agnoscunt. Christianus uero quid simile? Neminem 
pudet, neminem paenitet. nisi plane retro non fuisse. Si 
denotatur, gloriatur; si accusatur, non defendit; interrogatus 
uel ultro confitetur, damnatus gratias agit. Quid hoc mali est, 5 
quod naturalia mali non habet, timorem, pudorem, tergiuersa- 
tionem, paenitentiam, deplorationem ? Quid? hoc malum est, 
cuius reus gaudet ? cuius accusatio uotum est et poena f elicitas ? 
Non potes dementiam dicere, qui reuinceris ignorare. 

2. Si certum est denique nos nocentissimos esse, cur a 10 
uobis ipsis aliter tractamur quam pares nostri, id est ceteri 
nocentes, cum eiusdem noxae eadem tractatio deberet inter- 
uenire? Quodcunque dicimur, cum alii dicuntur, et proprio 
ore et mercenaria aduocatione utuntur ad innocentiae suae 
commendationem. Respondendi, altercandi facultas patet, 15 
quando nee liceat indefensos et inauditos omnino damnari. 
Sed Christianis solis nihil permittitur loqui quod causam purget, 
quod ueritatem defendat, quod iudicem non faciat iniustum, 
sed illud solum expectatur quod odio publico necessarium est, 
confessio nominis, non examinatio criminis : quando, si de 20 
aliquo nocente cognoscatis, non statim confesso eo nomen 
homicidae uel sacrilegi uel incesti uel public! hostis, ut de 
nostris elogiis loquar, contenti sitis ad pronuntiandum, nisi et 
consequentia exigatis, qualitatem facti, numerum, locum, 
modum, tempus, conscios, socios. De no bis nihil tale, cum 25 
aeque extorqueri oporteret quod cum falso iactatur, quot 
quisque iam infanticidia degustasset, quot incesta contenebras- 
set, qui coci, qui canes adfuissent. quanta illius praesidis 
gloria, si eruisset aliquem, qui centum iam infantes comedisset ! 
Atquin inuenimus inquisitionem quoque in nos prohibitam. 30 
Plinius enim Secundus cum prouinciam regeret, damnatis 



APOLOGETICVS 1, 2 7 

against themselves, or ascribe to their destiny or their star the 
outbursts of an evil mind. For they are unwilling to acknow 
ledge as their own what they recognise to be bad. But the 
Christian does nothing of the kind. No (Christian) feels shame, 
or regret, except of course that he was so late in becoming 
one. If he is defamed, he rejoices ;. if he is prosecuted, he does 
not defend himself; if he is questioned, he at once confesses, 
if he is condemned, he returns thanks. What evil can there be 
in this which has none of the characters of evil, either fear, 
or shame, prevarication, regret, or despair ? What ? is there evil 
in that, which causes pleasure to the person accused of it, 
whose prosecution is his dearest wish, and who finds his 
happiness in his punishment? You cannot call it madness, 
since you are proved to know nothing about it. 

CHAP. II. Again, supposing it to be true that we are 
criminals of deepest dye, why are we treated differently by 
you from our fellows, I mean all other criminals, since the same 
guilt ought to meet with the same treatment? When others 
are called by whatever name is applied to us, they employ both 
their own voices and the services of a paid pleader to set forth 
their innocence. They have every opportunity of answering 
and cross- questioning, since it is not even legal that persons 
should be condemned entirely undefended and unheard. But 
the Christians alone are not permitted to say anything to clear 
themselves of the charge, to uphold the truth, to prevent in 
justice in the judge. The one thing looked for is that which 
is demanded by the popular hatred, the confession of the name, 
not the weighing of a charge. Whereas, if you were inquiring 
into the case of some criminal, you would not be satisfied to 
give a verdict, immediately on his confession of the crime of 
homicide or sacrilege or incest or treason, to speak of the charges 
levelled against us, unless you also demanded an account of the 
accessory facts, the character of the act, the frequency of its 
repetition, the place, the manner, the time, who were privy to 
it, who were accomplices in it. In our case no such procedure 
is followed, although there was an equal necessity to sift by 
investigation the false charges that are bandied about, how 
many slaughtered babes each had already tasted, how many 
times he had committed incest in the dark, what cooks, what 
dogs had been present (on the occasion). Oh what fame would 
that governor have acquired, if he had ferreted out some one, 
who had already eaten up a hundred infants! But we find 
that in our case even such inquiry is forbidden. For Plinius 
Secundus, when he was in command of a province, after con- 



TERTVLLIANI 

quibusdam Christianis, quibusdam gradu pulsis, ipsa tamen 
multitudine perturbatus, quid de cetero ageret, consuluit tune 
Traianum imperatorem, adlegans praeter obstinationem non 
sacrificandi nihil aliud se de sacramentis eorum conperisse 
quam coetus antelucanos ad canendum Christo et deo, et ad 5 
confoederandam disciplinam, homicidium, adulterium, fraudem, 
perfidiam et cetera scelera prohibentes. Tune Traianus rescrip- 
sit hoc genus inquirendos quidem non esse, oblatos uero puniri 
oportere. sententiam necessitate confusam! Negat in 
quirendos ut innocentes, et mandat puniendos ut nocentes. 10 
Parcit et saeuit, dissimulat et animaduertit. Quid temetipsam, 
censura, circumuenis ? Si damnas, cur non et inquiris ? si non 
inquiris, cur non et absoluis? Latronibus uestigandis per 
uniuersas prouincias militaris statio sortitur. In reos maiestatis 
ef publicos hostes omnis homo miles est; ad socios, ad conscios 15 
usque inquisitio extenditur. Solum Christianum inquiri non 
licet, ofTerri licet, quasi aliud esset actura inquisitio quam 
oblationem. Damnatis itaque oblatum quern nemo uoluit 
requisitum, qui, puto, iam non ideo meruit poenam, quia 
nocens est, sed quia non requirendus inuentus est. Itaque nee 20 
in illo ex forma malorum iudicandorum agitis erga nos, quod 
ceteris negantibus tormenta adhibetis ad confitendum, solis 
Christianis ad negandum, cum, si malum esset, nos quidem 
negaremus, uos uero confiteri tormentis compelleretis. Neque 
enim ideo non putaretis requirenda quaestionibus scelera, 25 
quia certi essetis admitti ea ex nominis confessione, qui hodie de 
confesso homicida, scientes homicidium quid sit, nihilominus 
ordinem extorquetis admissi. Quo peruersius, cum prae- 
sumatis de sceleribus nostris ex nominis confessione, cogitis 
tormentis de confessione decedere, ut negantes nomen pariter 30 



APOLOGETICVS 2 9 

demning some Christians, and having dislodged others from the 
stand they had taken up 1 , was nevertheless greatly troubled 
by their very numbers, and then consulted the Emperor Trajan 
as to what he should do in future, stating that, apart from the 
obstinate refusal to sacrifice, he had found out nothing else 
about their mysteries, save meetings before dawn to sing to 
Christ and to 2 God, and to establish one common rule of life, 
forbidding murder, adultery, fraud, treachery and other crimes. 
Then Trajan replied that such people were not indeed to be 
sought out, but that if they were brought before the court they 
ought to be punished. self-contradictory verdict which says 
they are not to be sought out, because they are innocent, and 
yet orders them to be punished as criminals ; which spares while 
it rages, which shuts the eye to crime and yet chastises it. Why, 
judgment, dost thou cheat thyself? If thou condemnest, 
why dost thou not also denounce ? If thou dost not denounce, 
why not also acquit ? For the tracking of brigands the soldiers 
on outpost duty cast lots throughout all the provinces. Against 
those charged with treason and the enemies of the state, every 
man is a soldier. The investigation is made wide enough to 
take in accomplices and others who are privy to it. The 
Christian alone may not be sought out, but he may be brought 
into court, as if searching out had any other object than 
prosecution! You condemn therefore, when prosecuted, one 
whom no one desired to be sought out, one, I suppose, who 
already deserved punishment, not because he was guilty, 
but because, though not to be inquired after, he was found. 
Thus not in that matter either do you act towards us 
according to the rule for trying malefactors : namely that to 
others you apply torture when they deny, to make them con 
fess, to Christians alone you apply it to make them deny. And 
yet, if it were a crime (with which we were charged), we indeed 
should deny our guilt, but you by tortures would compel us to 
confess it. Nor indeed could you think that crimes were not to 
be investigated by questionings, on the ground that you were 
assured by the confession of the name that they had been com 
mitted. For even to-day, though you know what murder is, 
you nevertheless extort from a confessed murderer the whole 
train of circumstances touching the act. Wherefore it is with 
the greater perverseness that when you make up your minds 
beforehand about our crimes from the confession of the name, 
you seek to compel us by tortures to go back from our confession, 
with the result that in denying the name we at the same time 

1 See G. A. T. Davies in Journ. Theol Stud. (April) 1913. 

2 So the MSS, but surely ut as to should be read (cf. Plin. etc.). 



10 TERTVLLIANI 

utique negemus et scelera, de quibus ex confessione nominis 
praesumpseratis. Sed, opinor, non uultis nos perire, quos 
pessimos creditis. Sic enim soletis dicere homicidae Nega, 
laniari iubere sacrilegum, si confiteri perseuerauerit. Si non 
ita agitis circa nos nocentes, ergo nos innocentissimos iudicatis, 5 
cum quasi innocentissimos non uultis in ea confessione per- 
seuerare, quam necessitate, non iustitia damnandam a uobis 
sciatis. Vociferatur homo : Christianus sum. Quod est dicit ; 
tu uis audire quod non est. Veritatis extorquendae praesides 
de nobis solis mendacium elaboratis audire. Hoc sum, inquit, 10 
quod quaeris an sim. Quid me torques in peruersum? Con- 
fiteor, et torques: quid faceres, si negarem? Plane aliis 
negantibus non facile fidem accommodatis : nobis, si negaueri- 
mus, statim creditis. Suspecta sit uobis ista peruersitas, ne 
qua uis lateat in occulto, quae uos aduersus formam, aduersus 15 
naturam iudicandi, contra ipsas quoque leges ministret. Nisi 
fallor enim, leges malos erui iubent, non abscondi, confesses 
damnari praescribunt, non absolui. Hoc senatusconsulta, hoc 
principum mandata denniunt. Hoc imperium, cuius ministri 
estis, ciuilis, non tyrannica dominatio est. Apud tyrannos 20 
enim tormenta etiam pro poena adhibebantur : apud uos soli 
quaestioni tempera tur. Vestram illis seruate legem usque ad 
confession em necessariam, et iam si confessione praeueniantur, 
uacabunt: sententia opus est: debito poenae nocens expun- 
gendus est, non eximendus. Denique nemo ilium gestit 25 
absoluere. Non licet hoc uelle, ideo nee cogitur quisquam 
negare. Christianum hominem omnium scelerum reum, 
deorum, imperatorum, legum, morum, naturae totius inimicum 
existimas, et cogis negare, ut absoluas quern non poteris 
absoluere nisi negauerit. Praeuaricaris in leges. Vis ergo 30 
neget se nocentem, ut eum facias innocentem, et quidem 
inuitum iam, nee de praeterito reum. Unde ista peruersitas, 
ut etiam illud non recogitetis, sponte confesso magis credendum 



APOLOGETIC VS 2 11 

of course deny the crimes also, about which you presumed us 
guilty from the confession of the name. But, methinks, you 
do not wish us to perish, though you believe us to be the worst 
of men. For is it your wont to say to a murderer, Deny the 
fact? or to order a sacrilegious person to be torn with scourges, 
if he continue to confess? If you do not act so in the case of us 
criminals, you must judge us to be entirely innocent, when you 
will not have us as innocent persons to persevere in such a 
confession, as you know has to be condemned by you of neces 
sity and not from justice. A man cries out : I am a Christian. 
He tells what he is ; you wish to hear what he is not. Though 
presiding to extract the truth, from us alone you strive to hear 
falsehood. I am, he says, that which you ask whether I am : 
why do you torture me to make me give a wrong answer ? You 
reward my confession with torture ; what would you have done, 
if I had denied ? It is quite evident that, when others deny, 
you do not readily credit them : while, if we deny, you immedi 
ately believe our assertion. You ought to suspect this perversity, 
lest some power lurk in secret that makes tools of you against 
all rule, against the nature of judicial trial, even against the 
laws themselves. For unless I am mistaken, the laws order 
that malefactors should be rooted out, not concealed ; they lay 
down that those who confess should be condemned, not ac 
quitted. This is ordained by decrees of the senate, by the edicts 
of emperors. The government whose servants you are is the 
rule of a fellow-citizen, not of a tyrant. For with tyrants 
tortures were employed also as punishment ; with you they are 
kept within bounds for the sole purpose of inquiry. Retain for 
them your law up to the point of necessary confession. And 
if (tortures) are anticipated by confession, they will be super 
fluous. A verdict is needed : the guilty man must be struck off 
the roll of the accused by the punishment which is his due, and 
not saved from punishment. No one, in short, cares to acquit 
him ; it is not allowable to wish this : consequently no guilty man 
is compelled to deny his guilt. But a Christian man you believe 
to be guilty of all crimes, an enemy of gods; emperors, laws, 
morals, the whole teaching of nature, and yet you compel him 
to deny, in order that you may acquit one whom you will not 
be able to acquit unless from his denial. You are guilty of 
unfair dealing against the laws. You wish him therefore to 
deny his guilt, that you may make him out to be innocent, and 
that too unwilling as he now is, and no longer arraigned for the 
past. Whence comes this perversity, that you should fail to 
reflect even on this fact, that more credence should be given to 
one who voluntarily confesses than to one who denies under com- 



12 TERTVLLIANI 

esse quam per uim neganti? uel ne compulsus riegare non ex 
fide negarit et absolutus ibidem post tribunal de uestra rideat 
aemulatione iterum Christianus? Cum igitur in omnibus nos 
aliter dispom tis quam ceteros nocentes, ad unum coritendendo, 
ut de eo nomine excludamur (excludimur enim si faciamus 5 
quae faciunt non Christiani), intellegere potestis non scelus 
aliquod in causa esse, sed nomen, quod quaedam ratio aemulae 
operationis insequitur, hoc primum agens, ut hgmines nolint 
scire pro certo quod se nescire pro certo sciunt. Ideo et credunt 
de nobis quae non probantur, et nolunt inquiri, ne probentur 10 
non esse quae malunt credidisse, ut nomen illius aemulae 
rationis inimicum praesumptis, non probatis criminibus de 
sua sola confessione damnetur. Ideo torquemur confitentes et 
punimur perseuerantes et absoluimur negantes, quia nominis 
proelium est. Denique quid de tabella recitatis ilium Chris- 15 
tianum? Cur non et homicidam? Si homicida Christianus, 
cur non et incestus uel quodcunque aliud esse nos creditis ? In 
nobis solis pudet aut piget ipsis nominibus scelerum pro- 
nuntiare? Christianus si nullius criminis nomine reus est, 
ualde incestum, si solius nominis, crimen est. 20 

3. Quid? quod ita plerique clausis oculis in odium eius 
inpingunt, ut bonum alicui testimonium ferentes admisceant 
nominis exprobrationem. Bonus uir Gaius Seius, tantum quod 
Christianus. Item alius : Ego miror Lucium Titium sapientem 
uirum repente factum Christianum. Nemo retractat, ne ideo 25 
bonus Gaius et prudens Lucius, quia Christianus, aut ideo Christi 
anus, quia prudens et bonus. Laudant quae sciunt, uituperant 
quae ignorant, et id quod sciunt eo quod ignorant inrumpunt, 
cum sit iustius occulta de manifestis praeiudicare quam mani- 
festa de occultis praedamnare. Alii, quos retro ante hoc 30 
nomen uagos, uiles, improbos nouerant, ex ipso denotant quod 
laudant. Caecitate odii in suffragium inpingunt: Quae mulier! 



APOLOGETICVS 2, 3 13 

pulsion? or whether one who has been forced to deny should 
not have denied sincerely, and after acquittal on the spot, 
leaving the court, should once more claim to be a Christian, 
and laugh at your vain effort to prove him other ? Since there 
fore in every way you treat us differently from all other criminals, 
by aiming at this one thing, that we may be shut out from that 
name, for we are shut out if we do things which Christians do 
not do, you can understand that there is no crime in question, 
but just the name, which is harassed by the scheming of a kind 
of rival agency, its first aim being that men should be unwilling 
to know for certain that of which they certainly know them 
selves to be ignorant. Consequently they not only believe what 
is not proved with regard to us, but they are unwilling that 
inquiry should be made, lest those things should be proved not 
to be, which they had rather should be believed to be, so that 
the hostile name of that rival agency should be condemned 
merely by its own confession, on the presumption, not the proof 
of crime. Accordingly we are tortured when, we confess, and 
punished when we persist, and acquitted if we deny, just 
because it is a battle about a name. Finally, you also read 
out from the charge-sheet that a man is a Christian. Why not 
also style him a murderer? If a Christian is a murderer, why 
not also one guilty of incest or any other crime you believe us 
to be guilty of ? It is in our case only that you are ashamed or 
reluctant to give a verdict on the mere names of the crimes 1 . 
If a Christian is guilty of no specific crime, it is a very guilty 
sort of crime, if one of the name only ! 

CHAP. III. Again, many people are so blinded with pre 
judice that even when they are bearing witness to a man s 
excellence, they mingle with it a taunt against the name of 
Christian. So-and-so is a good fellow, were it not that he is 
a Christian. So another says I marvel that a philosopher like 
So-and-so should have so suddenly turned Christian. No one 
reflects whether the fact that So-and-so is good or wise is due to 
his Christianity, or the fact that So-and-so is a Christian results 
from his being wise and good. They praise what they know, 
and blame what they do not know, and that which they know 
they spoil because they are really ignorant of it. Surely 
it were a juster course to prejudge things hidden from things 
evident, than to precondemn the evident from the hidden. 
Others characterize in their very praises those they formerly 
knew, before they received the name of Christian, as vagabonds, 
worthless and wicked. Through their blind hatred they become 
1 J. B. M. conjecture? scelera. 



14 TERTVLLIANI 

quam lasciua, quam festiua ! Quis iuuenis ! quam lasciuus, 
quam amasius ! Facti sunt Christian! ! Ita nomen emenda- 
tioni imputatur. Nonnulli etiam de utilitatibus suis cum 
odio isto paciscuntur, contenti iniuria, dum ne domi habeant 
quod oderunt. Uxorem iam pudicam maritus iam non zelo- 5 
typus, filium iam subiectum pater retro patiens abdicauit, 
seruum iam fidelem dominus olim mitis ab oculis relegauit; ut 
quisque hoc nomine emendatur, offendit. Tanti non est bonum 
quanti odium Christianorum. Nunc igitur, si nominis odium 
est, quis nominum reatus? Quae accusatio uocabulorum, TO 
nisi si aut barbarum sonat aliqua uox nominis, aut infaustum 
aut maledicum aut inpudicum? Christianus uero, quantum 
interpretatio est, de unctione deducitur. Sed et cum perperam 
Chrestianus pronuntiatur a uobis (nam nee nominis certa est 
notitia penes uos), de suauitate uel benignitate conpositum est. 15 
Oditur itaque in hominibus innocuis etiam nomen innocuum. 
At enim secta oditur in nomine utique sui auctoris. Quid 
noui, si aliqua disciplina de magistro cognomentum sectatoribus 
suis inducit ? Nonne philosophi de auctoribus suis nuncupantur 
Platonici, Epicurei, Py thagorici ? etiam a locis conuenticulorum 20 
et stationum suarum Stoici, Academici? aeque medici ab 
Erasistrato et grammatici ab Aristarcho, coci etiam ab Apicio ? 
nee tamen quemquam offendit professio nominis cum institutione 
transmissa ab institutore. Plane, si qui probauit malam sectam 
et ita malum et auctorem, is probabit et nomen malum dignum 25 
odio de reatu sectae et auctoris, ideoque ante odium nominis 
conpetebat prius de auctore sectam recognoscere uel auctorem 
de secta. At nunc utriusque inquisitione et agnitione neglecta 
nomen detinetur, nomen expugnatur, et ignotam sectam, 
ignotum et auctorem uox sola praedamnat, quia nominantur, 30 
non quia reuincuntur. 

4. Atque adeo quasi praefatus haec ad sugillandam odii 
erga nos publici iniquitatem, iam de causa innocentiae consistam, 



APOLOGETICVS 3, 4 15 

vehement supporters. What a fine woman! How merry, 
how debonair! What a fine fellow, what a sport, what a 
gallant! They have become Christians. Thus is the name 
applied to their reformation. Some even make a bargain with 
this hatred at the cost of their interests, ready to put up with 
harm, provided that what they hate is not mixed up with their 
home-life. A husband now no longer jealous has turned out of 
doors his now chaste wife : a father, patient in the past, has 
disinherited his now obedient son : a once forgiving master has 
banished from his sight a now faithful servant. In each case 
the reform effected by the name of Christian is the ground of 
offence. Goodness is not of such account as hatred of the 
Christians. Now therefore if it is a name that is hated what 
charge can there be against a name, what prosecution of words, 
unless it be that a particular utterance of a word has a barbarous 
or ill-omened or a scurrilous or immodest sound? The name 
Christian indeed, so far as its meaning is concerned, is derived 
from anointing. And even when it is wrongly pronounced 
Chreestian by you for neither is there any real knowledge 
of the name among you it is made up from sweetness or kind 
ness. And thus even an innocent name gets hated in the case of 
innocent men. But indeed there can be no doubt that the sect 
is hated in the name of its Founder. What novelty is there in 
a school of thought bringing on its followers a name taken from 
its teacher? Are not philosophers named after their founders, 
e.g. Platonists, Epicureans, Pythagoreans? or even from their 
places of meeting and their stations, as Stoics or Academics? 
so too physicians from Erasistratus, and grammarians from 
Aristarchus, and even cooks from Apicius? And yet the pro 
fession of a name, handed down with the institution from the 
founder himself, causes no offence. To be sure, if any one should 
prove a sect to be evil, and thus the originator also to be evil, 
he will prove the name to be likewise evil, worthy of hatred 
from the guilt attaching to the sect and its founder. Hence, 
before hating the name, it were fitting first to convict the sect 
from the character of the founder, or the founder from the 
character of the sect. But, as matters are, though the in 
vestigation and examination of both are neglected, the name is 
laid hold of, the name is made the object of attack, and a mere 
word prejudges a sect and its founder (though both are equally 
unknown) simply because they bear a name, not because they 
are convicted of guilt. 

CHAP. IV. Having then made this sort of preface by way of 
hammering into men s heads the unfairness of the popular hatred 



1(3 TERTVLLIANI 

nee tantum refutabo quae no bis obiciuntur, sed etiam in ipsos 
retorquebo qui obiciunt, ut ex hoc quoque sciant homines in 
Christianis non esse quae in se nesciunt esse, simul uti erubescant 
accusantes non dico pessimi optimos, sed iam, ut uolunt, 
conpares suos. Respondebimus ad singula quae in occulto 5 
admittere dicimur, quae illos palam admittentes inuenimus, in 
quibus scelesti, in quibus uani, in quibus damnandis, in quibus 
inridendi deputamur. Sed quoniam, cum ad omnia occurrit 
ueritas nostra, postremo legum obstruitur auctoritas aduersus 
earn, ut aut nihil dicatur retractandum esse post leges aut ingratis 10 
necessitas obsequii praeferatur ueritati, de legibus prius concur - 
ram uobiscum ut cum tutoribus legum. Iam primum cum dure 
definitis dicendo : Non licet esse uos ! et hoc sine ullo retractatu 
humaniore praescribitis, uim prontemini et iniquam ex arce 
dominationem, si ideo negatis licere, quia uultis, non quia debuit 15 
non licere. Quodsi, quia non debet, ideo non uultis licere, sine 
dubio id non debet licere quod male fit, et utique hoc ipso 
praeiudicatur licere quod bene fit. Si bonum inuenero esse 
quod lex tua prohibuit, nonne ex illo praeiudicio prohibere me 
non potest quod, si malum esset, iure prohiberet? Si lex tua 20 
errauit, puto, ab homine concepta est; neque enim de caelo 
ruit. Miramini hominem aut errare potuisse in lege condenda 
aut resipuisse in reprobanda? Non enim et ipsius Lycurgi 
leges a Lacedaemoniis emendatae tantum auctori suo doloris 
incusserunt, ut in secessu inedia de semetipso iudicarit? 25 
Nonne et uos cotidie experimentis inluminantibus tenebras 
antiquitatis totam illam ueterem et squalentem siluam legum 
nouis principalium rescriptorum et edictorum securibus truncatis 
et caeditis? Nonne uanissimas Papias leges, quae ante liberos 
suscipi cogunt quam luliae matrimonium contrahi, post tantae 30 
auctoritatis senectutem heri Seuerus, constantissimus principum, 
exclusit? Sed et indicates in partes secari a creditor! bus leges 



APOLOGETICVS 4 17 

towards us, I will now join issue as to the question of innocence, 
and will not only rebut the charges against us, but will even 
cause them to recoil on the very men who make them ; that from 
this also men may know that Christians are free from those 
failings, of the existence of which in themselves their critics are 
unconscious ; and that they may at the same time blush, while 
they accuse us I do not say the worst accusing the best, but 
rather (as they themselves would have it) ordinary persons 
accusing their fellows. We will meet each of the secret scandals 
laid to our charge by appealing to the same acts committed 
openly, acts in which we are held to show ourselves wicked, 
empty-headed, worthy of condemnation and of ridicule. But 
since when the truth of our cause meets you at every turn, the 
authority of the laws is at last set up against it, so that either 
it is said that nothing is to be reconsidered after the laws have 
decided, or the necessity of obedience is unwillingly preferred to 
truth, it is upon the laws that I will first join issue with you, as 
their guardians. In the first place then, when you harshly lay 
down the law by your phrase Your existence is forbidden, 
and enjoin this without any gentler reservation, you make no 
secret of violence and tyranny as belonging to your stronghold, 
if you deny us the right to exist because such is your will, not 
because it was fitting that we should be outlawed. If however 
you wish this not to be allowed because it is not right, no doubt 
an evil action ought not to be allowed ; and of course this very 
fact involves a previous judgment that a good action is legal. 
If I shall find something to be good, which your law has for 
bidden, is it not, by this previous determination, disabled from 
forbidding me that which, if it were evil, it would justly forbid? 
If your law has made a mistake, I suppose it is because it was 
framed by a man, for it certainly did not fall from heaven. 
Do you wonder either that a man should have made a mistake 
in framing a law, or should have come to his senses again when 
he finds in it matter for emendation ? Did not even the improve 
ments made by the Spartans in the laws of Lycurgus himself 
cause him such pain that he determined to resign office and 
starve himself to death? Do not even you too, as daily ex 
perience throws light upon the darkness of antiquity, lop and 
cut down all the wild growth of that ancient forest of statutes 
with the new axes of imperial rescripts and edicts? Did not 
Severus, that most determined of emperors, as it were but 
yesterday, abrogate the ridiculous Papian laws, which enforced 
the bringing up of children before the Julian laws enforced the 
contracting of marriage, laws whose antiquity gave them such 
high authority ? Nay there were even laws authorizing that those 



M. T. 



18 TERTVLLIANI 

erant. consensu tamen publico crudelitas postea erasa est, in 
pudoris notam capitis poena conuersa est. Bonorum adhibita 
proscriptio suffundere maluit hominis sanguinem quam 
effundere. Quot adhuc uobis repurgandae latent leges, quas 
neque annorum numerus neque conditorum dignitas commendat, 5 
sed aequitas sola? et ideo cum iniquae recognoscuntur, merito 
damnantur, licet damnent. Quomodo iniquas dicimus ? Immo, 
si nomen puniunt, etiam stultas : si uero facta, cur de solo 
nomine puniunt facta, quae in aliis de admisso, non de nomine 
probata defendunt ? Incestus sum, cur non requirunt ? Infanti- 10 
cidia cur non extorquent? In deos, in Caesares aliquid com- 
mitto, cur non audior qui habeo quo purger? Nulla lex uetat 
discuti quod prohibet admitti, quia neque iudex iuste ulciscitur, 
nisi cognoscat admissum esse quod non licet, neque ciuis 
fldeliter legi obsequitur ignorans quale sit quod ulciscitur lex. 15 
Nulla lex sibi soli conscientiam iustitiae suae debet, sed eis a 
quibus obsequium expectat. Ceterum suspecta lex est quac 
probari se non uult, inproba autem, si non probata dominetur. 

5. Ut de origine aliquid retractemus eiusmodi legum, 
uetus erat decretum, ne qui deus ab imperatore consecraretur 20 
nisi a senatu probatus. Scit M. Aemilius de deo suo Alburno. 
Pacit et hoc ad causam nostram, quod apud uos de human o 
arbitratu diuinitas pensitatur. Nisi homini deus placuerit, 
deus non erit ; homo iam deo propitius esse debebit. Tiberius 
ergo, cuius tempore nomen Christianum in saeculum introiuit, 25 
adnuntiata sibi ex Syria Palaestina, quae illic ueritatem ipsius 
diuinitatis reuelauerant, detulit ad senatum cum praerogatiua 
suffragii sui. Senatus, quia non ipse probauerat, respuit, 
Caesar in sententia mansit, comminatus periculum accusatoribus 
Christianorum. Consulite commentarios uestros, illic reperietis 30 
primum Neronem in hanc sectam cum maxime Romae orientem 



APOLOGETICVS 4, 5 19 

sentenced under them should be cut in pieces by their creditors, 
yet was this cruelty afterwards blotted out by public consent, 
the punishment of death being converted into a mark of dis 
grace. By the resort to a public sale of property they preferred 
to raise the blush of shame rather than to shed blood. How 
many laws still lie hidden for you to purify, laws which neither 
antiquity nor the dignity of their framers, but only their fairness 
(if such there be) commends? and therefore when they are 
recognised to be unfair, though condemning, they are deservedly 
condemned. But how do we call them unfair? Nay, if they 
punish the mere name, we call them foolish also. If however 
it is deeds that they punish, why, in our case, do they punish 
deeds on the ground merely of the name, which in other cases 
they maintain must be proved by the act and not from the name 
given to the accused ? I am guilty of incest : why do they not 
inquire into it? of infanticide, why do they not extort a con 
fession ? I commit some offence against the gods or the Caesars ; 
why am I not heard, when I am able to clear myself? No law 
forbids the investigation of that which is prohibited, because 
neither can any judge rightly exact punishment unless he 
knows that an illegal offence has been committed ; nor can any 
citizen loyally obey the law, if ignorant of the nature of that 
which is punished by the law. The law is not only bound to 
satisfy itself as to its own intrinsic justice; it must also satisfy 
those from whom it looks for obedience. A law excites suspicion 
if it is not willing to be tested, and it is wicked if, after being 
disapproved, it claims despotic power. 

CHAP. V. And now to treat somewhat more fully of the 
origin of laws of this kind, there was an old decree that no 
god should be consecrated by the emperor without the approval 
of the senate. M. Aemilius learnt this in the case of his god 
Alburnus. This, too, makes in our favour, because among you 
divinity is weighed out by human caprice. Unless a god shall 
have been acceptable to man, he shall not be a god : man must 
now be propitious to a god. Accordingly Tiberius, in whose 
time the Christian name first made its appearance in the world, 
laid before the senate tidings from Syria Palaestina which had 
revealed to him the truth of the divinity there manifested, and 
supported the motion by his own vote to begin with. The 
senate rejected it because it had not itself given its approval. 
Caesar held to his own opinion and threatened danger to the 
accusers of the Christians. Consult your records : you will there 
find that Nero was the first emperor who wreaked his fury in 
the blood of Christians, when our religion was just springing 

22 



20 TERTVLLIANI 

Caesariano gladio ferocisse. Sed tali dedicatore damnationis 
nostrae etiam gloriamur. Qui enim scit ilium, intellegere potest 
non nisi grande aliquod bonum a Nerone damnatum. Temp- 
tauerat et Domitianus, portio Neronis de crudelitate, sed qua 
et homo, facile coeptum repressit, restitutis etiam quos rele- 5 
gauerat. Tales semper nobis insecutores, iniusti, impii, turpes, 
quos et ipsi damnare consuestis, a quibus damnatos restituere 
soliti estis. Ceterum de tot exinde principibus ad hodiernum 
diuinum humaimmque sapientibus edite aliquem debellatorem 
Christianorum ! At nos e contrario edimus protectorem, si 10 
litterae M. Aurelii grauissimi imperatoris requirantur, quibus 
illam Germanicam sitim Christianorum forte militum pre- 
cationibus impetrato imbri discussam contestatur. Sicut non 
palam ab eiusmodi hominibus poenam dimouit, ita alio modo 
palam dispersit, adiecta etiam accusatoribus damnatione, et 15 
quidem tetriore. Quales ergo leges istae quas aduersus nos soli 
exercent impii, iniusti, turpes, truces, uani, dementes? quas 
Traianus ex parte frustratus est uetando inquiri Christianos, 
quas nullus Hadrianus, quamquam omnium curiositatum 
explorator, nullus Vespasianus, quamquam ludaeorum deb el- 20 
lator, nullus Pius, nullus Verus inpressit. Facilius utique 
pessimi ab optimis quibusque, ut ab aemulis, quam a suis sociis 
eradicandi iudicarentur. 

6. Nunc religiosissimi legum et paternorum institutorum 
protectores et ultores respondeant uelim de sua fide et honore 25 
et obsequio erga maiorum consulta, si a nullo desciuerunt, si 
in nullo exorbitauerunt, si non necessaria et aptissima quaeque 
disciplinae oblitterauerunt. Quonam illae leges abierunt sump- 
turn et ambitionem comprimentes ? quae centum aera non 
amplius in coenam subscribi iubebant nee amplius quam unam 30 
inferri gallinam, et earn non saginatam, quae patricium, quod 
decem pondo argenti habuisset, pro magno ambitionis titulo 



APOLOGETICVS 5, 6 21 

up in Rome. But we even glory in being first dedicated to 
destruction by such a monster. For whoever knows him can 
understand that It could only have been something of supreme 
excellence that could have called forth the condemnation of 
Nero. Domitian too had tried the same experiment as Nero, 
with a large share of Nero s cruelty, but inasmuch as he retained 
something of humanity also, he was easily able to change his 
course, even restoring those whom he had banished. Such have 
always been our persecutors, unjust, impious and treacherous, 
whom even ye yourselves have been wont to condemn and to 
reinstate those who were condemned by them. But out of so 
many emperors who reigned from that time to the present, men 
versed in knowledge, human and divine, show us one who set 
himself to destroy the Christians. We on the other hand can 
show you a protector, if the letters of the honoured emperor 
M. Aurelius be searched, in which he testifies that the famous 
drought in Germany was put a stop to by the rain which fell 
in answer to the prayers of the Christians who happened to be 
in his army. Thus, although he did not openly abolish punish 
ment incurred by such men, yet in another way he openly 
neutralized it, adding also a condemnation, and indeed a more 
shocking one, for their prosecutors. Of what sort then are 
these laws, which are put into force against us by the impious, 
the unjust, the base, the cruel, the foolish, the mad, and by 
them alone ? Laws which Trajan made less effective by for 
bidding Christians to be sought out; to which no Hadrian, 
although an investigator of all curiosities, no Vespasian, 
although conqueror of the Jews, no Pius, no Verus ever set 
his mark. Certainly the worst of men would be more readily 
sentenced to death by all the best, as their enemies, than by 
their own accomplices. 

CHAP. VI. Now I should like these scrupulous champions 
and avengers of laws and ancestral institutions to answer with 
regard to their own loyalty, respect and obedience towards the 
decrees of their ancestors, whether they have abandoned none, 
whether they have transgressed in none, whether they have 
not .abolished what were the necessary and most appropriate 
elements of their rule of life. What has become of those laws 
which checked extravagance and ostentation? those which 
ordered that not more than a hundred pence should be allowed 
for a dinner, that not more than one fowl and that not specially 
fattened should be served, which removed a patrician from the 
senate, because he had ten pounds weight of wrought silver, 
on the ground that this was a notable proof of ostentation, 



22 TERTVLLIANI 

senatu submouebant, quae theatra stuprandis rnoribus orientia 
statim destruebant, quae dignitatum et honestorum natalium 
insignia non temere nee inpune usurpari sinebant ? Video enim 
et centenarias coenas a centenis iam sestertiis dicendas, et in 
lances (parum est si senatorum et non libertinorum uel adhuc 5 
flagra rumpentium) argentaria metalla producta. Video et 
theatra nee singula satis esse nee nuda ; nam ne uel hieme 
uoluptas inpudica frigeret, primi Lacedaemonii penulam ludis 
excogitauerunt. Video et inter matronas atque prostibulas 
nullum de habitu discrimen relictum. Circa feminas quidem 10 
etiam ilia maiorum instituta ceciderunt quae modestiae, quae 
sobrietati patrocinabantur, cum aurum nulla norat praeter 
unico digito quern sponsus obpignorasset pronubo anulo, cum 
mulieres usque adeo uino abstinerentur, ut matronam ob 
resignatos cellae uinariae loculos sui inedia necarint, sub Romulo 15 
uero quae uinum attigerat, inpune a Metennio marito trucidata 
sit. Idcirco et oscula propinquis offerre etiam necessitas erat, 
ut spiritu iudicarentur. Ubi est ilia felicitas matrimoniorum 
de moribus utique prosperata, qua per annos ferme sexcentos 
ab urbe condita nulla repudium domus scripsit ? At nunc in 20 
feminis prae auro nullum leue est membrum. prae uino nullum 
liberum est osculum, repudium uero iam et uotum est, quasi 
matrimonii fructus. Etiam circa ipsos deos uestros quae 
prospecte decreuerant patres uestri, idem uos obsequentissimi 
rescidistis. Liberum Patrem cum mysteriis suis consules 25 
senatus auctoritate non modo urbe, sed uniuersa Italia elimina- 
uerunt. Serapidem et Isidem et Arpocratem cum suo cyno- 
cephalo Capitolio prohibitos inferri, id est curia deorum pulsos, 
Piso et Gabinius consules non utique Christiani euersis etiam 
aris eorum abdicauerunt, turpium et otiosarum superstitionum 30 
uitia cohibentes. His uos restitutis summam maiestatem 
contulistis. Ubi religio. ubi ueneratio maioribus debita a 
uobis? Habitu, uictu, instructu, sensu, ipso denique serinone 



APOLOGETICVS 6 23 

which proceeded at once to destroy theatres as they rose for the 
corruption of morals, which did not allow the badges of office 
or noble birth to be employed lightly or with impunity ? (I ask 
these questions) for I see dinners, which can only be called 
centuries from the 100,000 sesterces they cost, and whole mines 
of silver worked out into plates, a small thing if they were the 
property of senators only and not of freedmen or of those who 
are still liable to be flogged. I see too that one theatre, or a 
theatre open to the sky, is not enough for each town ; for 
doubtless it was to prevent their immodest pleasure from being- 
too cold in winter, that the Spartans first invented their 
cloak for the sports. I see too that there is no difference left 
between the dress of matrons and that of prostitutes. Indeed 
with regard to women even those customs of our ancestors have 
fallen into disuse, which protected modesty and sobriety, in an 
age when no woman knew aught of gold save on the one finger 
which the bridegroom had claimed for himself with the wedding 
ring, and when women abstained from wine to such a degree, 
that her relatives put a matron to death by starvation for 
breaking open the bins of the wine-cellar. Under Romulus 
indeed one who had touched wine was put to death with im 
punity by her husband Metennius. For the same reason they 
were also even obliged to offer kisses to their kinsfolk, that they 
might be judged by their breath. Where is now that happiness 
of married life so successful in point of morals at any rate, the 
result of which was that for about six hundred years after the 
foundation of Rome a writing of divorce was unknown? But 
now in the case of women every part of the body is weighted 
with gold, no kiss is free owing to wine, and divorce is now 
the object of prayer, as the natural fruit of marriage. Even 
with regard to your gods themselves the wise decrees of your 
ancestors with their application to the future have been re 
scinded by you, the very people who plume yourselves on 
your obedience to them. The consuls on the authority of 
the senate banished Father Bacchus with his mysteries not 
only from the capital but from the whole of Italy. Serapis 
and Isis and Harpocrates with their dog-headed attendant 
were forbidden the Capitol, in other words were expelled 
from the parliament of the gods, their altars overturned and 
themselves banished by the consuls Piso and Gabinius, who 
were assuredly no Christians, with a view to check the vices 
arising from their base and idle superstitions. But these you 
have restored, and conferred on them the highest dignity. Where 
is your religion, where the respect you owe to your ancestors? 
In dress, in food, in household arrangements, in feeling, even in 



24 TERTVLLIANI 

proauis renuntiastis. Laudatis semper antiquitatem, et noue 
de die uiuitis. Per quod ostenditur, dum a bonis maiorum 
instittitis deceditis, ea uos retinere et custodire quae non 
debuistis, cum quae debuistis non custodistis. Ipsum adhuc 
quod uidemini fidelissime tueri a patribus traditum, in 5 
quo principaliter reos transgressiom s Christianos destinastis, 
studium dico deorura colendorum, de quo maxime errauit 
antiquitas, licet Serapidi iam Romano aras restruxeritis, licet 
Baccho iam Italico furias uestras immoletis, suo loco ostendam 
proinde despici et neglegi et destrui a uobis aduersus maiorum 10 
auctoritatem. Nunc enim ad illam occultorum facinorum 
infamiam respondebo, ut uiam mihi ad manifestiora purgem. 

7. Dicimur sceleratissimi de sacramento infanticidii et 
pabulo inde, et post conuiuium incesto, quod euersores luminum 
canes, lenones scilicet tenebrarum, libidinum impiarum in uere- 15 
cundiam procurent. Dicimur tamen semper, nee uos quod 
tarn diu dicimur eruere curatis. Ergo aut eruite, si creditis, 
aut nolite credere, qui non eruistis. De uestra uobis dissimu 
lations praescribitur non esse quod nee ipsi audetis eruere. 
Longe aliud munus carnifici in Christianos imperatis, non ut 20 
dicant quae faciunt, sed ut negent quod sunt. Census istius 
disciplinae, ut iam edidimus, a Tiberio est. Cum odio sui 
coepit ueritas. Simul atque apparuit, inimica est. Tot hostes 
eius quot extranei, et quidem proprie ex aemulatione ludaei, 
ex concussione milites, ex natura ipsi etiam domestici nostri. 25 
Cotidie obsidemur, cotidie prodimur, in ipsis plurimum coetibus 
et congregationibus nostris opprimimur. Quis umquam taliter 
uagienti infanti superuenit? Quis cruenta, ut inuenerat, 
Cyclopum et Sirenum ora iudici reseruauit? Quis uel in 
uxoribus aliqua inmunda uestigia deprehendit ? Quis talia 30 
facinora cum inuenisset, celauit aut uendidit ipsos trahens 



APOLOGETICVS 6, 7 25 

language itself you have abandoned your ancestors. You are 
always praising old times, but you change your position from 
day to day. By this it is shown that, in departing from the 
good customs of your ancestors, you retain and preserve those 
which you ought not, while you have not preserved those which 
you ought. Even the very thing that you still seem most faith 
fully to guard, as handed down by your ancestors, that in which 
most of all you have marked the Christians as guilty of trans 
gression, I mean zeal in the worship of the gods, (concerning 
which early ages made the greatest mistakes,) although you have 
built up again the altars to Serapis, now become a Roman, 
although you present the frantic orgies of your worship to 
Bacchus, now an Italian, I will show in the proper place that 
these are alike looked down upon and slighted and undermined 
by you against the authority of your ancestors. But now I will 
reply to that evil reputation for secret crimes, to clear my way 
for the more open ones. 

CHAP. VII. We are called abominable from the sacrament 
of infanticide and the feeding thereon, as well as the incestuous 
intercourse, following the banquet, because the dogs, that over 
turn the lamps, (our pimps forsooth of the darkness) bring 
about the shamelessness engendered by our impious lusts. 
Yet we are but called so on each occasion, and you take no pains 
to bring to light what we have been so long charged with. There 
fore either prove the fact, if you believe it, or refuse to believe it, 
you who have not proved it. For your want of straightforward 
ness a preliminary objection is raised against you, that that 
cannot be true which not even you yourselves dare to search out. 
It is quite a different duty that you lay upon the executioner 
against the Christians, namely, not that they should say of what 
they are guilty, but that they should deny what they are. The 
beginning of this teaching, as I have already stated, dates from 
Tiberius. Truth from the first was accompanied by hatred of 
herself: from her first appearance she is an enemy. She has 
as many enemies as there are strangers to her, the Jews indeed 
quite specially so from jealousy, the soldiers from their violence, 
and even the very members of our households from natural ill- 
feeling. We are daily besieged, we are daily betrayed, even 
in our very meetings and assemblies we are frequently surprised. 
Who ever came upon an infant wailing under such circumstances? 
Who ever kept for the judge the bloodstained faces of Cyclopes 
and Sirens just as he had found them? Who detected even on 
our wives any trace of impurity ? Who when he had discovered 
such crimes, concealed them or sold his concealment of them, 



26 TERTVLLIANI 

homines? Si semper latemus, quando proditum est quod 
admittimus? immo a quibus prodi potuit? Ab ipsis enim reis 
non utique, cum uel ex forma omnibus mysteriis silentii fides 
debeatur. Samothracia et Eleusinia reticentur, quanto magis 
talia quae prodita interim etiam humanam animaduersionem 5 
prouocabunt, dum diuina seruatur? Si ergo non ipsi prodi- 
tores sui, sequitur ut extranei. Efc unde extraneis notitia, 
cum semper etiam piae initiationes arceant profanes et arbitris 
caueant? Nisi si impii minus metuunt. Natura famae omnibus 
nota est. Vestrum est: Fama malum qua non aliud uelocius 10 
nllum. Cur malum fama? quia uelox? quia index? an quia 
plurimum mendax? quae ne tune quidem, cum aliquid ueri 
adfert, sine mendacii uitio est, detrahens, adiciens, demutans 
de ueritate. Quid? quod ea illi condicio est, ut non nisi cum 
mentitur perseueret et tamdiu uiuit quamdiu non probat, 15 
siquidem, ubi probauit, cessat esse et quasi officio nuntiandi 
functa rem tradit, et exinde res tenetur, res nominatur. Nee 
quisquam dicit uerbi gratia, Hoc Romae aiunt factum, aut, 
Fama est ilium prouinciam sortitum, sed, Sortitus est ille pro- 
uinciam, et, Hoc factum est Romae. Fama, nomen incerti, 20 
locum non habet ubi certum est. An uero famae credat nisi 
inconsideratus ? Quia sapiens non credit incerto. Omnium 
est aestimare, quantacunque ilia ambitione difTusa sit, quanta- 
cunque asseueratione constructa, quod ab uno aliquando 
principe exorta sit necesse est. Exinde in traduces linguarum 25 
et aurium serpit, et ita modici seminis uitium cetera rumoris 
obscurat, ut nemo recogitet, ne primum illud os mendacium 
seminauerit, quod saepe fit aut ingenio aemulationis aut arbitrio 
suspicionis aut non noua sed ingenita quibusdam mentiendi 
uoluptate. Bene autem quod omnia tempus reuelat, testibus 30 
etiam uestris prouerbiis atque sententiis, ex dispositione naturae, 
quae ita ordinauit, ut nihil diu lateat, etiam quod fama non 



APOLOC4ETICVS 7 27 

with the very offenders in his grasp ? If we are always in hiding, 
when was the crime we commit betrayed ? nay rather, by whom 
could it be betrayed ? Assuredly not by the accused themselves, 
since even according to rule all mysteries are bound to be loyally 
concealed. Silence is preserved with regard to the mysteries of 
Samothrace and Eleusis ; how much more with regard to such 
as if betrayed will sometimes even call forth human punishment, 
while their divine character is preserved ! unless therefore they 
are themselves their own betrayers, it follows that the betrayers 
must be outsiders. And, if so, whence do the outsiders obtain 
the knowledge, since even religious initiations always exclude 
the profane and take precautions against the presence of eye 
witnesses, unless it be that the impious are bolder than others ? 
The nature of rumour is known to all. One of your (own) 
writers says: Rumour, than which no other evil is swifter. 
Why is rumour an evil? because it is swift? because it gives 
information? or is it because it is very often lying? Even 
when it brings some truth with it, it is not exempt from 
the flaw of falsehood, as it takes away from, adds to, and 
alters the truth. What are we to say of the fact that its 
character is such that it does not persist without lying and 
it lives only as long as it cannot prove its truth ; since when it 
has proved it, it ceases to exist and as though it had done its 
work of reporting hands down the matter, and thereafter it is 
held to be fact, and is so called. Nor does anyone for example 
remark : They say this has happened at Rome, or The rumour 
is that he has obtained the province (by lot), but He has 
obtained the province, and: This has happened at Rome. 
Rumour, a name belonging to uncertainty, has no place where 
certainty exists. Would anyone indeed, unless he were devoid 
of sense, believe rumour? A wise man does not trust what is 
uncertain. Anyone can judge that, however great may be the 
extent to which the story is spread, however great the confidence 
with which it has been built up, still it must have sprung at 
some time or other from a single root. From that it creeps 
into the branches of tongues and ears. And a fault in the 
little seed is so concealed by the shield 1 of rumour, that no one 
reflects whether that first mouth may not have sown the lie, 
a thing that often happens either through the inventiveness of 
jealousy or the humour of suspicion or the pleasure in lying, 
which is not new but inborn in some people. It is a good thing 
that time reveals everything, as even your proverbs and maxims 
testify, by the arrangement of nature, which has so ordered it 
that nothing is concealed for long, even that which rumour has 
1 Reading caetra with Schrors. 



28 TERTVLLIANI 

distulit. Merito igitur fa ma tamdiu conscia sola est scelerum 
Christianorum. Hanc indicem aduersus nos profertis, quae 
quod aliquando iactauit tantoque spatio in opinionem corro- 
borauit usque adhuc probare non ualuit, ut fidem naturae 
ipsius appellem aduersus eos qui talia credenda esse prae- 5 
sumunt. 

8. Ecce proponimus horum facinorum mercedem. Vitam 
aeternam repromittunt. Credite interim. De hoc enim quaero, 
an et qui credideris tanti habeas ad earn tali conscientia per- 
uenire. Veni, demerge ferrum in infantem nullius inimicum, 10 
nullius reum, omnium filium, uel, si alterius officium est, tu 
modo adsiste morienti homini antequam uixit, fugientem 
animam nouam expecta, excipe rudem sanguinem, eo panem 
tuum satia, uescere libenter. Interea discumbens dinumera 
loca, ubi mater, ubi soror; nota diligenter, ut, cum tenebrae 15 
ceciderint caninae, non erres. Piaculum enim admiseris nisi 
incestum feceris. Talia initiatus et consignatus uiuis in aeuum. 
Cupio respondeas, si tanti aeternitas. Aut si non, ideo nee 
credenda. Etiamsi credideris, nego te uelle; etiamsi uolueris, 
nego te posse. Cur ergo alii possint, si uos non potestis ? cur 20 
non possitis, si alii possunt? Alia nos, opinor, natura; Cyno- 
paene aut Sciapodes? Alii ordines dentium, alii ad incestam 
libidinem nerui? Qui ista credis de homine, potes et facere. 
Homo es et ipse, quod et Christianus. Qui non potes facere, 
non debes credere. Homo est enim et Christianus et quod et 25 
tu. Sed ignorantibus subicitur et inponitur. Nihil enim tale 
de Christian is asseuerari sciebant obseruandum utique sibi et 
omni uigilantia inuestigandum. Atquin uolentibus initiari 
moris est, opinor, prius patrem ilium sacrorum adire, quae 
praeparanda sint describere. Turn ille : Infans tibi necessarius 30 
adhuc tener, qui nesciat mortem, qui sub cultro tuo rideat; 
item panis, quo sanguinis uirulentiam colligas ; praeterea 



APOLOGETICVS 7, 8 29 

not spread abroad. Justly therefore, has rumour and rumour 
alone had for so long any knowledge of the crimes of the Chris 
tians. This is the informer you produce against us, one which 
as yet has not been able to prove what it has so long thrown 
put and what in so long a period of time it has strengthened 
into a settled opinion. But now to appeal to the credit of 
nature herself against those who dare to assume that such 
stories are to be believed. 

CHAP. VIII. Lo, I set before you the reward of such crimes ; 
they promise everlasting life. Believe it for the moment! 
About this I ask whether even you who have believed think 
it worth while to attain it at the price of such a (guilty) 
conscience. Come, plunge the sword into an infant who is 
no one s enemy, guilty of no crime, the child of all: or if 
such bloodshed is another s duty, do you merely stand by a 
human being dying before he has really lived ; wait for the flight 
of the new life ; catch the scarce-formed blood ; with it soak your 
bread, and enjoy your meal. Meantime, as you recline, count 
the places and mark where your mother, where your sister is; 
make a careful note, so that when the dogs have put out the 
lights, you may not make a mistake. For you will be guilty 
of sin if you fail to commit incest: Thus initiated and sealed, 
you live for ever. Please tell me, whether eternity is worth 
such a price ; if it is not so, it ought not to be believed to be so. 
Even if you believed it, I deny that you wished it; even if you 
wished it, I deny that you could do it. Why then should others 
be capable of doing what you cannot do? why could not you 
do it if others can? We, I suppose, are of another nature- 
monstrosities with heads of dogs or with feet so large as to shade 
us; with teeth differently arranged, and with organs different 
from other men, for the gratification of incestuous lust! You 
who believe such things about a fellow man can also do them 
yourself. You too are a human being, as the Christian is too. 
You who are incapable of the deeds, ought not to believe them 
possible. For the Christian also is a human being as you are. 
But perhaps the ignorant alone are tricked and decoyed into our 
religion: for they knew that no such statement was made 
about the Christians : but they must assuredly look to the matter 
and study it with all care. And yet, it is the custom, I fancy, 
for those who wish to be initiated, first to approach the father 
of the rites, and to write down what has to be prepared. Then 
he says: You have need of a little child, still soft, with no 
knowledge of death, who will smile under your knife; also 
bread, in which to gather the blood sauce ; further, candlesticks 



30 TERTVLLIANI 

candelabra et lucernae et canes aliqui et offulae, quae illos 
ad euersionem luminum extendant : ante omnia cum matre 
et sorore tua uenire debebis. Quid, si noluerint uel nullae 
f uerint ? quid denique singulares Christiani ? Non erit, opinor, 
legitimus Christianus nisi frater aut films. Quid nunc, et si 5 
ista omnia ignaris praeparantur ? Certe postea cognoscunt et 
sustinent et ignoscunt. Timent plecti, si proclament, qui 
defendi merebuntur,- qui etiam ultro perire malint quam sub 
tali conscientia uiuere. Age nunc timeant, cur etiam per- 
seuerant? Sequitur enim, ne ultra uelis id te esse quod, si 10 
prius scisses, non fuisses. 

9. Haec quo magis refutauerim, a uobis fieri ostendam 
partirn in aperto, partim in occulto, per quod forsitan et de 
nobis credidistis. Infantes penes Africam Saturno immola- 
bantur palam usque ad proconsulatum Tiberii, qui eosdem 15 
sacerdotes in eisdem arboribus templi sui obumbratricibus 
scelerum uotiuis crucibus exposuit, teste militia patriae nostrae, 
quae id ipsum munus illi proconsuli fun eta est. Sed et nunc 
in occulto perseueratur hoc sacrum facinus. Non soli uos con- 
temnunt Christiani, nee ullum scelus in perpetuum eradicatur 20 
aut mores suos aliqui deus mutat. Cum propriis filiis Saturnus 
non pepercit, extraneis utique non parcendo perseuerabat, quos 
quidem ipsi parentes sui offerebant et libentes respondebant et 
infantibus blandiebantur, ne lacrimantes immolarentur. Et 
tamen multum homicidio parricidium differt. Maior aetas apud 25 
Gallos Mercurio prosecatur. Remitto fabulas Tauricas theatris 
suis. Ecce in ilia religiosissima urbe Aeneadarum piorum est 
lupiter quidam quern ludis suis humano sanguine proluunt. 
Sed bestiarii, inquitis. Hoc, opinor, minus quam hominis? 
An hoc turpius, quod mali hominis? certe tamen de homicidio 30 
funditur. louem Christianum et solum patris filium de 
crudelitate ! Sed quoniam de infanticidio nihil interest sacro 
an arbitrio perpetretur, licet parricidium homicidio intersit, 



APOLOGETICVS 8, 9 31 

and lamps and some dogs and little morsels of meat, to make 
them strain and overturn the lamps ; above all you will have 
to come with your mother and sister. What if they refuse or if 
you have none ? What in a word are solitary Christians to do ? 
Every lawful Christian will be, I suppose, either a brother or 
a son. What now, even if all these things are prepared for those 
who know nothing about them? At any rate they learn it 
later, and endure it and pardon it! You will say they fear 
punishment, though, if they declared the facts, they would 
deserve every protection, and though they would rather suffer 
death than live with such a consciousness of guilt! Suppose, 
however, that they are still afraid, why do they still continue 
to be Christians ? For it follows that you no longer wish to be 
that which you would never have become if you "had known 
beforehand. 

CHAP. IX. To refute these charges more effectively, I will 
show that these crimes are perpetrated by you both in public 
and in secret, which is perhaps the reason that you have come to 
believe them about us also. Babes were sacrificed publicly to 
Saturn in Africa till the proconsulate of Tiberius, who exposed 
the same priests on the same trees that overshadow the crimes 
of their temple, on dedicated crosses, as is attested by the 
soldiery of my father 1 , which performed that very service for 
that proconsul. But even now this accursed crime is in secret 
kept up. It is not the Christians only who despise you; nor 
is any crime rooted out once for all, nor does any god change 
his character. Since Saturn did not spare his own children, 
of course he stuck to his habit of not sparing those of other 
people, whom indeed their own parents offered of themselves, 
being pleased to answer the call, and fondled the infants, lest 
they should weep when being sacrificed. And yet a parent s 
murder of his child is far worse than simple homicide. Among 
the Gauls adults are sacrificed to Mercury. I leave the fables 
about the Taurians to the theatres to which they belong. Lo, 
in that deeply religious city of the pious descendants of Aeneas 
there is a certain Jupiter whom at his own games they drench 
with human blood. But, say you, only that of a criminal con 
demned to the beasts. This, I suppose, is of less value than that 
of a human being. Or is this the viler, because it is that of an 
evil man ? At any rate it is the blood of homicide that is shed. 
What a Christian is Jupiter, the only son of his father in point 
of cruelty ! But since, in a case of infanticide, it matters not 
whether it is carried out as a sacred rite or out of mere caprice 
1 Reading patris nostri. 



32 TERTVLLIANI 

conuertar ad populum. Quot uultis ex his circumstantibus 
et in Christianorum sanguinem hiantibus, ex ipsis etiam uobis 
iustissimis et seuerissimis in nos praesidibus apud conscientias 
pulsem, qui natos sibi liberos enecent? Siquidem et de genere 
necis difTert, utique crudelius in aqua spiritum extorquetis aut 5 
frigori et fami et canibus exponitis. Ferro enim mori aetas 
quoque maior optauerit. Nobis uero semel homicidio inter- 
dicto etiam conceptum utero, dum adhuc sanguis in hominem 
delibatur, dissoluere non licet. Homicidii festinatio est pro- 
hibere nasci, nee refert natam quis eripiat animam an nascentem 10 
disturbet. Homo est et qui est futurus ; etiam fructus omnis 
iam in semine est. De sanguinis pabulo et eiusmodi tragicis 
ferculis legite, necubi relatum sit (est apud Herodotum, opinor), 
defusum brachiis sanguinem ex alterutro degustatum nationes 
quasdam foederi conparasse. Nescio quid et sub Catilina 15 
degustatum est. Aiunt et apud quosdam gentiles Scytharum 
defunctum quemque a suis comedi. Longe excurro. Hodie 
istic Bellonae sacratus sanguis de femore proscisso in palmulam 
exceptus et esui datus signat. Item illi qui munere in arena 
noxiorum iugulatorum sanguinem recentem de iugulo decur- 20 
rentem exceptum auida siti comitiali morbo medentes auferunt, 
ubi sunt ? item illi qui de arena f erinis obsoniis coenant, qui de 
apro, qui de ceruo petunt? Aper ille quem cruentauit, con- 
luctando detersit. Ceruus ille in gladiatoris sanguine iacuit. 
Ipsorum ursorum aluei appetuntur cruditantes adhuc de uis- 25 
ceribus humanis. Euctatur proinde ab homine caro pasta de 
homine. Haec qui editis, quantum abestis a conuiuiis Christian 
orum? Minus autem et illi faciunt qui libidine fera humanis 
membris inhiant, quia uiuos uorant? minus humano sanguine 
ad spurcitiam consecrantur, quia futurum sanguinem lambunt ? 30 
Non edunt infantes plane, sed magis puberes. Erubescat error 



APOLOGETICVS 9 33 

(although it does matter whether it is child-murder or homicide) 
I will appeal to the people. How many of those standing around 
and panting for the blood of the Christians, aye even of your 
selves, magistrates most just and severe against us, should I prick 
in their consciences, for putting to death the children born to 
them? Since there is a difference also in the manner of the 
death, it is assuredly more cruel to suffocate them by drowning 
or to expose them to cold and starvation and the dogs; for 
even an older person would prefer to die by the sword. But 
to us, to whom homicide has been once for all forbidden, it is 
not permitted to break up even what has been conceived in the r\ / 
womb, while as yet the blood is being drawn (from the parent , 
body) for a human life. Prevention of birth is premature murder^ 
and it makes no difference~whether it is a life already born that 
one snatches away, or a life in the act of being born that one 
destroys; that which is to be a human-being is also human; 
the whole fruit is already actually present in the seed. With 
regard to banquets of blood and such like tragic dishes, you may 
read whether it is not somewhere stated (it is in Herodotus, 
I think) that certain tribes had arranged the tasting of blood 
drawn from the arms of both sides to signify ratification of a 
treaty. Something of the same kind was tasted also under 
Catiline. They say that among certain tribesmen of the 
Scythians also each dead person becomes food for his own 
relations. But I am wandering too far. On this very day, 
in this very country, blood from a wounded thigh, caught in 
a palm of the hand and given to her worshippers to drink, 
marks the votaries 1 of Bellona. Again, what of those who, by 
way of healing epilepsy, at the gladiatorial show, drain with 
eager thirst the blood of slaughtered criminals, while it is still 
fresh and flowing down from the throat? Or what of those, 
who dine on bits of wild-beast from the arena, who seek a slice 
of boar or stag ? That boar in the struggle wiped off the blood 
from him whom he had first stained with gore; that stag 
wallowed in a gladiator s blood. The paunches of the very 
bears are eagerly sought, while they are yet gorged with un 
digested human flesh ; thus flesh that has been fed on man is 
forthwith vomited by man. You that eat such things, how far 
removed you are from the feasts of the Christians! But are 
those others less guilty, who with savage lust gloat over human 
bodies, because they devour them alive ? are they any the less 
dedicated to filth by human blood, because they lick up what 
is about to become blood ? they do not absolutely eat infants, 
but rather those that are grown up. Your crimes ought to 
1 Reading sacratos. 

3 



M. T. 



34 TERTVLLIANI 

uester Christian is, qui ne animalium quidem sanguinem in 
epulis esculentis habemus, qui propterea suffocatis quoque et 
morticinis abstinemus, ne quo modo sanguine contaminemur 
uel intra uiscera sepulto. Denique inter temptamenta Chris- 
tianorum botulos etiam cruore distensos admouetis, certissimi 5 
scilicet inlicitum esse penes illos per quod exorbitare eos uultis. 
Porro quale est, ut quos sanguinem pecoris horrere confiditis, 
humano inhiare credatis, nisi forte suauiorem eum experti? 
Quern quidem et ipsum proinde examinatorem Christianorum 
adhiberi oportebat ut foculum, ut acerram. Proinde enim 10 
probarentur sanguinem humanum adpetendo quemadmodum 
sacrificium respuendo, alioquin negandi si non gustassent, 
quemadmodum si immolassent, et utique non deesset uobis in 
auditione custodiarum et damnatione sanguis humanus. Proinde 
incesti qui magis quam quos ipse lupiter docuit? Persas curn 15 
suis matribus misceri Ctesias refert. Sed et Macedones suspecti, 
quia, cum primum Oedipum tragoediam audissent, ridentes 
incesti dolorem, "RXavve, dicebant, et? ryv fjujrepa. lam nunc 
recogitate quantum liceat erroribus ad incesta miscenda, 
suppeditante materias passiuitate luxuriae. Imprimis nlios 20 
exponitis suscipiendos ab aliqua praetereunte misencordia 
extranea, uel adoptandos melioribus parentibus emancipatis. 
Alienati generis necesse est quandoque memoriam dissipari, et 
simul error inpegerit, exinde iam tradux proficiet incesti serpente 
genere cum scelere. Tune deinde quocunque in loco, domi, 25 
peregre, trans freta comes est libido, cuius ubique saltus facile 
possunt alicubi ignaris nlios pangere uel ex aliqua seminis 
portione, ut ita sparsum genus per commercia humana concurrat 
in memorias suas, neque eas caecus incesti sanguinis agnoscat. 
Nos ab isto euentu diligentissima et fidelissima castitas sepsit, 30 
quantumque ab stupris et ab omni post matrimonium excessu, 
tantum et ab incesti casu tuti sumus. Quidam multo securiores 
totam uim hums erroris uirgine continentia depellunt, senes 



APOLOGETICVS 9 35 

blush before us Christians, who do not reckon the blood even of 

animals among articles of food, who abstain even from things 

strangled and from such as die of themselves, lest we should in 

any way be polluted even by blood which is buried within the 

body. Again, among the trials of the Christians you offer them 

sausages actually filled with blood, being of course perfectly 

aware that the means you wish to employ to get them 

to abandon their principles is in their eyes impermissible. 

Further, how absurd it is for you to believe that they, who 

you are assured, abhor the blood of beasts, are panting for the 

blood of man, unless perchance you have found the former more 

palatable! Indeed this thirst for blood, like the little altar 

and the incense-box, should have been itself applied as a means 

of testing the Christians. For they would then be distinguished 

by their desire for human blood, in the same way as by their 

refusal to sacrifice; being otherwise deserving of rejection, if 

they had refused to taste, just as if they had sacrificed. And 

you would at any rate have had no lack of human blood at 

the hearing and condemnation of prisoners. Again, who are 

more incestuous than those whom Jupiter himself has taught? 

Ctesias records that the Persians have sexual intercourse with 

their own mothers. The Macedonians, too, are suspect, because 

on first hearing the tragedy of Oedipus, they ridiculed his grief 

at the incest of which he had been guilty, saying : II montait 

sa mere. And now reflect what an opening is left to mistakes 

to bring about incestuous unions, for which the wide range of 

profligacy supplies opportunity. In the first place there is 

your exposure of your children, to be brought up by some 

passing stranger out of pity, and your surrender of them to be 

adopted by parents better than yourselves. The memory of 

a progeny thus cast off must some time or other be lost, and 

when once the error has rooted itself, the transmission of the 

incest will proceed farther and farther, as the family grows 

gradually with the crime. In the second place, everywhere, at 

home, abroad, across the seas, lust is in attendance, whose 

promiscuous impulses can easily beget children to you unawares 

in some place or other, even from however small a portion of 

the seed, so that a family, which has thus become scattered, 

may through the varied intercourse of men meet its own past, 

and may yet fail to recognise in it the mixtures of incestuous 

blood. We on the contrary are guarded from this result by 

a scrupulously faithful chastity, and we are as safe from the 

chance of incest as we are from debauchery and every excess 

in wedded life. Some are even much safer, as they withstand 

all possibility of this mistake by virgin continence, old men in 

32 



36 TERTVLLIANI 

pueri. Haec in uobis esse si consideraretis, proinde in Christ- 
ianis non esse perspiceretis. Idem oculi renuntiassent utrum- 
que. Sed caecitatis duae species facile concummt, ut qui non 
Tiident quae sunt, uidere uideantur quae non sunt. Sic per 
omnia ostendam. Nunc de manifestioribus dicam. 5 

10. Deos, inquitis, non colitis, et pro imperatoribus sacri- 
ficia non penditis. Sequitur ut eadem ratione pro aliis non 
sacrificemus, quia nee pro nobis ipsis, semel deos non colendo. 
Itaque sacrilegii et maiestatis rei conuenimur. Summa haec 
causa, immo tota est, et utique digna cognosci, si non prae- 10 
sumptio aut iniquitas iudicet, altera quae desperat, altera quae 
recusat ueritatem. Deos uestros colere desinimus ex quo illos 
non esse cognoscimus. Hoc igitur exigere debetis, uti pro- 
bemus non esse illos deos, et idcirco non colendos, quia tune 
demum coli debuissent, si dei fuissent. Tune et Christiani 15 
puniendi, si quos non colerent, quia putarent non esse, constaret 
illos deos esse. Sed nobis, inquitis, dei sunt. Appellamus et 
prouocamus a uobis ad conscientiam uestram : ilia nos iudicet, 
ilia nos damnet, si poterit negare omnes istos deos uestros 
homines fuisse. Si et ipsa inficias ierit, de suis antiquitatum 20 
instruments reuincetur, de quibus eos didicit, testimonium 
perhibentibus ad hodiernum et ciuitatibus in quibus nati sunt, 
et regionibus in quibus aliquid operati uestigia reliquerunt, in 
quibus etiam sepulti demonstrantur. Nunc ergo per singulos 
decurram, tot ac tantos, nouos, ueteres, barbaros, Graecos, 25 
Romanes, peregrines, captiuos, adoptiuos, proprios, communes, 
masculos, feminas, rusticos, urbanos, nauticos, militares? 
Otiosum est etiam titulos persequi, ut colligam in conpendium, 
et hoc non quo cognoscatis, sed recognoscatis. Certe enim 
oblitos agitis. Ante Saturnum deus penes uos nemo est, ab 30 
illo census totius uel potioris et notions diuinitatis. Itaque 
quod de origine constiterit, id et de posteritate conueniet. 
Saturnum itaque, si quantum litterae decent, neque Diodorus 



APOLOGETICVS 9, 10 37 

years, children in innocence. If you considered such to be the 
case among yourselves, you would in consequence see clearly 
that it was not the case among the Christians. The same eyes 
would have reported both alike. But the two kinds of blind 
ness easily combine: those who do not see what really is, 
naturally think they see what is not. I will show this to be 
the case throughout. Now I will speak about more open sins. 

CHAP. X. You accuse us of refusing to worship the gods, 

and to spend money on sacrificing for the emperors. It follows 

that we refuse to sacrifice for others on the same principle that 

we refuse even to sacrifice for ourselves, viz. by refusing once 

for all to worship the gods. Consequently we are charged with 

sacrilege and treason. This is the main point in the case, nay it 

is the whole case, and certainly worthy of investigation, if neither 

prejudice nor unfairness is to be the judge, the one despairing 

of the truth, the other objecting to it. We cease to worship 

your gods, from the moment we learn that they are no gods. 

This therefore is what you ought to demand, that we should 

prove that they are no gods, and therefore not to be worshipped, 

because then only would it have been our duty to worship them, 

if they had been gods. Then too the Christians would have 

deserved punishment, if it were certain that those whom they 

did not worship, because they thought they had no existence, 

were gods after all. But to us, you say, they are gods. We 

make application and appeal from you to your conscience ; let 

that judge us, let that condemn us, if it is able to deny that all 

these gods of yours were human beings. If conscience shall 

itself contest this, it will be refuted from its own documents of 

ancient times, from which it has learned of them, for they give 

evidence preserved to our day both of the communities in which 

they were born and of the districts in which they did some work 

of which they have left traces, and in which they are shown 

actually to have been buried. Now shall I run over them one by 

one, so many and so great as they are, new, old, barbarian, Greek, 

Roman, strangers, captives, adopted, individual, common, male, 

female, country, city, naval, military? It needs leisure even 

to follow out their titles, even to sum up all in brief, not that you 

may learn but that you may be reminded of them : for certainly 

you play the part of those that have forgotten. Previous to 

Saturn there is no god among you, from him dates the origin of 

all deity or at least of the more powerful and better known 

divinity. Therefore what is established with regard to the 

origin, will be valid also with regard to the later time. With 

regard to Saturn therefore, if we make appeal to what we can 



38 TERTVLLIANI 

Graecus aut Thallus neque Cassius Seuerus aut Cornelius Nepos 
neque ullus commentator eiusmodi antiquitatum aliud quam 
hominem promulgauerunt, si quantum rerum argumenta, 
nusquam inuenio fideliora quam apud ipsam Italiam, in qua 
Saturn us post multas expeditiones postque Attica hospitia 5 
consedit, exceptus a lano, uel lane, ut Salii uolunt. Mons 
quern incoluerat, Saturnius dictus, ciuitas quam depalauerat, 
Saturnia usque nunc est, tota denique Italia post Oenotriam 
Saturnia cognominabatur. Ab ipso primum tabulae et imagine 
signatus nummus, et inde aerario praesidet. Tamen si homo 10 
Saturnus, utique ex homine, et quia ab homine, non utique de 
caelo et terra. Sed cuius parentes ignoti erant, facile fuit 
eorum filium dici quorum et omnes possumus uideri. Quis 
enim non caelum ac terrain matrem ac patrem uenerationis et 
honoris gratia appellet ? uel ex consuetudine humana, qua ignoti 15 
uel ex inopinato adparentes de caelo superuenisse dicuntur. 
Proinde Saturno repentino ubique caelitem contigit dici ; nam 
et terrae filios uulgus uocat quorum genus incertum est. Taceo 
quod ita rudes adhuc homines agebant, ut cuiuslibet noui uiri 
adspectu quasi diuino commouerentur, cum hodie iam politi 20 
quos ante paucos dies luctu publico mortuos sint confessi, in 
deos consecrent. Satis iam de Saturno, licet paucis. Etiam 
louem ostendemus tarn hominem quam ex homine, et deinceps 
totum generis examen tarn mortale quam seminis sui par. 

11. Et quoniam sicut illos homines fuisse non audetis 25 
negare, ita post mortem deos factos instituistis adseuerare, 
causas quae hoc exegerint retractemus. Inprimis quidem 
necesse est coricedatis esse aliquem sublimiorem deum et 
mancipem quendam diuinitatis, qui ex hominibus deos fecerit. 
Nam neque sibi illi sumere potuissent diuinitatem, quam non 30 
habebant, nee alius praestare earn non habentibus nisi qui 
proprie possidebat. Ceterum si nemo esset qui deos faceret, 
frustra praesumitis deos factos auferendo factorem. Certe 



APOLOGBTICVS 10, 11 39 

learn from literature, neither the Greek Diodorus nor Thallus 
nor Cassius Severus nor Cornelius Nepos, nor any other recorder 
of such ancient beliefs, has proclaimed him anything but a man ; 
if to proofs from facts, I find nowhere more reliable proofs than 
in Italy itself, in which Saturn after many expeditions and after 
a residence in Attica took up his abode, having been welcomed 
by Janus, or Janes, as the Salii prefer to call him. The moun 
tain which he had inhabited was called Saturnian, the city, the 
bounds of which he had marked out with stakes, is even to this 
day Saturnia, finally the whole of Italy was named Saturnian, 
in succession to the name Oenotria. With him it was that 
accounts began and the impress of a human figure upon a coin, 
and thus it is that he presides over the treasury. But if Saturn 
was a man, he was of course sprung from a man, and because 
he was sprung from a man, it follows that he did not come from 
heaven or earth. But when a man s parents were unknown, it 
was easy to call him a son of those whose sons we also can all 
of us be considered ; for who would not call heaven and earth 
father and mother respectively out of reverence and respect? 
even in accordance with human custom, by which unknown 
persons or those who appear unexpectedly are said to have 
come upon us from heaven. Thus it is that Saturn who appeared 
suddenly happened everywhere to be called divine ; indeed the 
common people call those also sons of earth whose origin is 
uncertain. I say nothing of the fact that till then men were 
so unsophisticated, that they were stirred by the appearance 
of any new man, as if it were divine, since to-day men who are 
already cultivated deify those who a few days before they 
confessed by a public funeral were dead. Enough now about 
Saturn, though in few words. We will show that even Jupiter 
was himself as much man as he was sprung from man, and that 
in succession the whole swarm of his descendants were as mortal 
as they were like the seed from which they sprang. 

CHAP. XI. And since you have established the custom of 
maintaining that they were deified after death, in spite of the 
fact that you dare not deny them to have been men, let us 
review the causes that have led to this result. In the first 
place of course, you must admit that there is some -superior 
god, a sort of proprietor of deity, who has made gods out of 
men. For neither could they have taken to themselves a 
deity which they did not possess, nor could anyone else have 
offered it to those who did not possess it unless he possessed it 
in his own right. If there was no one to make them gods, it is 
in vain that you assume their deification to have taken place, 



40 TERTVLLIANI 

quidem si ipsi se facere potuissent, nunquam homines fuissent, 
possidentes scilicet condicionis melioris potestatem. Igitur si 
est qui faciat deos, reuertor ad causas examinandas faciendorum 
ex hominibus deorum, nee ullas inuenio, nisi si ministeria et 
auxilia officiis diuinis desiderauit ille magnus deus. Primo 5 
indignum est, ut alicuius opera indigeret, et quidem mortui, 
cum dignius ab initio deum aliquem fecisset qui mortui erat 
operam desideraturus. Sed nee operae locum uideo. Totum 
enim hoc mundi corpus siue innatum et infectum secundum 
Pythagoram, siue natum factumue secundum Platonem, semel 10 
utique in ista constructions dispositum et instructum et ordi- 
natum cum omni rationis gubernaculo inuentum est. Imper- 
fectum non potuit esse quod perfecit omnia. Nihil Saturnum 
et Saturniam gentem expectabat. Vani erunt homines, nisi 
certi sint a primordio et pluuias de caelo ruisse et sidera radiasse 15 
et lumina floruisse et tonitrua mugisse et ipsum louem quae 
in manu eius inponitis fulmina timuisse, item omnem frugem 
ante Liberum et Cererem et Mineruam, immo ante ilium aliquem 
principem hominem de terra exuberasse, quia nihil continendo 
et sustinendo homini prospectum post hominem potuit inferri. 20 
Denique inuenisse dicuntur necessaria ista uitae, non instituisse. 
Quod autem inuenitur, fuit, et quod fuit, non ems deputabitur 
qui inuenit, sed eius qui instituit; erat enim antequam in- 
ueniretur. Ceterum si propterea Liber deus quod uitem demon- 
strauit, male cum Lucullo actum est, qui primus cerasia ex 25 
Ponto Italiae promulgauit, quod non est propterea consecratus 
ut frugis nouae auctor, qui ostensor. Quamobrem si ab initio 
et instructa et certis exercendorum officiorum suorum rationibus 
dispensata uniuersitas constitit, uacat ex hac parte causa 
adlegendae humanitatis in diuinitatem, quia quas illis stationes 30 
et potestates distribuistis, tarn fuerunt ab initio quam et fuissent 
etiamsi deos istos non creassetis. Sed conuertimini ad causam 
aliam, respondentes conlationem diuinitatis meritorum re- 
munerandorum fuisse rationem. Et hinc conceditis, opinor, 
ilium deum deificum iustitia praecellere, qui non temere nee 35 



APOLOGETICVS 11 41 

while you deny the maker. Of course if they had been able to 
make themselves gods, they would never have been men, 
possessing as they did the command of a higher state. There 
fore, if there is anyone who makes gods, I return to my 
examination of the causes for making gods out of men, and 
I can find none, unless it be that that great god desired servants 
and helpers in discharge of his divine duties. But to begin with 
it is unworthy of him that he should need the service of anyone, 
especially of a dead man, since, if he were likely to need the 
service of a dead person, it would have been a worthier course to 
have made some god from the first. But I see no room for 
such aid either. For the whole body of the world, whether 
unborn or unmade, as Pythagoras believed, or born and made, 
as Plato believed, was surely found to have been once for all 
arranged and equipped and ordered in its present structure 
entirely under the guidance of reason. That could not be 
imperfect which has perfected all things. Nothing was waiting 
for Saturn and Saturn s race. Men will show themselves fools 
if they are not convinced that, from the beginning, rains fell 
from heaven, stars twinkled, the greater lights have shown their 
power, thunders have roared, and Jove himself has feared the 
thunderbolts which you place in his hand ; moreover every sort 
of crop sprang forth in abundance from the soil before the days 
of Bacchus and Ceres and Minerva, nay even before that first 
man, if there were such, because nothing devised for the pre 
servation and support of man could be introduced later than his 
own appearance. Lastly, the gods are said to have discovered, 
not to have originated, these necessaries of life. That however 
which is discovered, existed, and that which existed will not be 
counted as his who discovered it, but as his who originated it; 
for it existed before it was found. But if Bacchus is a god 
because he pointed out the vine, Lucullus, who first made 
cherries from Pontus known to Italy, has been unfairly treated, 
in that he was not for that reason deified, as the originator 
of a new kind of fruit, because he pointed it out. Wherefore, 
if the universe has existed from the beginning, both equipped 
and furnished with definite plans for carrying out its functions, 
this reason for promoting humanity to divinity falls to the 
ground, because the positions and powers that you have divided 
amongst them existed as much from the beginning, as they 
would also have existed, even if you had not appointed these 
gods of yours. But you turn to another reason, and reply that 
divinity was conferred upon them by way of rewarding their 
deserts. And hence you grant, I suppose, that that god- 
making deity excels in justice, since he apportioned so great 



42 TERTVLLIANI 

indigne nee prodige tantum praemium dispensarit. Volo 
igitur merita recensere, .an eiusmodi sint, ut illos in caelum 
extulerint et non potius in imum tartarum merserint, quern 
carcerem poenarum infernarum cum uultis adfirmatis. Illuc 
enim abstrudi solent impii quique in parentes et incesti in 5 
sorores et maritarum adulteri et uirginum raptores et puerorum 
contaminatores et qui saeuiunt et qui occidunt et qui furantur 
et qui decipiunt et qaicunque similes sunt alicuius dei uestri, 
quern neminem integrum a crimine aut uitio probare poteritis, 
nisi hominem negaueritis. Atquin ut illos homines fuisse non 10 
possitis negare, etiam istae notae accedunt quae nee deos postea 
factos credi permittunt. Si enim uos tali bus puniendis prae- 
sidetis, si conmercium, colloquium, conuictum malorum et 
turpium probi quique respuitis, horum autem pares deus ille 
maiestatis suae consortio adsciuit, quid ergo damnatis quorum 15 
collegas adoratis? Suggillatio est in caelo uestra iustitia. 
Deos facite criminosissimos quosque, ut placeatis deis uestris. 
Illorum est honor consecratio coaequalium. Sed ut omittam 
huius indignitatis retractatum, probi et integri et boni fuerint. 
Quot tamen potiores uiros apud inferos reliquistis ! aliquem de 20 
sapientia Socratem, de iustitia Aristiden, de militia Themisto- 
clem, de sublimitate Alexandrum, de felicitate Polycraten, de 
copia Croesum, de eloquentia Demosthenen. Quis ex illis deis 
uestris grauior et sapientior Catone, iustior et militarior Scipione ? 
quis sublimior Pompeio, felicior Sylla, copiosior Crasso, elo- 25 
quentior Tullio? Quanto dignius istos deos ille adsumendos 
expectasset, praescius utique potiorum? Properauit, opinor. 
et caelum semel clusit, et nunc utique melioribus apud inferos 
musitantibus erubescit. 

12. Gesso iam de isto, ut qui sciam me ex ipsa ueritate 30 
demonstraturum quid non sint, cum ostendero quid sint. 
Quantum igitur de deis uestris, nomina solurnmodo uideo 
quorundam ueterum mortuorum et fabulas audio et sacra de 
fabulis recognosco : quantum autem de simulacris ipsis, nihil 
aliud reprehendo quam materias sorores esse uasculorum 35 



APOLOGETICVS 11, 12 43 

a reward neither rashly nor unworthily nor wastefully. I wish 
therefore to review their merits, to see whether they are of such 
a kind as to warrant their elevation to heaven, and not rather 
their abasement to the lowest hell, which, when you please, you 
affirm to be a prison of infernal punishment. For it is there 
that are wont to be thrust away all that were undutiful to 
parents, guilty of incest towards sisters, adulterers of wives, 
abductors of maidens, polluters of boys, and those who rage, 
kill, steal, deceive, and whoever are like some god of your 
own, not one of whom you will be able to prove free from taint of 
crime or fault, unless you deny his humanity. But, to make it 
impossible for you to deny that they were men, there are also 
these characteristics which do not allow the belief that they 
became gods afterwards either. For if you sit in judgment 
for the punishment of such, if all the good among you reject 
the intercourse, the conversation, the company, of the evil and 
the base, and yet that great god has admitted their fellows 
into a partnership in his own majesty why then do you 
condemn those whose fellows you worship? Your justice 
implies chastisement in heaven. To please your gods you 
must convert your worst criminals into gods ! The deification 
of their equals is a compliment to them. But to omit further 
consideration of this disgrace, suppose they were honest and 
pure and good ; yet how many better m