City of God (Penguin Classics) (185 page)

64
. Matt. 10, 23.

65
. John 14, 2.

66
. 1 Thess. 4, 5.

67
. Plut., Cat., 65–70; Dio Cass., 10–13.

68
. In the Latin War, 340
B.C.
(Liv., 7,7).

69
. Plut., Cat., 72;
Caes.
, 54.

70
. The most famous example of martyr suicide was St Pelagia, a girl of fifteen, who, with her mother and sisters, threw herself from her house to escape outrage. St Ambrose did not share Augustine’s view, and he praises Pelagia’s heroism (De Virg., 3, 7; Ep., 37).

71
. 1 Cor. 2, 11.

72
. Ecclus. 3, 26.

73
. Rom. 11, 33.

74
. Ps. 2, 11.

75
. Rom. 12, 16.

76
. cf. Wisd. 4, 11.

77
. Ps. 42, 3.

78
. Ps. 96, 4.

79
. Liv. 29, 14. In 204
B.C
. the statue of Cybele was brought to Rome.

80
. It was, in fact, his son who opposed Cato.

81
. St Augustine again confuses father and son. In 155 Scipio Nasica Corculum persuaded the senate to abandon the building of a stone theatre (Liv,
Perioch
, 48). The first stone theatre was built by Pompey in 55
B.C
.

82
. In 364–363
B.C.
(Liv., 7,2).

83
. The effect of Rome’s fall on the Eastern world is described by Jerome (Ep., 136, 2; 127, 12.
Comm. in
Ez., 3 Pref.) ‘A fearful report reached us from the West, that Rome was under siege; that the citizens were buying their safety with gold, and that when they had been despoiled they were again beset, so that they lost their lives after losing their property. My voice chokes, and sobs interrupt me as I dictate this. The city which taken captive the entire world is itself taken captive; or rather it perished with hunger before it fell to the sword, and only a bare few remained to be taken prisoner …’ (Ep., 127, 2).

84
. Liv., 1,8.

1
. Ps. 94, 4.

2
. 2 Tim. 3, 7.

3
.
A.D
. 410, about 4 years before St Augustine wrote this.

4
. “No
rain
…’ St Augustine quotes this proverb several times; Cf. Tertullian (Ap., 40): ‘If the Tiber comes down in flood to the walls, if the Nile fails to rise up to flood the fields, if the sky stands still, if the earth moves, if there is famine or pestilence, the cry goes up: “To the lions with the Christians!”’

5
. The
well-educated
, e.g. Symmachus, prefect of the city in A.D. 384, who appealed to Gratian (382) and Valentinian (384) for the restoration of paganism, in particular for the reinstatement in the senate house of the altar of Victory, abolished by Gratian. Ambrose successfully resisted this appeal (Ambr., Ep., 15, to Valentinian; Ep., 17 gives the argument of Symmachus).

6
.
The Heavenly Virgin.
It is not clear whether St Augustine distinguishes her from Berecynthia (a title of Cybele, from Mt Berecynthus, centre of her worship in Phrygia) but Ch. 26 suggests the identification. The West Syrian goddess Astarte (Tanit) was specially honoured at Carthage; she was assimilated to Cybele, and both were identified with Juno. The yearly festival of her purification was originally on 4 April, the anniversary of her arrival at Rome (cf. Bk 1, 30), when her image was ceremonially bathed in the Almo where it joins the Tiber near Rome (Ovid, Fast., 4, 337—55). Under the Empire this
lavatio
was on 27 March, part of the ceremonies of the vernal equinox.

7
. Fercula has two meanings: a) litters’ on which images were carried in procession, b) ‘Dishes’ in which the courses of a banquet were served, and so the courses themselves.

8
. Bk 1, 30.

9
. The theory of Euhemerus; cf. Bk Iv, 27n.

10
. Prov. 6, 26.

11
.
Secret religious tradition
. There seems to have been a considerable revival of mystery religions, with their esoteric rites and doctrines, in the fourth century, in particular the oriental cults of Cybele and Mithras, and the Egyptian rites of Isis and Serapis (cf. Labriolle,
La Réaction
Paienne, Paris, 1934).

12
.
The Fugalia
, on 24 February, celebrated the regifugiuro, the expulsion of the kings in 510
B.C
. (Ovid, Fast., 2,68ff.)

13
.
Sat
, 3, 66ff.

14
. Province of Achaia 27
B.C
. Greece had been in the Roman Empire since 146.

15
.
Galli
. The eunuch priests of Cybele took their name, it was said, from the river Gallos, near Mt Berecynthus, whose waters were reputed to have intoxicating properties. A more likely derivation is from the Celtic tribes (Galli or Galatae) who settled there in the fourth century B.c. and gave their name to the neighbouring district of Galatia. These priests were said to castrate themselves in imitation of Attis; cf. Bk VI, 7.

16
.
Sat.
, 3, 37.

17
. Eun., 584ff.

18
. Eun., 590f.

19
. Bk 1, 32.

20
. Cic, De Rep., 4, 10, 11.

21
. Athenian demagogues attacked by Aristophanes.

22
. Plautus was writing plays between 224–184 B.c.; Naevius was somewhat senior; Caecilius Statius thed in 168. Scipio Africanus Major (234–183) defeated Hannibal at Zama in 202; Gn. Scipio was consul in 176; M. Porcius Cato (’the Censor’, 230–149) was a bitter opponent of luxury and Hellenism and the persistent advocate of the extinction of Carthage (
Carthago delenda est).
Naevius certainly did not spare the Roman aristocracy, for he attacked the Metelli with great vehemence, and Aulus Gellius (33) says that he was imprisoned for ‘libels in the Greek manner on the leading men of Rome’. Pericles was covertly attacked by Cratinus, the comic poet, and (after his death) by Aristophanes.

23
. Twelve Tables: a code of laws drawn up by ten commissioners (decemviri) and published in 450 B.c. They prescribed clubbing to death (fustuarium) as the punishment for libel.

24
. Cic, De Rep., 4, 10, 11.

25
.
Cic
. De Rep., 4,11.

26
.
Aeschines
(born 390
B.C.
) opposed the anti-Macedonian policy of Demosthenes. The latter jeers at him as a failed actor (Dem., De
Cor.
, 209; 262).

27
.
Aristodemus
, with Demosthenes and Aeschines, was one of ten commissioners sent to negotiate with Philip of Macedon in 347 B.c., after the fall of Olynthus.

28
.
Labeo
. Cornelius Labeo flourished probably late in the third century A.D. His work is not extant, but there are many citations in Macrobius (fl.
c
. 400) and in Augustine. He seems to have had a vast knowledge of Roman religious traditions and rituals, which he interpreted in a Neoplatonic sense.

29
. ‘Banquets
of
the Gods’. In the
lectistcrnia
images of the gods were reclined on couches and plates of food were set before them; cf. Bk m, 17.

30
. cf. Bk
II
, ch 9.

31
. cf. ch. 7; and cf. St Augustine,
Conf.
, 1,16.

32
. Actors, together with charioteers and gladiators, were subject to
infamia
at Rome, thus being deprived of the vote and debarred from political office. In 45
B.C.
a law made them ineligible for municipal positions. Cf. Tertullian,
De Spect
., 22: ‘Charioteers, actors, athletes, and gladiators, popular as they are, to whom men prostitute their souls and women their bodies… are degraded and disqualified by the Romans on the ground of those same accomplishments for which they are so highly valued.… What absurdity! The Romans are enamoured of those whom they chastise; they depreciate those whom they approve; they exalt the art, and they censure the artist!’

33
. Livy (7, 2) says that plays were first performed in Rome in 364
B.C.
, being imported from Etruria. This would give Rome 389 years of freedom from contamination.

34
. cf. plat, Rp., 3,398A; 8,568B; 10,605A; 607B.

35
. cf. ch. 11.

36
.
Priapus
, a phallic god of fertility, especially of gardens and orchards.

Cynocephalus
(’dog-head’) was introduced from Egypt (cf. Bk
III
, 12). He is evidently the jackal-headed Anubis, the conductor of the dead to the under world, hence identified with Hermes
psychopompus
.

Febris
(’fever’): cf. Bk
III
, 12;
IV
, 15; 23. Cicero, (
De
Nat Deor., 3, 25, 63) mentions her shrine on the Palatine.

37
. Cic,
De Rep., 4, 9,9.

38
.
Quirinus
was an ancient Latin deity of uncertain functions. His identification with Romulus seems to be a late development, for Cicero speaks of it as something of recent growth (
De
Nat. Deor., 2, 62;
De Off., 3, 41).

39
. 300 years after, in 454, according to Livy (3, 31–3). There is, however, no trace of Greek influence in the laws of the Twelve Tables of 450.

40
. i.e. from the Delphic oracle. Lycurgus was the legendary legislate of Sparta. The reforms attributed to him were probably introduced
c.
600
B.C.

41
. Cot. 9,1.

42
. 405–396
B.C.

43
.
Cat
, 9.1.

44
. The secession to the Mons Sacer, 494
B.C.

45
. i.e. 202
B.C.
(Zama)–146 (fall of Carthage).

46
. Hist. fr. 1, 11.

47
. Hist. fr. 1, 11.

48
. Cat., 5, 9.

49
. Hist., fr. 1,16.

50
. Ps. 148, 11f.

51
. Luke 3, 12f.

52
. cf. Cic, Tusc. Disp., 5, 35, 101;
De Fin., 2
, 32, 106. Sardanapalus is the caricature drawn by classical historians of the great Assyrian king, Assur-banipal (668–626
B.C.
).

53
.
De Rep.
, 2, 42f.

54
.
De Rep.
, 2, 44.

55
.
De Rep.
, 1, 25, 39

56
.
De Rep.
, 5. 1.

57
. Bk
XIX
21; 24

58
. Ps. 87, 5.

59
.
Aen., 2
, 351f.

60
. 390
B.C.

61
.
The Feast of the Goose
. Plutarch (
De Fort, Rom., 12
) describes a procession in which a goose was conveyed in solemn state on an elaborate litter. Geese were sacred to Juno, and were kept on the Capitol at public expense.

62
. Q. Caecilius Metellus Macedonians, conqueror of Macedonia in 148
B.C.

63
. When Sulla marched on Rome in 89
B.C.
Marius took refuse in the marshes of Minturnae, but was captured. Marica is identified with Venus, or Diana, or even Circe.

64
. Liv., 77 (one of the lost books). The story is told in Cic, De Div., 1, 33, 72 and Plut., Still., 9.