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| Conclusion, the Romans Owe Not Their Imperial Power to Their Gods. The Great God Alone Dispenses Kingdoms, He is the God of the Christians.
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Chapter XVII.1081
| 1081 Compare The
Apology, xxv. xxvi., pp. 39, 40. | —Conclusion, the Romans Owe Not Their
Imperial Power to Their Gods. The Great God Alone Dispenses Kingdoms,
He is the God of the Christians.
In conclusion, without denying all those whom
antiquity willed and posterity has believed to be gods, to be
the guardians of your religion, there yet remains for our consideration
that very large assumption of the Roman superstitions which we have to
meet in opposition to you, O heathen, viz. that the Romans have become
the lords and masters of the whole world, because by their religious
offices they have merited this dominion to such an extent that they are
within a very little of excelling even their own gods in power. One
cannot wonder that Sterculus, and Mutunus, and Larentina, have
severally1082
| 1082 The verb is in
the singular number. | advanced this
empire to its height! The Roman people has been by its gods alone
ordained to such dominion. For I could not imagine that any foreign
gods would have preferred doing more for a strange nation than
for their own people, and so by such conduct become the deserters and
neglecters, nay, the betrayers of the native land wherein they were
born and bred, and ennobled and buried. Thus not even
Jupiter could suffer
his own Crete to be subdued by the Roman fasces, forgetting that cave
of Ida, and the brazen cymbals of the Corybantes, and the most pleasant
odour of the goat which nursed him on that dear spot.
Would he not have made that tomb of his superior to the whole Capitol,
so that that land should most widely rule which covered the ashes of
Jupiter? Would Juno, too, be willing that the Punic city,
for the love of which she even neglected Samos, should be destroyed,
and that, too, by the fires of the sons of Æneas? Although I am
well aware that
“Hic illius arma,
Hic currus fuit, hoc regnum des gentibus esse,
Si qua fata sinant, jam tunc tenditque
fovetque.”1083
“Here were her arms, her chariot here,
Here goddess-like, to fix one day
The seat of universal sway,
Might fate be wrung to yield assent,
E’en then her schemes, her cares were
bent.”1084
Still the unhappy (queen of gods) had no power against
the fates! And yet the Romans did not accord as much honour to the
fates, although they gave them Carthage, as they did to Larentina. But
surely those gods of yours have not the power of conferring empire. For
when Jupiter reigned in Crete, and Saturn in Italy, and Isis in Egypt,
it was even as men that they reigned, to whom also were assigned many
to assist them.1085
Thus he who serves
also makes masters, and the bond-slave1086
of
Admetus1087
| 1087 Apollo; comp.
The Apology, c. xiv., p. 30. | aggrandizes with
empire the citizens of Rome, although he destroyed his own liberal
votary Crœsus by deceiving him with ambiguous oracles.1088
Being a god, why was he afraid boldly to
foretell to him the truth that he must lose his kingdom. Surely those
who were aggrandized with the power of wielding empire might always
have been able to keep an eye, as it were,1089
on
their own cities. If they were strong enough to confer empire on the
Romans, why did not Minerva defend Athens from Xerxes? Or why did not
Apollo rescue Delphi out of the hand of Pyrrhus? They who lost their
own cities preserve the city of Rome, since (forsooth) the
religiousness1090
of Rome has merited
the protection! But is it not rather the fact that this excessive
devotion1091
has been devised
since the empire has attained its glory by the increase of its power?
No doubt sacred rites were introduced by Numa, but then your
proceedings were not marred by a religion of idols and temples. Piety
was simple,1092
and worship humble;
altars were artlessly reared,1093
and the vessels
(thereof) plain, and the incense from them scant, and the god himself
nowhere. Men therefore were not religious before they achieved
greatness, (nor great) because they were religious. But how can the
Romans possibly seem to have acquired their empire by an excessive
religiousness and very profound respect for the gods, when that empire
was rather increased after the gods had been slighted?1094
Now, if I am not mistaken, every kingdom or
empire is acquired and enlarged by wars, whilst they and their gods
also are injured by conquerors. For the same ruin affects both
city-walls and temples; similar is the carnage both of civilians and of
priests; identical the plunder of profane things and of sacred. To the
Romans belong as many sacrileges as trophies; and then as many triumphs
over gods as over nations. Still remaining are their captive idols
amongst them; and certainly, if they can only see their conquerors,
they do not give them their love. Since, however, they have no
perception, they are injured with impunity; and since they are injured
with impunity, they are worshipped to no purpose. The nation,
therefore, which has grown to its powerful height by victory after
victory, cannot seem to have developed owing to the merits of its
religion—whether they have injured the religion by augmenting
their power, or augmented their power by injuring the religion. All
nations have possessed empire, each in its proper time, as the
Assyrians, the Medes, the Persians, the Egyptians; empire is even now
also in the possession of some, and yet they that have lost their power
used not to behave1095
| 1095 Morabantur. We have
taken this word as if from “mores” (character). Tertullian
often uses the participle “moratus” in this sense. | without attention
to religious services and the worship of the gods, even after these had
become unpropitious to them,1096
until at last
almost universal dominion has accrued to the Romans. It is the fortune
of the times that has thus constantly shaken kingdoms with
revolution.1097
Inquire who has
ordained these changes in the times. It is the same (great Being) who
dispenses kingdoms,1098
| 1098 Compare The
Apology, c. xxvi. | and has now put the
supremacy of them into the hands of the Romans, very much as if1099
| 1099 We have treated this
“tanquam” and its clause as something more than a mere
simile. It is, in fact, an integral element of the supremacy which the
entire sentence describes as conferred on the Romans by the
Almighty. | the tribute of many nations were after its
exaction amassed in one (vast) coffer. What He has determined
concerning it, they know who are the nearest to Him.1100
| 1100 That is, the
Christians, who are well aware of God’s purposes as declared
in prophecy. St. Paul tells the Thessalonians what the order of
the great events subsequent to the Roman power was to be: the
destruction of that power was to be followed by the development and
reign of Antichrist; and then the end of the world would
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