ANF06. Fathers of the Third Century: Gregory Thaumaturgus, Dionysius the Great, Julius Africanus, Anatolius, and Minor Writers, Methodius, Arnobius

13. Because of the Christians, my opponents say, the gods inflict upon us all calamities, and ruin is brought on our crops by the heavenly deities. I ask when you say these things, do you not see that you are accusing us with bare-faced effrontery, with palpable and clearly proved falsehoods? It is almost three hundred years³²⁶²

³²⁶² See Introduction.
—something less or more—since we Christians³²⁶³

³²⁶³ [Our author thus identifies himself with Christians, and was, doubtless, baptized when he wrote these words.]
began to exist, and to be taken account of in the world. During all these years, have wars been incessant, has there been a yearly failure of the crops, has there been no peace on earth, has there been no season of cheapness and abundance of all things? For this must first be proved by him who accuses us, that these calamities have been endless and incessant, that men have never had a breathing time at all, and that without any relaxation³²⁶⁴

³²⁶⁴ Sine ullis feriis, a proverbial expression, “without any holidays;” i.e. without any intermixture of good.
they have undergone dangers of many forms.
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