42.4973
And what
pollution or
abomination could have flowed from this, either to make the circus less
pure, or to
defile Jupiter, seeing that in a few moments, in
a
few seconds, he beheld so many
thousands throughout the
world
perish by different kinds of
death, and with various forms of
torture? He was led across, says
my opponent, before the
games began to be celebrated. If from a sacrilegious spirit and
contempt
4974
| 4974
So all edd., rejecting s from ms. contemptu-s. |
for
religion, we have reason to excuse
Jupiter for being indignant that he
was contemned, and that more anxious care was not given to his
games. But if from mistake or accident that
secret fault was not
observed and known, would it not have beer right and
befitting Jupiter
to pardon human failings, and grant
forgiveness to the
blindness of
ignorance? But it was necessary that it should be
punished.
And after this, will any one believe that he was a
god who
avenged and
punished neglect of a childish show by the
destruction of a
state? that
he had any seriousness and
dignity, or any steady constancy, who, that
he might speedily
enjoy pleasure afresh, turned the
air men
breathed
4975
into a
baneful
poison, and ordered the
destruction of
mortals by
plague and
pestilence? If the
magistrate who presided over the games was too
careless in learning who on that day had been led across the circus,
and
blame was therefore contracted, what had the unhappy people done
that they should in their own persons
suffer the penalty of
another’s offences, and should be forced to hurry out of
life by
contagious pestilences? Nay, what had the
women, whose
weakness
did not allow them to take part in
public business, the
grown-up
4976
| 4976
So, by omitting two letters, all edd. except 1st and Ursinus,
which retain ms.
adult-er-ae—“adulterous.” |
maidens, the
little
boys, finally the young
children, yet dependent for
food on
their nurses,—what had these done that they should be assailed
with equal, with the same severity, and that before
they tasted
the
joy of life
4977
they
should feel the bitterness of death?
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