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| Whether It is Credible that the Peace During the Reign of Numa Was Brought About by the Gods.
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Chapter 9.—Whether It is Credible
that the Peace During the Reign of Numa Was Brought About by the
Gods.
It is also believed that it was by
the help of the gods that the successor of Romulus, Numa Pompilius,
enjoyed peace during his entire reign, and shut the gates of Janus,
which are customarily kept open131
| 131 The gates of Janus were not the
gates of a temple, but the gates of a passage called Janus, which
was used only for military purposes; shut therefore in peace, open
in war. | during war. And it is supposed he
was thus requited for appointing many religious observances among
the Romans. Certainly that king would have commanded our
congratulations for so rare a leisure, had he been wise enough to
spend it on wholesome pursuits, and, subduing a pernicious
curiosity, had sought out the true God with true piety. But as it
was, the gods were not the authors of his leisure; but possibly
they would have deceived him less had they found him busier. For
the more disengaged they found him, the more they themselves
occupied his attention. Varro informs us of all his efforts, and
of the arts he employed to associate these gods with himself and
the city; and in its own place, if God will, I shall discuss these
matters. Meanwhile, as we are speaking of the benefits conferred
by the gods, I readily admit that peace is a great benefit; but it
is a benefit of the true God, which, like the sun, the rain, and
other supports of life, is frequently conferred on the ungrateful
and wicked. But if this great boon was conferred on Rome and
Pompilius by their gods, why did they never afterwards grant it to
the Roman empire during even more meritorious periods? Were the
sacred rites more efficient at their first institution than during
their subsequent celebration? But they had no existence in
Numa’s time, until he added them to the ritual; whereas
afterwards they had already been celebrated and preserved, that
benefit might arise from them. How, then, is it that those
forty-three, or as others prefer it, thirty-nine years of Numa’s
reign, were passed in unbroken peace, and yet that afterwards, when
the worship was established, and the gods themselves, who were
invoked by it, were the recognized guardians and pa
trons of the
city, we can with difficulty find during the whole period, from the
building of the city to the reign of Augustus, one year—that,
viz., which followed the close of the first Punic war—in which,
for a marvel, the Romans were able to shut the gates of war?132
| 132 The year of the Consuls T. Manlius
and C. Atilius, a.u.c. 519. | E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
|
