The Octavius of Minucius Felix.

 The Octavius of Minucius Felix.

 Chapter II.—Argument:  The Arrival of Octavius at Rome During the Time of the Public Holidays Was Very Agreeable to Minucius.  Both of Them Were Desir

 Chapter III.—Argument:  Octavius, Displeased at the Act of This Superstitious Man, Sharply Reproaches Minucius, on the Ground that the Disgrace of Thi

 Chapter IV.—Argument:  Cæcilius, Somewhat Grieved at This Kind of Rebuke Which for His Sake Minucius Had Had to Bear from Octavius, Begs to Argue with

 Chapter V.—Argument:  Cæcilius Begins His Argument First of All by Reminding Them that in Human Affairs All Things are Doubtful and Uncertain, and tha

 Chapter VI.—Argument:  The Object of All Nations, and Especially of the Romans, in Worshipping Their Divinities, Has Been to Attain for Their Worship

 Chapter VII.—Argument:  That the Roman Auspices and Auguries Have Been Neglected with Ill Consequences, But Have Been Observed with Good Fortune.

 Chapter VIII.—Argument:  The Impious Temerity of Theodorus, Diagoras, and Protagoras is Not at All to Be Acquiesced In, Who Wished Either Altogether t

 Chapter IX.—Argument:  The Religion of the Christians is Foolish, Inasmuch as They Worship a Crucified Man, and Even the Instrument Itself of His Puni

 Chapter X.—Argument:  Whatever the Christians Worship, They Strive in Every Way to Conceal:  They Have No Altars, No Temples, No Acknowledged Images. 

 Chapter XI.—Argument:  Besides Asserting the Future Conflagration of the Whole World, They Promise Afterwards the Resurrection of Our Bodies:  and to

 Chapter XII.—Argument:  Moreover, What Will Happen to the Christians Themselves After Death, May Be Anticipated from the Fact that Even Now They are D

 Chapter XIII.—Argument:  Cæcilius at Length Concludes that the New Religion is to Be Repudiated And that We Must Not Rashly Pronounce Upon Doubtful M

 Chapter XIV.—Argument:  With Something of the Pride of Self-Satisfaction, Cæcilius Urges Octavius to Reply to His Arguments And Minucius with Modesty

 Chapter XV.—Argument:  Cæcilius Retorts Upon Minucius, with Some Little Appearance of Being Hurt, that He is Foregoing the Office of a Religious Umpir

 Chapter XVI.—Argument:  Octavius Arranges His Reply, and Trusts that He Shall Be Able to Dilute the Bitterness of Reproach with the River of Truthful

 Chapter XVII.—Argument:  Man Ought Indeed to Know Himself, But This Knowledge Cannot Be Attained by Him Unless He First of All Acknowledges the Entire

 Chapter XVIII.—Argument:  Moreover, God Not Only Takes Care of the Universal World, But of Its Individual Parts.  That by the Decree of the One God Al

 Chapter XIX.—Argument:  Moreover, the Poets Have Called Him the Parent of Gods and Men, the Creator of All Things, and Their Mind and Spirit.  And, Be

 Chapter XX.—Argument:  But If the World is Ruled by Providence and Governed by the Will of One God, an Ignorant Antipathy Ought Not to Carry Us Away i

 Chapter XXI.—Argument:  Octavius Attests the Fact that Men Were Adopted as Gods, by the Testimony of Euhemerus, Prodicus, Persæus, and Alexander the G

 Chapter XXII.—Argument:  Moreover, These Fables, Which at First Were Invented by Ignorant Men, Were Afterwards Celebrated by Others, and Chiefly by Po

 Chapter XXIII.—Argument:  Although the Heathens Acknowledge Their Kings to Be Mortal, Yet They Feign that They are Gods Even Against Their Own Will, N

 Chapter XXIV.—Argument:  He Briefly Shows, Moreover, What Ridiculous, Obscene, and Cruel Rites Were Observed in Celebrating the Mysteries of Certain G

 Chapter XXV.—Argument:  Then He Shows that Cæcilius Had Been Wrong in Asserting that the Romans Had Gained Their Power Over the Whole World by Means o

 Chapter XXVI.—Argument:  The Weapon that Cæcilius Had Slightly Brandished Against Him, Taken from the Auspices and Auguries of Birds, Octavius Retorts

 Chapter XXVII.—Argument:  Recapitulation.  Doubtless Here is a Source of Error:  Demons Lurk Under the Statues and Images, They Haunt the Fanes, They

 Chapter XXVIII.—Argument:  Nor is It Only Hatred that They Arouse Against the Christians, But They Charge Against Them Horrid Crimes, Which Up to This

 Chapter XXIX.—Argument:  Nor is It More True that a Man Fastened to a Cross on Account of His Crimes is Worshipped by Christians, for They Believe Not

 Chapter XXX.—Argument:  The Story About Christians Drinking the Blood of an Infant that They Have Murdered, is a Barefaced Calumny.  But the Gentiles,

 Chapter XXXI.—Argument:  The Charge of Our Entertainments Being Polluted with Incest, is Entirely Opposed to All Probability, While It is Plain that G

 Chapter XXXII.—Argument:  Nor Can It Be Said that the Christians Conceal What They Worship Because They Have No Temples and No Altars, Inasmuch as The

 Chapter XXXIII.—Argument:  That Even If God Be Said to Have Nothing Availed the Jews, Certainly the Writers of the Jewish Annals are the Most Sufficie

 Chapter XXXIV.—Argument:  Moreover, It is Not at All to Be Wondered at If This World is to Be Consumed by Fire, Since Everything Which Has a Beginning

 Chapter XXXV.—Argument:  Righteous and Pious Men Shall Be Rewarded with Never-Ending Felicity, But Unrighteous Men Shall Be Visited with Eternal Punis

 Chapter XXXVI.—Argument:  Fate is Nothing, Except So Far as Fate is God.  Man’s Mind is Free, and Therefore So is His Action:  His Birth is Not Brough

 Chapter XXXVII.—Argument:  Tortures Most Unjustly Inflicted for the Confession of Christ’s Name are Spectacles Worthy of God.  A Comparison Instituted

 Chapter XXXVIII.—Argument:  Christians Abstain from Things Connected with Idol Sacrifices, Lest Any One Should Think Either that They Yield to Demons,

 Chapter XXXIX.—Argument:  When Octavius Had Finished This Address, Minucius and Cæcilius Sate for Some Time in Attentive and Silent Wonder.  And Minuc

 Chapter XL.—Argument:  Then Cæcilius Exclaims that He is Vanquished by Octavius And That, Being Now Conqueror Over Error, He Professes the Christian

 Chapter XLI.—Argument:  Finally, All are Pleased, and Joyfully Depart:  Cæcilius, that He Had Believed Octavius, that He Had Conquered And Minucius,

Chapter VII.—Argument:  That the Roman Auspices and Auguries Have Been Neglected with Ill Consequences, But Have Been Observed with Good Fortune.

“Nor yet by chance (for I would venture in the meantime even to take for granted the point in debate, and so to err on the safe side) have our ancestors succeeded in their undertakings either by the observance of auguries, or by consulting the entrails, or by the institution of sacred rites, or by the dedication of temples.  Consider what is the record of books.  You will at once discover that they have inaugurated the rites of all kinds of religions, either that the divine indulgence might be rewarded, or that the threatening anger might be averted, or that the wrath already swelling and raging might be appeased.  Witness the Idæan mother,17    Otherwise, “the goddess mother.” who at her arrival both approved the chastity of the matron, and delivered the city from the fear of the enemy.  Witness the statues of the equestrian brothers,18    Scil. Castor and Pollux. consecrated even as they had showed themselves on the lake, who, with horses breathless,19    Otherwise, “who breathless with horses foaming,” etc. foaming, and smoking, announced the victory over the Persian on the same day on which they had gained it.  Witness the renewal of the games of the offended Jupiter,20    Otherwise, “the offence of Jupiter, the renewal of the games,” etc. on account of the dream of a man of the people.  And an acknowledged witness is the devotion of the Decii.  Witness also Curtius, who filled up the opening of the profound chasm either with the mass, or with the glory of his knighthood.  Moreover, more frequently than we wished have the auguries, when despised, borne witness to the presence of the gods:  thus Allia is an unlucky name; thus the battle of Claudius and Junius is not a battle against the Carthaginians, but a fatal shipwreck.  Thus, that Thrasymenus might be both swollen and discoloured with the blood of the Romans, Flaminius despised the auguries; and that we might again demand our standards from the Parthians, Crassus both deserved and scoffed at the imprecations of the terrible sisters.  I omit the old stories, which are many, and I pass by the songs of the poets about the births, and the gifts, and the rewards of the gods.  Moreover, I hasten over the fates predicted by the oracles, lest antiquity should appear to you excessively fabulous.  Look at the temples and lanes of the gods by which the Roman city is both protected and armed:  they are more august by the deities which are their inhabitants, who are present and constantly dwelling in them, than opulent by the ensigns and gifts of worship.  Thence therefore the prophets, filled with the god, and mingled with him, collect futurity beforehand, give caution for dangers, medicine for diseases, hope for the afflicted, help to the wretched, solace to calamities, alleviation to labours.  Even in our repose we see, we hear, we acknowledge the gods, whom in the day-time we impiously deny, refuse, and abjure.

CAPUT VII.

ARGUMENTUM.---Auspicia et auguria Romana poenitenter omissa, observata feliciter.

Nec tamen temere (ausim enim interim et ipse concedere, et sic melius errare), majores nostri, aut observandis auguriis, aut extis consulendis, aut instituendis sacris, aut delubris dedicandis, operam navaverunt. Specta de libris memoriam: jam eos deprehendes initiasse ritus omnium religionum, vel 0254A ut remuneraretur divina indulgentia, vel ut averteretur imminens ira, aut ut, jam tumens et saeviens, placaretur. Testis mater Idaea, quae adventu suo et probavit matronae castitatem, et urbem metu hostili liberavit: testes equestrium fratrum in lacu, sicut ostenderant, statuae consecratae, qui anhelis, spumantibus equis atque fumantibus, de Perse victoriam eadem die qua fecerant, nuntiaverunt: testis ludorum, offensio Jovis, de somno plebeii hominis iteratio: et Decuriorum devotio rata testis est: testis et Curtius, qui, equitis sui vel mole honore hiatum profundae voraginis 0255A coaequavit. Frequentius etiam quam volebamus, deorum praesentiam contempta auspicia contestata sunt. Sic Allia nomen infaustum, sic Claudii et Junii, non praelium in Poenos, sed ferale naufragium est. Et, ut Trasimenus Romanorum sanguine et major esset et decolor, sprevit auguria Flaminius: et, ut Parthos signa reposcamus, Dirarum imprecationes Crassus et meruit et irrisit. Omitto vetera, quae multa sunt, et de deorum natalibus, donis, muneribus, negligo carmina poetarum; praedicta etiam de oraculis fata transilio, ne vobis antiquitas nimium fabulosa videatur. Intende templis ac delubris deorum quibus Romana civitas et protegitur et armatur: magis sunt augusta numinibus incolis praesentibus, inquilinis, quam cultus insignibus et muneribus 0255B opulenta. Inde adeo pleni et mixti Deo vates futura praecerpunt, dant cautelam periculis, morbis medelam, spem afflictis, opem miseris, solatium 0256A calamitatibus, laboribus levamentum: etiam per quietem deos videmus, audimus, agnoscimus, quos impie per diem negamus, nolumus, pejeramus.