Chapter XLIV.

Yes, and no one considers what the loss is to the common weal,—a loss as great as it is real, no one estimates the injury entailed upon the state, when, men of virtue as we are, we are put to death in such numbers; when so many of the truly good suffer the last penalty. And here we call your own acts to witness, you who are daily presiding at the trials of prisoners, and passing sentence upon crimes. Well, in your long lists of those accused of many and various atrocities, has any assassin, any cutpurse, any man guilty of sacrilege, or seduction, or stealing bathers’ clothes, his name entered as being a Christian too? Or when Christians are brought before you on the mere ground of their name, is there ever found among them an ill-doer of the sort? It is always with your folk the prison is steaming, the mines are sighing, the wild beasts are fed: it is from you the exhibitors of gladiatorial shows always get their herds of criminals to feed up for the occasion. You find no Christian there, except simply as being such; or if one is there as something else, a Christian he is no longer.65    [An appeal so defiant that its very boldness confirms this tribute to the character of our Christian fathers, p. 42.]

CAPUT XLIV.

Recogitandum itaque merito, quantum Respublica capiat detrimentum ex caede tot hominum, et innocentium et bene meritorum: id patere posse ex quotidianis custodiarum actis et elogiis; neminem illic inter tot nocentes maleficum simul et christianum inveniri.

44. At enim illud detrimentum reipublicae, tam grande quam verum, nemo circumspicit, illam injuriam civitatis nullus expendit, quum tot justi impendimur , quum tot innocentes erogamur. Vestros enim jam contestamur actus, qui quotidie iudicandis 0496B custodiis praesidetis, qui sententiis elogia dispungitis . Tot a vobis nocentes variis criminum elogiis recensentur; quis illic sicarius, quis manticucularius , quis sacrilegus , aut corruptor , aut lavantium praedo , idem etiam christianus adscribitur? aut cum christiani suo titulo offeruntur, 0497A quis ex illis etiam talis, quales tot nocentes? De vestris semper aestuat carcer, de vestris semper metalla suspirant , de vestris semper bestiae saginantur , de vestris semper munerarii noxiorum greges pascunt . Nemo illic christianus, nisi hoc tantum , aut si et aliud, jam non christianus .