The City of God, Volume I. Bishop of Hippo Saint Augustine

90

Fugalia. Vives is uncertain to what feast Augustine refers. Censorinus understands him to refer to a feast celebrating the expulsion of the kings from Rome. This feast, however (celebrated on the 24th February), was commonly called "Regifugium."

91

Persius, Sat. iii. 66-72.

92

See below, books viii. – xii.

93

"Galli," the castrated priests of Cybele, who were named after the river Gallus, in Phrygia, the water of which was supposed to intoxicate or madden those who drank it. According to Vitruvius (viii. 3), there was a similar fountain in Paphlagonia. Apuleius (Golden Ass, viii.) gives a graphic and humorous description of the dress, dancing, and imposture of these priests; mentioning, among other things, that they lashed themselves with whips and cut themselves with knives till the ground was wet with blood.

94

Persius, Sat. iii. 37.

95

Ter. Eun. iii. 5. 36; and cf. the similar allusion in Aristoph. Clouds, 1033-4. It may be added that the argument of this chapter was largely used by the wiser of the heathen themselves. Dionysius Hal. (ii. 20) and Seneca (De Brev. Vit. c. xvi.) make the very same complaint; and it will be remembered that his adoption of this reasoning was one of the grounds on which Euripides was suspected of atheism.

96

This sentence recalls Augustine's own experience as a boy, which he bewails in his Confessions.

97

Labeo, a jurist of the time of Augustus, learned in law and antiquities, and the author of several works much prized by his own and some succeeding ages. The two articles in Smith's Dictionary on Antistius and Cornelius Labeo should be read.

98

"Lectisternia," feasts in which the images of the gods were laid on pillows in the streets, and all kinds of food set before them.

99

According to Livy (vii. 2), theatrical exhibitions were introduced in the year 392 a. u. c. Before that time, he says, there had only been the games of the circus. The Romans sent to Etruria for players, who were called "histriones," "hister" being the Tuscan word for a player. Other particulars are added by Livy.

100

See the Republic, book iii.

101

Comp. Tertullian, De Spectac. c. 22.

102

The Egyptian gods represented with dogs' heads, called by Lucan (viii. 832) semicanes deos.

103

The Fever had, according to Vives, three altars in Rome. See Cicero, De Nat. Deor. iii. 25, and Ælian, Var. Hist. xii. 11.

104

Cicero, De Republica, v. Compare the third Tusculan Quæst. c. ii.

105

In the year a. u. 299, three ambassadors were sent from Rome to Athens to copy Solon's laws, and acquire information about the institutions of Greece. On their return the Decemviri were appointed to draw up a code; and finally, after some tragic interruptions, the celebrated Twelve Tables were accepted as the fundamental statutes of Roman law (fons universi publici privatique juris). These were graven on brass, and hung up for public information. Livy, iii. 31-34.

106

Possibly he refers to Plautus' Persa, iv. 4. 11-14.

107

Sallust, Cat. Con. ix. Compare the similar saying of Tacitus regarding the chastity of the Germans: "Plusque ibi boni mores valent, quam alibi bonæ leges" (Germ. xix.).

108

The same collocation of words is used by Cicero with reference to the well-known mode of renewing the appetite in use among the Romans.

109

Æneid, ii. 351-2.

110

2 Cor. xi. 14.

111

Cicero, C. Verrem, vi. 8.

112

Cicero, C. Catilinam, iii. 8.

113

Alluding to the sanctuary given to all who fled to Rome in its early days.

114

Virgil, Æneid, i. 278.

115

Compare Aug. Epist. ad Deogratias, 102, 13; and De Præd. Sanct. 19.

116

Ch. iv.

117

Virg. Georg. i. 502, 'Laomedonteæ luimus perjuria Trojæ.'

118

Iliad, xx. 293 et seqq.

119

Æneid, v. 810, 811.

120

Gratis et ingratis.

121

De Conj. Cat. vi.

122

Helen's husband.

123

Venus' husband.

124

Suetonius, in his Life of Julius Cæsar (c. 6), relates that, in pronouncing a funeral oration in praise of his aunt Julia, Cæsar claimed for the Julian gens to which his family belonged a descent from Venus, through Iulus, son of Eneas.

125

Livy, 83, one of the lost books; and Appian, in Mithridat.

126

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.

127

The year of the Consuls T. Manlius and C. Atilius, a. u. c. 519.

128

Sall. Conj. Cat. ii.

129

Æneid, viii. 326-7.

130

Sall. Cat. Conj. vi.

131

Æneid, xi. 532.

132

Ibid. x. 464.

133

Livy, x. 47.

134

Being son of Apollo.

135

Virgil, Æn. i. 286.

136

Pharsal. v. 1.

137

Æneid, x. 821, of Lausus:

"But when Anchises' son surveyed

The fair, fair face so ghastly made,

He groaned, by tenderness unmanned,

And stretched the sympathizing hand," etc.

138

Virgil, Æneid, vi. 813.

139

Sallust, Cat. Conj. ii.

140

Ps. x. 3.

141

Æneid, ii. 351-2.

142

Cicero, De Rep. ii. 10.

143

Contra Cat. iii. 2.

144

Æneid, vi. 820, etc.

145

His nephew.

146

Hist. i.

147

Lectisternia, from lectus, a couch, and sterno, I spread.

148

Proletarius, from proles, offspring.