Arnobius, Against the Nations, Book I
Some people imagine themselves wise, yet they rave like oracles: ever since the Christian faith appeared, they claim the world has perished, humanity has been overwhelmed by countless evils, and even the heavenly powers have abandoned their ancient care for our affairs and been driven from the earth. I have decided, within the limits of my ability and my plain speech, to confront this envy and dismantle these slanderous charges. Otherwise, these accusers will congratulate themselves on their popular rhetoric, thinking they have said something profound, or — if we stay silent — they will boast that they have won a case that collapses from its own emptiness, not from any lack of defenders.
I do not deny that the accusation sounds formidable, nor that we would deserve hatred — if it could be proved that among us exist causes that made the world stray from its laws, drove the gods far away, and imported such massive miseries into the ages. So let us examine the substance of this opinion. Setting aside all partisan zeal that usually obscures the truth, let us weigh the claim on an even scale. The chain of reasoning will show that we are not the impious ones; rather, those who boast of cultivating the divine and clinging to ancient rites will be found guilty of the very crime they charge us with.
First, I ask them calmly: since the name of the Christian religion began to be spoken on earth, what has nature — the thing itself, called and known as nature — sensed or suffered that is unseen, unknown, or contrary to the fundamental laws? Have the primary elements, from which all things are composed, changed into opposite qualities? Has any part of the cosmic machine that covers and contains us been loosened or dissolved? Does the world's rotation, which governs the primordial motion, now drag or race, or has it been seized by a headlong spin? Have the stars begun to rise in the west and set in the east? Has the sun, prince of the stars, which clothes all things in light and animates them with heat, flared up, gone cold, or corrupted the temperaments of its usual moderation? Has the moon stopped renewing itself, ceasing its constant return to former phases? Have cold, heat, and the moderate temperatures of the seasons perished in confusion? Does winter now bring long days and recall the late lights of summer? Have the winds breathed their last? Have the lightning flashes died out so that heaven is no longer driven into clouds, and rain-moistened fields no longer follow? Does the earth refuse the seeds entrusted to it? Do trees refuse to leaf? Has the taste of edible fruits and the juice of the vine been altered? Does oil pressed from olives no longer feed the lamp? Do land and water animals fail to conceive and give birth? Do embryos in the womb not develop according to their own laws? Do humans — scattered by the first navigation to the earth's uninhabitable shores — still contract marriages with proper solemnities? Do they not beget beloved offspring, conduct public and private business, manage households? Do they not direct their talents through every art and discipline as they please, and reap the rewards of their studies? Do they not rule and command, those to whom the lot of affairs has fallen? Are they not daily advanced in dignity and power? Do they not preside over courts, interpret laws, administer justice? Do they not celebrate all the other customs that sustain human life, each nation in its own land?
Since all this is so, and no novelty has broken the perpetual course of things, what is this stain that the Christian religion is said to have brought upon the earth when it entered the world and revealed the hidden mysteries of truth? They answer: pestilences, droughts, wars, crop failures, locusts, mice, hail, and other scourges that afflict human affairs — these the gods inflict, enraged by your injuries and offenses. If it were not foolish to linger over facts so clear they need no defense, I would prove by reviewing earlier centuries that these evils are neither unknown nor sudden; they did not erupt only after our people received the honor of this calling. If we are the cause, and these plagues were devised as punishment for our crime, how did antiquity even know the names of these misfortunes? How did it have words for war, pestilence, hail — concepts it could not have formed for things it had never experienced, nor learned from ancestors? Famine and grain shortages, they say, grip us tight. Were not the ancient and most ancient centuries acquainted with this necessity? Do not the very names of these evils testify that no mortal has ever been immune? If testimony is needed, I can cite authors recording how many nations, how often, have felt horrific famine and perished in vast numbers. Hailstorms are frequent and universal; ancient writings record rocky rains destroying entire regions. Excessive rains rot crops and signal sterility. Was antiquity exempt? We know great rivers have dried up in cracked mud. Pestilence burns through the human race. Run through the annals written in many languages: you will learn that all nations have often been desolated and stripped of their peoples. Locusts and mice devour every crop. Consult your own histories: see how often earlier ages were afflicted and reduced to misery. Cities shake with the strongest earthquakes, trembling on the brink of ruin. Have earlier times not seen cities swallowed by great chasms, or fortunes secured from such disasters? When was the human race wiped out by floods? Not before us? When was the world burned to ashes and embers? Not before us? When were the greatest cities submerged by the sea? Not before us? When were wars waged with wild beasts and battles fought with lions? Not before us? When did poisonous snakes destroy peoples? Not before us?
You habitually throw at us the causes of frequent wars, the devastation of cities, the invasions of Germans and Scythians — and I say this with peace and good will: you do not see the absurdity of your own calumny. Ten thousand years ago, as Plato shows, a great force erupted from the island of Atlantis and wiped out innumerable nations — were we the cause? Among Assyrians and Bactrians under Ninus and Zoroaster, war was waged not only with iron but with magical and Chaldean arts — was that our envy? When Helen was abducted by divine impulse, becoming a dire fate for her time and future ages — was that our religion's crime? When Xerxes poured the sea onto the land and marched across the waters — was that the effect of our name? When a single youth from Macedonia subjugated the East to slavery — did we stir up those causes? When the Romans, like a torrent, submerged and overwhelmed all nations — did we drive the gods into fury? If no one dares impute those ancient events to our times, how can we be the cause of present miseries, when nothing new is happening — everything is old, and nothing is unheard of in antiquity?
Latin
Quoniam comperi nonnullos, qui se plurimum sapere suis persuasionibus credunt, insanire, bacchari, et velut quiddam promptum ex oraculo dicere: postquam esse in mundo christiana gens coepit, terrarum orbem periisse, multiformibus malis affectum esse genus humanum; ipsos etiam coelites, derelictis curis solemnibus, quibus quondam solebant invisere res nostras, terrarum ab regionibus exterminatos: statui pro captu, ac mediocritate sermonis contraire invidiae, et calumniosas dissolvere criminationes, ne aut illi sibi videantur, popularia dum verba depromunt, magnum aliquid dicere; aut, si nos talibus continuerimus a litibus, obtinuisse se causam putent, victam sui vitio, non assertorum silentio destitutam. Neque enim negaverim validissimam esse accusationem istam, hostilibusque condignos odiis nos esse, si apud nos esse constiterit causas, per quas suis mundus aberravit ab legibus, exterminati sunt dii longe, examina tanta moerorum mortalium importata sunt saeculis. Inspiciamus igitur opinionis istius mentem, et hoc quod dicitur, quale sit: summotisque omnibus contentionum studiis, quibus obscurari et contegi contemplatio rerum solet, an sit istud quod dicitur verum, momentorum parium examinatione pendamus. Efficietur enim profecto rationum consequentium copulatu, ut non impii nos magis, sed illi ipsi reperiantur criminis istius rei, qui se numinum profitentur esse cultores, atque inveteratis religionibus deditos. Ac primum ab his illud familiari et placida oratione perquirimus: postquam esse nomen in terris christianae religionis occoepit, quidnam invisitatum, quid incognitum, quid contra leges principaliter institutas, aut sensit aut passa est rerum ipsa quae dicitur appellaturque natura? Numquid in contrarias qualitates prima illa elementa mutata sunt, ex quibus res omnes consensum est esse concretas? Numquid machinae hujus, et molis, qua universi tegimur, et continemur inclusi, parte est in aliqua relaxata, aut dissoluta constructio? Numquid vertigo haec mundi, primigenii motus moderaren excedens, aut tardius repere, aut praecipiti coepit volubilitate raptari? Numquid ab occiduis partibus attolere se astra, atque in ortus fieri signorum coepta est inclinatio? Numquid ipse siderum sol princeps, cujus omnia luce vestiuntur, atque animantur calore, exarsit, intepuit, atque in contrarios habitus moderaminis soliti temperamenta corrupit? Numquid luna desivit redintegrare se ipsam, atque in veteres formas novellarum semper restitutione traducere? Numquid frigora, numquid calores, numquid tepores medii inaequalium temporum confusionibus occiderunt? Numquid longos habere dies bruma, revocare tardissimas luces nox coepit aestatis? Numquid suas animas expiraverunt venti? emortiusque flaminibus neque coelum coactatur in nubila, nec madidata ex imbribus arva succedunt? Commendata semina tellus recusat accidere, aut frondescere arbores nolunt? sapor frugibus esculentis, et vitis liquoribus mutatus est? olearum ex bacculis cruor teter exprimitur, nec lumini subministratur extincto? Animalia terris sueta, atque in aquis degentia non suriunt, nec concipiunt? foetus non in uteris sumptos suis moribus, et sua lege custodiunt? Ipsi homines denique, quos per inhabitabiles oras terrae sparsit prima incipiensque navitas, non matrimonia copulant nuptiarum solennibus justis? non dulcissimas procreant liberorum stirpes, non negotia publica, non privata, et familiares res agunt? non, ut cuique libitum est, per diversas artium, disciplinarumque rationes ingenia dirigunt, et studiosae referunt navitatis usuras? Non regnant, non imperant, quibus sors rerum attributa est talium? non auctiores quotidie dignitatibus et potestatibus fiunt? judiciorum disceptationibus praesunt? leges interpretantur et jura? Nonne omnia caetera, quibus vita succingitur et continetur humana, suis omnes in gentibus patriorum celebrant institutionibus morum? Cum igitur haec ita sint, neque ulla irruperit novitas, quae tenorem perpetuum rerum dissociata continuatione diduxerit: quid est istud, quod dicitur invectam esse labem terris, postquam religio christiana intulit se mundo, et veritatis absconditae sacramenta patefecit? Sed pestilentias, inquiunt, et siccitates, bella, frugum inopiam, locustas, mures, et grandines, resque alias noxias, quibus negotia incursantur humana, dii nobis important injuriis vestris atque offensionibus exasperati. Si in rebus perspicuis, et nullam desiderantibus defensionem, non stoliditatis esset diutius immorari, ostenderem profecto, replicatis prioribus saeculis, mala ista, quae dicitis, non esse incognita, non repentina; nec postquam gens nostra felicitate donari hujus vocaminis meruit, irrupisse has labes, et infestari coepisse discriminum varietate mortalia. Si enim nos sumus in causa, et in nostri criminis meritum excogitatae sunt hae pestes, unde novit antiquitas miseriarum haec nomina? unde bellis significatum dedit? pestilentiam, grandines, qua potuit notione signare, aut inter suas voces, quibus oratio explicabatur, assumere? Nam si novella sunt haec mala, et ab recentibus ducunt offensionibus causas, qui potuit fieri ut eis rebus verba formaret, quas nec ipsa sciebat expertam se esse, neque ullis comperisset majorum in temporibus factitatas? Penuria, inquit, frugum, et angustiae frumentariae arctius nos habent. Antiqua enim et vetustissima saecula necessitatis istius aliquando fuerunt expertia? nonne ipsa nomina, quibus censentur haec mala, testificantur et clamant, nullum ab his umquam immunem abisse mortalium? Quod si ad credendum difficilis res esset, testimoniis agere possemus auctorum, quantae, quoties, et quae gentes famem senserint horridam, et aggerata interierint vastitate. Casus frequentissimi grandinis accidunt, atque adierunt cuncta. In litteris enim priscis comprehensum et compositum non videmus, etiam imbres saxeos totas saepe comminuisse regiones? Difficiles pluviae sata faciunt emori, et sterilitatem indicunt terris. Immunis enim antiquitas malis ab his fuit? cum etiam flumina cognoverimus ingentia limis inaruisse siccatis. Pestilentiae contagia urunt genus humanum. Annalium scripta percurrite linguarum, fol. 3, diversitatibus scripta, universas discetis gentes saepenumero desolatas, et viduatas suis esse cultoribus. A locustis, a muribus, genus omne acciditur atque arroditur frugum. Historias ite per vestras, et ab istis pestibus instruemini, quoties prior aetas affecta sit, et paupertatis ad miserias venerit. Terrarum validissimis motibus tremefactae nutant usque ad periculum civitates. Quid, hiatibus maximis interceptas urbes cum gentibus superiora tempora non viderunt, aut ab hujusmodi casibus fortunas habuere securas? Quando est humanum genus aquarum diluviis interemptum? non ante nos? Quando mundus incensus in favillas et cineres dissolutus est? non ante nos? Quando urbes amplissimae marinis coopertae sunt fluctibus? non ante nos? Quando cum feris bella, et praelia cum leonibus gesta sunt? non ante nos? Quando pernicies populis venenatis ab anguibus data est? non ante nos? Nam quod nobis objectare consuestis bellorum frequentium causas, vastationes urbium. Germanorum et Scythicas irruptiones, cum pace hoc vestra et cum bona venia dixerim: quale sit istud quod dicitur, calumniarum libidine non videtis. Ut ante millia annorum decem, ab insula quae perhibetur Atlantica Neptuni, sicut Plato demonstrat, magna erumperet vis hominum, et innumeras funditus deleret atque extingueret nationes, nos fuimus causa? ut inter Assyrios et Bactrianos, Nino quondam Zoroastreque ductoribus, non tantum ferro dimicaretur et viribus, verum etiam Magicis et Chaldaeorum ex reconditis disciplinis, invidia nostra haec fuit? ut Helena diis ducibus atque impulsoribus rapta, et suis esset dirum et venturis temporibus fatum, religionis nostrae attributum est crimini? ut ille immanis Xerxes mare terris immitteret, et gressibus maria transiret, nostri nominis effectum est causa? ut ex Macedoniae finibus unus exortus adolescens Orientis regna et populos captivitati et servitio subjugaret, nos fecimus, atque excitavimus causas? ut modo Romani, velut aliquod flumen torrens, cunctas submergerent atque obruerint nationes, nos videlicet numina praecipitavimus in furorem? Quod si hominum nullus est, qui, quae dudum gesta sunt, nostris audeat temporibus imputare, quemadmodum possimus miseriarum esse praesentium causae, cum novi fiat nihil, sed sunt omnia vetera, et nullis antiquitatibus inaudita?