Commodian — Instructiones 15
You say there are gods who are plainly bloody, and you say the fates of genesis write things for us? Say now, then, to whom rites should first be borne: between either road untimely death wanders. If the fates of genesis grant, why do you pray to a god? You are deceived, empty one, who seek to pray the Manes, and who name lords fashioned for yourself. Or you also pray I-know-not-what goddesses — Bellona and Nemesis, Furina, Caelestis of the Virgin, and Venus, for whom your wives weaken themselves. There are other demons besides, far from the shrines, which are not yet numbered and are worn on the neck, so that they cannot even render themselves a reason for the plague. They ought rather to be carried out to the earth’s ends.
Latin
15 DE DIS DEABUSQUE. Dicitis esse deos, qui sunt manifeste cruenti, Et dicitis fata genesis adscribere nobis? Dicite nunc ergo, quibus primum sacra ferantur: Inter utrumque uias mors inmatura uagatur. Si tribuunt fata genesis, cur deum oratis? Deciperis, uane, qui Manes quaeris orare, Et qui fabricantur dominos tibi nuncupas esse. Aut feminas quoque nescio quas deas oratis, Bellonam et Nemesim, deas Furinam, Caelestem, Uirginis, et Uenerem, cui coniuges uestrae delumbant. Sunt alia praeterea daemonia <procul a> fanis, Quae nec numerantur adhuc et in collo feruntur, Ut nec ipsi sibi possint rationem reddere pestis. Exportari magis in ultima terra deberent.