71. But our rites
are3886
| 3886
Lit., “what we do is.” |
new; yours
are ancient, and of excessive
antiquity,
we are told. And
what help does that give you, or how does it
damage our cause and
argument? The belief
3887
which we hold is new; some day
even it, too, will become old: yours is old; but when it arose,
it was new and unheard of. The credibility of a
religion,
however, must not be determined by its age, but by its
divinity; and
you should consider not when, but what you began to
worship. Four
hundred years ago,
my opponent says, your
religion did not
exist. And two
thousand years ago,
I reply, your gods did
not exist. By what reckoning,
you ask, or by what
calculations, can that be inferred? They are not difficult, not
intricate, but can be seen by any one who will take them in
hand even,
as the saying is. Who begot
Jupiter and his
brothers?
Saturn with Ops, as you relate, sprung from Cœlus and
Hecate. Who begot Picus, the
father of Faunus and grandfather of
Latinus? Saturn, as you again
hand down by your books and
teachers? Therefore, if this is the case, Picus and
Jupiter are
in consequence united by the
bond of kinship, inasmuch as they are
sprung from one stock and race. It is clear, then, that what we
say is true. How many steps are there in coming down
3888
| 3888 Lit., “how many steps are
there of race.” |
from
Jupiter and Picus to Latinus? Three, as the line of succession
shows. Will you suppose Faunus, Latinus, and Picus to have each
lived a
hundred and twenty years, for beyond this it is that
man’s
life cannot be
prolonged? The estimation is well
grounded and clear. There are, then, three
hundred and sixty
years after these?
3889
It is just as the calculation
shows. Whose
father-in-
law was Latinus?
Æneas’. Whose
father was he?
3890
| 3890
The ms. reads
genitor…Latinus cujus, some letters having been
erased. The reading followed above—genitor is
cujus—was suggested to Canterus by his friend Gifanius, and
is found in the margin of Ursinus and Orelli. |
He was father of the
founder of the
town Alba. How many years did kings
reign in
Alba? Four
hundred and twenty almost. Of what age is the
city
Rome shown to be in the annals? It reckons ten
3891
| 3891
Cf. above, “four hundred years ago,” etc., and i. ch.
13. It is of importance to note that Arnobius is inconsistent in
these statements. [In the Edinburgh edition we have here
“fifteen hundred years;” etc., but it was changed, in the
Errata, to ten hundred and fifty.] |
hundred and
fifty years, or not much less. So, then, from
Jupiter, who is the
brother of Picus and
father of the other and lesser gods, down to the
present time, there are nearly, or to add a little to the time,
altogether, two
thousand years. Now since this cannot be
contradicted, not only is the
religion to which you adhere shown to
have sprung up lately; but
it is also shown that the gods
themselves, to whom you heap up bulls and other victims at the risk of
bringing on disease, are young and little children, who should still be
fed with their mothers’ milk.
3892
| 3892
Lit., “be nursed with the breasts and dropt milk.” |
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