Book VI.
————————————
1. Having shown briefly how impious and
infamous are the opinions which you have formed about
your gods, we have now to4559
| 4559
Lit., “it remains that we.” |
speak of their
temples, their images
also, and sacrifices, and of the other things which are
4560
| 4560 Lit.,
“series which is,” etc. |
united and
closely related to them. For you are here in the
habit of
fastening upon us a very serious charge of impiety because we do not
rear
temples for the ceremonies of
worship, do not set up statues and
images
4561
| 4561
Singular. [But costly churches were built about this time.] |
of any
god, do
not build
altars,
4562
| 4562
Non altaria, non aras, i.e., neither to the superior nor
inferior deities. Cf. Virgil, Ecl., v. 66. |
do not
offer the
blood of creatures slain in
sacrifices,
incense,
4563
| 4563
[It is not with any aversion to incense that I note its absence, so
frequently attested, from primitive rites of the Church.] |
nor
sacrificial meal, and finally, do not bring
wine flowing in libations
from
sacred bowls; which, indeed, we neglect to build and do, not as
though we cherish impious and
wicked dispositions, or have conceived
any madly desperate feeling of contempt for the gods, but because we
think and believe that they
4564
| 4564 The
earlier edd. prefix d to the ms. eos—“that the gods,”
etc. |
—if only they are true gods, and
are called by this exalted name
4565
| 4565
Lit., “endowed with the eminence of this name.” |
—either
scorn such honours, if they
give way to scorn, or endure
them with anger, if they are roused
by feelings of rage.
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