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De civitate Dei (CCSL)

Caput II: De terrenae ciuitatis regibus atque temporibus, quibus ab exortu Abrahae sanctorum tempora subputata conueniunt.

Societas igitur usquequaque mortalium diffusa per terras et in locorum quantislibet diuersitatibus unius tamen eiusdemque naturae quadam communione deuincta utilitates et cupiditates suas quibusque sectantibus, dum id quod adpetitur aut nemini aut non omnibus sufficit, quia non est id ipsum, aduersus se ipsam plerumque diuiditur, et pars partem, quae praeualet, obprimit. uictrici etiam uicta subcumbit, dominationi scilicet uel etiam libertati qualemcumque pacem praeferens ac salutem, ita ut magnae fuerint admirationi, qui perire quam seruire maluerunt. nam in omnibus fere gentibus quodammodo uox naturae ista personuit, ut subiugari uictoribus mallent, quibus contigit uinci, quam bellica omnifariam uastatione deleri. hinc factum est, ut non sine dei prouidentia, in cuius potestate est, ut quisque bello aut subiugetur aut subiuget, quidam essent regnis praediti, quidam regnantibus subditi. sed inter plurima regna terrarum, in quae terrenae utilitatis uel cupiditatis est diuisa societas, quam ciuitatem mundi huius uniuersali uocabulo nuncupamus, duo regna cernimus longe ceteris prouenisse clariora, Assyriorum primum, deinde Romanorum, ut temporibus, ita locis inter se ordinata atque distincta. nam quomodo illud prius, hoc posterius, eo modo illud in oriente, hoc in occidente surrexit; denique in illius fine huius initium confestim fuit. regna cetera ceterosque reges uelut adpendices istorum dixerim. Ninus ergo iam secundus rex erat Assyriorum, qui patri suo Belo successerat, regni illius primo regi, quando in terra Chaldaeorum natus est Abraham. erat etiam tempore illo regnum Sicyoniorum admodum paruum, a quo ille undecumque doctissimus Marcus Varro scribens de gente populi Romani, uelut antiquo tempore, exorsus est. ab his enim Sicyoniorum regibus ad Athenienses peruenit, a quibus ad Latinos, inde Romanos. sed ante conditam Romam in conparatione regni Assyriorum perexigua ista memorantur; quamuis Athenienses in Graecia plurimum claruisse fateatur etiam Sallustius Romanus historicus; plus tamen fama quam re ipsa. nam loquens de illis: Atheniensium, inquit, res gestae, sicuti ego existimo, satis amplae magnificaeque fuere; uerum aliquanto minores tamen, quam fama feruntur. sed quia prouenere ibi scriptorum magna ingenia, per terrarum orbem Atheniensium facta pro maximis celebrantur. ita eorum qui fecere uirtus tanta habetur, quantum eam uerbis potuere extollere praeclara ingenia. accedit huic ciuitati non parua etiam ex litteris et philosophis gloria, quod ibi potissimum talia studia uiguerunt. nam quantum adtinet ad imperium, nullum maius primis temporibus quam Assyriorum fuit, nec tam longe lateque diffusum, quippe ubi Ninus rex, Beli filius, uniuersam Asiam, quae totius orbis ad numerum partium tertia dicitur, ad magnitudinem uero dimidia reperitur, usque ad Libyae fines subegisse traditur. solis quippe Indis in partibus orientis non dominabatur, quos tamen eo defuncto Samiramis uxor eius est adgressa bellando. ita factum est, ut, quicumque in illis terris populi siue reges erant, Assyriorum regno dicionique parerent et quidquid imperaretur efficerent. Abraham igitur in eo regno apud Chaldaeos Nini temporibus natus est. sed quoniam res Graecae multo sunt nobis quam Assyriae notiores, et per Graecos ad Latinos ac deinde ad Romanos, qui etiam ipsi Latini sunt, temporum seriem deduxerunt qui gentem populi Romani in originis eius antiquitate rimati sunt, ob hoc debemus, ubi opus est, Assyrios memorare reges, ut appareat quemadmodum Babylonia, quasi prima Roma, cum peregrina in hoc mundo dei ciuitate procurrat; res autem, quas propter conparationem ciuitatis utriusque, terrenae scilicet et caelestis, huic operi oportet inserere, magis ex Graecis et Latinis, ubi et ipsa Roma quasi secunda Babylonia est, debemus adsumere. quando ergo natus est Abraham, secundi reges erant apud Assyrios Ninus, apud Sicyonios Europs; primi autem illic Belus, hic Aegialeus fuerunt. cum uero egresso Abraham de Babylonia promisit ei deus ex illo magnam gentem futuram et in eius semine omnium gentium benedictionem, Assyrii quartum regem habebant, Sicyonii quintum; apud illos enim regnabat filius Nini post matrem Samiramidem; quae ab illo interfecta perhibetur, ausa filium mater incestare concubitu. hanc putant nonnulli condidisse Babylonem, quam quidem potuit instaurare. quando autem uel quomodo condita fuerit, in sexto decimo libro diximus. filium porro Nini et Samiramidis, qui matri successit in regnum, quidam etiam ipsum Ninum, quidam uero deriuato a patre uocabulo Ninyan uocant. Sicyoniorum autem regnum tunc tenebat Telxion. quo regnante usque adeo ibi mitia et laeta tempora fuerunt, ut eum defunctum uelut deum colerent sacrificando et ludos celebrando, quos ei primitus institutos ferunt.

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The City of God

Chapter 2.--Of the Kings and Times of the Earthly City Which Were Synchronous with the Times of the Saints, Reckoning from the Rise of Abraham.

The society of mortals spread abroad through the earth everywhere, and in the most diverse places, although bound together by a certain fellowship of our common nature, is yet for the most part divided against itself, and the strongest oppress the others, because all follow after their own interests and lusts, while what is longed for either suffices for none, or not for all, because it is not the very thing. For the vanquished succumb to the victorious, preferring any sort of peace and safety to freedom itself; so that they who chose to die rather than be slaves have been greatly wondered at. For in almost all nations the very voice of nature somehow proclaims, that those who happen to be conquered should choose rather to be subject to their conquerors than to be killed by all kinds of warlike destruction. This does not take place without the providence of God, in whose power it lies that any one either subdues or is subdued in war; that some are endowed with kingdoms, others made subject to kings. Now, among the very many kingdoms of the earth into which, by earthly interest or lust, society is divided (which we call by the general name of the city of this world), we see that two, settled and kept distinct from each other both in time and place, have grown far more famous than the rest, first that of the Assyrians, then that of the Romans. First came the one, then the other. The former arose in the east, and, immediately on its close, the latter in the west. I may speak of other kingdoms and other kings as appendages of these.

Ninus, then, who succeeded his father Belus, the first king of Assyria, was already the second king of that kingdom when Abraham was born in the land of the Chaldees. There was also at that time a very small kingdom of Sicyon, with which, as from an ancient date, that most universally learned man Marcus Varro begins, in writing of the Roman race. For from these kings of Sicyon he passes to the Athenians, from them to the Latins, and from these to the Romans. Yet very little is related about these kingdoms, before the foundation of Rome, in comparison with that of Assyria. For although even Sallust, the Roman historian, admits that the Athenians were very famous in Greece, yet he thinks they were greater in fame than in fact. For in speaking of them he says, "The deeds of the Athenians, as I think, were very great and magnificent, but yet somewhat less than reported by fame. But because writers of great genius arose among them, the deeds of the Athenians were celebrated throughout the world as very great. Thus the virtue of those who did them was held to be as great as men of transcendent genius could represent it to be by the power of laudatory words." ¹ This city also derived no small glory from literature and philosophy, the study of which chiefly flourished there. But as regards empire, none in the earliest times was greater than the Assyrian, or so widely extended. For when Ninus the son of Belus was king, he is reported to have subdued the whole of Asia, even to the boundaries of Libya, which as to number is called the third part, but as to size is found to be the half of the whole world. The Indians in the eastern regions were the only people over whom he did not reign; but after his death Semiramis his wife made war on them. Thus it came to pass that all the people and kings in those countries were subject to the kingdom and authority of the Assyrians, and did whatever they were commanded. Now Abraham was born in that kingdom among the Chaldees, in the time of Ninus. But since Grecian affairs are much better known to us than Assyrian, and those who have diligently investigated the antiquity of the Roman nation's origin have followed the order of time through the Greeks to the Latins, and from them to the Romans, who themselves are Latins, we ought on this account, where it is needful, to mention the Assyrian kings, that it may appear how Babylon, like a first Rome, ran its course along with the city of God, which is a stranger in this world. But the things proper for insertion in this work in comparing the two cities, that is, the earthly and heavenly, ought to be taken mostly from the Greek and Latin kingdoms, where Rome herself is like a second Babylon.

At Abraham's birth, then, the second kings of Assyria and Sicyon respectively were Ninus and Europs, the first having been Belus and Aegialeus. But when God promised Abraham, on his departure from Babylonia, that he should become a great nation, and that in his seed all nations of the earth should be blessed, the Assyrians had their seventh king, the Sicyons their fifth; for the son of Ninus reigned among them after his mother Semiramis, who is said to have been put to death by him for attempting to defile him by incestuously lying with him. Some think that she founded Babylon, and indeed she may have founded it anew. But we have told, in the sixteenth book, when or by whom it was founded. Now the son of Ninus and Semiramis, who succeeded his mother in the kingdom, is also called Ninus by some, but by others Ninias, a patronymic word. Telexion then held the kingdom of the Sicyons. In his reign times were quiet and joyful to such a degree, that after his death they worshipped him as a god by offering sacrifices and by celebrating games, which are said to have been first instituted on this occasion.