Übersetzung ausblenden
The City of God

Chapter 22.--That the Roman Gods Never Took Any Steps to Prevent the Republic from Being Ruined by Immorality.

But what is relevant to the present question is this, that however admirable our adversaries say the republic was or is, it is certain that by the testimony of their own most learned writers it had become, long before the coming of Christ, utterly wicked and dissolute, and indeed had no existence, but had been destroyed by profligacy. To prevent this, surely these guardian gods ought to have given precepts of morals and a rule of life to the people by whom they were worshipped in so many temples, with so great a variety of priests and sacrifices, with such numberless and diverse rites, so many festal solemnities, so many celebrations of magnificent games. But in all this the demons only looked after their own interest, and cared not at all how their worshippers lived, or rather were at pains to induce them to lead an abandoned life, so long as they paid these tributes to their honor, and regarded them with fear. If any one denies this, let him produce, let him point to, let him read the laws which the gods had given against sedition, and which the Gracchi transgressed when they threw everything into confusion; or those Marius, and Cinna, and Carbo broke when they involved their country in civil wars, most iniquitous and unjustifiable in their causes, cruelly conducted, and yet more cruelly terminated; or those which Sylla scorned, whose life, character, and deeds, as described by Sallust and other historians, are the abhorrence of all mankind. Who will deny that at that time the republic had become extinct?

Possibly they will be bold enough to suggest in defence of the gods, that they abandoned the city on account of the profligacy of the citizens, according to the lines of Virgil:

"Gone from each fane, each sacred shrine,

Are those who made this realm divine." ¹

But, firstly, if it be so, then they cannot complain against the Christian religion, as if it were that which gave offence to the gods and caused them to abandon Rome, since the Roman immorality had long ago driven from the altars of the city a cloud of little gods, like as many flies. And yet where was this host of divinities, when, long before the corruption of the primitive morality, Rome was taken and burnt by the Gauls? Perhaps they were present, but asleep? For at that time the whole city fell into the hands of the enemy, with the single exception of the Capitoline hill; and this too would have been taken, had not--the watchful geese aroused the sleeping gods! And this gave occasion to the festival of the goose, in which Rome sank nearly to the superstition of the Egyptians, who worship beasts and birds. But of these adventitious evils which are inflicted by hostile armies or by some disaster, and which attach rather to the body than the soul, I am not meanwhile disputing. At present I speak of the decay of morality, which at first almost imperceptibly lost its brilliant hue, but afterwards was wholly obliterated, was swept away as by a torrent, and involved the republic in such disastrous ruin, that though the houses and walls remained standing the leading writers do not scruple to say that the republic was destroyed. Now, the departure of the gods "from each fane, each sacred shrine," and their abandonment of the city to destruction, was an act of justice, if their laws inculcating justice and a moral life had been held in contempt by that city. But what kind of gods were these, pray, who declined to live with a people who worshipped them, and whose corrupt life they had done nothing to reform?

Edition ausblenden
De civitate Dei (CCSL)

Caput XXII: Quod dis Romanorum nulla umquam cura fuerit, ne malis moribus respublica deperiret.

Sed quod pertinet ad praesentem quaestionem, quamlibet laudabilem dicant istam fuisse uel esse rempublicam, secundum eorum auctores doctissimos iam longe ante Christi aduentum pessima ac flagitiosissima facta erat; immo uero nulla erat atque omnino perierat perditissimis moribus. ut ergo non periret, di custodes eius populo cultori suo dare praecipue uitae ac morum praecepta debuerunt, a quo tot templis, tot sacerdotibus et sacrificiorum generibus, tam multiplicibus uariisque sacris, tot festis sollemnitatibus, tot tantorumque ludorum celebritatibus colebantur; ubi nihil daemones nisi negotium suum egerunt, non curantes quemadmodum illi uiuerent, immo curantes ut etiam perdite uiuerent, dum tamen honori suo illa omnia metu subditi ministrarent. aut si dederunt, proferatur ostendatur legatur, quas deorum leges illi ciuitati datas contempserint Gracchi, ut seditionibus cuncta turbarent, quas Marius et Cinna et Carbo, ut in bella etiam progrederentur ciuilia causis iniquissimis suscepta et crudeliter gesta crudeliusque finita, quas denique Sulla ipse, cuius uitam mores facta describente Sallustio aliisque scriptoribus historiae quis non exhorreat? quis illam rempublicam non tunc perisse fateatur? an forte propter huiuscemodi ciuium mores Vergilianam illam sententiam, sicut solent, pro defensione deorum suorum obponere audebunt: discessere omnes adytis arisque relictis di, quibus imperium hoc steterat? primum si ita est, non habent cur querantur de religione Christiana, quod hac offensi eos di sui deseruerint, quoniam quidem maiores eorum iam pridem moribus suis ab urbis altaribus tam multos ac minutos deos tamquam muscas abegerunt. sed tamen haec numinum turba ubi erat, cum longe antequam mores corrumperentur antiqui a Gallis Roma capta et incensa est? an praesentes forte dormiebant? tunc enim tota urbe in hostium potestatem redacta collis solus Capitolinus remanserat, qui etiam ipse caperetur, nisi saltem anseres dis dormientibus uigilarent. unde paene in superstitionem Aegyptiorum bestias auesque colentium Roma deciderat, cum anseri sollemnia celebrabant. uerum de his aduenticiis et corporis potius quam animi malis, quae uel ab hostibus uel alia clade accidunt, nondum interim disputo: nunc ago de labe morum, quibus primum paulatim decoloratis, deinde torrentis modo praecipitatis tanta quamuis integris tectis moenibusque facta est ruina reipublicae, ut magni auctores eorum eam tunc amissam non dubitent dicere. recte autem abscesserant, ut amitteretur, omnes adytis arisque relictis di, si eorum de bona uita atque iustitia ciuitas praecepta contempserat. nunc uero quales, quaeso, di fuerunt, si noluerunt cum populo cultore suo uiuere, quem male uiuentem non docuerant bene uiuere?