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The City of God

Chapter 24.--Of the Deeds of Sylla, in Which the Demons Boasted that He Had Their Help.

It is certain that Sylla--whose rule was so cruel that, in comparison with it, the preceding state of things which he came to avenge was regretted--when first he advanced towards Rome to give battle to Marius, found the auspices so favourable when he sacrificed, that, according to Livy's account, the augur Postumius expressed his willingness to lose his head if Sylla did not, with the help of the gods, accomplish what he designed. The gods, you see, had not departed from "every fane and sacred shrine," since they were still predicting the issue of these affairs, and yet were taking no steps to correct Sylla himself. Their presages promised him great prosperity but no threatenings of theirs subdued his evil passions. And then, when he was in Asia conducting the war against Mithridates, a message from Jupiter was delivered to him by Lucius Titius, to the effect that he would conquer Mithridates; and so it came to pass. And afterwards, when he was meditating a return to Rome for the purpose of avenging in the blood of the citizens injuries done to himself and his friends, a second message from Jupiter was delivered to him by a soldier of the sixth legion, to the effect that it was he who had predicted the victory over Mithridates, and that now he promised to give him power to recover the republic from his enemies, though with great bloodshed. Sylla at once inquired of the soldier what form had appeared to him; and, on his reply, recognized that it was the same as Jupiter had formerly employed to convey to him the assurance regarding the victory over Mithridates. How, then, can the gods be justified in this matter for the care they took to predict these shadowy successes, and for their negligence in correcting Sylla, and restraining him from stirring up a civil war so lamentable and atrocious, that it not merely disfigured, but extinguished, the republic? The truth is, as I have often said, and as Scripture informs us, and as the facts themselves sufficiently indicate, the demons are found to look after their own ends only, that they may be regarded and worshipped as gods, and that men may be induced to offer to them a worship which associates them with their crimes, and involves them in one common wickedness and judgment of God.

Afterwards, when Sylla had come to Tarentum, and had sacrificed there, he saw on the head of the victim's liver the likeness of a golden crown. Thereupon the same soothsayer Postumius interpreted this to signify a signal victory, and ordered that he only should eat of the entrails. A little afterwards, the slave of a certain Lucius Pontius cried out, "I am Bellona's messenger; the victory is yours, Sylla!" Then he added that the Capitol should be burned. As soon as he had uttered this prediction he left the camp, but returned the following day more excited than ever, and shouted, "The Capitol is fired!" And fired indeed it was. This it was easy for a demon both to foresee and quickly to announce. But observe, as relevant to our subject, what kind of gods they are under whom these men desire to live, who blaspheme the Saviour that delivers the wills of the faithful from the dominion of devils. The man cried out in prophetic rapture, "The victory is yours, Sylla!" And to certify that he spoke by a divine spirit, he predicted also an event which was shortly to happen, and which indeed did fall out, in a place from which he in whom this spirit was speaking was far distant. But he never cried, "Forbear thy villanies, Sylla!"--the villanies which were committed at Rome by that victor to whom a golden crown on the calf's liver had been shown as the divine evidence of his victory. If such signs as this were customarily sent by just gods, and not by wicked demons, then certainly the entrails he consulted should rather have given Sylla intimation of the cruel disasters that were to befall the city and himself. For that victory was not so conducive to his exaltation to power, as it was fatal to his ambition; for by it he became so insatiable in his desires, and was rendered so arrogant and reckless by prosperity, that he may be said rather to have inflicted a moral destruction on himself than corporal destruction on his enemies. But these truely woeful and deplorable calamities the gods gave him no previous hint of, neither by entrails, augury, dream, nor prediction. For they feared his amendment more than his defeat. Yea, they took good care that this glorious conqueror of his own fellow-citizens should be conquered and led captive by his own infamous vices, and should thus be the more submissive slave of the demons themselves.

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De civitate Dei (CCSL)

Caput XXIV: De Sullanis actibus, quorum se daemones ostentauerint adiutores.

Sulla certe ipse, cuius tempora talia fuerunt, ut superiora, quorum uindex esse uidebatur, illorum conparatione quaererentur, cum primum ad urbem contra Marium castra mouisset, adeo laeta exta immolanti fuisse scribit Liuius, ut custodiri se Postumius haruspex uoluerit capitis supplicium subiturus, nisi ea, quae in animo Sulla haberet, dis iuuantibus inpleuisset. ecce non discesserant adytis atque aris relictis di, quando de rerum euentu praedicebant nihilque de ipsius Sullae correctione curabant. promittebant praesagando felicitatem magnam nec malam cupiditatem minando frangebant. deinde cum esset in Asia bellum Mithridaticum gerens, per Lucium Titium ei mandatum est a Ioue, quod esset Mithridatem superaturus, et factum est. ac postea molienti redire in urbem et suas amicorumque iniurias ciuili sanguine ulcisci, iterum mandatum est ab eodem Ioue per militem quendam legionis sextae, prius se de Mithridate praenuntiasse uictoriam, et tunc promittere daturum se potestatem, qua recuperaret ab inimicis rempublicam non sine multo sanguine. tum percontatus Sulla, quae forma militi uisa fuerit, cum ille indicasset, eam recordatus est, quam prius ab illo audierat, qui de Mithridatica uictoria ab eodem mandata pertulerat. quid hic responderi potest, quare di curauerint uelut felicia ista nuntiare, et nullus eorum curauerit Sullam monendo corrigere mala tanta facturum scelestis armis ciuilibus, qualia non foedarent, sed auferrent omnino rempublicam? nempe intelleguntur daemones, sicut saepe dixi notumque nobis est in litteris sacris resque ipsae satis indicant, negotium suum agere, ut pro dis habeantur et colantur, ut ea illis exhibeantur, quibus hi qui exhibent sociati unam pessimam causam cum eis habeant in iudicio dei. deinde cum uenisset Tarentum Sulla atque ibi sacrificasset, uidit in capite uitulini iecoris similitudinem coronae aureae. tunc Postumius haruspex ille respondit praeclaram significare uictoriam iussitque ut extis illis solus uesceretur. postea paruo interuallo seruus cuiusdam Lucii Pontii uaticinando clamauit: a Bellona nuntius uenio, uictoria tua est, Sulla. deinde adiecit arsurum esse Capitolium. hoc cum dixisset, continuo egressus e castris postero die concitatior reuersus est et Capitolium arsisse clamauit. arserat autem reuera Capitolium. quod quidem daemoni et praeuidere facile fuit et celerrime nuntiare. illud sane intende, quod ad causam maxime pertinet, sub qualibus dis esse cupiant, qui blasphemant saluatorem uoluntates fidelium a dominatu daemonum liberantem. clamauit homo uaticinando: uictoria tua est, Sulla, atque ut id diuino spiritu clamare crederetur, nuntiauit etiam aliquid et prope futurum et mox factum, unde longe aberat per quem ille spiritus loquebatur; non tamen clamauit: ab sceleribus parce, Sulla, quae illic uictor tam horrenda commisit, cui corona aurea ipsius uictoriae inlustrissimum signum in uitulino iecore apparuit, qualia signa si di iusti dare solerent ac non daemones inpii, profecto illis extis nefaria potius atque ipsi Sullae grauiter noxia mala futura monstrarent. neque enim eius dignitati tantum profuit illa uictoria, quantum nocuit cupiditati; qua factum est, ut inmoderatis inhians et secundis rebus elatus ac praecipitatus magis ipse periret in moribus, quam inimicos in corporibus perderet. haec illi di uere tristia uereque lugenda non extis, non auguriis, non cuiusquam somnio uel uaticinio praenuntiabant. magis enim timebant ne corrigeretur quam ne uinceretur. immo satis agebant, ut uictor ciuium gloriosus uictus atque captiuus nefandis uitiis et per haec ipsis etiam daemonibus multo obstrictius subderetur.