Versie 5feab6567cfbbb46ec9b31e6446f52e0891dd8f0fb26db135c940b7509f4c8b7
{"author":null,"backreferences":[{"context_html":"<p>But among their own famous men they have a very noble\r\nexample of the voluntary endurance of captivity in obedience\r\nto a religious scruple. Marcus Attilius Regulus, a Roman\r\ngeneral, was a prisoner in the hands of the Carthaginians.\r\nBut they, being more anxious to exchange their prisoners with\r\nthe Romans than to keep them, sent Regulus as a special\r\nenvoy with their own ambassadors to negotiate this exchange,\r\nbut bound him first with an oath, that if he failed to accomplish\r\ntheir wish, he would return to Carthage. He went,\r\nand persuaded the senate to the opposite course, because he<span class=\"pagenum\"><a id=\"Page_23\">[Pg 23]</a></span>\r\nbelieved it was not for the advantage of the Roman republic\r\nto make an exchange of prisoners. After he had thus exerted\r\nhis influence, the Romans did not compel him to return to the\r\nenemy; but what he had sworn he voluntarily performed.\r\nBut the Carthaginians put him to death with refined, elaborate,\r\nand horrible tortures. They shut him up in a narrow\r\nbox, in which he was compelled to stand, and in which finely\r\nsharpened nails were fixed all round about him, so that he\r\ncould not lean upon any part of it without intense pain; and\r\nso they killed him by depriving him of sleep.<a id=\"FNanchor_71_71\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_71_71\">[71]</a> With justice,\r\nindeed, do they applaud the virtue which rose superior to so\r\nfrightful a fate. However, the gods he swore by were those\r\nwho are now supposed to avenge the prohibition of their worship,\r\nby inflicting these present calamities on the human race.\r\nBut if these gods, who were worshipped specially in this\r\nbehalf, that they might confer happiness in this life, either\r\nwilled or permitted these punishments to be inflicted on one\r\nwho kept his oath to them, what more cruel punishment\r\ncould they in their anger have inflicted on a perjured person?\r\nBut why may I not draw from my reasoning a double inference?\r\nRegulus certainly had such reverence for the gods,\r\nthat for his oath's sake he would neither remain in his own\r\nland, nor go elsewhere, but without hesitation returned to his\r\nbitterest enemies. If he thought that this course would be\r\nadvantageous with respect to this present life, he was certainly\r\nmuch deceived, for it brought his life to a frightful termination.\r\nBy his own example, in fact, he taught that the gods\r\ndo not secure the temporal happiness of their worshippers;\r\nsince he himself, who was devoted to their worship, was both\r\nconquered in battle and taken prisoner, and then, because he\r\nrefused to act in violation of the oath he had sworn by them,\r\nwas tortured and put to death by a new, and hitherto unheard\r\nof, and all too horrible kind of punishment. And on the supposition\r\nthat the worshippers of the gods are rewarded by\r\nfelicity in the life to come, why, then, do they calumniate\r\nthe influence of Christianity? why do they assert that this<span class=\"pagenum\"><a id=\"Page_24\">[Pg 24]</a></span>\r\ndisaster has overtaken the city because it has ceased to worship\r\nits gods, since, worship them as assiduously as it may, it\r\nmay yet be as unfortunate as Regulus was? Or will some\r\none carry so wonderful a blindness to the extent of wildly\r\nattempting, in the face of the evident truth, to contend that\r\nthough one man might be unfortunate, though a worshipper of\r\nthe gods, yet a whole city could not be so? That is to say,\r\nthe power of their gods is better adapted to preserve multitudes\r\nthan individuals,—as if a multitude were not composed\r\nof individuals.</p>","headings":["THE WORKS OF AURELIUS AUGUSTINE,","BOOK FIRST."],"marker_anchor":null,"paragraph_id":"pg45304-paragraph-64"}],"canonical_references":[],"date_end":null,"date_start":null,"deduplication_fingerprint":"9fb69c8484ab13894907da15516b88256fad96359b48f91943142d486892ab3f","edition_title":"The City of God, Volume I","edition_translators":["Marcus Dods","George Wilson (Book IV)","J. J. Smith (Books V-VIII)"],"edition_year":1871,"explicit_reference_candidates":[],"headings":[],"id":"pg45304-Footnote_71_71","license_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/policy/license.html","public_import_allowed":false,"record_kind":"original-editor-translator-note","review_required":["work and recension attribution","original-work chronology","Bible reference numbering and citation kind","English edition rights and attribution"],"review_status":"needs_review","rights_evidence":"Provider catalog reports public domain in the USA. Original transcription title leaves state T. & T. Clark, Edinburgh, 1871; printed translator allocation retained. Gutenberg credits Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries without an exact scan identifier. Full provider license preserved with acquired original; republication and per-work metadata remain unreviewed.","source_anchor":"Footnote_71_71","source_ebook":45304,"source_html":"<div class=\"footnote\">\n<p><a id=\"Footnote_71_71\"></a><a class=\"pginternal\" href=\"#FNanchor_71_71\"><span class=\"label\">[71]</span></a> Augustine here uses the words of Cicero (\"vigilando peremerunt\"), who\r\nrefers to Regulus, <i>in Pisonem</i>, c. 19. Aulus Gellius, quoting Tubero and Tuditanus\r\n(vi. 4), adds some further particulars regarding these tortures.</p></div>","source_sha256":"d89e9a2b80bb59f394f0fb1bf313b39fab162f06af6642166d62c5912c1195f1","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/45304/pg45304-images.html#Footnote_71_71","text_sha256":"e1bfc12ed673e6850b62dd798dcfadf5476a1a4e99c88f58d729f3713cf8fdc1","verified":false,"work_id":null}references: [] | work_id: | origin: existing-private-derived-record | source: https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/45304/pg45304-images.html#Footnote_71_71