Testimonia

{"author":null,"backreferences":[{"context_html":"<p>We have still to inquire why the poets who write the\r\nplays, and who by the law of the twelve tables are prohibited\r\nfrom injuring the good name of the citizens, are reckoned more\r\nestimable than the actors, though they so shamefully asperse\r\nthe character of the gods? Is it right that the actors of these\r\npoetical and God-dishonouring effusions be branded, while\r\ntheir authors are honoured? Must we not here award the\r\npalm to a Greek, Plato, who, in framing his ideal republic,<a id=\"FNanchor_100_100\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_100_100\">[100]</a>\r\nconceived that poets should be banished from the city as\r\nenemies of the state? He could not brook that the gods be<span class=\"pagenum\"><a id=\"Page_64\">[Pg 64]</a></span>\r\nbrought into disrepute, nor that the minds of the citizens be\r\ndepraved and besotted, by the fictions of the poets. Compare\r\nnow human nature as you see it in Plato, expelling poets\r\nfrom the city that the citizens be uninjured, with the divine\r\nnature as you see it in these gods exacting plays in their\r\nown honour. Plato strove, though unsuccessfully, to persuade\r\nthe light-minded and lascivious Greeks to abstain from so\r\nmuch as writing such plays; the gods used their authority to\r\nextort the acting of the same from the dignified and sober-minded\r\nRomans. And not content with having them acted,\r\nthey had them dedicated to themselves, consecrated to themselves,\r\nsolemnly celebrated in their own honour. To which,\r\nthen, would it be more becoming in a state to decree divine\r\nhonours,—to Plato, who prohibited these wicked and licentious\r\nplays, or to the demons who delighted in blinding men to the\r\ntruth of what Plato unsuccessfully sought to inculcate?</p>","headings":["THE WORKS OF AURELIUS AUGUSTINE,","BOOK SECOND.","ARGUMENT."],"marker_anchor":null,"paragraph_id":"pg45304-paragraph-144"}],"canonical_references":[],"date_end":null,"date_start":null,"deduplication_fingerprint":"b4008dcf6ecde5a9200588eb27780faae79dca9d008cb950d5b16ac1a8724c36","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_100_100","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_100_100","source_ebook":45304,"source_html":"<div class=\"footnote\">\n<p><a id=\"Footnote_100_100\"></a><a class=\"pginternal\" href=\"#FNanchor_100_100\"><span class=\"label\">[100]</span></a> See the <i>Republic</i>, book iii.</p></div>","source_sha256":"d89e9a2b80bb59f394f0fb1bf313b39fab162f06af6642166d62c5912c1195f1","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/45304/pg45304-images.html#Footnote_100_100","text_sha256":"a423ce90b371df70ba0fe4475b89ba5b89b8350425e1e1e91bd57350f9ffd88e","verified":false,"work_id":null}

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