Testimonia

{"author":null,"backreferences":[{"context_html":"<p>But, on the other hand, we find, as the same most learned\r\nman has related, that the causes of the sacred rites which\r\nwere given from the books of Numa Pompilius could by no\r\nmeans be tolerated, and were considered unworthy, not only\r\nto become known to the religious by being read, but even to\r\nlie written in the darkness in which they had been concealed.\r\nFor now let me say what I promised in the third book of this\r\nwork to say in its proper place. For, as we read in the same\r\nVarro's book on the worship of the gods, \"A certain one\r\nTerentius had a field at the Janiculum, and once, when his\r\nploughman was passing the plough near to the tomb of Numa\r\nPompilius, he turned up from the ground the books of Numa,\r\nin which were written the causes of the sacred institutions;\r\nwhich books he carried to the prætor, who, having read the\r\nbeginnings of them, referred to the senate what seemed to be\r\na matter of so much importance. And when the chief senators\r\nhad read certain of the causes why this or that rite was instituted,\r\nthe senate assented to the dead Numa, and the conscript\r\nfathers, as though concerned for the interests of religion,\r\nordered the prætor to burn the books.\"<a id=\"FNanchor_288_288\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_288_288\">[288]</a> Let each one believe\r\nwhat he thinks; nay, let every champion of such impiety\r\nsay whatever mad contention may suggest. For my part, let\r\nit suffice to suggest that the causes of those sacred things\r\nwhich were written down by King Numa Pompilius, the\r\ninstitutor of the Roman rites, ought never to have become\r\nknown to people or senate, or even to the priests themselves;\r\nand also that Numa himself attained to these secrets of\r\ndemons by an illicit curiosity, in order that he might write\r\nthem down, so as to be able, by reading, to be reminded of\r\nthem. However, though he was king, and had no cause to<span class=\"pagenum\"><a id=\"Page_302\">[Pg 302]</a></span>\r\nbe afraid of any one, he neither dared to teach them to any\r\none, nor to destroy them by obliteration, or any other form of\r\ndestruction. Therefore, because he was unwilling that any\r\none should know them, lest men should be taught infamous\r\nthings, and because he was afraid to violate them, lest he\r\nshould enrage the demons against himself, he buried them in\r\nwhat he thought a safe place, believing that a plough could\r\nnot approach his sepulchre. But the senate, fearing to condemn\r\nthe religious solemnities of their ancestors, and therefore\r\ncompelled to assent to Numa, were nevertheless so convinced\r\nthat those books were pernicious, that they did not order\r\nthem to be buried again, knowing that human curiosity would\r\nthereby be excited to seek with far greater eagerness after\r\nthe matter already divulged, but ordered the scandalous relics\r\nto be destroyed with fire; because, as they thought it was now\r\na necessity to perform those sacred rites, they judged that the\r\nerror arising from ignorance of their causes was more tolerable\r\nthan the disturbance which the knowledge of them would\r\noccasion the state.</p>","headings":["THE WORKS OF AURELIUS AUGUSTINE,","BOOK SEVENTH.","ARGUMENT."],"marker_anchor":null,"paragraph_id":"pg45304-paragraph-555"}],"canonical_references":[],"date_end":null,"date_start":null,"deduplication_fingerprint":"f8528f82d525c09fdaed64846d7af29eeefb36c910c51431f2ba87cae933bcd0","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_288_288","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_288_288","source_ebook":45304,"source_html":"<div class=\"footnote\">\n<p><a id=\"Footnote_288_288\"></a><a class=\"pginternal\" href=\"#FNanchor_288_288\"><span class=\"label\">[288]</span></a> Plutarch's <i>Numa</i>; Livy, xl. 29.</p></div>","source_sha256":"d89e9a2b80bb59f394f0fb1bf313b39fab162f06af6642166d62c5912c1195f1","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/45304/pg45304-images.html#Footnote_288_288","text_sha256":"65061c0ba64a8ad392a7e1e1753036713b58ea5c6d7cc16b20c16c9db9c851d2","verified":false,"work_id":null}

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