Testimonia

{"author":null,"backreferences":[{"context_html":"<p>In this matter I would prefer to have as my assessors in\r\njudgment, not those men who rather take pleasure in these\r\ninfamous customs than take pains to put an end to them, but\r\nthat same Scipio Nasica who was chosen by the senate as\r\nthe citizen most worthy to receive in his hands the image of\r\nthat demon Cybele, and convey it into the city. He would\r\ntell us whether he would be proud to see his own mother\r\nso highly esteemed by the state as to have divine honours\r\nadjudged to her; as the Greeks and Romans and other nations\r\nhave decreed divine honours to men who had been of material\r\nservice to them, and have believed that their mortal benefactors\r\nwere thus made immortal, and enrolled among the\r\ngods.<a id=\"FNanchor_88_88\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_88_88\">[88]</a> Surely he would desire that his mother should enjoy\r\nsuch felicity were it possible. But if we proceeded to ask\r\nhim whether, among the honours paid to her, he would wish\r\nsuch shameful rites as these to be celebrated, would he not at\r\nonce exclaim that he would rather his mother lay stone-dead,\r\nthan survive as a goddess to lend her ear to these obscenities?\r\nIs it possible that he who was of so severe a morality, that\r\nhe used his influence as a Roman senator to prevent the\r\nbuilding of a theatre in that city dedicated to the manly\r\nvirtues, would wish his mother to be propitiated as a goddess\r\nwith words which would have brought the blush to her cheek\r\nwhen a Roman matron? Could he possibly believe that the\r\nmodesty of an estimable woman would be so transformed by\r\nher promotion to divinity, that she would suffer herself to be\r\ninvoked and celebrated in terms so gross and immodest, that\r\nif she had heard the like while alive upon earth, and had\r\nlistened without stopping her ears and hurrying from the\r\nspot, her relatives, her husband, and her children would have<span class=\"pagenum\"><a id=\"Page_54\">[Pg 54]</a></span>\r\nblushed for her? Therefore, the mother of the gods being\r\nsuch a character as the most profligate man would be ashamed\r\nto have for his mother, and meaning to enthral the minds of\r\nthe Romans, demanded for her service their best citizen, not\r\nto ripen him still more in virtue by her helpful counsel, but\r\nto entangle him by her deceit, like her of whom it is written,\r\n\"The adulteress will hunt for the precious soul.\"<a id=\"FNanchor_89_89\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_89_89\">[89]</a> Her intent\r\nwas to puff up this high-souled man by an apparently divine\r\ntestimony to his excellence, in order that he might rely upon\r\nhis own eminence in virtue, and make no further efforts after\r\ntrue piety and religion, without which natural genius, however\r\nbrilliant, vapours into pride and comes to nothing. For what\r\nbut a guileful purpose could that goddess demand the best\r\nman, seeing that in her own sacred festivals she requires such\r\nobscenities as the best men would be covered with shame to\r\nhear at their own tables?</p>","headings":["THE WORKS OF AURELIUS AUGUSTINE,","BOOK SECOND.","ARGUMENT."],"marker_anchor":null,"paragraph_id":"pg45304-paragraph-126"}],"canonical_references":[],"date_end":null,"date_start":null,"deduplication_fingerprint":"113dd830714679665b01de91fdbaf10cc0376e024f8ff6c60f39755d2a6c0df8","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_88_88","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_88_88","source_ebook":45304,"source_html":"<div class=\"footnote\">\n<p><a id=\"Footnote_88_88\"></a><a class=\"pginternal\" href=\"#FNanchor_88_88\"><span class=\"label\">[88]</span></a> See Cicero, <i>De Nat. Deor.</i> ii. 24.</p></div>","source_sha256":"d89e9a2b80bb59f394f0fb1bf313b39fab162f06af6642166d62c5912c1195f1","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/45304/pg45304-images.html#Footnote_88_88","text_sha256":"e260b4194a1b4912b26f8f89064f3bc9eca2d445ba83121b74a949199c057e04","verified":false,"work_id":null}

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