13. Or, if you refuse to
believe this on account of its novelty,
4145
how can you know whether there is not
some one, who comes in place of all whom you invoke, and substituting
himself in all parts
of the world,
4146
shows to you what appear to be
4147
many gods and
powers? Who is that one? some one will ask. We may perhaps,
being instructed by truthful authors, be able to say; but, lest you
should be unwilling to believe us, let my opponent ask the Egyptians,
Persians, Indians, Chaldeans, Armenians, and all the others who have
seen and become acquainted with these things in the more recondite
arts. Then, indeed, you will learn who is the one God, or who the
very many under Him are, who pretend to be gods, and make sport of
men’s ignorance.
Even now we are ashamed to come to the point at
which not only boys, young and pert, but grave men also, cannot
restrain their laughter, and
men who have been
hardened into a
strict and stern humour.
4148
For while we have all heard it
inculcated and taught by our teachers, that in declining
the
names
of the gods there was no plural number, because the gods were
individuals, and the ownership of each name could not be common to a
great many;
4149
you in
forgetfulness, and putting away the memory of your early lessons, both
give to several gods the same names, and, although you are elsewhere
more moderate as to their number, have multiplied them, again, by
community of names; which subject, indeed, men of keen discernment and
acute intellect have before now treated both in Latin and
Greek.
4150
And that
might have lessened
our labour
,
4151
if it were not that at the same time we
see that some know nothing of these books; and, also, that the
discussion which we have begun, compels us to bring forward something
on these subjects, although
it has been already
laid hold of,
and related by those
writers
.
4145
Lit., “novelty of the thing.”
4146
Lit., “of places and divisions,” i.e., places separated
from each other.
4147
Lit., “affords to you the appearance of.”
4148
Lit., “a severity of stern manner”—
moris
for the
ms.
mares.
4149
Orelli here introduces the sentence, “For it cannot
be,” etc., with which this book is concluded in the
ms.
Cf. ch. 37, n. 4,
infra
.
4150
There
can be no doubt that Arnobius here refers to Clemens Alexandrinus
(
Λόγος
Προτρεπτικὸς
πρὸς
῾Ελλῆνας
), and
Cicero (
de Nat. Deor.
), from whom he borrows most freely in the
following chapters, quoting them at times very closely. We shall
not indicate particular references without some special reason, as it
must be understood these references would be required with every
statement. [Compare Clement, vol. ii. pp. 305–13, and
Tertullian, vol. iii. p. 34.]
4151
Lit.,
“given to us an abridging,” i.e., an opportunity of
abridging.