Testimonia

{"author":null,"backreferences":[{"context_html":"<p>Marcus Varro, however, is not willing to credit lying fables\r\nagainst the gods, lest he should find something dishonouring\r\nto their majesty; and therefore he will not admit that the\r\nAreopagus, the place where the Apostle Paul disputed with\r\nthe Athenians, got this name because Mars, who in Greek is\r\ncalled Ἄρης, when he was charged with the crime of homicide,\r\nand was judged by twelve gods in that field, was acquitted\r\nby the sentence of six; because it was the custom,\r\nwhen the votes were equal, to acquit rather than condemn.\r\nAgainst this opinion, which is much most widely published,\r\nhe tries, from the notices of obscure books, to support\r\nanother reason for this name, lest the Athenians should be\r\nthought to have called it Areopagus from the words \"Mars\" and\r\n\"field,\"<a id=\"FNanchor_500_500\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_500_500\">[500]</a> as if it were the field of Mars, to the dishonour of the\r\ngods, forsooth, from whom he thinks lawsuits and judgments\r\nfar removed. And he asserts that this which is said about\r\nMars is not less false than what is said about the three\r\ngoddesses, to wit, Juno, Minerva, and Venus, whose contest\r\nfor the palm of beauty, before Paris as judge, in order to obtain\r\nthe golden apple, is not only related, but is celebrated in\r\nsongs and dances amid the applause of the theatres, in plays\r\nmeant to please the gods who take pleasure in these crimes of\r\ntheir own, whether real or fabled. Varro does not believe\r\nthese things, because they are incompatible with the nature\r\nof the gods and of morality; and yet, in giving not a fabulous<span class=\"pagenum\"><a id=\"Page_228\">[Pg 228]</a></span>\r\nbut a historic reason for the name of Athens, he inserts in his\r\nbooks the strife between Neptune and Minerva as to whose\r\nname should be given to that city, which was so great that,\r\nwhen they contended by the display of prodigies, even Apollo\r\ndared not judge between them when consulted; but, in order to\r\nend the strife of the gods, just as Jupiter sent the three goddesses\r\nwe have named to Paris, so he sent them to men, when\r\nMinerva won by the vote, and yet was defeated by the punishment\r\nof her own voters, for she was unable to confer the title\r\nof Athenians on the women who were her friends, although she\r\ncould impose it on the men who were her opponents. In\r\nthese times, when Cranaos reigned at Athens as the successor\r\nof Cecrops, as Varro writes, but, according to our Eusebius and\r\nJerome, while Cecrops himself still remained, the flood occurred\r\nwhich is called Deucalion's, because it occurred chiefly\r\nin those parts of the earth in which he reigned. But this\r\nflood did not at all reach Egypt or its vicinity.</p>","headings":["THE CITY OF GOD.","BOOK EIGHTEENTH.","ARGUMENT."],"marker_anchor":null,"paragraph_id":"pg45305-paragraph-373"}],"canonical_references":[],"date_end":null,"date_start":null,"deduplication_fingerprint":"f29f8fd87665dd792976657af0754dd879b57276614439ee1f043860cee4811e","edition_title":"The City of God, Volume II","edition_translators":["Marcus Dods","George Wilson (Books XVII-XVIII)"],"edition_year":1871,"explicit_reference_candidates":[],"headings":[],"id":"pg45305-Footnote_500_500","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_500_500","source_ebook":45305,"source_html":"<div class=\"footnote\">\n<p><a id=\"Footnote_500_500\"></a><a class=\"pginternal\" href=\"#FNanchor_500_500\"><span class=\"label\">[500]</span></a> Ἄρης and παγος.</p></div>","source_sha256":"7e0ced9e70512f3cf050b53c9d548e36b70d468d875153869f95d8aff5bbb530","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/45305/pg45305-images.html#Footnote_500_500","text_sha256":"50e2c1961f9315edfad46efdd4021be55654f3ddd4610f0625b9e95e7b3e691f","verified":false,"work_id":null}

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