{"author":null,"backreferences":[{"context_html":"<p>This philosopher, Plato, has been elevated by Labeo to the\r\nrank of a demigod, and set thus upon a level with such as\r\nHercules and Romulus. Labeo ranks demigods higher than\r\nheroes, but both he counts among the deities. But I have no\r\ndoubt that he thinks this man whom he reckons a demigod\r\nworthy of greater respect not only than the heroes, but also\r\nthan the gods themselves. The laws of the Romans and the\r\nspeculations of Plato have this resemblance, that the latter\r\npronounces a wholesale condemnation of poetical fictions,\r\nwhile the former restrain the licence of satire, at least so far\r\nas men are the objects of it. Plato will not suffer poets\r\neven to dwell in his city: the laws of Rome prohibit actors\r\nfrom being enrolled as citizens; and if they had not feared to\r\noffend the gods who had asked the services of the players, they\r\nwould in all likelihood have banished them altogether. It is\r\nobvious, therefore, that the Romans could not receive, nor\r\nreasonably expect to receive, laws for the regulation of their\r\nconduct from their gods, since the laws they themselves enacted\r\nfar surpassed and put to shame the morality of the gods. The\r\ngods demand stage-plays in their own honour; the Romans\r\nexclude the players from all civic honours:<a id=\"FNanchor_101_101\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_101_101\">[101]</a> the former\r\ncommanded that they should be celebrated by the scenic representation<span class=\"pagenum\"><a id=\"Page_65\">[Pg 65]</a></span>\r\nof their own disgrace; the latter commanded that\r\nno poet should dare to blemish the reputation of any citizen.\r\nBut that demigod Plato resisted the lust of such gods as\r\nthese, and showed the Romans what their genius had left\r\nincomplete; for he absolutely excluded poets from his ideal\r\nstate, whether they composed fictions with no regard to truth,\r\nor set the worst possible examples before wretched men\r\nunder the guise of divine actions. We for our part, indeed,\r\nreckon Plato neither a god nor a demigod; we would not\r\neven compare him to any of God's holy angels, nor to the\r\ntruth-speaking prophets, nor to any of the apostles or martyrs\r\nof Christ, nay, not to any faithful Christian man. The reason\r\nof this opinion of ours we will, God prospering us, render in\r\nits own place. Nevertheless, since they wish him to be considered\r\na demigod, we think he certainly is more entitled\r\nto that rank, and is every way superior, if not to Hercules\r\nand Romulus (though no historian could ever narrate nor any\r\npoet sing of him that he had killed his brother, or committed\r\nany crime), yet certainly to Priapus, or a Cynocephalus,<a id=\"FNanchor_102_102\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_102_102\">[102]</a> or\r\nthe Fever,<a id=\"FNanchor_103_103\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_103_103\">[103]</a>—divinities whom the Romans have partly received\r\nfrom foreigners, and partly consecrated by home-grown rites.\r\nHow, then, could gods such as these be expected to promulgate\r\ngood and wholesome laws, either for the prevention of moral\r\nand social evils, or for their eradication where they had already\r\nsprung up?—gods who used their influence even to sow and\r\ncherish profligacy, by appointing that deeds truly or falsely\r\nascribed to them should be published to the people by means\r\nof theatrical exhibitions, and by thus gratuitously fanning the\r\nflame of human lust with the breath of a seemingly divine\r\napprobation. In vain does Cicero, speaking of poets, exclaim\r\nagainst this state of things in these words: \"When the\r\nplaudits and acclamation of the people, who sit as infallible\r\njudges, are won by the poets, what darkness benights the\r\nmind, what fears invade, what passions inflame it!\"<a id=\"FNanchor_104_104\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_104_104\">[104]</a></p>","headings":["THE WORKS OF AURELIUS AUGUSTINE,","BOOK SECOND.","ARGUMENT."],"marker_anchor":null,"paragraph_id":"pg45304-paragraph-145"}],"canonical_references":[],"date_end":null,"date_start":null,"deduplication_fingerprint":"a3c2d92ec5d3c799be6960d362f8a20e9ecef7c45204a91e983c3e4d92abab74","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_102_102","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_102_102","source_ebook":45304,"source_html":"<div class=\"footnote\">\n<p><a id=\"Footnote_102_102\"></a><a class=\"pginternal\" href=\"#FNanchor_102_102\"><span class=\"label\">[102]</span></a> The Egyptian gods represented with dogs' heads, called by Lucan (viii. 832)\r\n<i>semicanes deos</i>.</p></div>","source_sha256":"d89e9a2b80bb59f394f0fb1bf313b39fab162f06af6642166d62c5912c1195f1","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/45304/pg45304-images.html#Footnote_102_102","text_sha256":"35d4cfe7c5dc1fb333add598f2212faa4878a920f87c8d0d851ec236eed20ab5","verified":false,"work_id":null}