{"author":null,"backreferences":[{"context_html":"<p>Where, then, were those gods who are supposed to be justly\r\nworshipped for the slender and delusive prosperity of this\r\nworld, when the Romans, who were seduced to their service\r\nby lying wiles, were harassed by such calamities? Where\r\nwere they when Valerius the consul was killed while defending\r\nthe Capitol, that had been fired by exiles and slaves? He\r\nwas himself better able to defend the temple of Jupiter, than\r\nthat crowd of divinities with their most high and mighty king,\r\nwhose temple he came to the rescue of, were able to defend\r\nhim. Where were they when the city, worn out with unceasing\r\nseditions, was waiting in some kind of calm for the return\r\nof the ambassadors who had been sent to Athens to borrow\r\nlaws, and was desolated by dreadful famine and pestilence?\r\nWhere were they when the people, again distressed with<span class=\"pagenum\"><a id=\"Page_115\">[Pg 115]</a></span>\r\nfamine, created for the first time a prefect of the market; and\r\nwhen Spurius Melius, who, as the famine increased, distributed\r\ncorn to the famishing masses, was accused of aspiring to royalty,\r\nand at the instance of this same prefect, and on the authority\r\nof the superannuated dictator L. Quintius, was put to death by\r\nQuintus Servilius, master of the horse,—an event which occasioned\r\na serious and dangerous riot? Where were they when\r\nthat very severe pestilence visited Rome, on account of which\r\nthe people, after long and wearisome and useless supplications\r\nof the helpless gods, conceived the idea of celebrating Lectisternia,\r\nwhich had never been done before; that is to say,\r\nthey set couches in honour of the gods, which accounts for\r\nthe name of this sacred rite, or rather sacrilege?<a id=\"FNanchor_147_147\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_147_147\">[147]</a> Where\r\nwere they when, during ten successive years of reverses, the\r\nRoman army suffered frequent and great losses among the\r\nVeians, and would have been destroyed but for the succour\r\nof Furius Camillus, who was afterwards banished by an ungrateful\r\ncountry? Where were they when the Gauls took,\r\nsacked, burned, and desolated Rome? Where were they when\r\nthat memorable pestilence wrought such destruction, in which\r\nFurius Camillus too perished, who first defended the ungrateful\r\nrepublic from the Veians, and afterwards saved it from the\r\nGauls? Nay, during this plague they introduced a new pestilence\r\nof scenic entertainments, which spread its more fatal\r\ncontagion, not to the bodies, but the morals of the Romans?\r\nWhere were they when another frightful pestilence visited the\r\ncity—I mean the poisonings imputed to an incredible number\r\nof noble Roman matrons, whose characters were infected with\r\na disease more fatal than any plague? Or when both consuls\r\nat the head of the army were beset by the Samnites in\r\nthe Caudine Forks, and forced to strike a shameful treaty,\r\n600 Roman knights being kept as hostages; while the troops,\r\nhaving laid down their arms, and being stripped of everything,\r\nwere made to pass under the yoke with one garment each?\r\nOr when, in the midst of a serious pestilence, lightning struck\r\nthe Roman camp and killed many? Or when Rome was\r\ndriven, by the violence of another intolerable plague, to send\r\nto Epidaurus for Æsculapius as a god of medicine; since the<span class=\"pagenum\"><a id=\"Page_116\">[Pg 116]</a></span>\r\nfrequent adulteries of Jupiter in his youth had not perhaps\r\nleft this king of all who so long reigned in the Capitol, any\r\nleisure for the study of medicine? Or when, at one time,\r\nthe Lucanians, Brutians, Samnites, Tuscans, and Senonian\r\nGauls conspired against Rome, and first slew her ambassadors,\r\nthen overthrew an army under the prætor, putting to the sword\r\n13,000 men, besides the commander and seven tribunes? Or\r\nwhen the people, after the serious and long-continued disturbances\r\nat Rome, at last plundered the city and withdrew\r\nto Janiculus; a danger so grave, that Hortensius was created\r\ndictator,—an office which they had recourse to only in extreme\r\nemergencies; and he, having brought back the people, died\r\nwhile yet he retained his office,—an event without precedent\r\nin the case of any dictator, and which was a shame to those\r\ngods who had now Æsculapius among them?</p>","headings":["THE WORKS OF AURELIUS AUGUSTINE,","BOOK THIRD.","ARGUMENT."],"marker_anchor":null,"paragraph_id":"pg45304-paragraph-239"}],"canonical_references":[],"date_end":null,"date_start":null,"deduplication_fingerprint":"8e9c841a71aa6d1ac317ce17d3adfa4b8c3221840236003375a3ced56b1dd861","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_147_147","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_147_147","source_ebook":45304,"source_html":"<div class=\"footnote\">\n<p><a id=\"Footnote_147_147\"></a><a class=\"pginternal\" href=\"#FNanchor_147_147\"><span class=\"label\">[147]</span></a> Lectisternia, from <i>lectus</i>, a couch, and <i>sterno</i>, I spread.</p></div>","source_sha256":"d89e9a2b80bb59f394f0fb1bf313b39fab162f06af6642166d62c5912c1195f1","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/45304/pg45304-images.html#Footnote_147_147","text_sha256":"1e74783f4da45bc8c0ae14b1c333a8c2f692a8bcc22aca20f8b7af719162fe09","verified":false,"work_id":null}