{"author":null,"backreferences":[{"context_html":"<p>After this, when their fears were gradually diminished,—not\r\nbecause the wars ceased, but because they were not so\r\nfurious,—that period in which things were \"ordered with\r\njustice and moderation\" drew to an end, and there followed\r\nthat state of matters which Sallust thus briefly sketches:\r\n\"Then began the patricians to oppress the people as slaves,\r\nto condemn them to death or scourging, as the kings had\r\ndone, to drive them from their holdings, and to tyrannize over\r\nthose who had no property to lose. The people, overwhelmed\r\nby these oppressive measures, and most of all by usury, and\r\nobliged to contribute both money and personal service to the\r\nconstant wars, at length took arms and seceded to Mount\r\nAventine and Mount Sacer, and thus secured for themselves\r\ntribunes and protective laws. But it was only the second\r\nPunic war that put an end on both sides to discord and\r\nstrife.\"<a id=\"FNanchor_146_146\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_146_146\">[146]</a> But why should I spend time in writing such\r\nthings, or make others spend it in reading them? Let the\r\nterse summary of Sallust suffice to intimate the misery of the\r\nrepublic through all that long period till the second Punic\r\nwar,—how it was distracted from without by unceasing wars,\r\nand torn with civil broils and dissensions. So that those\r\nvictories they boast were not the substantial joys of the\r\nhappy, but the empty comforts of wretched men, and seductive\r\nincitements to turbulent men to concoct disasters upon\r\ndisasters. And let not the good and prudent Romans be\r\nangry at our saying this; and indeed we need neither deprecate\r\nnor denounce their anger, for we know they will harbour\r\nnone. For we speak no more severely than their own authors,\r\nand much less elaborately and strikingly; yet they diligently<span class=\"pagenum\"><a id=\"Page_114\">[Pg 114]</a></span>\r\nread these authors, and compel their children to learn them.\r\nBut they who are angry, what would they do to me were I\r\nto say what Sallust says? \"Frequent mobs, seditions, and at\r\nlast civil wars, became common, while a few leading men on\r\nwhom the masses were dependent, affected supreme power\r\nunder the seemly pretence of seeking the good of senate and\r\npeople; citizens were judged good or bad, without reference\r\nto their loyalty to the republic (for all were equally corrupt);\r\nbut the wealthy and dangerously powerful were esteemed good\r\ncitizens, because they maintained the existing state of things.\"\r\nNow, if those historians judged that an honourable freedom of\r\nspeech required that they should not be silent regarding the\r\nblemishes of their own state, which they have in many places\r\nloudly applauded in their ignorance of that other and true city\r\nin which citizenship is an everlasting dignity; what does it\r\nbecome us to do, whose liberty ought to be so much greater,\r\nas our hope in God is better and more assured, when they\r\nimpute to our Christ the calamities of this age, in order that\r\nmen of the less instructed and weaker sort may be alienated\r\nfrom that city in which alone eternal and blessed life can\r\nbe enjoyed? Nor do we utter against their gods anything\r\nmore horrible than their own authors do, whom they read and\r\ncirculate. For, indeed, all that we have said we have derived\r\nfrom them, and there is much more to say of a worse kind\r\nwhich we are unable to say.</p>","headings":["THE WORKS OF AURELIUS AUGUSTINE,","BOOK THIRD.","ARGUMENT."],"marker_anchor":null,"paragraph_id":"pg45304-paragraph-238"}],"canonical_references":[],"date_end":null,"date_start":null,"deduplication_fingerprint":"6001e356eb0517bb33056a3c7dafe4d1863736df03b3e76672fc0bf01651d0a1","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_146_146","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_146_146","source_ebook":45304,"source_html":"<div class=\"footnote\">\n<p><a id=\"Footnote_146_146\"></a><a class=\"pginternal\" href=\"#FNanchor_146_146\"><span class=\"label\">[146]</span></a> <i>Hist.</i> i.</p></div>","source_sha256":"d89e9a2b80bb59f394f0fb1bf313b39fab162f06af6642166d62c5912c1195f1","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/45304/pg45304-images.html#Footnote_146_146","text_sha256":"c9a8b82a0947b3f9120a2a177ef1f718c67c86c878f575f3ffaa0b119bc75638","verified":false,"work_id":null}