{"author":null,"canonical_references":[],"date_end":null,"date_start":null,"deduplication_fingerprint":"b0c716da451005c9c77d978a0293b92f8058031397e8923fb3d8e7093f97a2a0","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":["THE WORKS OF AURELIUS AUGUSTINE,","BOOK FIRST."],"id":"pg45304-paragraph-31","license_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/policy/license.html","note_targets":["Footnote_37_37"],"public_import_allowed":false,"record_kind":"original-paragraph-unclassified","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":null,"source_ebook":45304,"source_html":"<p>If, then, Virgil says that the gods were such as these, and\r\nwere conquered, and that when conquered they could not\r\nescape except under the protection of a man, what madness\r\nis it to suppose that Rome had been wisely entrusted to these\r\nguardians, and could not have been taken unless it had lost\r\nthem! Indeed, to worship conquered gods as protectors and\r\nchampions, what is this but to worship, not good divinities,\r\nbut evil omens?<a id=\"FNanchor_37_37\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_37_37\">[37]</a> Would it not be wiser to believe, not that\r\nRome would never have fallen into so great a calamity had\r\nnot they first perished, but rather that they would have\r\nperished long since had not Rome preserved them as long as\r\nshe could? For who does not see, when he thinks of it, what\r\na foolish assumption it is that they could not be vanquished\r\nunder vanquished defenders, and that they only perished<span class=\"pagenum\"><a id=\"Page_6\">[Pg 6]</a></span>\r\nbecause they had lost their guardian gods, when, indeed, the\r\nonly cause of their perishing was that they chose for their\r\nprotectors gods condemned to perish? The poets, therefore,\r\nwhen they composed and sang these things about the conquered\r\ngods, had no intention to invent falsehoods, but uttered,\r\nas honest men, what the truth extorted from them. This,\r\nhowever, will be carefully and copiously discussed in another\r\nand more fitting place. Meanwhile I will briefly, and to the\r\nbest of my ability, explain what I meant to say about these\r\nungrateful men who blasphemously impute to Christ the calamities\r\nwhich they deservedly suffer in consequence of their\r\nown wicked ways, while that which is for Christ's sake spared\r\nthem in spite of their wickedness they do not even take the\r\ntrouble to notice; and in their mad and blasphemous insolence,\r\nthey use against His name those very lips wherewith they\r\nfalsely claimed that same name that their lives might be\r\nspared. In the places consecrated to Christ, where for His\r\nsake no enemy would injure them, they restrained their tongues\r\nthat they might be safe and protected; but no sooner do they\r\nemerge from these sanctuaries, than they unbridle these tongues\r\nto hurl against Him curses full of hate.</p>","source_sha256":"d89e9a2b80bb59f394f0fb1bf313b39fab162f06af6642166d62c5912c1195f1","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/45304/pg45304-images.html","text_sha256":"b5398b98485b95b7c1707e9a4b50bf6c08263a88ba24dc8088b0fd3c721e5e5d","verified":false,"work_id":null}