City of God (Penguin Classics), page 149
Pyrrhus, king of Epirus, came to the help of Tarentum against the Romans in 280 B.c. Cicero (De Dtv., 2, 56, 116) quotes the metrical form of the oracle aio te Aiacida Romanos vincerc posse. The ambiguity arises because either of the accusatives, te or Romanos, could be either subject or object of vincere. Cicero observes that (1) Apollo did not speak Latin, (2) this oracle was unknown to the Greeks, and (3) Oracles were no longer being given in verse in the third century. But the ambiguity would remain in a Greek prose version.
71. Beneventum, 275 B.C.
72. De Div., 2, 54, 110 ff.
73. A section of ‘Divine Affairs’ in his Antiquities.
74. Secular Games. St Augustine refers to the celebration of these games in 249 B.C. They were celebrated at irregular intervals: 463 (or 449), 363, 263, 249, 146, and 17 B.C.; A.D. 88 and 204.
75. cf. Bk 1, 15.
76. 242 B.C.
77. Sacred Symbol The Palladium, an image of Pallas sent by Zeus to Dardanus (or Ilus) supposedly brought from Troy by Aeneas; it was preserved in the temple of Vesta, and concealed from profane eyes, and its safety was reputed to ensure the safety of the city which possessed it. ‘The Palladium is as it were the guarantee of our safety and of our Empire, and as such it is guarded by Vesta’ (Cic, Pro Scaur., 48).
78. Troy, Lavinium, Alba.
79. In 241 B.C. cf. Ov. 1, Fast, 6, 437–54; Liv., Perioch., 19.
80. cf. Florus, 2, 6 (‘The conquering nation were more like a vanquished people’); Liv., 21,1 (‘Those who conquered were nearer to disaster.’)
81. Liv., 23, 22.
82. Bullae, the golden armaments of boys of noble birth.
83. At the start of the Second Punic War, 218 B.C. 82.
84. Hist., fr. 1, 11; cf. Bk II, 18.
85. cf. Gellius, 7, 1.
86. Liv., 39, 6, 7.
87. The Galatians, in 189 B.C.
88. In 169 B.C.
89. Africanus Minor, appointed to command 147; captured and destroyed Carthage 146 B.C.
90. Numantia. c. Hostilius Mancinus, with an army of 30,000, was defeated by 4,000 Numantians in 138. The treaty he concluded with the victors was repudiated by the senate (Liv., Perioch., 55; Cic, De Or., 1, 40, 181).
91. 88 B.C., Liv., Perioch., 78; App., De Bell. Mithr., 22. Mithridates (d. 63 B.C.) was king of Pontius, but threatened to acquire much of Asia Minor, and even invaded Greece. Sulla drove him from Greece; Lucullus and Pompey defeated him in Asia.
92. 90 B.C.
93. cf. Jul. Obs, Prod, 114; Oros. 5, 18, 9.
94. Tiberius Gracchus when tribune in 133 B.C. brought forward proposals for land reform. He was killed in a riot when seeking re-election. His brother Gains, tribune 125, and again in 122, re-enacted his brother’s proposals and proceeded to further liberal measures. He was killed in 121, after the senatus consultum ultimum had been passed against him and his supporters. L. Opimius, consul 121, was one of the leaders of the reactionary opposition to c. Gracchus, and in 120 he was accused of the massacre of many citizens, but acquitted (Cic, De Or., 2, 25, 106). Gracchus was actually killed by a faithful slave, Fhilocrates. His head was sold to Opimius by a certain Septimuleius, according to Plutarch (C. Gracchus, 17). M. Pulvius, consul 125, was a friend of the Gracchi.
95. Concord. There was more than one temple of Concord in Rome. The dedication of the temple by Opimius is attested by Appian, De Bell. Civ., 1, 26.
96. cf. Bk II.
97. cf. Bk II, 14.
98. L. Apulcius Saturninus, tribune 103 and 100 B.C., and Gn. Servilius Glau-cia, praetor 100 B.C., were extremist supporters of Marius. A senatus consultum ultimum declared them public enemies and they were killed in December 100 B.C.
99. Only 9 years. Perhaps the reading should be ‘not long afterwards’.
100. M. Livius Drusus, tribune 91 B.C., proposed the enfranchisement of the Italian allies. He was assassinated; and the failure of his proposals, and hismurder, lead to the Social War in 90 B.C.
101. The Civil Wars started with the war between Marius and Sulla 88–82 B.C.
The Servile War, led by the gladiators under Spartacus, lasted from 73–71 B.C. There were slave wars in Sicily 135–132 and 103–101 B.C.
102. The pirates were finally eradicated by Pompey in 67 B.C.
103. Cat, 3, 10.
104. Phars., 2, 142–4.
105. In 88 B.C. the command of the war against Mithridates was given by the senate to Sulla; but the Marian party got it transferred to Marius. Sulla marched on Rome, and Marius fled. But after Sulla’s departure for the East Marius returned with Cinna in 87 B.C., and proceeded to a massacre of his opponents. c. Octavius,’consul in 87 B.C., was one of the first victims. L. Caesar, consul in 90 B.C., and his brother c. Caesar Strabo, a noted orator, were also put to death. F. Crassus, father of the triumvir, committed suicide in the same year, after the murder of one of his sons. Baebius and Numitorius were members of the Sullan party. Q. Lutatius Catulus is generally reported to have killed himself by inhaling the carbon monoxide from a charcoal brazier, and Merula killed himself in the temple of Jupiter Capitolinus.
Condemned criminals were sometimes dragged by hooks to be thrown into the Tiber; cf. Cic, Philip, 1, 2, 5; Pro Rabir, 5,16, and Juvenal, 10, 66 (the treatment of the corpse of Sejanus).
106.82 B.C.
107. The younger Marius and Gn. Papirius Carbo were consuls in 82 B.C. Carbo lead the Marian Party after Cinna’s death in 84 B.C.
108. Q. Mucius Scaevóla, consul in 95. A great jurist, author of an immense work (eighteen books) on civil law, he is highly praised by Cicero (De Or., 1, 39. 180).
109. 390 B.C.
110. A.D. 410.
111. Q. Sertorius, a leader of the popular party after Sulla’s victory. Invited in 80 B.C. to lead the revolted Lusitanians, he organized a Spanish army and defied the senatorial forces until 72, when he was murdered by one of his lieutenants.
112. L. Sergtus Catilina, an impoverished noble, gathered a band of other desperate characters in 65 B.C. intending a general massacre and revolution. This plot failing, he stood for the consulship in 64, but was defeated. In 63 came the ‘second conspiracy’ of Catiline, crushed by Cicero as consul. Catiline fled and was defeated and killed in battle.
113. M. Acmilius Lepidus, consul 78 B.C., attempted a military coup, intending to annul Sulla’s measures; but he was defeated in battle near the Janiculum by the forces of the other consul, Q. Lutatius Catulus, the leader of the senatorial nobility.
114. Virg., Aen., 1, 416.
115. cf. ch. 28.
116. cf. Bk I, 1.
117. cf. Oros., 5, 15 (Orosius says tribute was remitted for ten years).
118. Liv., Perioch., 40.
119. Numidia.
1. Bk II, 4; Conf., 1, 10; 3, 2.
2. cf. Bk III, 4 n.
3. L. Apuleius Afer: (fi. c. A.D. 150): born in Numidia. His best known work is the satirical romance, the Metamorphoses, generally known as The Golden Ass; but he was also a professor of rhetoric and philosophy. He wrote a treatise, De Platonis Dogmate, and another, De Deo Socratis, dealing with the Platonic (or Neoplatonic) doctrine of the Deity and of the demons, the subordinate supernatural powers. This last is extensively quoted and discussed by St Augustine in the City of God.
4. De Mundo, 34 (inexactly quoted).
5. Bk I, 36.
6. Matt 5, 45.
7. The slave of vices: a Stoic sentiment; cf. Seneca., Ep., 47, 17: ‘He is a slave. Is he any the worse off for that? Show me any man who is not a slave! One manis the slave of lust, another of greed, another of ambition; and all men are theslaves of fear… and the most degraded slavery is that which is self-imposed.’
8. 2 Pet. 2, 19.
9. Cic., De Rep., 3, 14, 24.
10. cf. Bk III, 26.
11. Spartacus, Oenomaus, Crixus.
12. 73–71 B.C.
13. Justinus (second or third century A.D.) abridged the Universal History of Trogus Pompeius (fl, under Augustus) which started with the foundation of Nineveh and came down to his own time. His source for Assyrian history was Ctesias, a Greek physician at the Persian court in the early fourth century.
Ninus is legendary, his supposed date being c. 2000 B.C. The foundation of Babylon was attributed to his widow, Semiramis. The rise of Assyrian power began in fact c. 1500.
14. cf. Euseb-Hier., Chronic., (ed. Helm) p. 83a, 9f.
15. Fall of Nineveh, 612 B.C.
16. Capture of Babylon by Cyrus, 538 B.C.
17. 336–323 B.C.
18. cf. Bk II, 17; Bk III, 17.
19. Most of those ‘tiny gods’ were vaguely conceived ‘powers’ (numina) invoked for various particular functions, and only a few enjoyed anything like a cult. Some of them are merely names to us, and no doubt they were little more than that to the pagans of St Augustine’s time. The purpose of St Augustine’s elaborate irony is to combat the sentimental nostalgia for the old days of paganism.
20. Cloacina (Cluocina): a title of Venus rather than the name of a distinct deity. It derives from cluare, ‘to purify’; but St Augustine takes it as meaning the goddess of the sewer (cloaca).
Volupia: personification of pleasure. Varro mentions her shrine (De Ling. Lat., 5, 164).
Lubentina: personification of sensual pleasure. Cicero speaks of Lubentina Venus (De Nat. Deor., 2, 23, 61).
Vaticanus: Augustine’s derivation is, as often, fantastic; but Varro is responsible for it (Gell., 16, 17). Cunina is mentioned by Varro. Rusina is unknown.
Iugatinus is unknown: (a deity of the same name appears in ch. IV; Bk VI, 9).
Collatina, Vallonia, are unknown; Segetta appears as Segesta in Pliny; Seia occurs in Macrobius and Pliny; Tutiltna is mentioned by Varro, without attribution of function.
Proserpina: her function assumes a derivation from pro-serpere, ‘to creep forth’. Varro (De Ling. Lat., 5, 68) gives another meaning to this derivation (‘because, like a serpent, she sways now to the right, now to the left’). The cult of Proserpina (with Dis) was started in 249, during the first Punic War.
Nodutus, Vplutina, Hostilina, Lacturnus are unknown.
Patelana is mentioned by Arnobius (Adv. Gent, 4,7).
Flora: cf. Bk II, 27.
Matuta: cf. Bk XVII, 14. She appears in Lucretius (5, 654) as goddess of the dawn, identified with Aurora. As ‘Mother Matuta’ she had a festival of mothers, the Motralia, at Rome on 11 June (Ovid, Fast., 6,479). Runcina appears only here.
Forculus, Cardea (Cardia in Ovid, Fast., 6, 101), Limentinus are mentioned elsewhere, but with no information about them.
21. The temple of Jupiter Capitolinus.
22. Virg., Ecl., 3, 60.
23. cf. ch. 31.
24. Virg., Aen., 1, 47.
25. Jupiter in the ether. The identification of Zeus with the upper air (aether), is found in two fragments of Euripides: ‘This ether which extends without limit in the height of heaven, this is Zeus’ (Frag. 941); ‘The ether, which men call Zeus’ (Frag. 877).
26. cf. Bk VII, 22.
27. cf. Bk VII, 19. Saturn is identified with the Greek Cronos, whose name was supposed to be derived from chronos, ‘time’. (Cic, De Nat Dear., 2, 25, 64.)
28. Georg., 2, 325ff.
29. cf. Bk VII, 23.
30. Vesta: Ovid, (Fast., 6, 299) gives a curious etymology: ‘The earth stands by its own power; Vesta gets her name because of standing with power (vi stando).’ There seems to be no evidence for the equation Vesta = Venus; cf. Bk VII, 24II.
31. cf. Virg., Ecl. 3, 60 (ch. 9, above), and Aen. 6, 727. The ‘world-soul’ is typical teaching of Stoic Pantheism; cf. Bk VII, 6.
32. Virg., Georg., 4, 221f.
33. cf. Bk VII, 22.
34. On Janus, and the following minor gods, see note 45.
35. cf. ch. 23; Bk VI, 9; VII, 2.
36. cf. Bk VII, 2.
37. cf. ch. 8.
38. cf. Bk VII, 22.
39. cf. ch. 8.
40. cf. ch. 16.
41. cf. ch. 23.
42. cf. ch. 19.
43. cf. Bk VI, 9.
44. cf. Bk II, 14n.
45. Janus: the god of beginnings. Originally one of the chief Roman gods. His temple in the forum was in the shape of an archway; cf. Bk III, 10, for the dosing of the temple doors in time of peace; cf. also Bk VII, 4; 7–10; 28.
Terminus: the sacred boundary stone in the temple of Jupiter Capitolinus. Festival of Terminalia on 23 February.
Bellona. In 296 B.C., after a victory over Etruscans and Samnites, the consul Appius Claudius (‘the blind’) dedicated a temple to Bellona on the Campus Martius.
Liber: an old Italian fertility god, later identified with Bacchus. The festival of the Liberalia (March 17) was the traditional day for the assumption by young men of the toga virilis. Libera, his female counterpart, is identified by St Augustine with Venus (Bk VII, 2) and with Ceres (Bk VII, 3). There was a joint temple to Liber and Ceres near the Circus Maximus; cf. Bk VI, 9.
Diespiter: = Jupiter. Dies, Ju-, Jove, Zeus are all related to a Sanscrit word for the bright sky.
Mena: = Gk mên, the moon or month.
Lucina: an epithet of Juno, in her obstetric capacity, rather than a distinct deity.
Opis: apparently distinguished from Ops (personification of ops, ‘power’, Vealth’) the wife of Saturn; identified with Terra, Cybele, and other powers of fertility.
Levana. A new born child was laid on the floor. If the father acknowledged it as his, he lifted it up, thus accepting responsibility for its upbringing.
Carmentes. In classical times there was one goddess, Carmentis (Carmenta), a prophetic deity, associated with birth, and with a festival on 11 and 15 January. One of Rome’s gates was the Porta Carmentalis.
Fortuna. Fors Fortuna had at least two temples in Rome, one in the Forum Boarium and one in Caesar’s gardens; and three temples outside, on the right bank of the Tiber. Her festival was a river carnival, on 24 June. Fortuna Publica had three shrines on the Quirinal, and a festival there on 25 May. For Fortuna Muliebris cf. ch. 19.
Rumina. Varro tells of a shrine at the ficus Ruminalis, the fig-tree under which, in the legend, the wolf suckled Romulus and Remus. Ruminus was a title of Jupiter (Bk VIII, 11).
Educa appears as Edusa in Varro, De Liberis Educandis (quoted by the early fourth-century grammarian Nonius Marcellus). She assisted Potina and Cunina in the care of weaned infants.
Venilia. Diva Venilis was the mother of Turnus (Virg., Aen., 10, 76). The Venilia of Bk VII, 22 is apparently a different goddess.
Stimula. Ovid, (Fast., 6, 503) mentions a grove ‘of Semele or Stimula’. It was the scene of the Bacchanalian orgies which led to the suppression of Dionysiac rites in 186 B.C.
Strenia. A shrine on the Via Sacra is recorded by Varro (De Ling. Lot., 5,47).
Numeria: the goddess of quick birth, according to Varro (quoted by Nonius Marcellus).
Camena: normally found in the plural; prophetic water nymphs, having a sacred spring outside the Porta Capena, where the Vestals drew water for their ceremonies; identified with the Greek Muses, first by Livius Andronicus (the third-century poet) who built them a temple (Ovid, Fast., 3,275).
Consus: god of fertility, and of counsel. Festival of Consualic on 21 August
Juventas: a deified personification, identified with the Greek Hebe (‘youth’). In 218 a lectisteroium (see Bk II, 12 and n.) was offered to her, and in 191 her temple was dedicated in the Circus Maximus; cf. ch. 23 for her cult on the Capitol.
Mutumw or Tutunus (elsewhere Mutunus Tutunus or Mutinus): a phallic god, perhaps the Etruscan equivalent of Priapus.
Paventia, Agenoria, Sentia, Jugatinus, Virginensis, Fortuna Barbota, were presumably recorded in Varro. They are not found in extant classical literature.
46. Stars: The belief in the divinity of the stars was common in antiquity. It is found in Neoplatonism, and it was consonant with the Stoic equation of deity and light St Augustine himself is not prepared to deny sentience and intelligence to the heavenly bothes; cf. Bk XIII, 16.
