Argument.—Cyprian, in Reply to Demetrianus the Proconsul of Africa, Who Contended that the Wars, and Famine, and Pestilence with Which the World Was Then Plagued Must Be Imputed to the Christians Because They Did Not Worship the Gods; Fairly Urges (Having Argued that All Things are Gradually Deteriorating with the Old Age of the World) that It Was Rather the Heathens Themselves Who Were the Cause of Such Mischiefs, Because They Did Not Worship God, And, Moreover, Were Distressing the Christians with Unjust Persecutions.1    Next, having reproached him with the unaccustomed kinds of tortures with which he tormented the Christians more severely than any other criminals, not for the purpose of making them confess, but of making them deny their faith, he shows the impotence of the gods,—as well because they themselves cannot defend themselves, and so Demetrianus, who pretended to avenge them, should rather be worshipped by them, than himself worship them;—as because, when expelled by Christians from possessed bodies, they themselves confess what they are. Nor indeed must the fall of kings, the destruction of property, and such like evils which accompanied the persecutions of Christians as a punishment from Heaven, be judged not to be punishments, because they were shared by the Christians themselves; inasmuch as all these things are a joy to them rather than a punishment. Accordingly, while there is time, he urges him to return to a better mind, or at least to dread the judgment and an ever burning fiery Gehenna. In this tract Cyprian partly imitates Tertullian’s Apology and his treatise to Scapula, partly the Octavius of Minucius Felix.

ARGUMENTUM.

Demetriano, Africae proconsuli, contendenti Christianis imputari debere bella, famem et pestem quibus tum orbis divexabatur, quod ab ipsis dii non colerentur; pulchre respondet (ubi deduxit mundi senio omnia deteriora fieri) ipsos potius 0543B ethnicos tantarum cladium causam esse, quod Deum non colerent et Christianos praeterea injustis persecutionibus agitarent. Deinde, ubi illi exprobravit tormentorum inusitata genera quibus Christianos prae aliis reis torquebat, non ad confessionem, sed ad negationem, deorum impotentiam arguit; tum quod ipsi se defendere nequeant, atque adeo Demetrianus qui illos vindicabat, ab ipsis potius coli quam ipse eos colere deberet; tum quod a Christianis de obsessis corporibus ejecti, quid sint ipsi confiteantur. Neque vero ruinas regum, jacturas opum et similia mala quae persecutiones Christianorum divinitus in vindictam comitabantur, ideo vindictas non censeri, quod illis etiam communes essent, quandoquidem gaudium iis 0543C potius sint omnia illa, quam poena. Proinde, dum 0544A tempus est, ad mentem redeat hortatur, vel saltem metu judicii et semper ardentis gehennae ignis. Imitatur autem ipse partim Tertulliani Apologeticum et librum ad Scapulam, partim Minutii Felicis Octavium. PAMEL.