On the Vanity of Idols: Showing that the Idols are Not Gods, and that God is One, and that Through Christ Salvation is Given to Believers.

 1. That those are no gods whom the common people worship, is known from this. They were formerly kings, who on account of their royal memory subsequen

 2. Melicertes and Leucothea are precipitated into the sea, and subsequently become sea-divinities. The Castors die by turns, that they may live. Æscul

 3. From this the religion of the gods is variously changed among individual nations and provinces, inasmuch as no one god is worshipped by all, but by

 4. But why do you think that the gods can avail on behalf of the Romans, when you see that they can do nothing for their own worshipers in opposition

 5. Kingdoms do not rise to supremacy through merit, but are varied by chance. Empire was formerly held by both Assyrians and Medes and Persians and w

 6. Of all these, however, the principle is the same, which misleads and deceives, and with tricks which darken the truth, leads away a credulous and f

 7. These spirits, therefore, are lurking under the statues and consecrated images: these inspire the breasts of their prophets with their afflatus, an

 8. Therefore the one Lord of all is God. For that sublimity cannot possibly have any compeer, since it alone possesses all power. Moreover, let us bor

 9. He cannot be seen—He is too bright for vision nor comprehended—He is too pure for our discernment nor estimated—He is too great for our perceptio

 10. But that Christ is, and in what way salvation came to us through Him, after this manner is the plan, after this manner is the means. First of all,

 11. Moreover, God had previously foretold that it would happen, that as the ages passed on, and the end of the world was near at hand, God would gathe

 12. And the Jews knew that Christ was to come, for He was always being announced to them by the warnings of prophets. But His advent being signified t

 13. Therefore when Christ Jesus, in accordance with what had been previously foretold by the prophets, drove out from men the demons by His word, and

 14. That they would do this He Himself also had foretold and the testimony of all the prophets had in like manner preceded Him, that it behoved Him t

 15.  And that the proof might not be the less substantial, and the confession of Christ might not be a matter of pleasure, they are tried by tortures,

4. But why do you think that the gods can avail on behalf of the Romans, when you see that they can do nothing for their own worshipers in opposition to the Roman arms? For we know that the gods of the Romans are indigenous. Romulus was made a god by the perjury of Proculus, and Picus, and Tiberinus, and Pilumnus, and Consus, whom as a god of treachery Romulus would have to be worshipped, just as if he had been a god of counsels, when his perfidy resulted in the rape of the Sabines. Tatius also both invented and worshipped the goddess Cloacina; Hostilius, Fear and Paleness. By and by, I know not by whom, Fever was dedicated, and Acca and Flora the harlots.6    The following passage, accepted in some editions, is of doubtful authenticity: “To such an extent, indeed, were feigned the names of gods among the Romans, that there is even among them a god, Viduus, who widows the body from the soul—who, as being sad and funereal, is not kept within the walls, but placed outside; but who nevertheless, in that he is excluded, is rather condemned by the Roman religion than worshipped. There is also Scansus, so called from ascents, and Forculus from doors, and Limentinus from thresholds, and Cardea from hinges, and Orbona from bereavement.” These are the Roman gods. But Mars is a Thracian, and Jupiter a Cretan, and Juno either Argive or Samian or Carthaginian, and Diana of Taurus, and the mother of the gods of Ida; and there are Egyptian monsters, not deities, who assuredly, if they had had any power, would have preserved their own and their people’s kingdoms. Certainly there are also among the Romans the conquered Penates whom the fugitive Æneas introduced thither. There is also Venus the bald,—far more dishonoured by the fact of her baldness in Rome than by her having been wounded in Homer.

IV. Cur vero deos putas pro Romanis posse, quos videas nihil pro suis adversus eorum arma valuisse? Romanorum enim vernaculos deos novimus. 0570A Est Romulus pejerante Proculo deus factus, et Picus, et Tiberinus, et Pilumnus, et Consus, quem Deum fraudis vel ut consiliorum deum, coli Romulus voluit postquam in raptum Sabinarum perfidia provenit . Deam quoque Cloacinam Tatius et invenit et coluit, Pavorem Hostilius atque Pallorem. Mox a nescio quo Febris dedicata, et Acca et Flora meretrices . [Interdum vero deorum vocabula apud Romanos 0571A finguntur, ut sit apud illos et Viduus deus, qui anima corpus viduet, qui quasi feralis et funebris intra muros non habetur; et nihilominus, quia extorris factus, damnatur potius Romana religione, quam colitur. Est et Scansus ab ascensibus dictus , et Forculus a foribus, et a liminaribus Limentinus, et Cardea a cardinibus et ab orbitatibus Orbona ]. Hi dii Romani. Caeterum Mars Thracius, et Jupiter Creticus, et Juno vel Argiva vel Samia vel Poena, et Diana Taurica, et deorum mater Idaea, et Aegyptia portenta, non numina: quae utique si quid potestatis habuissent, sua ac suorum regna servassent. Plane sunt apud Romanos et victi penates , quos Aeneas profugus advexit. Est et Venus calva, multo hic turpius calva quam apud Homerum vulnerata.