Chapter XIV.221    Comp. The Apology, c. xvi.—The Vile Calumny About Onocoetes Retorted on the Heathen by Tertullian.

Report has introduced a new calumny respecting our God. Not so long ago, a most abandoned wretch in that city of yours,222    In ista civitate, Rome. a man who had deserted indeed his own religion—a Jew, in fact, who had only lost his skin, flayed of course by wild beasts,223    This is explained in the passage of The Apology (xvi.): “He had for money exposed himself with criminals to fight with wild beasts.” against which he enters the lists for hire day after day with a sound body, and so in a condition to lose his skin224    Decutiendus, from a jocular word, “decutire.”—carried about in public a caricature of us with this label: Onocoetes.225    This curious word is compounded of ὅνος, an ass, and κοιᾶσθαι, which Hesychius explains by ἰερᾶσθαι, to act as a priest. The word therefore means, “asinarius sacerdos,” “an ass of a priest.” Calumnious enough; but suited to the vile occasion, and illustrative of the ribald opposition which Christianity had to encounter. This (figure) had ass’s ears, and was dressed in a toga with a book, having a hoof on one of his feet. And the crowd believed this infamous Jew. For what other set of men is the seed-plot226    We take Rigaltius’ reading, “seminarium.” of all the calumny against us?  Throughout the city, therefore, Onocoetes is all the talk. As, however, it is less then “a nine days’ wonder,”227    Tanquam hesternum. and so destitute of all authority from time, and weak enough from the character of its author, I shall gratify myself by using it simply in the way of a retort. Let us then see whether you are not here also found in our company. Now it matters not what their form may be, when our concern is about deformed images. You have amongst you gods with a dog’s head, and a lion’s head, with the horns of a cow, and a ram, and a goat, goat-shaped or serpent-shaped, and winged in foot, head, and back. Why therefore brand our one God so conspicuously? Many an Onocoetes is found amongst yourselves.

14. Nova jam de Deo nostro fama suggessit. Adeo nuper quidam perditissimus in ista civitate, etiam suae religionis desertor, solo detrimento cutis Judaeus utique magis post bestiarum morsus, ad quas se locando quotidie toto jam corpore decutit, cum incedit, picturam in nos proposuit sub ista proscriptione: ONOKOITHZ . Is erat auribus canteriorum, et in toga, cum libro, altero pede ungulato. Et credidit vulgus judaeo. Quod enim aliud genus 0579C seminarium est infamiae nostrae? Itaque in tota civitate ὀνοκοίτης praedicatur. Sed et hoc tamque externum et auctoritate temporis destitutum etqualitate auctoris infirmum, libenter excipiam studio retorquendi. Videamus igitur, an hic quoque nobiscum deprehendamini. Neque enim interest qua forma, dum deformia simulacra curemus? Sunt penes vos et canino 0580A capite et leonino et de bove et de ariete et hirco cornuti dii, caprigenae vel anguini et alites plantmerleta, fronte et tergo Quid itaque nostrum unicum denotatis?