Chapter XVII.257    Comp. The Apology, c. xxxv.—The Christian Refusal to Swear by the Genius of Cæsar. Flippancy and Irreverence Retorted on the Heathen.

As to your charges of obstinacy and presumption, whatever you allege against us, even in these respects, there are not wanting points in which you will bear a comparison with us. Our first step in this contumacious conduct concerns that which is ranked by you immediately after258    Secunda. the worship due to God, that is, the worship due to the majesty of the Cæsars, in respect of which we are charged with being irreligious towards them, since we neither propitiate their images nor swear by their genius. We are called enemies of the people. Well, be it so; yet at the same time (it must not be forgotten, that) the emperors find enemies amongst you heathen, and are constantly getting surnames to signalize their triumphs—one becoming Parthicus,259    Severus, in a.d. 198. and another Medicus and Germanicus.260    These titles were borne by Caracalla. On this head261    Or, “topic”—hoc loco. the Roman people must see to it who they are amongst whom262    i.e., whether among the Christians or the heathen. there still remain nations which are unsubdued and foreign to their rule. But, at all events, you are of us,263    A cavil of the heathen. and yet you conspire against us. (In reply, we need only state) a well-known fact,264    Sane. that we acknowledge the fealty of Romans to the emperors. No conspiracy has ever broken out from our body: no Cæsar’s blood has ever fixed a stain upon us, in the senate or even in the palace; no assumption of the purple has ever in any of the provinces been affected by us. The Syrias still exhale the odours of their corpses; still do the Gauls265    Galliæ. fail to wash away (their blood) in the waters of their Rhone. Your allegations of our insanity266    Vesaniæ. I omit, because they do not compromise the Roman name. But I will grapple with267    Conveniam. the charge of sacrilegious vanity, and remind you of268    Recognoscam. the irreverence of your own lower classes, and the scandalous lampoons269    Festivos libellos. of which the statues are so cognizant, and the sneers which are sometimes uttered at the public games,270    A concilio. and the curses with which the circus resounds.  If not in arms, you are in tongue at all events always rebellious. But I suppose it is quite another affair to refuse to swear by the genius of Cæsar?  For it is fairly open to doubt as to who are perjurers on this point, when you do not swear honestly271    Ex fide. even by your gods. Well, we do not call the emperor God; for on this point sannam facimus,272    Literally, “we make faces.” as the saying is. But the truth is, that you who call Cæsar God both mock him, by calling him what he is not, and curse him, because he does not want to be what you call him. For he prefers living to being made a god.273    Comp. The Apology, c. xxxiii., p. 37, supra, and Minucius Felix, Octavius, c. xxiii. [Vol. IV. this Series.]

17. De Obstinationibus vero vel praesumptionibus, si qua proponitis, ne istae quidem ad communionem comparationis absistunt . Prima obstinatio est, quae secunda ab eis religio constituitur Caesarianae majestatis, quod irreligiosi dicamur in Caesares, neque imagines eorum repropitiando, neque genios dejerando hostes populi nuncupamur. Ita vero sit, cum ex vobis nationibus quotidie Caesares, et Parthici, et Medici, et Germanici. Hoc loco Romana gens viderit, in quibus indomitae et extraneae nationes. Vos tamen de nostris adversus nostros conspiratis. Agnoscimus 0583B sane romanam in Caesares fidem. Nulla unquam conjuratio erupit, nullus in senatu vel in palatiis ipsis sanguis Caesaris notam fixit ; nulla in provinciis affectata majestas. Adhuc Syriae cadaverum odoribus spirant; adhuc Galliae Rhodano suo non lavant. Sed omitto vesaniae crimina, quia nec ista Romanum nomen admittunt. Vanitatis sacrilegia conveniam, et ipsius vernaculae gentis irreverentiam recognoscam, et festivos libellos, quos statuae sciunt , et illa obliqua nonnunquam dicta a concilio atque maledicta, quae circi sonant. Si non armis, saltem lingua semper rebelles estis. Sed aliud, opinor, est, non jurare per genium Caesaris. Dubitatur enim de perjuris jure, cum ne per deos quidem vestros ex fide dejeretis. 0583C Sed non dicimus deum imperatorem; super hoc enim, quod vulgo aiunt, sannam facimus .