Chap. XXII.—Of Sins, and the Verses of the Sibyls Respecting Them Recited.

This is what I had to say, most beloved Donatus, respecting the anger of God, that you might know how to refute those who represent God as being without emotions.152    Immobilem.   It only remains that, after the practice of Cicero, I should use an epilogue by way of peroration. As he did in the Tusculan Disputations,153    [Book i. concluding chapters.]   when discoursing on the subject of death, so we in this work ought to bring forward divine testimonies, which may be believed, to refute the persuasion of those who, believing that God is without anger, destroy all religion, without which, as we have shown, we are either equal to the brutes in savageness, or to the cattle in foolishness; for it is in religion only—that is, in the knowledge of the Supreme God—that wisdom consists. All the prophets, being filled with the Divine Spirit, speak nothing else than of the favour of God towards the righteous, and His anger against the ungodly. And their testimony is indeed sufficient for us; but because it is not believed by those who make a display of wisdom by their hair and dress,154    The philosophers wore long hair and cloaks. See Instit., iii. 25. [Needlessly repeated. See p. 95, supra; also 137.]   it was necessary to refute them by reason and arguments. For they act so preposterously,155    Præpostere, i.e., in a reversed order, putting the last first.   that human things give authority to divine things, whereas divine things ought rather to give authority to human. But let us now leave these things, lest we should produce no effect upon them, and the subject should be indefinitely drawn out. Let us therefore seek those testimonies which they can either believe, or at any rate not oppose.  

Authors of great number and weight have made mention of the Sibyls; of the Greeks, Aristo the Chian, and Apollodorus the Erythræan; of our writers, Varro and Fenestella. All these relate that the Erythræan Sibyl was distinguished and noble beyond the rest. Apollodorus, indeed, boasts of her as his own citizen and countrywoman. But Fenestella also relates that ambassadors were sent by the senate to Erythræ, that the verses of this Sibyl might be conveyed to Rome, and that the consuls Curio and Octavius might take care that they should be placed in the Capitol, which had then been restored under the care of Quintus Catulus. In her writings, verses of this kind are found respecting the Supreme God and Maker of the world:—  

Again, in another place, enumerating the deeds by which God is especially moved to anger, she introduced these things:—  

Therefore He is angry with sinners.  

CAPUT XXII. De peccatis, deque iis recitati versus Sibyllae.

Haec habui, quae de ira Dei dicerem, Donate charissime; ut scires quemadmodum refelleres eos qui Deum faciunt immobilem. Restat, ut more Ciceronis utamur epilogo ad perorandum. Sicut ille in Tusculanis de morte disserens fecit: ita nos in hoc opere testimonia divina, quibus credi possit, adhibere debemus, 0141B ut illorum persuasionem revincamus, qui sine ira Deum esse credentes, dissolvunt omnem religionem: sine qua, ut ostendimus, aut immanitate belluis, aut stultitia pecudibus adaequamur; in sola enim religione, id est, in Dei summi notione sapientia est. Prophetae universi divino Spiritu repleti nihil 0142A aliud, quam de gratia Dei erga justos, et de ira ejus adversus impios loquuntur. Quorum testimonia nobis quidem satis sunt: verum iis quoniam non credunt isti, qui sapientiam capillis et habitu jactant, ratione quoque et argumentis fuerant a nobis refellendi. Sic enim praepostere agitur, ut humana divinis tribuant auctoritatem, cum potius humanis divina debuerint. Quae nunc sane omittamus ne nihil apud istos agamus, et in infinitum materia procedat. Ea igitur quaeramus testimonia, quibus illi possint aut credere aut certe non repugnare.

Sibyllas plurimi et maximi auctores tradiderunt; Graecorum, Aristo Chius et Apollodorus Erythraeus; nostrorum, Varro et Fenestella. Hi omnes praecipuam, et nobilem praeter caeteras Erythraeam fuisse commemorant. 0142B Apollodorus quidem ut de civi ac populari sua gloriatur. Fenestella vero etiam legatos Erythras a senatu esse missos refert, ut hujus Sibyllae carmina Romam deportarentur, et ea consules Curio et Octavius in Capitolio, quod tunc erat curante Quinto Catulo 0143A restitutum, ponenda curarent. Apud hanc de summo et conditore rerum Deo hujusmodi versus reperiuntur: Ἄφθαρτος κτίστης αἰώνιος αἰθέρα ναίων, Τοῖς ἀγαθοῖς ἀγαθὸν προφέρων, πολὺ μείζονα μισθὸν; Τοῖς δὲ κακοῖς ἀδίκοις τὲ χόλον καὶ θυμὸν ἐγείρων.

Rursù alio loco enumerans, quibus maxime facinoribus incitetur Deus, haec intulit: Φεῦγε δὲ λατρείας ἀνόμους, Θεῷ ζῶντι λάτρευε. Μοιχείας τε φύλασσε, καὶ ἄρσενος ἄκριτον εὐνὴν, Ἰδίαν γενεὰν παίδων τρέφε, μήδε φόνευε· Καὶ γὰρ ὁ ἀθάνατος κεχολώσεται, ὅσκεν ἁμὰρτῃ.

Indignatur ergo adversus peccatores.