Chap. xxii.—who was the author of the vanities before described in italy among the romans, and who among other nations.

The author and establisher of these vanities among the Romans was that Sabine king who especially engaged82    Implicavit.   the rude and ignorant minds of men with new superstitions: and that he might do this with some authority, he pretended that he had meetings by night with the goddess Egeria. There was a very dark cavern in the grove of Aricia, from which flowed a stream with a never failing spring. Hither he was accustomed to withdraw himself without any witnesses, that he might be able to pretend that, by the admonition of the goddess his wife, he delivered to the people those sacred rites which were most acceptable to the gods. It is evident that he wished to imitate the craftiness of Minos, who concealed himself in the cave of Jupiter, and, after a long delay there, brought forward laws, as though delivered to him by Jupiter, that he might bind men to obedience not only by the authority of his government, but also by the sanction of religion. Nor was it difficult to persuade shepherds. Therefore he instituted pontiffs, priests, Salii, and augurs; he arranged the gods in families; and by these means he softened the fierce spirits of the new people and called them away from warlike affairs to the pursuit of peace. But though he deceived others, he did not deceive himself. For after many years, in the consulship of Cornelius and Bebius, in a field belonging to the scribe Petilius, under the Janiculum, two stone chests were found by men who were digging, in one of which was the body of Numa, in the other seven books in Latin respecting the law of the pontiffs, and the same number written in Greek respecting systems of philosophy, in which he not only annulled the religious rites which he himself had instituted, but all others also. When this was referred to the senate, it was decreed that these books should be destroyed. Therefore Quintus Petilius, the prætor who had jurisdiction in the city, burnt them in an assembly of the people. This was a senseless proceeding; for of what advantage was it that the books were burnt, when the cause on account of which they were burnt—that they took away the authority due to religion—was itself handed down to memory? Every one then in the senate was most foolish; for the books might have been burnt, and yet the matter itself have been unknown. Thus, while they wish to prove even to posterity with what piety they defended religious institutions, they lessened the authority of the institutions themselves by their testimony.  

But as Pompilius was the institutor of foolish superstitions among the Romans, so also, before Pompilius, Faunus was in Latium, who both established impious rites to his grandfather Saturnus, and honoured his father Picus with a place among the gods, and consecrated his sister Fatua Fauna, who was also his wife; who, as Gabius Bassus relates, was called Fatua because she had been in the habit of foretelling their fates to women, as Faunus did to men. And Varro writes that she was a woman of such great modesty, that, as long as she lived, no male except her husband saw her or heard her name. On this account women sacrifice to her in secret, and call her the Good Goddess. And Sextus Claudius, in that book which he wrote in Greek, relates that it was the wife of Faunus who, because, contrary to the practice and honour of kings, she had drunk a jar of wine, and had become intoxicated, was beaten to death by her husband with myrtle rods. But afterwards, when he was sorry for what he had done, and was unable to endure his regret for her, he paid her divine honours. For this reason they say that a covered jar of wine is placed at her sacred rites. Therefore Faunus also left to posterity no slight error, which all that are intelligent see through. For Lucilius in these verses derides the folly of those who imagine that images are gods: “The terrestrial83    Terricolas. Another reading is terriculas, bugbears.   Lamiæ, which Faunus and Numa Pompilius and others instituted; at and these he trembles, he places everything in this. As infant boys believe that every statue of bronze is a living man, so these imagine that all things feigned are true: they believe that statues of bronze contain a heart. It is a painter’s gallery;84    Pergula. The word properly means a projection attached to a house. Apelles is said to have placed his pictures in such an adjunct, and to have concealed himself behind them, that he might hear the comments of persons passing by.   there is nothing true; all things are fictitious.” The poet, indeed, compares foolish men to infants. But I say that they are much more senseless than infants. For they (infants) suppose that images are men, whereas these take them for gods: the one through their age, the others through folly, imagine that which is not true: at any rate, the one soon ceased to be deceived; the foolishness of the others is permanent, and always increases. Orpheus was the first who introduced the rites of father Liber into Greece; and he first celebrated them on a mountain of Bœotia, very near to Thebes, where Liber was born; and because this mountain continually resounded with the strains of the lyre, it was called Cithæron.85    Cithæron, from “cithara,” a lyre.   Those sacred rites are even now called Orphic, in which he himself was lacerated and torn in pieces; and he lived about the same time with Faunus. But which of them was prior in age admits of doubt, since Latinus and Priam reigned during the same years, as did also their fathers Faunus and Laomedon, in whose reign Orpheus came with the Argonauts to the coast of the Trojans.  

Let us therefore advance further, and inquire who was really the first author of the worship of the gods. Didymus,86    Didymus. A celebrated Alexandrian grammarian, a follower of the school of Aristarchus. He is distinguished from other grammarians who bore the name of Didymus, by the surname Chalcenteros, which he is said to have received from his unwearied diligence in study. Among his productions, which are all lost, was one on the Homeric poems. He also wrote a commentary on Pindar, to which allusion is made in the text. See Smith’s Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography.   in the books of his commentary on Pindar, says that Melisseus, king of the Cretans, was the first who sacrificed to the gods, and introduced new rites and parades of sacrifices. He had two daughters, Amalthæa and Melissa, who nourished the youthful Jupiter with goats’ milk and honey. Hence that poetic fable derived its origin, that bees flew to the child, and filled his mouth with honey. Moreover, he says that Melissa was appointed by her father the first priestess of the Great Mother; from which circumstance the priests of the same Mother are still called Melissæ. But the sacred history testifies that Jupiter himself, when he had gained possession of power, arrived at such insolence that he built temples in honour of himself in many places. For when he went about to different lands, on his arrival in each region, he united to himself the kings or princes of the people in hospitality and friendship; and when he was departing from each, he ordered that a shrine should be dedicated to himself in the name of his host, as though the remembrance of their friendship and league could thus be preserved. Thus temples were founded in honour of Jupiter Atabyrius and Jupiter Labrandius; for Atabyrius and Labrandius were his entertainers and assistants in war. Temples were also built to Jupiter Laprius, to Jupiter Molion, to Jupiter Casius, and others, after the same manner. This was a very crafty device on his part, that he might both acquire divine honour for himself, and a perpetual name for his entertainers in conjunction with religious observances. Accordingly they were glad, and cheerfully submitted to his command, and observed annual rites and festivals for the sake of handing down their own name. Æneas did something like this in Sicily, when he gave the name of his host87    Cf. Virg., Æneid, v. [verse 718].  Acestes to a city which he had built, that Acestes might afterwards joyfully and willingly love, increase, and adorn it. In this manner Jupiter spread abroad through the world the observance of his worship, and gave an example for the imitation of others. Whether, then, the practice of worshipping the gods proceeded from Melisseus, as Didymus related, or from Jupiter also himself, as Euhemerus says, the time is still agreed upon when the gods began to be worshipped. Melisseus, indeed, was much prior in time, inasmuch as he brought up Jupiter his grandson. It is therefore possible that either before, or while Jupiter was yet a boy, he taught the worship of the gods, namely, the mother of his foster-child, and his grandmother Tellus, who was the wife of Uranus, and his father Saturnus; and he himself, by this example and institution, may have exalted Jupiter to such pride, that he afterwards ventured to assume divine honours to himself.  

CAPUT XXII. 0242BQuid auctor praedictarum vanitatum in Italia apud Romanos fuerit, et quis apud alias gentes.

Harum vanitatum apud Romanos auctor et constitutor Sabinus ille rex fuit, qui maxime animos hominum 0243A rudes atque imperitos novis superstitionibus implicavit: quod ut faceret aliqua cum auctoritate, simulavit cum dea Egeria 0243A nocturnos se habere congressus. Erat quaedam spelunca peropaca in nemore Aricino, unde rivus perenni fonte manabat; huc, remotis arbitris, se inferre consueverat, ut mentiri posset, monitu deae conjugis ea sacra populo se tradere quae acceptissima diis essent: videlicet astutiam Minois voluit imitari: qui se in antrum Jovis recondebat, et ibi diu moratus, leges tamquam sibi a Jove traditas afferebat, ut homines ad parendum non modo imperio, sed etiam religione constringeret. Nec difficile sane fuit persuadere pastoribus. Itaque pontifices, flamines, salios, augures creavit, deos per familias descripsit. Sic novi populi feroces 0243B animos mitigavit, et ad studia pacis a rebus bellicis avocavit. Sed cum alios falleret, seipsum tamen non fefellit; nam post annos plurimos, Cornelio et Bebio coss., in agro scribae Petilii sub janiculo arcae duae lapideae sunt repertae a fossoribus, quarum in altera 0244A corpus Numae fuit, in altera septem latini libri de jure pontificio, item graeci totidem de disciplina sapientiae scripti, quibus religiones, non eas modo, quas ipse instituerat, sed omnes praeterea dissolvit. Qua re ad senatum delata, decretum est, ut hi libri abolerentur: ita eos Q. Petilius Praetor urbanus in concione populi concremavit, insipienter id quidem. Quid enim profuit, libros esse combustos? cum hoc ipsum, quod sunt ideo combusti, quia religionibus derogabant, memoriae sit traditum? Nemo ergo tunc in senatu non stultissimus. Potuerunt enim et libri aboleri, et res tamen in memoriam non exire. Ita dum volunt etiam posteris approbare quanta pietate defenderint religiones, auctoritatem religionum ipsarum testando minuerunt.

0244B Sed ut Pompilius apud Romanos institutor ineptarum religionum fuit: sic ante Pompilium Faunus in Latio, quin et Saturno avo nefaria sacra constituit, et Picum patrem inter deos honoravit, et sororem 0245A suam Fatuam Faunam, 0245A eamdemque conjugem consecravit; quam Gabius Bassus Fatuam nominatam tradit, quod mulieribus fata canere consuevisset, ut Faunus viris. Eamdem Varro scribit tantae pudicitiae fuisse, ut nemo eam, quoad vixerit, praeter virum suum mas viderit, nec nomen ejus audierit. Idcirco illi mulieres in operto sacrificant, et bonam deam nominant. Et Sextus Clodius in eo libro, quem graece scripsit, refert Fauni hanc uxorem fuisse, quae quia contra morem decusque regium clam vini ollam ebiberat, et ebria facta erat, virgis myrteis a viro usque ad mortem caesa. Postea 0246A vero cum eum facti sui poeniteret, et desiderium ejus ferre non posset, divinum illi honorem detulisse; idcirco in sacris ejus obvolutam vini amphoram poni. Reliquit ergo posteris Faunus quoque non parum erroris, quem tamen prudentes quique perspiciunt. Nam Lucilius eorum stultitiam, qui simulacra deos putant esse, deridet his versibus: Terricolas Lamias Fauni, quas Pompiliique Instituere Numae, tremit has; hic omnia ponit. Ut pueri infantes credunt signa omnia ahena Vivere, et esse homines: sic isti omnia ficta Vera putant; credunt signis cor inesse in ahenis. Pergula pictorum; veri nihil: omnia ficta0247A Poeta quidem stultos homines infantibus comparavit. At ego multo imprudentiores esse dico. Illi enim simulacra homines putant esse, hi deos. Illos aetas facit putare quod non est, hos stultitia. Illi utique brevi desinunt falli, horum vanitas et durat, et semper crescit. Sacra Liberi Patris 0247A primus Orpheus induxit in Graeciam, primusque celebravit in monte Boeotiae Thebis, ubi Liber natus est, proximo, qui cum frequenter citharae cantu personaret, Citeron appellatus est. Ea sacra etiamnunc Orphica nominantur, in quibus ipse postea dilaceratus, et carptus est, et fuit per eadem fere tempora, quibus Faunus. Sed quis aetate praecesserit, dubitari potest: siquidem per eosdem annos Latinus Priamusque regnaverunt; item patres eorum Faunus et Laomedon, quo regnante, Orpheus 0247B cum Argonautis ad Iliensium littus accessit.

Procedamus igitur ulterius, et quaeramus, quis omnino colendorum deorum primus auctor extiterit. Didymus 0248A in libris ἐξηγήσεος Πινδαρικῆς ait, Melissea Cretensium regem primum diis sacrificasse, ac ritus novos sacrorumque pompas introduxisse. Hujus duas fuisse filias, Amalthaeam et Melissam, quae Jovem puerum caprino lacte ac melle nutrierunt. Unde poetica illa fabula originem sumpsit, advolasse apes, atque os pueri melle complesse. Melissam vero a patre primam sacerdotem Matri magnae constitutam, unde adhuc ejusdem Matris antistites Melissae nuncupantur. Historia vero sacra testatur ipsum Jovem, postquam rerum potitus est, in tantam insolentiam venisse, ut ipse sibi fana multis in locis constitueret. Nam cum terras circuiret, ut in quamcumque regionem venerat, reges principesve populorum hospitio sibi et amicitia copulabat, et cum a quoque digrederetur, jubebat 0248B sibi fanum creari hospitis sui nomine, quasi ita posset amicitiae et foederis memoria conservari. Sic constituta sunt templa Jovi Atabyrio, Jovi Labrandio. 0249A Atabyrius enim et Labrandius hospites ejus, atque adjutores in bello fuerunt. Item Jovi Laprio, 0249A Jovi Molioni, Jovi Casio, et quae sunt in eumdem modum. Quod ille astutissime excogitavit, ut et sibi honorem divinum, et hospitibus suis perpetuum nomen acquireret cum religione conjunctum. Gaudebant ergo illi, et hinc imperio ejus libenter obsequebantur, et nominis sui gratia ritus annuos et festa celebrabant. Simile quiddam in Sicilia fecit Aeneas (Vid. Aeneid., V), cum conditae urbi Acestae hospitis nomen imposuit, ut eam postmodum laetus ac libens Acestes diligeret, augeret, ornaret. Hoc modo religionem cultus sui per orbem terrae Jupiter seminavit, et exemplum caeteris ad imitandum dedit. Sive igitur a Melisseo, sicut Didymus tradidit, colendorum deorum ritus effluxit; 0249B sive ab ipso quoque Jove, ut Euhemerus; de tempore tamen constat quando dii coli coeperint. Melisseus quidem multum antecessit aetate, quippe qui 0250A educaverit Jovem nepotem. Et idcirco fieri potest, vel ut ante, vel adhuc puero Jove deos colere instituerit, id est alumni sui matrem; et aviam Tellurem, quae fuit Urani conjux, et patrem Saturnum: et ipse hoc exemplo atque instituto Jovem ad tantam superbiam provexerit, ut postea sibi divinos honores auderet assumere.