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are recognized, they are killed by brothers or fathers and relatives and are not deemed worthy of a public burial. But among the Gauls, young men are married openly, not considering this a disgrace because of the law among them. And it is not possible for all those in Gaul who are thus shamelessly dishonored to have Phosphorus setting with Hermes in the houses of Kronos and the bounds of Ares in their nativities. In Britain many men have one wife, but in Parthia many women have one man, and they all live chastely, obeying him according to the law. But the Amazons all have no husbands, but like the irrational animals once a year around the spring equinox, crossing their own borders, they have intercourse with their neighbors, who consider this a kind of festival; from whom they conceive and return, and they necessarily become pregnant at one time according to the law of nature and cast out the males who are born, but raise the females; and they are warlike and take care for athletic training. Hermes with Aphrodite in the houses of Hermes makes sculptors and painters and bankers, but in the houses of Aphrodite, perfumers or vocal trainers and actors of poems. And among the Tayenes and Saracens and in upper Libya and among the Moors and among the Nomads around the mouth of the Ocean and in outer Germany and in upper Sarmatia and in Scythia and in all the nations from the northern parts of the Pontus and in all of Alania and Albania and Otene and in Saunia and in Chryse it is not possible to see a banker, or a sculptor, or a painter, or an architect, or a geometer, or a vocal trainer, or an actor of poems, but the way of the energy of Hermes and Aphrodite is absent in this whole circle of the inhabited world. All the Medes throw their dead while still breathing to dogs raised with care, and not all of them have Ares with the moon under the earth in Cancer in a diurnal nativity. The Indians burn their dead, with whom they burn the willing wives, and surely not all the Indian women who are burned alive have the sun with Ares under the earth in a nocturnal nativity in Leo in the bounds of Ares. Most Germans die a death by hanging, and certainly the multitude of Germans does not have the moon and the hour-marker intercepted by Kronos and Ares. In every nation and on every day and in every manner of birth people are born; but law and custom prevail in each portion of humanity because of the free will of man; and nativity does not compel the Seres to murder against their will or the Brahmans to eat meat or the Persians not to marry unlawfully or the Indians not to be burned or the Medes not to be eaten by dogs or the Parthians not to be polygamous or the women in Mesopotamia not to be chaste or the Greeks not to exercise with naked bodies or the Romans not to rule or the Gauls not to be married to men or the other barbarian nations to have fellowship with the Muses, so-called by the Greeks; but, as I said before, each nation and each person uses his own freedom as he wishes and when he wishes, and is a slave to nativity and to nature because of the flesh with which he is clothed, in some ways as he wishes, and in other ways as he does not wish. For everywhere and in every nation there are rich and poor and rulers and ruled and healthy and sick, each one according to the lots of his nativity.” “I say to him: These things, O Bardesanes, have thoroughly convinced us. But the astrologers say that this earth is divided into seven climes and that one of the seven stars rules over each clime; and that men have not established the different laws for themselves, but that the will of each ruler prevails in its own region, which the subjects have considered law.” “He answered: This distinction is not true, O Philip. For even if the inhabited world is divided into seven parts, yet nevertheless in one part we find many differences of laws. For there are not seven laws according to the seven stars, nor twelve according to the zodiac signs, nor thirty-six according to

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γνωσθῶσιν, ὑπὸ ἀδελφῶν ἢ πατέρων καὶ συγγενῶν φονεύονται καὶ ταφῆς προδήλου οὐκ 6.10.27 ἀξιοῦνται. παρὰ δὲ Γάλλοις οἱ νέοι γαμοῦνται μετὰ παρρησίας, οὐ ψόγον τοῦτο ἡγούμενοι διὰ τὸν παρ' αὐτοῖς νόμον. καὶ οὐ δυνατόν ἐστι πάντας τοὺς ἐν Γαλλίᾳ οὕτως ἀθέως ὑβριζομένους λαχεῖν ἐν ταῖς γενέσεσι Φωσφόρον 6.10.28 μεθ' Ἑρμοῦ ἐν οἴκοις Κρόνου καὶ ὁρίοις Ἄρεος δύνοντα. ἐν Βρεττανίᾳ πολλοὶ ἄνδρες μίαν γυναῖκα ἔχουσιν, ἐν δὲ τῇ Παρθίᾳ πολλαὶ γυναῖκες ἕνα 6.10.29 ἄνδρα, καὶ πᾶσαι σωφρονοῦσι πειθόμεναι αὐτῷ κατὰ τὸν νόμον. αἱ δὲ Ἀμαζόνες πᾶσαι ἄνδρας οὐκ ἔχουσιν, ἀλλ' ὡς τὰ ἄλογα ζῷα ἅπαξ τοῦ ἔτους περὶ τὴν ἐαρινὴν ἰσημερίαν ὑπερβαίνουσαι τοὺς ἰδίους ὅρους κοινωνοῦσι τοῖς πλησιοχώροις, ἑορτήν τινα ταύτην ἡγουμένοις· ἐξ ὧν συλλαμβάνουσαι ὑποστρέφουσι καὶ ἀναγκαίως ἐν ἑνὶ καιρῷ κυΐσκουσι κατὰ τὸν τῆς φύσεως νόμον καὶ τοὺς μὲν γεννωμένους ἄρρενας ῥίπτουσι, τὰς δὲ θηλείας ἀνατρέφουσι· πολεμι6.10.30 καί τέ εἰσι καὶ γυμνασίων προνοούμεναι. Ἑρμῆς μετὰ Ἀφροδίτης ἐν οἴκοις Ἑρμοῦ ποιεῖ πλάστας καὶ ζωγράφους καὶ τραπεζίτας, ἐν οἴκοις δὲ Ἀφρο6.10.31 δίτης μυρεψοὺς ἢ φωνάσκους καὶ ὑποκριτὰς ποιημάτων. καὶ παρὰ Ταιηνοῖς καὶ Σαρακηνοῖς καὶ ἐν τῇ ἀνωτέρᾳ Λιβύῃ καὶ παρὰ Μαύροις καὶ παρὰ τοῖς περὶ τὸ στόμα τοῦ Ὠκεανοῦ Νομάσι καὶ ἐν τῇ ἐξωτέρᾳ Γερμανίᾳ καὶ ἐν τῇ ἀνωτέρᾳ Σαρματίᾳ καὶ ἐν τῇ Σκυθίᾳ καὶ ἐν πᾶσι τοῖς ἐξ ἀρκτικῶν μερῶν τοῦ Πόντου ἔθνεσι καὶ ὅλῃ τῇ Ἀλανίᾳ καὶ Ἀλβανίᾳ καὶ Ὠτηνῇ καὶ ἐν Σαυνίᾳ καὶἐν Χρυσῇ οὐκ ἔστιν ἰδεῖν οὐ τραπεζίτην, οὐ πλάστην, οὐ ζωγράφον, οὐκ ἀρχιτέκτονα, οὐ γεωμέτρην, οὐ φώνασκον, οὐχ ὑποκριτὴν ποιημάτων, ἀλλ' ἐστέρηται ὁ τῆς τοῦ Ἑρμοῦ καὶ τῆς Ἀφροδίτης ἐνεργείας τρόπος ἐν ὅλῳ τῷ κύκλῳ 6.10.32 τούτῳ τῆς οἰκουμένης. οἱ Μῆδοι πάντες τοῖς μετὰ σπουδῆς τρεφομένοις κυσὶ τοὺς νεκροὺς ἔτι ἐμπνέοντας παραβάλλουσι, καὶ οὐ πάντες σὺν τῇ μήνῃ 6.10.33 τὸν Ἄρεα ἐφ' ἡμερινῆς γενέσεως ἐν Καρκίνῳ ὑπὸ γῆν ἔχουσιν. Ἰνδοὶ τοὺς νεκροὺς καίουσι, μεθ' ὧν συγκαίουσιν ἑκούσας τὰς γυναῖκας, καὶ οὐ δήπου πᾶσαι αἱ καιόμεναι ζῶσαι Ἰνδῶν γυναῖκες ἔχουσιν ὑπὸ γῆν ἐπὶ νυκτε6.10.34 ρινῆς γενέσεως σὺν Ἄρει τὸν ἥλιον ἐν Λέοντι ὁρίοις Ἄρεος. Γερμανῶν οἱ πλεῖστοι ἀγχονιμαίῳ μόρῳ ἀποθνήσκουσι, καὶ οὐ πάντως τὸ πλῆθος τῶν Γερμανῶν τὴν σελήνην καὶ τὴν ὥραν μεσολαβουμένας ὑπὸ Κρόνου καὶ Ἄρεος 6.10.35 ἔχει. παντὶ ἔθνει καὶ πάσῃ ἡμέρᾳ καὶ παντὶ τ<ρ>όπῳ τῆς γενέσεως γεννῶνται ἄνθρωποι· κρατεῖ δὲ ἐν ἑκάστῃ μοίρᾳ τῶν ἀνθρώπων νόμος καὶ ἔθος διὰ τὸ αὐτεξούσιον τοῦ ἀνθρώπου· καὶ οὐκ ἀναγκάζει ἡ γένεσις τοὺς Σῆρας μὴ θέλοντας φονεύειν ἢ τοὺς Βραχμᾶνας κρεοφαγεῖν ἢ τοὺς Πέρσας ἀθεμίτως μὴ γαμεῖν ἢ τοὺς Ἰνδοὺς μὴ καίεσθαι ἢ τοὺς Μήδους μὴ ἐσθίεσθαι ὑπὸ κυνῶν ἢ τοὺς Πάρθους μὴ πολυγαμεῖν ἢ τὰς ἐν τῇ Μεσοποταμίᾳ γυναῖκας μὴ σωφρονεῖν ἢ τοὺς Ἕλληνας μὴ γυμνάζεσθαι γυμνοῖς τοῖς σώμασιν ἢ τοὺς Ῥωμαίους μὴ κρατεῖν ἢ τοὺς Γάλλους μὴ γαμεῖσθαι ἢ τὰ ἄλλα βάρβαρα ἔθνη ταῖς ὑπὸ τῶν Ἑλλήνων λεγομέναις Μούσαις κοινωνεῖν· ἀλλ', ὡς προεῖπον, ἕκαστον ἔθνος καὶ ἕκαστος τῶν ἀνθρώπων χρῆται τῇ ἑαυτοῦ ἐλευθερίᾳ ὡς βούλεται καὶ ὅτε βούλεται, καὶ δουλεύει τῇ γενέσει καὶ τῇ φύσει δι' ἣν περί6.10.36 κειται σάρκα, πῆ μὲν ὡς βούλεται, πῆ δὲ ὡς μὴ βούλεται. πανταχῆ γὰρ καὶ ἐν παντὶ ἔθνει εἰσὶ πλούσιοι καὶ πένητες καὶ ἄρχοντες καὶ ἀρχόμενοι καὶ ἐρρωμένοι καὶ νοσοῦντες, ἕκαστος κατὰ τοὺς τῆς γενέσεως αὐτοῦ κλήρους.» «Φημὶ αὐτῷ· ἡμᾶς ταῦτα, ὦ Βαρδησάνη, ἄκρως πέπεικεν. οἱ δὲ ἀστρονόμοι φασὶ τὴν γῆν ταύτην μερίζεσθαι εἰς ἑπτὰ κλίματα καὶ ἄρχειν ἑκάστου κλίματος ἕνα τῶν ἑπτὰ ἀστέρων· καὶ τοὺς διαφόρους νόμους μὴ τοὺς ἀνθρώπους τεθεικέναι ἑαυτοῖς, ἀλλ' ἑκάστου ἄρχοντος πλεονάζειν τὸ θέλημα ἐν τῇ ἰδίᾳ χώρᾳ, ὃν νόμον νενομίκασιν οἱ κρατούμενοι.» 6.10.37 «Ἀπεκρίνατο· Οὐκ ἀληθὴς ἡ διάκρισις αὕτη, ὦ Φίλιππε. εἰ γὰρ καὶ διῄρηται ἡ οἰκουμένη εἰς μέρη ἑπτά, ἀλλ' οὖν γε ἐν μιᾷ μερίδι εὑρίσκομεν πολλὰς διαφορὰς νόμων. οὐδὲ γὰρ ἑπτὰ νόμοι εἰσὶ κατὰ τοὺς ἑπτὰ ἀστέρας οὐδὲ δώδεκα κατὰ τὰ ζῴδια οὐδὲ τριάκοντα ἓξ κατὰ