Chapter 22.—The Durations and Issues of War Depend on the Will of God.

Thus also the durations of wars are determined by Him as He may see meet, according to His righteous will, and pleasure, and mercy, to afflict or to console the human race, so that they are sometimes of longer, sometimes of shorter duration.  The war of the Pirates and the third Punic war were terminated with incredible celerity.  Also the war of the fugitive gladiators, though in it many Roman generals and the consuls were defeated, and Italy was terribly wasted and ravaged, was nevertheless ended in the third year, having itself been, during its continuance, the end of much.  The Picentes, the Marsi, and the Peligni, not distant but Italian nations, after a long and most loyal servitude under the Roman yoke, attempted to raise their heads into liberty, though many nations had now been subjected to the Roman power, and Carthage had been overthrown.  In this Italian war the Romans were very often defeated, and two consuls perished, besides other noble senators; nevertheless this calamity was not protracted over a long space of time, for the fifth year put an end to it.  But the second Punic war, lasting for the space of eighteen years, and occasioning the greatest disasters and calamities to the republic, wore out and well-nigh consumed the strength of the Romans; for in two battles about seventy thousand Romans fell.199    Of the Thrasymene Lake and Cannæ.  The first Punic war was terminated after having been waged for three-and-twenty years.  The Mithridatic war was waged for forty years.  And that no one may think that in the early and much belauded times of the Romans they were far braver and more able to bring wars to a speedy termination, the Samnite war was protracted for nearly fifty years; and in this war the Romans were so beaten that they were even put under the yoke.  But because they did not love glory for the sake of justice, but seemed rather to have loved justice for the sake of glory, they broke the peace and the treaty which had been concluded.  These things I mention, because many, ignorant of past things, and some also dissimulating what they know, if in Christian times they see any war protracted a little longer than they expected, straightway make a fierce and insolent attack on our religion, exclaiming that, but for it, the deities would have been supplicated still, according to ancient rites; and then, by that bravery of the Romans, which, with the help of Mars and Bellona, speedily brought to an end such great wars, this war also would be speedily terminated.  Let them, therefore, who have read history recollect what long-continued wars, having various issues and entailing woeful slaughter, were waged by the ancient Romans, in accordance with the general truth that the earth, like the tempestuous deep, is subject to agitations from tempests—tempests of such evils, in various degrees,—and let them sometimes confess what they do not like to own, and not, by madly speaking against God, destroy themselves and deceive the ignorant.

CAPUT XXII. Tempora exitusque bellorum ex Dei pendere judicio.

Sic etiam tempora ipsa bellorum, sicut in ejus arbitrio est justoque judicio et misericordia, vel atterere, vel consolari genus humanum, ut alia citius, alia tardius finiantur. Bellum Piratarum a Pompeio , bellum Punicum tertium a Scipione incredibili celeritate et temporis brevitate confecta sunt. Bellum quoque fugitivorum gladiatorum, quamvis multis Romanis ducibus et duobus consulibus victis, Italiaque horribiliter contrita atque vastata, tertio tamen anno post multa consumpta consumptum est . Picentes, Marsi et Peligni, gentes non exterae, sed Italicae, post diuturnam et devotissimam sub Romano jugo servitutem, in libertatem caput erigere tentaverunt, jam multis nationibus Romano imperio subjugatis, deletaque Carthagine : in quo bello Italico Romanis saepissime victis, ubi et duo consules perierunt, et alii nobilissimi senatores: non diuturno tamen 0169 tempore tractum est hoc malum; nam quintus ei annus finem dedit. Sed bellum Punicum secundum cum maximis detrimentis et calamitate reipublicae per annos decem et octo Romanas vires extenuavit, et pene consumpsit: duobus praeliis ferme septuaginta Romanorum millia ceciderunt. Bellum Punicum primum per viginti et tres annos peractum est: bellum Mithridaticum quadraginta annis . Ac ne quisquam arbitretur rudimenta Romanorum fuisse fortiora ad bella citius peragenda, superioribus temporibus, multum in omni virtute laudatis, bellum Samniticum annis tractum est ferme quinquaginta : in quo bello ita Romani victi sunt, ut sub jugum etiam mitterentur. Sed quia non diligebant gloriam propter justitiam, sed justitiam propter gloriam diligere videbantur, pacem factam foedusque ruperunt . Haec ideo commemoro, quoniam multi praeteritarum rerum ignari, quidam etiam dissimulatores suae scientiae, si temporibus christianis aliquod bellum paulo diutius trahi vident, illico in nostram religionem protervissime insiliunt, exclamantes, quod, si ipsa non esset, et vetere ritu numina colerentur, jam Romana illa virtute, quae adjuvante Marte et Bellona tanta celeriter bella confecit, id quoque celerrime finiretur. Recolant igitur qui legerunt quam diuturna bella, quam variis eventis , quam luctuosis cladibus a veteribus sint gesta Romanis, sicut solet orbis terrarum velut procellosissimum pelagus varia talium malorum tempestate jactari: et, quod nolunt, aliquando fateantur, nec insanis adversus Deum linguis se interimant, et decipiant imperitos.