Book VI.

1. Having shown briefly how impious and infamous are the opinions which you have formed about your gods, we have now to1321    The ms. and edd. read cred-i-musne—“do we believe,” for which Meursius suggests -e- as above.    Lit., “it remains that we.” speak of their temples, their images also, and sacrifices, and of the other things which are1322    Lit., “or whether.” Below the ms. reads corruptly ad ipsum—“to him.”    Lit., “series which is,” etc. united and closely related to them. For you are here in the habit of fastening upon us a very serious charge of impiety because we do not rear temples for the ceremonies of worship, do not set up statues and images1323    The ms. reads scire, but “knows” would hardly suit the context. Instead of adopting any conjecture, however, it is sufficient to observe, with Oehler, that scire is elsewhere used as a contraction for sciscere.    Singular. [But costly churches were built about this time.] of any god, do not build altars,1324    The ms. omits ut.    Non altaria, non aras, i.e., neither to the superior nor inferior deities. Cf. Virgil, Ecl., v. 66. do not offer the blood of creatures slain in sacrifices, incense,1325    So Cujacius, inserting vi, omitted by the ms.    [It is not with any aversion to incense that I note its absence, so frequently attested, from primitive rites of the Church.] nor sacrificial meal, and finally, do not bring wine flowing in libations from sacred bowls; which, indeed, we neglect to build and do, not as though we cherish impious and wicked dispositions, or have conceived any madly desperate feeling of contempt for the gods, but because we think and believe that they1326    The earlier edd. prefix d to the ms. eos—“that the gods,” etc.—if only they are true gods, and are called by this exalted name1327    Lit., “endowed with the eminence of this name.”—either scorn such honours, if they give way to scorn, or endure them with anger, if they are roused by feelings of rage.

I. Nunc quoniam summatim ostendimus, quam impias de diis vestris opinionum constitueritis infamias; sequitur ut de templis, de simulacris etiam, sacrificiisque dicamus: deque alia serie, quae his rebus annexa est, et vicina copulatione conjuncta. In hac enim consuescitis parte crimen nobis maximum impietatis affingere; quod neque aedes sacras venerationis ad officia construamus, non deorum alicujus simulacrum constituamus, aut formam: non altaria fabricemus, non aras, non caesorum sanguinem animantium demus, non thura neque fruges salsas, non 1162C denique vinum liquens paterarum effusionibus inferamus; quae quidem nos cessamus non ideo vel exaedificare, vel facere, tamquam impias geramus ac scelerosas mentes, aut aliquem sumpserimus temeraria in deos desperatione contemptum; sed quod eos arbitramur, et credimus, si modo dii certi sunt, et nominis hujus eminentia praediti, honorum haec genera aut risui habere, si rideant, aut indigne perpeti, si motibus exasperentur irarum.