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Book I
Chapter VI
Now let us pass
to divine testimonies; but I will previously bring forward one which
resembles a divine testimony, both on account of its very great
antiquity, and because he whom I shall name was taken from men and
placed among the gods. According to Cicero, Caius Cotta the pontiff,
while disputing against the Stoics concerning superstitions, and the
variety of opinions which prevail respecting the gods, in order that he
might, after the custom of the Academics, make everything uncertain,
says that there were five Mercuries; and having enumerated four in
order, says that the fifth was he by whom Argus was slain, and that on
this account he fled into Egypt, and gave laws and letters to the
Egyptians. The Egyptians call him Thoth; and from him the first month
of their year, that is, September, received its name among them. He
also built a town, which is even now called in Greek Hermopolis (the
town of Mercury), and the inhabitants of Phenae honour him with
religious worship. And although he was a man, yet he was of great
antiquity, and most fully imbued with every kind of learning, so that
the knowledge of many subjects and arts acquired for him the name of
Trismegistus. He wrote books, and those in great numbers, relating to
the knowledge of divine things, in which be asserts the majesty of the
supreme and only God, and makes mention of Him by the same names which
we use-God and Father. And that no one might inquire His name, he said
that He was without name, and that on account of His very unity He does
not require the peculiarity of a name. These are his own words: "God is
one, but He who is one only does not need a name; for He who is
self-existent is without a name." God, therefore, has no name, because
He is alone; nor is there any need of a proper name, except in cases
where a multitude of persons requires a distinguishing mark, so that
you may designate each person by his own mark and appellation. But God,
because He is always one, has no peculiar name.
It remains for me to bring forward testimonies respecting the sacred
responses and predictions, which are much more to be relied upon. For
perhaps they against whom we are arguing may think that no credence is
to be given to poets, as though they invented fictions, nor to
philosophers, inasmuch as they were liable to err, being themselves but
men. Marcus Varro, than whom no man of greater learning ever lived,
even among the Greeks, much less among the Latins, in those books
respecting divine subjects which he addressed to Caius Caesar the chief
pontiff, when he was speaking of the Quindecemviri, says that the
Sibylline books were not the production of one Sibyl only, but that
they were called by one name Sibylline, because all prophetesses were
called by the ancients Sibyls, either from the name of one, the
Delphian priestess, or from their proclaiming the counsels of the gods.
For in the Aeolic dialect they used to call the gods by the word Sioi,
not Theoi; and for counsel they used the word bule, not boule; and so
the Sibyl received her name as though Siobule. But he says that the
Sibyls were ten in number, and he enumerated them all under the
writers, who wrote an account of each: that the first was from the
Persians, and of her Nicanor made mention, who wrote the exploits of
Alexander of Macedon; the second of Libya, and of her Euripides makes
mention in the prologue of the Lamia; the third of Delphi, concerning
whom Chrysippus speaks in that book which he composed concerning
divination;-the fourth a Cimmerian in Italy, whom Naevius mentions in
his books of the Punic war, and Piso in his annals;-the fifth of
Erythraea, whom Apollodorus of Erythraea affirms to have been his own
country-woman, and that she foretold to the Greeks when they were
setting but for Ilium, both that Troy was doomed to destruction, and
that Homer would write falsehoods;-the sixth of Samos, respecting whom
Eratosthenes writes that he had found a written notice in the ancient
annals of the Samians. The seventh was of Cumae, by name Amalthaea, who
is termed by some Herophile, or Demophile and they say that she brought
nine books to the king Tarquinius Priscus, and asked for them three
hundred philippics, and that the king refused so great a price, and
derided the madness of the woman; that she, in the sight of the king,
burnt three of the books, and demanded the same price for those which
were left; that Tarquinias much more considered the woman to be mad;
and that when she again, having burnt three other books, persisted in
asking the same price, the king was moved, and bought the remaining
books for the three hundred pieces of gold: and the number of these
books was afterwards increased, after the rebuilding of the Capitol;
because they were collected from all cities of Italy and Greece, and
especially from those of Erythraea, and were brought to Rome, under the
name of whatever Sibyl they were. Further, that the eighth was from the
Hellespont, born in the Trojan territory, in the village of Marpessus,
about the town of Gergithus; and Heraclides of Pontus writes that she
lived in the times of Solon and Cyrus; the ninth of Phrygia, who gave
oracles at Ancyra;-the tenth of Tibur, by name Albunea, who is
worshipped at Tibur as a goddess, near the banks of the river Anio, in
the depths of which her statue is said to have been found, holding in
her hand a book. The senate transferred her oracles into the Capitol.
The predictions of all these Sibyls are both brought forward and
esteemed as such, except those of the Cumaean Sibyl, whose books are
concealed by the Romans; nor do they consider it lawful for them to be
inspected by any one but the Quindecemviri. And them are separate books
the production of each, but because these are inscribed with the name
of the Sibyl they are believed to be the work of one; and they are
confused, nor can the productions of each be distinguished and assigned
to their own authors, except in the case of the Erythraean Sibyl, for
she both inserted her own true name in her verse, and predicted that
she would be called Erythraean, though she was born at Babylon. But we
also shall speak of the Sibyl without any distinction, wherever we
shall have occasion to use their testimonies.
All these Sibyls, then, proclaim one God, and especially the
Erythraean, who is regarded among the others as more celebrated and
noble; since Fenestella, a most diligent writer, speaking of the
Quindecemviri, says that, after the rebuilding of the Capitol, Caius
Curio the consul proposed to the senate that ambassadors should be sent
to Erythrae to search out and bring to Rome the writings of the Sibyl;
and that, accordingly, Publius Gabinius, Marcus Otacilius, and Lucius
Valerius were sent, who conveyed to Rome about a thousand verses
written out by private persons. We have shown before that Varro made
the same statement. Now in these verses which the ambassadors brought
to Rome, are these testimonies respecting the one God:
1. "One God, who is alone, most mighty, uncreated."This is the only
supreme God, who made the heaven, and decked it with lights.
2. "But there is one only God of pre-eminent power, who made the
heaven, and sun, and stars, and moon, and fruitful earth, and waves of
the water of the sea."And since He alone is the framer of the universe,
and the artificer of all things of which it consists or which are
contained in it, it testifies that He alone ought to be worshipped:-
3. "Worship Him who is alone the ruler of the world, who alone was and
is from age to age."Also another Sibyl, whoever she is, when she said
that she conveyed the voice of God to men, thus spoke:-
4. "I am the one only God, and there is no other God."
I would now follow up the testimonies of the others, were it not that
these are sufficient, and that I reserve others for more befitting
opportunities. But since we are defending the cause of truth before
those who err from the truth and serve false religions, what kind of
proof ought we to bring forward against them, rather than to refute
them by the testimonies of their own gods?
Book IV
Chapter VI
God, therefore,
the contriver and founder of all things, as we have said in the second
hook, before He commenced this excellent work of the world, begat a
pure and incorruptible Spirit, whom He called His Son. And although He
had afterwards created by Himself innumerable other beings, whom we
call angels, this first-begotten, however, was the only one whom He
considered worthy of being called by the divine name, as being powerful
in His Father's excellence and majesty. But that there is a Son of the
Most High God, who is possessed of the greatest power, is shown not
only by the unanimous utterances of the prophets, but also by the
declaration of Trismegistus and the predictions of the Sibyls.
Hermes, in the book which is entitled The Perfect Word, made use of
these words: "The Lord and Creator of all things, whom we have thought
right to call God, since He made the second God visible and sensible.
But I use the term sensible, not because He Himself perceives (for the
question is not whether He Himself perceives), but because He leads to
perception and to intelligence. Since, therefore, He made Him first,
and alone, and one only, He appeared to Him beautiful, and most full of
all good things; and He hallowed Him, and altogether loved Him as His
own Son." The Erythraean Sibyl, in the beginning of her poem, which she
commenced with the Supreme God, proclaims the Son of God as the leader
and commander of all, in these verses:
The nourisher
and creator of all things, who placed the sweet breath in all, and made
God the leader of all.
And again, at
the end of the same poem:
But whom God
gave for faithful men to honour.
And another
Sibyl enjoins that He ought to be known:
Know Him as your
God, who is the Son of God.
Assuredly He is
the very Son of God, who by that most wise King Solomon, full of divine
inspiration, spake these things which we have added: "God founded me in
the beginning of His ways, in His work before the ages. He set me up in
the beginning, before He made the earth, and before He established the
depths, before the fountains of waters came forth: the Lord begat me
before all the hills; He made the regions, and the uninhabitable
boundaries under the heaven. When He prepared the heaven, I was by Him:
and when He separated His own seat, when He made the strong clouds
above the winds, and when He strengthened the mountains, and placed
them under heaven; when He laid the strong foundations of the earth, I
was with Him arranging all things. I was He in whom He delighted: I was
daily delighted, when He rejoiced, the world being completed." But on
this account Trismegistus spoke of Him as "the artificer of God," and
the Sibyl calls Him "Counsellor," because He is endowed by God the
Father with such wisdom and strength, that God employed both His wisdom
and hands in the creation of the world.
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