Against Symmachus 1.1–2.541 (Against Symmachus)

Prudentius

Against Symmachus 1.1–2.541

Prudentius · Against Symmachus · ca. 402-403 · place unknown · 22 passages

Latin text: Lanfranchi, Opera (Turin 1898) (Latin text: Lanfranchi, Turin 1898 (public domain), via the Internet Archive OCR).English: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), public domain (CC0).

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Chapter 1

1.1Lanfranchi 2:lines 1–30

Paulus, praeco Dei, qui fera gentium Primus corda sacro perdomuit stilo, Christum per populos, ritibus asperis Immanes, placido dogmate seminans, Immansueta suas ut caerimonias Gens pagana Deo sperneret agnito; Actus turbinibus forte nigerrimis Hibernum pelagus iam rate debili, Et vim navifragi pertulerat Noti. Sed cum caerulei proelia gurgitis Iussisset Domini dextra quiescere, Ad portum fluitans cumba relabitur, Exponitque solo litoris uvidi Contactos pluvio frigore remiges. Tunc de litorei saepibus algidi Arentum propere bracchia palmitum Convectant, rapidos unde focos struant: Fascem quisque suum congerit ignibus, Exspectans calidi luxuriam rogi. Paulus, dum fragiles cogere surculos Et densere foci congeriem studet, Incautam cumulis inseruit manum, Torpebat glacie pigra ubi vipera, Sarmentis laqueos corporis implicans: Quae postquam intepuit fomite fumeo, Laxavitque ferox colla rigentia, Iam flecti facilis, rettulit ad manum Vibrato capite spicula dentium. Haerentem digiti vulnere mordicus Pendentemque gerens Paulus inhorruit.

Paul, the herald of God, who first tamed the savage hearts of the nations with his sacred pen, sowing Christ with gentle teaching among peoples monstrous in their harsh rites, so that the pagan race might scorn its untamed ceremonies once it knew God, had chanced, driven by the blackest whirlwinds, to endure in a weak ship the wintry sea and the force of the ship-wrecking south wind. But when the right hand of the Lord had commanded the battles of the blue gulf to be still, the boat, drifting, glides back into port and sets the rowers, struck by the rainy cold, on the ground of the wet shore. Then from the hedges of the cold shore they quickly gather arms of dry vine branches, from which to build quick fires: each heaps his bundle on the flames, waiting for the luxury of a warm blaze. Paul, while he is busy gathering brittle twigs and thickening the heap of the fire, put his unwary hand into the piles, where a viper was numb with sluggish cold, entangling the coils of its body in the brushwood. When it had grown warm from the smoky kindling and, fierce, had loosened its stiff neck, now easy to bend, it brought the darts of its teeth to his hand with a darting head. Carrying it hanging and clinging by its bite in the wound of his finger, Paul shuddered.

Acts 27:14 (allusion, high confidence) · Acts 28:2 (allusion, high confidence) · Acts 28:3 (allusion, high confidence)

Notes and citation

Summary: The preface to Book 1 retells how Paul, shipwrecked on Malta, was bitten by a viper hiding in the brushwood he gathered for the fire.

Preface (lyric) to Book 1 of Against Symmachus. Acts 27:14–44; 28:1–3. A footnote mark was removed.

Notes on the original text

Digital text corrected (OCR text badly garbled: clear slips corrected throughout; stray line numbers, note marks, footnote and apparatus lines removed (readings restored by sense are named in the notes)): Paulus, praeco Dei, qui fera gentium Primus corda sacro perJomuit stilo, Cliristum per populos, ritibus asperis Immanes, _placiclo dogmate seminans, Immansueta suas ut caerimonias Gens pagana Deo sperneret agnito ; Actus turbinibus forte nigerrimis Hibernum pelagus iam rate debili, Et vim navifragi pertulerat Xoti. Sed quum caerulei proelia gurgitis lussisset Domini dextra quiescere, Ad portum fluitans cumba(l) relabitur, Exponitque solo litoris uvidi Contactos pluvio frigore remiges. Tunc de litorei saepibus algidi Arentum propere brachia palmitura Convectant, rapidos unde focos struant: Fascem quisque suum congerit ignibus, Exspectans calidi luxuriam rogi. Paulus, dum fragiles cogere surculos Et densere foci congeriem studet, Incautam cumulis inseruit manum ; Torpebat glacie pigra ubi vipera, Sarmentis laqueos corporis implicans: Quae postquam intepuit fomite fumeo, Laxavitque ferox colla rigentia, lam flecti facilis, retulit ad manum Vibrato capite spicula dentium. Haerentem digiti vulnere mordicus Pendentemque gerens Paulus inhorruit. → Paulus, praeco Dei, qui fera gentium Primus corda sacro perdomuit stilo, Christum per populos, ritibus asperis Immanes, placido dogmate seminans, Immansueta suas ut caerimonias Gens pagana Deo sperneret agnito; Actus turbinibus forte nigerrimis Hibernum pelagus iam rate debili, Et vim navifragi pertulerat Noti. Sed cum caerulei proelia gurgitis Iussisset Domini dextra quiescere, Ad portum fluitans cumba relabitur, Exponitque solo litoris uvidi Contactos pluvio frigore remiges. Tunc de litorei saepibus algidi Arentum propere bracchia palmitum Convectant, rapidos unde focos struant: Fascem quisque suum congerit ignibus, Exspectans calidi luxuriam rogi. Paulus, dum fragiles cogere surculos Et densere foci congeriem studet, Incautam cumulis inseruit manum, Torpebat glacie pigra ubi vipera, Sarmentis laqueos corporis implicans: Quae postquam intepuit fomite fumeo, Laxavitque ferox colla rigentia, Iam flecti facilis, rettulit ad manum Vibrato capite spicula dentium. Haerentem digiti vulnere mordicus Pendentemque gerens Paulus inhorruit..

Cite (SBL): Prudentius, C. Symm. 1.1 (Lanfranchi 2:lines 1–30; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/prudentius-contra-symmachum/1-1). (abbreviation not yet checked)

Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/prudentius-contra-symmachum/1-1

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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin of Lanfranchi's edition (Turin, 1898; OCR, corrections logged); checked afterwards privately against FOTC 52.

1.31Lanfranchi 2:lines 31–60

Exclamant alii, quod cute livida Virus mortiferum serpere crederent. At non intrepidum terret Apostolum Tristis iam subiti forma periculi: Attollens oculos, sidera suspicit, Christum sub tacito pectore murmurans, Excussumque procul decutit aspidem. Abiectus coluber verberat aera, Atque oris patuli solvit acumina. Mox omnis sanies deserit et dolor, Ceu nullo laceram vulnere, dexteram: Siccatusque perit vipereus liquor. Hydrum praecipitem dum rotat impetus, Arsurum mediis intulit ignibus. Sic nunc post hiemem, vimque trucis freti, Quo iactata ratis tunc sapientiae est, Cum sub sacricolis territa regibus Vix panso poterat currere carbaso, Adflictosque suos turbine saeculi Vectarat, rabidis fluctibus innatans, Morsum vulnificum lex pia pertulit. Occultabat enim se prius abditum Virus, nec gravidum protulerat caput, Contentum involucris atque cubilibus Subter comprimere clausa silentia. Sed, dum forte latens impietas riget, Dextram iustitiae pigra momorderat, Succensi stomacho fellis inaestuans. Heu, quam catholicam nil prope profuit Puppim nasse sacri remigio stili,

Others cry out, because they believed that the deadly poison was creeping under the livid skin. But the grim form of sudden danger does not frighten the fearless Apostle: raising his eyes, he looks up to the stars, murmuring Christ in his silent breast, and shakes the asp off, flinging it far away. The snake, thrown off, beats the air and loosens the points of its gaping mouth. Soon all the venom and pain leave his right hand, as though it were torn by no wound, and the viper’s fluid dries and perishes. While its momentum whirls the snake headlong, it carried it into the middle of the fire to burn. So now, after the winter and the force of the fierce strait, in which the ship of wisdom was tossed then, when, terrified under kings who were idol-worshippers, it could scarcely run with its sail spread, and had carried its own, afflicted by the whirlwind of the world, swimming on the raging waves, the holy law has suffered a wounding bite. For the poison had previously hidden itself away, and had not put forth its swollen head, content to keep its silence shut up below in its coverings and lairs. But while impiety, lurking, chanced to be numb, sluggish, it had bitten the right hand of justice, seething with the gall of its inflamed temper. Alas, how nearly it profited nothing that the Catholic ship had sailed on with the oars of the sacred pen

Acts 28:5 (allusion, high confidence) · Acts 28:4 (allusion, high confidence) · Mark 16:18 (echo, low confidence)

Notes and citation

Summary: Paul shook the viper into the fire unharmed; so now the Church, after the storms of persecution under pagan emperors, has been bitten by a hidden viper of paganism.

Acts 28:4–6; Mark 16:18. The ship of wisdom is the Church; the viper is the revived pagan cause (the speech of Symmachus). Line 45 is read “vimque” (scan “viraque”).

Notes on the original text

Digital text corrected (OCR text badly garbled: clear slips corrected throughout; stray line numbers, note marks, footnote and apparatus lines removed (readings restored by sense are named in the notes)): Exlamant alii, quod cute livida Virus mortiferum serpere crederent. At non intrepidum terret Apostolum Tristis iam subiti forma periculi : Attollens oculos, sidera suspicit, Christum sub tacito pectore murmurans. Ecussumque procul decutit aspidem. Abiectus coluber verberat aera, Atque oris patuli solvit acumina. Mox omnis sanies deserit et dolor, Ceu nullo laceram vulnere, dexteram: Siccatusque perit vipereus liquor. Hydrum praecipitem dum rotat impetus, Arsurum mediis intulit ignibus. Sic nunc post hiemem, viraque trucis freti, Quo iactata ratis tunc sapientiae est, Quuni sub sacricolis territa regibus Vix panso poterat currere carbaso, Adflictosque suos turbine saeculi Vectarat, rabidis fluctibus innatans, Morsum vulnificum lex pia pertulit. Occultabat enim se prius abditum Virus, nec gravidum protulerat caput, Contentum involucris atque cubilibus Subter comprimere clausa silentia. Sed, dum forte latens impietas riget, Dextram iustitiae pigra momorderat Succensi stomacho fellis inaestuans. Heu, quam catholicam nil prope profuit Puppim nasse sacri remigio stili, → Exclamant alii, quod cute livida Virus mortiferum serpere crederent. At non intrepidum terret Apostolum Tristis iam subiti forma periculi: Attollens oculos, sidera suspicit, Christum sub tacito pectore murmurans, Excussumque procul decutit aspidem. Abiectus coluber verberat aera, Atque oris patuli solvit acumina. Mox omnis sanies deserit et dolor, Ceu nullo laceram vulnere, dexteram: Siccatusque perit vipereus liquor. Hydrum praecipitem dum rotat impetus, Arsurum mediis intulit ignibus. Sic nunc post hiemem, vimque trucis freti, Quo iactata ratis tunc sapientiae est, Cum sub sacricolis territa regibus Vix panso poterat currere carbaso, Adflictosque suos turbine saeculi Vectarat, rabidis fluctibus innatans, Morsum vulnificum lex pia pertulit. Occultabat enim se prius abditum Virus, nec gravidum protulerat caput, Contentum involucris atque cubilibus Subter comprimere clausa silentia. Sed, dum forte latens impietas riget, Dextram iustitiae pigra momorderat, Succensi stomacho fellis inaestuans. Heu, quam catholicam nil prope profuit Puppim nasse sacri remigio stili,.

Topics: Persecution

Cite (SBL): Prudentius, C. Symm. 1.31 (Lanfranchi 2:lines 31–60; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/prudentius-contra-symmachum/1-31). (abbreviation not yet checked)

Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/prudentius-contra-symmachum/1-31

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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin of Lanfranchi's edition (Turin, 1898; OCR, corrections logged); checked afterwards privately against FOTC 52.

1.61Lanfranchi 2:lines 61–89

Quem Paulus variis gentibus edidit! Vix portu placido tuta quieverat Victrix, edomitis mille furoribus: Vix adstricta suis iam retinaculis Vectores stabili condiderat solo, Erumpit subito triste periculum. Nam, dum praecalidos igniculos sibi Solvendis adolent et senio et gelu, Dum virgas steriles, atque superfluas Flammis de fidei palmite concremant, Ne concreta vagis vinea crinibus Silvosi inluviem gigneret idoli, Palpavit nimius perniciem tepor; Seps insueta subit serpere flexibus, Et vibrare sagax eloquii caput: Sed dextra impatiens vulneris, inritos Oris rhetorici depulit halitus: Effusum ingenii virus inaniter Summa Christicolis in cute substitit. Salvator generis Romulei, precor, Qui cunctis veniam das pereuntibus, Qui nullum statuis non operis tui Mortalem, facili quem releves manu: Huius, si potis est, iam miserescito, Praeruptam in foveam praecipitis viri. Spirat sacrilegis flatibus inscius, Erroresque suos indocilis fovet. Obtestor, iubeas, ne citus impetus Arsurum mediis inferat ignibus.

which Paul gave to the various nations! Scarcely had she rested safe and victorious in a calm harbor, a thousand furies tamed; scarcely, now bound by her moorings, had she set her passengers on firm ground, when a grim danger suddenly bursts out. For while they kindle hot little fires for themselves, to loosen both age and cold, while they burn barren and superfluous rods from the vine of the faith in the flames, lest the vine, thick with straggling tendrils, should produce the filth of an overgrown idol, too much warmth has stroked destruction into life: a snake, unaccustomed, ventures to creep in its coils and to dart the shrewd head of eloquence. But the right hand, impatient of a wound, drove off the vain breath of the rhetorical mouth: the poison of talent, poured out in vain, stopped at the surface of the skin of Christians. Savior of the race of Romulus, I pray, you who give pardon to all who perish, who count no mortal as not your work, whom you may raise up with an easy hand: have mercy now, if it is possible, on this man who is falling headlong into a steep pit. He breathes sacrilegious breaths without knowing it, and, unteachable, cherishes his errors. I implore you, command that no swift impulse carry him into the middle of the fire to burn.

1 Tim 2:4 (echo, low confidence) · John 15:2 (echo, low confidence)

Notes and citation

Summary: Just as the Church came to rest in peace, the eloquent Symmachus, like the viper, struck at it, but his venom did not penetrate; the poet prays Christ to have mercy on him and not let him perish in the fire.

The eloquent snake is Symmachus and his plea for the altar of Victory (384). Line 72 (“gigneret”, scan “iioneret”) is uncertain and translated by sense. A footnote mark was removed. 1 Tim 2:4.

Notes on the original text

Digital text corrected (OCR text badly garbled: clear slips corrected throughout; stray line numbers, note marks, footnote and apparatus lines removed (readings restored by sense are named in the notes)): Quem Paulus variis gentibus edidit ! Vix portu placido tuta quieverat Victrix, edomitis mille faroribus: Vix adstricta suis iam retinaculis Vectores stabili condiderat solo, Erumpit subito triste loericulum. Nam, dum praecalidos igniculos sibi Soivendis ado]ent(l) et senio et gelu, Dam virgas steriles, atque superfluas Flammis de fidei palmite concremant, lUt concreta vagis vinea crinibus Isilvosi inluviem iioneret idoli, Palpavit nimius perniciem tepor; Seps insueta subit, serpere floxibus, Et vibrare sagax eJoquii caput: Sed dextra impatiens vulneris, inritos Oris rhetorici depulit lialitus : Effusum ingenii virus inaniter Summa Christicolis in cute substitit. Salvator generis Romulei, precor, Qui cunctis veniam das pereuntibus, Qui nullum statuis non operis tui Mortalem, facili quem releves manu: Haius, si potis est, iam miserescito, Praeruptam in foveam praecipitis viri. Spirat sacrilegis flatibus inscius, Erroresque suos indociiis fovet. Obtestor, iubeas, ne citus impetus Arsurum mediis inferat isrnibus. → Quem Paulus variis gentibus edidit! Vix portu placido tuta quieverat Victrix, edomitis mille furoribus: Vix adstricta suis iam retinaculis Vectores stabili condiderat solo, Erumpit subito triste periculum. Nam, dum praecalidos igniculos sibi Solvendis adolent et senio et gelu, Dum virgas steriles, atque superfluas Flammis de fidei palmite concremant, Ne concreta vagis vinea crinibus Silvosi inluviem gigneret idoli, Palpavit nimius perniciem tepor; Seps insueta subit serpere flexibus, Et vibrare sagax eloquii caput: Sed dextra impatiens vulneris, inritos Oris rhetorici depulit halitus: Effusum ingenii virus inaniter Summa Christicolis in cute substitit. Salvator generis Romulei, precor, Qui cunctis veniam das pereuntibus, Qui nullum statuis non operis tui Mortalem, facili quem releves manu: Huius, si potis est, iam miserescito, Praeruptam in foveam praecipitis viri. Spirat sacrilegis flatibus inscius, Erroresque suos indocilis fovet. Obtestor, iubeas, ne citus impetus Arsurum mediis inferat ignibus..

Topics: Prayer

Cite (SBL): Prudentius, C. Symm. 1.61 (Lanfranchi 2:lines 61–89; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/prudentius-contra-symmachum/1-61). (abbreviation not yet checked)

Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/prudentius-contra-symmachum/1-61

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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin of Lanfranchi's edition (Turin, 1898; OCR, corrections logged); checked afterwards privately against FOTC 52.

Chapter 2

2.1Lanfranchi 2:lines 1–30

Credebam vitiis aegram gentilibus urbem Nec quidquam restare mali, postquam medicina Principis immodicos sedarat in arce dolores. Sed, quoniam renovata lues turbare salutem Temptat Romulidum, Patris imploranda medela est, Ne sinat antiquo Romam squalere veterno, Neve togas procerum fumoque et sanguine tingui. Inclitus ergo parens patriae, moderator et orbis, Nil egit prohibendo, vagas ne pristinus error Crederet esse Deum nigrante sub aere formas? Aut elementorum naturam, quae Patris ars est Omnigeni, summa pro maiestate sacraret? Vir solus, cui cura fuit, ne publica morum Plaga cicatricem summa leviter cute clausam Duceret, et latebram tabentis vulneris alte Impressam, penitusque putri de pure peresam, Sed studuit, quo pars hominis generosior intus Viveret, atque animam letali peste piatam Nosset ab interno tutam servare veneno. Illa tyrannorum fuerat medicina, videre, Qui status ante oculos praesentibus ac perituris Competeret rebus, nec curam adhibere futuris. Heu, male de populo meriti, male patribus ipsis Blanditi! quos praecipites in Tartara mergi Cum Iove siverunt, multa et cum plebe deorum: Ast hic imperium protendit latius aevo Posteriore, suis cupiens sancire salutem. Nimirum pulchre quidam doctissimus: « Esset Publica res, inquit, tunc fortunata satis, si Vel reges saperent, vel regnarent sapientes. »

I believed that the city, sick with pagan vices, … and that no evil remained, after the medicine of the emperor had calmed the immoderate pains in the citadel. But since a renewed plague tries to disturb the health of the sons of Romulus, the Father’s healing must be implored, so that he may not let Rome lie foul in her old lethargy, nor let the togas of the nobles be stained with smoke and blood. Did, then, the renowned father of his country, the ruler of the world, achieve nothing by forbidding the old error to believe that shapes wandering in the dark air were gods, or to consecrate as the supreme majesty the nature of the elements, which are the craft of the Father of all? He was the only man who took care that the public wound of morals should not draw a scar lightly closed on the surface of the skin, [leaving] a hiding place of a wasting wound, deeply pressed in and eaten through with rotten pus, but strove that the nobler part of man might live within, and that the soul, cleansed of the deadly plague, might know how to keep itself safe from inner poison. The medicine of the tyrants had been to see what state before their eyes suited present and perishing things, and to give no thought to the future. Alas, they served the people ill, and flattered the fathers themselves ill, letting them sink headlong into Tartarus with Jupiter and with the great crowd of the gods; but this one extends his empire more widely into a later age, desiring to secure salvation for his own. No doubt a certain very learned man said finely: “The state,” he says, “would be fortunate enough if either kings were wise, or the wise were kings.”

Textual problem in this passage: see the notes.

Notes and citation

Summary: The poet had thought Rome cured of paganism by Theodosius, who had forbidden the worship of idols and cared for souls, not only for outward order, unlike the pagan emperors; Plato’s saying about philosopher-kings is fulfilled in him.

Book 1 of Against Symmachus. “The emperor” and “the father of his country” is Theodosius I. A line is missing in the scan after line 1 (the city had “taken enough antidote with Christ as healer”); marked “…”. A line also seems lost after line 16 (the sentence lacks its verb); the bracketed word is supplied by sense. The saying is Plato’s (Resp. 473c–d), probably via Boethius’s and Cicero’s Latin tradition.

Notes on the original text

Digital text corrected (OCR text badly garbled: clear slips corrected throughout; stray line numbers, note marks, footnote and apparatus lines removed (readings restored by sense are named in the notes)): Credebam vitiis aegram gentilibus urbem Nec quidquam restare mali, postquam medicina Principis immodicos sedarat in arce dolores. Sed, quoniam renovata lues turbare salutem Tentat Romulidum, Patris imploranda medela est, Ne sinat antiquo Romam squalere veterno, Neve togas procerum fumoque et sanguine tingui. Inclitus ergo parens patriae, moderator et orbis, Nil egit proliibendo, vagas ne pristinus error Crederet esse Deum nigrante sub aere formas? Aut elementorum naturam,quae Patris ars est Omnigeni, summa pro maiestate sacraret? Yir solus, cui cura fait, ne publica morum Plaga cicatricem summa leviter cute clausam Duceret, et latebram tabentis vulneris alte Impressam, penitusque putri de pure peresam, Sed studuit, quo pars hominis generosior intus Viveret, atque animam letali peste piatam Nosset ab interno tutam servare veneno. IUa tyrannorum fuerat medicina, videre, Qui status ante oculos praesentibus ac perituris Competeret rebus, nec curam adhibere futuris. Hpu, male de populo meriti, male patribus ipsis Blanditi! quos praecipites in Tartara mergi Cum love siverunt, multa et cum plebe deorum : Ast hic imperium protendit latius aevo Posteriore, suis cupiens saucire salutem. Nimirum pulchre quidam doctissimus, « Esset Publica res, inquit, tunc fortunata satis, si Yel reges saperent, vel regnarent sapientes» → Credebam vitiis aegram gentilibus urbem Nec quidquam restare mali, postquam medicina Principis immodicos sedarat in arce dolores. Sed, quoniam renovata lues turbare salutem Temptat Romulidum, Patris imploranda medela est, Ne sinat antiquo Romam squalere veterno, Neve togas procerum fumoque et sanguine tingui. Inclitus ergo parens patriae, moderator et orbis, Nil egit prohibendo, vagas ne pristinus error Crederet esse Deum nigrante sub aere formas? Aut elementorum naturam, quae Patris ars est Omnigeni, summa pro maiestate sacraret? Vir solus, cui cura fuit, ne publica morum Plaga cicatricem summa leviter cute clausam Duceret, et latebram tabentis vulneris alte Impressam, penitusque putri de pure peresam, Sed studuit, quo pars hominis generosior intus Viveret, atque animam letali peste piatam Nosset ab interno tutam servare veneno. Illa tyrannorum fuerat medicina, videre, Qui status ante oculos praesentibus ac perituris Competeret rebus, nec curam adhibere futuris. Heu, male de populo meriti, male patribus ipsis Blanditi! quos praecipites in Tartara mergi Cum Iove siverunt, multa et cum plebe deorum: Ast hic imperium protendit latius aevo Posteriore, suis cupiens sancire salutem. Nimirum pulchre quidam doctissimus: « Esset Publica res, inquit, tunc fortunata satis, si Vel reges saperent, vel regnarent sapientes. ».

Extrabiblical texts: Plato, Resp. 473d (Plato (works); allusion)

Cite (SBL): Prudentius, C. Symm. 2.1 (Lanfranchi 2:lines 1–30; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/prudentius-contra-symmachum/2-1). (abbreviation not yet checked)

Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/prudentius-contra-symmachum/2-1

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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin of Lanfranchi's edition (Turin, 1898; OCR, corrections logged); checked afterwards privately against FOTC 52.

2.31Lanfranchi 2:lines 31–60

Estne ille e numero paucorum, qui diadema Sortiti, aetheriae coluerunt dogma sophiae? Contigit ecce hominum generi, gentique togatae Dux sapiens: felix nostrae res publica Romae Sceptra gubernanti: monet, ut deterrimus error, Utque superstitio veterum procul absit avorum, Nec putet esse Deum, nisi qui super omnia summus Emineat, magnique immensa creaverit orbis. Num melius Saturnus avos rexisse Latinos Creditur? edictis qui talibus informavit Agrestes animos, et barbara corda virorum: « Sum deus: advenio fugiens; praebete latebras, Occultate senem, nati feritate tyranni Deiectum solio. Placet hic fugitivus et exsul Ut lateam: genti atque loco Latium dabo nomen. Vitibus incurvum, si qua est ea cura, putandis Procudam chalybem, nec non et moenia vestri Fluminis in ripa statuam Saturnia vobis. Vos nemus adpositasque meo sub honore sacrantes, (Sum quianam Caelo genitus) celebrabitis aras. » Inde deos, quorum patriae spectata sepulcra Scimus, in aere hebetes informavere minores: Advena quos profugus gignens, et equina libido Intulit Italiae; Tuscis namque ille puellis Primus adhinnivit simulato numine moechus. Mox patre deterior silvosi habitator Olympi Nunc bove subvectam rapiens ad crimen amatam, Nunc tener ac pluma levior, blandosque susurros In mortem recinens suave immorientis oloris, Capta quibus volucrem virguncula ferret amorem;

Is he not one of the few who, having obtained the diadem, have cultivated the teaching of heavenly wisdom? See, a wise leader has fallen to the lot of the human race and to the toga-wearing nation: happy is the commonwealth of our Rome … [obey] him who governs the sceptre: he warns that the worst error and the superstition of our ancient ancestors be far away, and that no one think anyone God except him who stands out supreme above all and created the immensity of the great world. Is Saturn believed to have ruled the Latin forefathers better? who instructed their rustic minds and the barbarous hearts of men with edicts such as these: “I am a god; I come as a fugitive; give me hiding places, hide an old man cast down from his throne by the savagery of his tyrant son. I am pleased to lie hidden here as a fugitive and exile: I will give the nation and the place the name Latium. For pruning vines, if you have that care, I will forge curved steel, and I will also set up the walls of Saturnia for you on your river’s bank. You will consecrate a grove and celebrate altars set up in my honor (for I am, you see, begotten of Heaven).” From then, later dull generations shaped in bronze gods whose tombs, seen in their own countries, we know; whom that fugitive stranger begot, and whom horse-like lust brought into Italy; for he was the first adulterer to neigh after Tuscan girls under a feigned godhead. Soon, worse than his father, the dweller on wooded Olympus …, now carrying off his beloved on a bull’s back for crime, now tender and lighter than a feather, singing sweet whispers like a swan dying a pleasant death, by which the captured girl might bear the winged lover;

Textual problem in this passage: see the notes.

Notes and citation

Summary: Theodosius is a wise ruler who forbids idolatry and teaches that the one God made the world; Saturn, by contrast, was a fugitive who taught the rustic Latins to worship him, fathered gods by lust, and was followed by the worse Jupiter with his disguised seductions.

A line is missing in the scan before line 35 (“Sceptra gubernanti”) and after line 56; marked “…”, with a bracketed word supplied by sense. The Saturn myth after Virgil, Aen. 8.319–329; the bull (Europa) and swan (Leda) of Jupiter. Polemic against the gods as written.

Notes on the original text

Digital text corrected (OCR text badly garbled: clear slips corrected throughout; stray line numbers, note marks, footnote and apparatus lines removed (readings restored by sense are named in the notes)): Estne ille e numero paucorum, qui diadema Sortiti, aetheriae coluerunt dogma sophiae? Contigit ecco hominum generi, gentique togatae Dux sapiens : felix nostrae respublica Komae Sceptra gubernanti : monet, ut deterriraus error, Utque superstitio veterum procul absit avoruni, Nec putet esse Deuin, nisi qui super omnia summus Emineat, magnique immensa creaverit orbis. Num melius Saturnus avos rexisse Latinos Creditur? edictis qui talibus informavit Agrestes animos, et barbara corda virorum? Sum Deus : advenio fugiens ; praebete latebras, Occultate senem, nati feritate tyranni Deiectum solio. Placet^ bic fugitivus et exsul Ut lateam : genti atque loco Latium dabo nomen. Vitibus incurvum, si qua est ea cura, putandis Procudam chalybem, necnon et moenia vestri Fluminis in ripa statuam Saturnia vobis. Vos nemus adpositasque meo sub honore sacrantes (Sum quianam Caelo genitus) celebrabitis aras. Inde deos, quorum patria spectata sepulcra Scimus in aere hebotes informavere minores : Advena quos profugus gignens, et equina libido Intulit Italiae ; Tuscis namque ille puellis Primus adhinnivit simulato numine moechus. Mox patre deterior silvosi habitator Olympi Nunc bove subvectani rapiens ad crinem amatam, Nunc tenor ac pluma levior, blandosque susurros In morcm recinens suave immorientis oloris ; Capta quibus volucrem virguncula ferret araorem. → Estne ille e numero paucorum, qui diadema Sortiti, aetheriae coluerunt dogma sophiae? Contigit ecce hominum generi, gentique togatae Dux sapiens: felix nostrae res publica Romae Sceptra gubernanti: monet, ut deterrimus error, Utque superstitio veterum procul absit avorum, Nec putet esse Deum, nisi qui super omnia summus Emineat, magnique immensa creaverit orbis. Num melius Saturnus avos rexisse Latinos Creditur? edictis qui talibus informavit Agrestes animos, et barbara corda virorum: « Sum deus: advenio fugiens; praebete latebras, Occultate senem, nati feritate tyranni Deiectum solio. Placet hic fugitivus et exsul Ut lateam: genti atque loco Latium dabo nomen. Vitibus incurvum, si qua est ea cura, putandis Procudam chalybem, nec non et moenia vestri Fluminis in ripa statuam Saturnia vobis. Vos nemus adpositasque meo sub honore sacrantes, (Sum quianam Caelo genitus) celebrabitis aras. » Inde deos, quorum patriae spectata sepulcra Scimus, in aere hebetes informavere minores: Advena quos profugus gignens, et equina libido Intulit Italiae; Tuscis namque ille puellis Primus adhinnivit simulato numine moechus. Mox patre deterior silvosi habitator Olympi Nunc bove subvectam rapiens ad crimen amatam, Nunc tener ac pluma levior, blandosque susurros In mortem recinens suave immorientis oloris, Capta quibus volucrem virguncula ferret amorem;.

Extrabiblical texts: Virgil, Aen. 8.319 (Virgil; allusion)

Cite (SBL): Prudentius, C. Symm. 2.31 (Lanfranchi 2:lines 31–60; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/prudentius-contra-symmachum/2-31). (abbreviation not yet checked)

Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/prudentius-contra-symmachum/2-31

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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin of Lanfranchi's edition (Turin, 1898; OCR, corrections logged); checked afterwards privately against FOTC 52.

2.61Lanfranchi 2:lines 61–90

Nunc foribus surdis, sera quas vel pessulus artis Firmarant cuneis, per tectum dives amator Imbricibus ruptis, undantis desuper auri Infundens pluviam gremio excipientis amicae; Armigero modo sordidulam curante rapinam, Compressu immundo miserum adficiens catamitum, Pellice iam puero magis indignante sorore. Haec causa est et origo mali, quod saecla vetusto Hospite regnante crudus stupor aurea finxit, Quodque novo ingenio versutus Iuppiter, astus Multiplices variosque dolos texebat, ut illum, Vertere cum vellet pellem faciemque, putarent Esse bovem, praedari aquilam, concumbere cycnum, Et nummos fieri, et gremium penetrare puellae. Nam quid rusticitas non crederet indomitorum Stulta virum, pecudes inter ritusque ferinos Dedere sueta animum diae rationis egenum? In quamcumque fidem nebulonis callida traxit Nequitia, infelix facilem gens praebuit aurem. Successit Iovis imperio corruptior aetas, Quae docuit rigidos vitiis servire colonos Expertes furandi homines. Hac imbuit arte Mercurius, Maia genitus: nunc magnus habetur Ille deus, cuius dedit experientia fures: Nec non Thessaliae doctissimus ille magiae Traditur exstinctas sumptae moderamine virgae In lucem revocasse animas, Cocytia leti Ast alias damnasse neci, penitusque latenti Immersisse chao: facit hoc, ad utrumque peritus

now, the doors deaf, which bar or bolt had fixed with tight wedges, a rich lover through the roof, the tiles broken, pouring from above a shower of flowing gold into the lap of his mistress as she received it; now, with his armor-bearer looking after the sordid rape, afflicting the wretched catamite with unclean embrace, while his sister is now more indignant at a boy as a rival. This is the cause and origin of the evil: that, while the old stranger reigned, crude stupidity imagined golden ages, and that crafty Jupiter, with new invention, wove manifold tricks and various deceits, so that, when he wished to change his skin and face, they thought that he was a bull, that he plundered as an eagle, that he lay with them as a swan, that he became coins and penetrated the lap of a girl. For what would the foolish rusticity of untamed men not believe, used to giving over its mind, lacking divine reason, among cattle and bestial rites? To whatever belief the cunning wickedness of the rascal drew them, the unhappy nation lent an easy ear. An age more corrupt succeeded Jupiter’s rule, which taught hardy farmers to serve vices, men without experience of theft. In this art Mercury, son of Maia, schooled them: now that god is held great, whose skill produced thieves. That most learned master of Thessalian magic, too, is said to have recalled extinguished souls to the light by the control of the wand he took up, … the Cocytian [laws] of death, but to have condemned others to death and plunged them into the deep hidden chaos: this he does, skilled in both,

Notes and citation

Summary: Jupiter’s seductions (Danae, Ganymede) and disguises were believed by a crude people; after him Mercury taught theft and magic, raising and condemning the dead with his wand.

A footnote line was removed. A line seems lost after line 87 (the end of the clause about the laws of Cocytus); marked “…”. Myths of Danae and Ganymede; Mercury’s wand (Virgil, Aen. 4.242–244). Polemic against the gods as written.

Notes on the original text

Digital text corrected (OCR text badly garbled: clear slips corrected throughout; stray line numbers, note marks, footnote and apparatus lines removed (readings restored by sense are named in the notes)): Nunc foribus surdis, sera quas vel pessulus artis Firmarant cuneis, per tectum dives amator Imbricibus ruptis, undantis desuper auri Infundens pluviam gremio excipientis amicae : Armigero modo sordidulam curante rapinam, Oompressu immundo raiserum adficiens catamitum, Hbidinosos canibus, equis, ouagris adsimilure consueveruut. Pellice iam puero magis indignante sorore. Haec caussa est et origo mali, quod saecla vetusto Hospite regnante crudus stupor aurea finxit : Quodque novo ingenio versutus luppiter, astus Multiplices variosque dolos texebat, ut illum, Vertere quum vellet pellem (l)faciemque, putarent Esse bovem, praedari aquilam, concumbere cycnum, Et nummos fieri, et gremium penetrare puellae. Nam quid rusticitas non crederet indomitorum Stulta virum. pecudes inter ritusque ferinos Dedere sueta animum diae rationis egenum ? In quamcumque fidem nebulonis callida traxit/ Nequitia, infelix facilem gens praebuit auren/. Successit lovis imperio- corruptior aetas, Quae docuit rigidos vitiis servire colonos Expertes furandi homines. Hac imbuit arte Mercurius, Maia genitus: nunc magnushabetur Ille deus, cuius dedit experientia fures : Nec non Thessaliae doctissimus ille magiae Traditur exstinctas sumptae moderamine virgae In lucem revocasse animas, Coc^iia leti Ast alias damnasse neci, penitusque latenti , Immersisse chao : facit hoc, ad utrumque peritus → Nunc foribus surdis, sera quas vel pessulus artis Firmarant cuneis, per tectum dives amator Imbricibus ruptis, undantis desuper auri Infundens pluviam gremio excipientis amicae; Armigero modo sordidulam curante rapinam, Compressu immundo miserum adficiens catamitum, Pellice iam puero magis indignante sorore. Haec causa est et origo mali, quod saecla vetusto Hospite regnante crudus stupor aurea finxit, Quodque novo ingenio versutus Iuppiter, astus Multiplices variosque dolos texebat, ut illum, Vertere cum vellet pellem faciemque, putarent Esse bovem, praedari aquilam, concumbere cycnum, Et nummos fieri, et gremium penetrare puellae. Nam quid rusticitas non crederet indomitorum Stulta virum, pecudes inter ritusque ferinos Dedere sueta animum diae rationis egenum? In quamcumque fidem nebulonis callida traxit Nequitia, infelix facilem gens praebuit aurem. Successit Iovis imperio corruptior aetas, Quae docuit rigidos vitiis servire colonos Expertes furandi homines. Hac imbuit arte Mercurius, Maia genitus: nunc magnus habetur Ille deus, cuius dedit experientia fures: Nec non Thessaliae doctissimus ille magiae Traditur exstinctas sumptae moderamine virgae In lucem revocasse animas, Cocytia leti Ast alias damnasse neci, penitusque latenti Immersisse chao: facit hoc, ad utrumque peritus.

Extrabiblical texts: Virgil, Aen. 4.242 (Virgil; allusion)

Cite (SBL): Prudentius, C. Symm. 2.61 (Lanfranchi 2:lines 61–90; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/prudentius-contra-symmachum/2-61). (abbreviation not yet checked)

Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/prudentius-contra-symmachum/2-61

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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin of Lanfranchi's edition (Turin, 1898; OCR, corrections logged); checked afterwards privately against FOTC 52.

2.91Lanfranchi 2:lines 91–120

Ut fuerit, geminoque armarit crimine vitam: Murmure nam magico tenues excire figuras, Atque sepulcrales scite incantare favillas, Vita itidem spoliare alios, ars noxia novit. Artificem scelerum simplex mirata vetustas Supra hominem coluit, simulans per nubila ferri Aligerisque leves pedibus transcurrere ventos. Ecce deum in numero formatus et aeneus adstat Graius homo, augustaque Numae praefulget in arce. Strenuus exculti dominus quidam fuit agri, Hortorumque opibus memorabilis: hic tamen idem Scortator nimius, multaque libidine suetus Rusticolas vexare lupas, interque salicta Et densas saepes obscena cubilia inire, Indomitum intendens animum, semperque paratum Ad facinus, numquam calidis dabat otia venis. Hic deus e patrio praenobilis Hellesponto Venit adusque Italos sacris cum turpibus hortos: Sinum lactis, et haec votorum liba quotannis Accipit, ac ruris servat vineta Sabini, Turpiter adfixo pudeat quem visere ramo. Herculeus mollis pueri famosus amore Ardor, et in transtris iactata efferbuit Argo. Nec maris erubuit Nemea sub pelle fovere Concubitus, et Hylan pereuntem quaerere caelebs. Nunc Saliis cantuque domus Pinaria templum Collis Aventini convexa in sede frequentat. Thebanus iuvenis superatis fit deus Indis, Successu dum victor ovans lascivit, et aurum Captivae gentis revehit, spoliisque superbus

so that he was [skilled in both], and armed his life with a double crime: for his harmful art knew how to call up thin shapes with magic murmuring, and skillfully to bewitch the ashes of the tomb, and likewise to rob others of life. Simple antiquity, admiring the craftsman of crimes, worshipped him as more than man, pretending that he was carried through the clouds and ran across the light winds with winged feet. See, a Greek man, shaped in bronze, stands among the gods and shines in the august citadel of Numa. There was a certain energetic owner of a cultivated field, memorable for the wealth of his gardens; yet he too was an excessive fornicator, used in his great lust to harass the country harlots, and among the willows and thick hedges to go to obscene couches, bending his untamed mind, always ready for wickedness, and never giving his hot veins rest. This god, very famous from his native Hellespont, came to the gardens of the Italians with his foul rites; a bowl of milk and these cakes of vows he receives every year, and guards the vineyards of the Sabine countryside, a god whom one would be ashamed to look at, with his shameful fixed branch. The passion of Hercules, notorious for the love of a soft boy, seethed even on the benches of the tossing Argo; nor did he blush, under the Nemean skin, to cherish the embraces of a male, and, wifeless, to search for Hylas when he perished. Now the Pinarian house frequents his temple with Salian priests and song in the vaulted seat of the Aventine hill. The Theban youth becomes a god after conquering the Indians, while, triumphant in success, he runs wild, brings back the gold of the captive nation, and, proud of the spoils,

Notes and citation

Summary: Mercury the sorcerer was worshipped as a god; so too Priapus, a lustful gardener, Hercules, notorious for his love of Hylas, and Bacchus, deified after conquering India.

Polemic against the pagan gods, including their sexual myths, translated as written. Stray line numbers and a footnote mark were removed. The meaning of line 91 is completed by the end of the previous passage.

Notes on the original text

Digital text corrected (OCR text badly garbled: clear slips corrected throughout; stray line numbers, note marks, footnote and apparatus lines removed (readings restored by sense are named in the notes)): j Ut fuerit, geminoque armarit crimine vitam; Murmure nam magico tenues excire figuras, Atque sepulcralos scite incantaro favillas, Vita itidem spoliare alios, ars noxia novit. Artificem scelerum simplex mirata vetustas Supra hominem coluit, simulans per nubila fer- Aligerisque leves pedibus transcurrere ventos. Ecce deum in numero formatus et aeneus adstat Graius homo, augustaque Numae praefulget in arce. Strenuus exculti dominus quidam fuit agri, Hortorumque opibus memorabilis. Hic tamen idem Scortator nimius, multaque libidine suetus [105 Rusticolas vexare lupas, interque salicta, Et (iensas saepes obscoena cubilia inire : Indomitum intendens animum, semperque paratum Ad facinus, numquam calidis dabat otia venis(l). Hic deus e patrio praenobilis Hellesponto, Venit adusque Italos sacris cum turpibu-s hortos : Sinum lactis, et baec votorum liba quotannis Accipit, ac ruris servat vineta Sabini, Turpiter adfixo pudeat quem visere ramo. Herculeus mollis pueri famosus amore Ardor, et in transtris iactata efferbuit Argo. Nec maris erubuit Nemea sub pelle fovere Concubitus. et Hylan pereuntem quaerere caelebs. Nunc Saliis caiituque domus Pinaria templum Collis Aventini convexa in sede frequentat. rhebanus iuvenis suporatis fit deus Indis, Successu dum victor ovans lascivit, et aurum Captivae gentis rovehit, spoliisque superbus → Ut fuerit, geminoque armarit crimine vitam: Murmure nam magico tenues excire figuras, Atque sepulcrales scite incantare favillas, Vita itidem spoliare alios, ars noxia novit. Artificem scelerum simplex mirata vetustas Supra hominem coluit, simulans per nubila ferri Aligerisque leves pedibus transcurrere ventos. Ecce deum in numero formatus et aeneus adstat Graius homo, augustaque Numae praefulget in arce. Strenuus exculti dominus quidam fuit agri, Hortorumque opibus memorabilis: hic tamen idem Scortator nimius, multaque libidine suetus Rusticolas vexare lupas, interque salicta Et densas saepes obscena cubilia inire, Indomitum intendens animum, semperque paratum Ad facinus, numquam calidis dabat otia venis. Hic deus e patrio praenobilis Hellesponto Venit adusque Italos sacris cum turpibus hortos: Sinum lactis, et haec votorum liba quotannis Accipit, ac ruris servat vineta Sabini, Turpiter adfixo pudeat quem visere ramo. Herculeus mollis pueri famosus amore Ardor, et in transtris iactata efferbuit Argo. Nec maris erubuit Nemea sub pelle fovere Concubitus, et Hylan pereuntem quaerere caelebs. Nunc Saliis cantuque domus Pinaria templum Collis Aventini convexa in sede frequentat. Thebanus iuvenis superatis fit deus Indis, Successu dum victor ovans lascivit, et aurum Captivae gentis revehit, spoliisque superbus.

Cite (SBL): Prudentius, C. Symm. 2.91 (Lanfranchi 2:lines 91–120; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/prudentius-contra-symmachum/2-91). (abbreviation not yet checked)

Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/prudentius-contra-symmachum/2-91

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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin of Lanfranchi's edition (Turin, 1898; OCR, corrections logged); checked afterwards privately against FOTC 52.

2.121Lanfranchi 2:lines 121–150

Diffluit in luxum cum semiviro comitatu, Atque avidus vini multo se proluit haustu, Gemmantis paterae spumis, mustoque Falerno Perfundens biiugum rorantia terga ferarum. His nunc pro meritis Baccho caper omnibus aris Caeditur, et virides discindunt ore chelydros Qui Bromium placare volunt; quod et ebria iam tunc Ante oculos regis Satyrorum insania fecit: Et fecisse reor stimulis furialibus ipsas Maenadas, inflammante mero in scelus omne rotatas. Hoc circumsaltante choro, temulentus adulter Invenit expositum secreti in litoris acta Corporis egregii scortum, quod perfidus illic Liquerat, incesto iuvenis satiatus amore. Hanc iubet adsumptam, fervens post vina, Neaeram Secum in deliciis fluitantis stare triumphi, Regalemque decus capitis gestare coronam. Mox Ariadnaeus stellis caelestibus ignis Additur: hoc pretium noctis persolvit honore Liber, ut aetherium meretrix inluminet axem. Tantum posse omnes illo sub tempore reges Indocilis fatui ducebat ineptia vulgi, Ut transire suis cum sordibus induperator Posset in aeternum caeli super ardua regnum. Regia tunc omnis vim maiestatis, et omnis, Parva licet, caeli imperium retinere potestas Credita: ture etiam ducibus, parvoque sacello Impertitus honos: quem dum metus, aut amor, aut spes Accumulant, longum miseris processit in aevum Mos patrius. Coepit falsae pietatis imago

dissolves into luxury with his half-man retinue, and, greedy for wine, drenches himself with many a draught, with the foam of the jeweled bowl, and pours new Falernian over the dripping backs of the yoked beasts. For these merits a goat is now slaughtered to Bacchus on every altar, and those who wish to appease Bromius tear green snakes with their mouths; which the drunken madness of the Satyrs did even then before the king’s eyes, and I think the Maenads themselves did it, goaded by furious frenzy, whirled into every crime by inflaming wine. While this chorus danced around him, the drunken adulterer found on the beach of a lonely shore a harlot of outstanding body, cast away, whom a faithless youth had left there, sated with an unchaste love. He bids this courtesan be taken up, hot after his wine, and stand with him amid the delights of his loose triumph, and wear a royal crown as the ornament of her head. Soon Ariadne’s fire is added to the stars of heaven: Liber paid the price of the night with this honor, that a harlot should light up the heavenly sky. The stupidity of the unteachable, foolish crowd believed that all kings at that time had such power that a commander could pass, with his filth, above the heights of heaven into an everlasting kingdom. Then every royal power was believed to hold the force of majesty, and every authority, however small, the empire of heaven: honor was given to leaders with incense too and a little shrine; and while fear or love or hope heaped it up, the ancestral custom went on for a long age among the wretched. The image of a false piety began

Notes and citation

Summary: Bacchus was deified for his drunken triumphs and set Ariadne, a deserted mistress, among the stars; the crowd believed that kings could become gods, and so the worship of rulers became an ancestral custom.

Ariadne, deserted by Theseus, is called a harlot (“Neaera”) by the poet. Polemic as written.

Notes on the original text

Digital text corrected (OCR text badly garbled: clear slips corrected throughout; stray line numbers, note marks, footnote and apparatus lines removed (readings restored by sense are named in the notes)): Diffluit iii luxum cum semiviro comitatu ; Atque avidus vini multo se proluit haustu, Gommantis paterae spumis, mustoque Falerno Perfundons biiugum rorantia terga ferarum. His nunc pro meritis Baccho caper omnibus aris Caeditur, et virides discindunt ore chely- Qui Bromium phicare volunt; quod et ebria iam tunc Ante oculos regis Satyrorum insania focit: Et fecisse reor stimulis furialibus ipsas Maenadas, inflammanto mero in scelus omne rotatas. Hoc circumsaltanto choro, temulentus adulter Invenit expositum secreti in litoris acta Corporis egregii scortum, quod perfidus Lllic Liquerat, incesto iuvenis satiatus amore. Hanc iubet adsumptam, fervens post vina, Neaeram Secum in deliciis fluitantis stare triumplii, Regalemque decus capitis gestare coronam. Mox Ariadnaeus stellis caelestibus ignis Additur : hoc pretium noctis persolvit honore Liber, ut aetherium meretrix inluminet axem. Tantum posse omnes illo sub tempore reges, Indocilis fatui ducebat ineptia vulgi, Vt transire suis cum sordibus induperator Posset in aeternum caeli super ardua regnum. Eegia tunc omnis vim Maiestatis, et omnis, Parva licet, caeli imperium retinere potestas Credita : ture etiam ducibus, parvoque sacello Impertitus honos: quem dum metus, aut amor, aut spes Accumulant, longum miseris processit in aevum Mos patrius. Coepit falsae pietatis imago → Diffluit in luxum cum semiviro comitatu, Atque avidus vini multo se proluit haustu, Gemmantis paterae spumis, mustoque Falerno Perfundens biiugum rorantia terga ferarum. His nunc pro meritis Baccho caper omnibus aris Caeditur, et virides discindunt ore chelydros Qui Bromium placare volunt; quod et ebria iam tunc Ante oculos regis Satyrorum insania fecit: Et fecisse reor stimulis furialibus ipsas Maenadas, inflammante mero in scelus omne rotatas. Hoc circumsaltante choro, temulentus adulter Invenit expositum secreti in litoris acta Corporis egregii scortum, quod perfidus illic Liquerat, incesto iuvenis satiatus amore. Hanc iubet adsumptam, fervens post vina, Neaeram Secum in deliciis fluitantis stare triumphi, Regalemque decus capitis gestare coronam. Mox Ariadnaeus stellis caelestibus ignis Additur: hoc pretium noctis persolvit honore Liber, ut aetherium meretrix inluminet axem. Tantum posse omnes illo sub tempore reges Indocilis fatui ducebat ineptia vulgi, Ut transire suis cum sordibus induperator Posset in aeternum caeli super ardua regnum. Regia tunc omnis vim maiestatis, et omnis, Parva licet, caeli imperium retinere potestas Credita: ture etiam ducibus, parvoque sacello Impertitus honos: quem dum metus, aut amor, aut spes Accumulant, longum miseris processit in aevum Mos patrius. Coepit falsae pietatis imago.

Cite (SBL): Prudentius, C. Symm. 2.121 (Lanfranchi 2:lines 121–150; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/prudentius-contra-symmachum/2-121). (abbreviation not yet checked)

Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/prudentius-contra-symmachum/2-121

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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin of Lanfranchi's edition (Turin, 1898; OCR, corrections logged); checked afterwards privately against FOTC 52.

2.151Lanfranchi 2:lines 151–180

Ire per ignaros nebuloso errore nepotes: Tum quia, quae vivis veneratio regibus ante Contigerat, functis eadem iam munere lucis Cessit, et ad nigras altaria transtulit urnas. Inde puellarum ludibria, pignora partus, Et furtivus amor iuvenum, et deprensa iugalis Corruptela tori: quoniam regalibus aula Fervere tunc vitiis solita est, nec perdita luxu Divorum suboles sancti meminisse pudoris. Atque ut, Roma, tuos caelesti ex sede parentes, Quis te semideam iactant auctoribus ortam, Praestringam breviter, Gradivum vel Cytherean: Ille sacerdotem violat: contra illa marito Succumbit Phrygio. Coitus fuit impar utrique. Nec terrestre deam decuit mortalis obire Coniugium, nec caelicolam descendere ephebum Virginis ad vitium, furtivoque igne calere. Sed Venus augusto de sanguine femina, vili Privatoque viro vetitum per dedecus haesit. Et, si Rhea sacram lascivi Martis amore Lusa pudicitiam fluviali amisit in ulva, Crediderim generosae aliquem stirpis, sed eundem Moribus infamem, compressa virgine per vim, Se dixisse deum, ne stuprum numinis ullus Obicere auderet turpi miseraeque puellae. Haec Italos induxit avos vel fama, vel error, Martia Romuleo celebrarent ut sacra Campo; Utque Palatinis Capitolia condita saxis Signarent titulo proavi Iovis, atque Pelasgae Palladis, et Libyca Iunonem ex arce vocarent;

to pass among ignorant descendants in a cloudy error, then, because the veneration that had formerly fallen to kings while they lived passed to them when their days were done, and transferred the altars to the black urns. Hence came the deceptions of girls, the offspring of childbirth, the furtive love of youths, and the detected corruption of the marriage bed: for the royal court was then accustomed to seethe with vices, and the offspring of the gods, lost in luxury, did not remember holy modesty. And, Rome, to touch briefly on your parents from the heavenly seat, the authors from whom they boast you were born a demigoddess, Gradivus or Cytherea: he violates a priestess; she, on the other hand, yields to a Phrygian husband. The union was unequal for both. It did not befit a goddess to enter on an earthly marriage with a mortal, nor a heavenly youth to descend to the violation of a virgin and burn with a stealthy fire. But Venus, a woman of noble blood, clung to a cheap private man through a forbidden disgrace. And if Rhea, deceived by the love of lascivious Mars, lost her sacred chastity in the river sedge, I would believe that someone of noble stock, but infamous in his morals, having violated the virgin by force, said he was a god, so that no one should dare to reproach the shameful and wretched girl with the rape of a deity. This rumor or this error led the Italian forefathers to celebrate the rites of Mars on the Campus of Romulus, and to mark the Capitol, founded on the Palatine rocks, with the title of their ancestor Jupiter and of Pelasgian Pallas, and to call Juno from her Libyan citadel;

Notes and citation

Summary: The worship of dead kings arose from veneration of living ones; Rome’s divine parents, Mars and Venus, were really mortals whose scandals were dressed up as divine, and so Rome took up the cults of Mars, Jupiter, Minerva and Juno.

Venus and Anchises; Mars and Rhea Silvia. Euhemerist polemic, as written. A footnote mark was removed.

Notes on the original text

Digital text corrected (OCR text badly garbled: clear slips corrected throughout; stray line numbers, note marks, footnote and apparatus lines removed (readings restored by sense are named in the notes)): Ire per ignaros nebuloso errore nepotes: Tum quia, quae vivis veneratio regibus ante Contigerat, functis eadem iam munere lucis Cessit, et ad nigras altaria transtulit urnas. Inde puellarum ludibria, pignora partus, Et furtivus amor iuvenum, et deprensa iugalis Corruptela tori : quoniam regalibus aula Fervere tunc vitiis solita est, nec perdita luxu Divorum soboles sancti meminisse pndoris. Atque ut, Eoma, tuos caelesti ex sede parentes, Quis te semideam iactant auctoribus ortam, Praestringam breviter, Gradivum vel Cytherean(l). Ille sacerdotem violat : contra illa marito Succumbit Phrj-gio. Coitus fuit impar utrique. Nec terrestre deam decuit mortalis obire Coniugium, nec caelicolam descendere ephebum Virginis ad vitium, furtivoque igno calere. Sed Venus augusto de sanguine temina, vili Privatoque viro vetitum per dedecus liaesit. Et, si Rhea sacram lascivi Martis amore Lusa pudicitiam fluviali amisit in ulva, Crediderim generosae aliquem stirpis, sed eundem Moribus infamem, compressa virgine per vim, Se dixisse deum, ne stuprum numiuis ullus Obiicere auderct turpi misf^raeque puellae. Haec Italos induxit avos vel fama, vel error, Martia Romuleo celebrarent ut sacra Campo; Vtque Palatinis Capitolia condita saxis Sigiiarent titulo proavi lovis, atque Pelasgae Palladis, et Libyca lunonem ex arce vocarent. → Ire per ignaros nebuloso errore nepotes: Tum quia, quae vivis veneratio regibus ante Contigerat, functis eadem iam munere lucis Cessit, et ad nigras altaria transtulit urnas. Inde puellarum ludibria, pignora partus, Et furtivus amor iuvenum, et deprensa iugalis Corruptela tori: quoniam regalibus aula Fervere tunc vitiis solita est, nec perdita luxu Divorum suboles sancti meminisse pudoris. Atque ut, Roma, tuos caelesti ex sede parentes, Quis te semideam iactant auctoribus ortam, Praestringam breviter, Gradivum vel Cytherean: Ille sacerdotem violat: contra illa marito Succumbit Phrygio. Coitus fuit impar utrique. Nec terrestre deam decuit mortalis obire Coniugium, nec caelicolam descendere ephebum Virginis ad vitium, furtivoque igne calere. Sed Venus augusto de sanguine femina, vili Privatoque viro vetitum per dedecus haesit. Et, si Rhea sacram lascivi Martis amore Lusa pudicitiam fluviali amisit in ulva, Crediderim generosae aliquem stirpis, sed eundem Moribus infamem, compressa virgine per vim, Se dixisse deum, ne stuprum numinis ullus Obicere auderet turpi miseraeque puellae. Haec Italos induxit avos vel fama, vel error, Martia Romuleo celebrarent ut sacra Campo; Utque Palatinis Capitolia condita saxis Signarent titulo proavi Iovis, atque Pelasgae Palladis, et Libyca Iunonem ex arce vocarent;.

Cite (SBL): Prudentius, C. Symm. 2.151 (Lanfranchi 2:lines 151–180; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/prudentius-contra-symmachum/2-151). (abbreviation not yet checked)

Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/prudentius-contra-symmachum/2-151

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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin of Lanfranchi's edition (Turin, 1898; OCR, corrections logged); checked afterwards privately against FOTC 52.

2.181Lanfranchi 2:lines 181–210

Cognatos de Marte deos, Veneris quoque nudum Accirent proceres Erycino e vertice signum: Utque deum mater Phrygia veheretur ab Ida, Bacchica de viridi peterentur ut orgia Naxo: Facta est terrigenae domus unica maiestatis, Et tot templa deum Romae, quot in urbe sepulcra Heroum numerare licet; quos fabula Manes Nobilitat, noster populus veneratus adorat. Hos habuere deos Ancus, Numitor, Numa, Tullus: Talia Pergameas fugerunt numina flammas. Sic Vesta est, sic Palladium, sic umbra Penatum; Talis et antiquum servavit terror asylum. Ut semel obsedit gentilia pectora patrum Vana superstitio, non interrupta cucurrit Aetatum per mille gradus. Tener horruit heres, Et coluit, quidquid sibimet venerabile cani Monstrarant atavi. Puerorum infantia primo Errorem cum lacte bibit: gustaverat inter Vagitus de farre molae: saxa inlita ceris Viderat, unguentoque lares umescere nigros. Formatum Fortunae habitum cum divite cornu, Sacratumque domi lapidem consistere parvus Spectarat, matremque illic pallere precantem. Mox umeris positus nutricis, trivit et ipse Impressis silicem labris, puerilia vota Fudit, opesque sibi caesa de rupe poposcit: Persuasumque habuit, quod quis velit, inde petendum. Numquam oculos animumque levans rationis ad arcem Rettulit; insulsum tenuit sed credulus usum, Privatos celebrans agnorum sanguine divos.

and that the nobles should summon gods akin to Mars, and the naked statue of Venus from the summit of Eryx; and that the mother of the gods should be brought from Phrygian Ida, and the Bacchic orgies sought from green Naxos. Rome became the one home of earth-born majesty, and there are as many temples of the gods in Rome as one may count tombs of heroes in the city; the shades whom legend ennobles, our people venerates and adores. These were the gods that Ancus, Numitor, Numa, and Tullus had; such were the divinities that fled the flames of Pergamum. So it is with Vesta, the Palladium, the shade of the Penates; and such a terror guarded the ancient asylum. Once vain superstition had besieged the pagan hearts of the fathers, it ran on uninterrupted through a thousand steps of the ages. The tender heir shuddered and worshipped whatever his gray-haired ancestors had shown him as venerable. The infancy of boys drank in error with their milk at first: amid its wailing it had tasted the sacrificial meal; it had seen stones smeared with wax and the black household gods dripping with ointment. As a little child he had seen a figure of Fortune with her rich horn and a consecrated stone standing in the house, and his mother turning pale there in prayer. Soon, set on his nurse’s shoulders, he too wore down the flint with pressed lips, poured out childish vows, and asked wealth for himself from a hewn rock, and was persuaded that whatever one wished must be sought from there. Never did he lift his eyes and mind and bring them back to the citadel of reason, but credulously kept a senseless custom, honoring private gods with the blood of lambs.

Notes and citation

Summary: Rome gathered the gods of many places and has as many temples as tombs of heroes; superstition, once begun, passed unbroken from generation to generation, as children learned idolatry at home from infancy.

Stray line numbers and footnote marks were removed. Polemic as written.

Notes on the original text

Digital text corrected (OCR text badly garbled: clear slips corrected throughout; stray line numbers, note marks, footnote and apparatus lines removed (readings restored by sense are named in the notes)): Cognatos de Marte deos, Veneris quoque nudum Accirent proceres Erycino e vertice signnm: Vtque deum mater Plirygia velioretur ab Ida, Bacchica de viridi peterentur ut orgia Naxo: Facta est terrigenae domus unica maiestatis, Et tot templa deiim Romae, quot in urbe sepulcra Heroum numerare licet, quos fabula Manes Nobilitat, noster populus veneratus adorat. Hos babuere deos Ancus, Numitor, Numa, Tnllus : Talia Pergameas fugerunt numina flammas. Sic Vesta est, sic Palladium, sic umbra Penatum; 111 Talis et antiquum servavit terror asylum. \i semel obsedit gentilia pectora patnim Vana superstitio, non interrupta cucurrit Aetatum per raille erradus. Tener horruit heres, Et coluit, quidquid fl) sihimet venerabile cani Monstrarant atavi. Puerorum infantia primo Errorem cum lacto bibit: gustaverat inter Vagitus de farre molae : saxa inlita ceris Viderat. unguentoque lares humescere nigros. Formatum Fortunae habitum cum divite cornu, Sacratumque domi lapidem consistere parvus Spectarat, matremque illic pallero precantem. Mox, Immoris positus nutricis, trivit et ipse Impressis silicem labris, puerilia vota Fudit, opesque sibi caesa de rupe poposcit: Persuasumque habuit, quod quis velit, inde petendum. Numquam oculos animumque levans rationis ad arcem Eetulit ; insulsum tenuit sed credulus usum, Privatos celebrans agnorum sanguine divos. → Cognatos de Marte deos, Veneris quoque nudum Accirent proceres Erycino e vertice signum: Utque deum mater Phrygia veheretur ab Ida, Bacchica de viridi peterentur ut orgia Naxo: Facta est terrigenae domus unica maiestatis, Et tot templa deum Romae, quot in urbe sepulcra Heroum numerare licet; quos fabula Manes Nobilitat, noster populus veneratus adorat. Hos habuere deos Ancus, Numitor, Numa, Tullus: Talia Pergameas fugerunt numina flammas. Sic Vesta est, sic Palladium, sic umbra Penatum; Talis et antiquum servavit terror asylum. Ut semel obsedit gentilia pectora patrum Vana superstitio, non interrupta cucurrit Aetatum per mille gradus. Tener horruit heres, Et coluit, quidquid sibimet venerabile cani Monstrarant atavi. Puerorum infantia primo Errorem cum lacte bibit: gustaverat inter Vagitus de farre molae: saxa inlita ceris Viderat, unguentoque lares umescere nigros. Formatum Fortunae habitum cum divite cornu, Sacratumque domi lapidem consistere parvus Spectarat, matremque illic pallere precantem. Mox umeris positus nutricis, trivit et ipse Impressis silicem labris, puerilia vota Fudit, opesque sibi caesa de rupe poposcit: Persuasumque habuit, quod quis velit, inde petendum. Numquam oculos animumque levans rationis ad arcem Rettulit; insulsum tenuit sed credulus usum, Privatos celebrans agnorum sanguine divos..

Cite (SBL): Prudentius, C. Symm. 2.181 (Lanfranchi 2:lines 181–210; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/prudentius-contra-symmachum/2-181). (abbreviation not yet checked)

Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/prudentius-contra-symmachum/2-181

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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin of Lanfranchi's edition (Turin, 1898; OCR, corrections logged); checked afterwards privately against FOTC 52.

2.211Lanfranchi 2:lines 211–240

Iamque domo egrediens, ut publica festa diesque Et ludos stupuit, celsa et Capitolia vidit, Laurigerosque deum templis adstare ministros, Ac Sacram resonare Viam mugitibus, ante Delubrum Romae (colitur nam sanguine et ipsa More deae, nomenque loci ceu numen habetur; Atque Urbis Venerisque pari se culmine tollunt Templa: simul geminis adolentur tura deabus), Vera ratus, quaecumque fiant auctore senatu, Contulit ad simulacra fidem, dominosque putavit Aetheris, horrifico qui stant ex ordine vultu. Illic Alcides, spoliatis Gadibus hospes Arcadiae, fulvo aere riget: gemini quoque fratres, Corrupta de matre nothi, Ledeia proles, Nocturnique equites, celsae duo numina Romae Impendent, retinente veru, magnique triumphi Nuntia suffuso figunt vestigia plumbo. Adsistunt etiam priscorum insignia regum, Tros, Italus, Ianusque bifrons, genitorque Sabinus, Saturnusque senex, maculoso et corpore Picus, Coniugis epotum sparsus per membra venenum. Omnibus ante pedes posita est sua cuique sordens Arula. Iano etiam celebri de mense litatur Auspiciis epulisque sacris, quas inveterato, Heu miseri, sub honore agitant, et gaudia ducunt Festa Kalendarum. Sic observatio crevit, Ex atavis quondam male coepta: deinde secutis Tradita temporibus, serisque nepotibus aucta, Traxerunt longam corda inconsulta catenam, Mosque tenebrosus vitiosa in saecula fluxit.

And now, going out from home, when he marveled at the public festivals, the holidays and the games, and saw the lofty Capitol, the laurel-crowned ministers standing at the temples of the gods, and the Sacred Way resounding with lowing [of victims] before the shrine of Rome (for she too is worshipped with blood like a goddess, and the name of the place is held as a deity, and the temples of the City and of Venus rise with equal roofs, and incense is burned to the twin goddesses together), thinking true whatever is done on the senate’s authority, he gave his faith to the images, and thought them lords of heaven who stand in a row with dreadful faces. There Alcides, the guest of Arcadia after he had plundered Gades, stands stiff in tawny bronze; the twin brothers too, bastards of a seduced mother, the offspring of Leda, the riders by night, two divinities of lofty Rome, hang over it, a spit holding them, and plant the footprints that announced a great triumph in poured lead. There stand also the effigies of the ancient kings: Tros, Italus, two-faced Janus, father Sabinus, old Saturn, and Picus with spotted body, sprinkled through his limbs with the poison his wife made him drink. Before the feet of each is set his own foul little altar. To Janus too sacrifice is made in his famous month with auspices and sacred banquets, which, alas, the wretches keep under an inveterate honor, and they spend the festive joys of the Kalends. So the observance grew, badly begun once by the ancestors; then, handed down to the following times and increased by later descendants, thoughtless hearts drew a long chain, and a dark custom flowed on into vicious ages.

Notes and citation

Summary: Grown up, the young Roman sees the public cults, the temple of Rome and Venus, and the statues of Hercules, the Dioscuri, Janus and the old kings, and believes them gods; so pagan custom, passed down, became a long chain.

The Kalends of January festivities. Polemic as written.

Notes on the original text

Digital text corrected (OCR text badly garbled: clear slips corrected throughout; stray line numbers, note marks, footnote and apparatus lines removed (readings restored by sense are named in the notes)): lamque domo egrediens, ut publica festa diesque, Et ludos stupuit, cclsa et Capitolia vidit, Laurigerosque deum templis adstare ministros, Ac Sacram resonare Viam mugitibus, ante Delubrum Romae (colitur nam sanguine et ipsa More doae, nomenque loci ceu numen habetur ; Atque Vrbis Venerisque pari se culmine tollunt Templa: simul geminis adolentur tura deabus) Vera ratus, quaecumque fiant auctore senatu, Coiitulit ad simulacra fidem, dominosque putavit Aetheris, liorrifico qui stant ex ordine vultu. Illic Alcides, spoliatis Gadibus, hospes Arcadiae fulvo aere riget: gemini quoquc fi-atres Corrupta de matre nothi, Ledeia proles, Nocturuique equites, celsae duo numina Eomae Impendent, retincnte veru, magnique triumphi Nuntia sutfuso figunt vestigia plumbo. Adsistunt etiam priscorum iusignia regum, Tros, Italus, laiuisque bifrons, genitorque Sabinus, Saturiiusque senex, maculoso et corpore Picus, Coniugis epotum sparsus per membra venenum. Omuibus ante pedes posita est sua cuique sordens Arula. lano etiam celebri de mense litatur Auspiciis e])ulisque sacris, quas inveterato, Heii! miseri, sub honore ag-itant, et gaudia ducunt Festa Kalendarum. Sic observatio crevit, Ex atavis quondam male coepta : deinde secutis Tradita temporibus, serisque nepotibus aucta, Traxeruut longam corda inconsulta catenam, Mosque tenebrosus vitiosa in saecula fluxit. → Iamque domo egrediens, ut publica festa diesque Et ludos stupuit, celsa et Capitolia vidit, Laurigerosque deum templis adstare ministros, Ac Sacram resonare Viam mugitibus, ante Delubrum Romae (colitur nam sanguine et ipsa More deae, nomenque loci ceu numen habetur; Atque Urbis Venerisque pari se culmine tollunt Templa: simul geminis adolentur tura deabus), Vera ratus, quaecumque fiant auctore senatu, Contulit ad simulacra fidem, dominosque putavit Aetheris, horrifico qui stant ex ordine vultu. Illic Alcides, spoliatis Gadibus hospes Arcadiae, fulvo aere riget: gemini quoque fratres, Corrupta de matre nothi, Ledeia proles, Nocturnique equites, celsae duo numina Romae Impendent, retinente veru, magnique triumphi Nuntia suffuso figunt vestigia plumbo. Adsistunt etiam priscorum insignia regum, Tros, Italus, Ianusque bifrons, genitorque Sabinus, Saturnusque senex, maculoso et corpore Picus, Coniugis epotum sparsus per membra venenum. Omnibus ante pedes posita est sua cuique sordens Arula. Iano etiam celebri de mense litatur Auspiciis epulisque sacris, quas inveterato, Heu miseri, sub honore agitant, et gaudia ducunt Festa Kalendarum. Sic observatio crevit, Ex atavis quondam male coepta: deinde secutis Tradita temporibus, serisque nepotibus aucta, Traxerunt longam corda inconsulta catenam, Mosque tenebrosus vitiosa in saecula fluxit..

Cite (SBL): Prudentius, C. Symm. 2.211 (Lanfranchi 2:lines 211–240; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/prudentius-contra-symmachum/2-211). (abbreviation not yet checked)

Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/prudentius-contra-symmachum/2-211

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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin of Lanfranchi's edition (Turin, 1898; OCR, corrections logged); checked afterwards privately against FOTC 52.

2.241Lanfranchi 2:lines 241–270

Hunc morem veterum docili iam aetate secuta Posteritas mense, atque adytis, et flamine, et aris Augustum coluit, vitulo placavit et agno, Strata ad pulvinar iacuit, responsa poposcit. Testantur tituli, produnt consulta senatus, Caesareum Iovis ad speciem statuentia templum. Adiecere sacrum, fieret quo Livia Iuno, Non minus infamis thalami sortita cubile, Quam cum fraterno caluit Saturnia lecto. Nondum maternam partu vacuaverat alvum, Conceptamque viri sobolem paritura gerebat Pronuba: iam gravidae fulcrum geniale paratur; Iam sponsus, saliente utero nubentis, amicos Advocat, haud sterilem certus fore iam sibi pactam. Vitricus antevenit tardum praefervidus ortum Privigni nondum geniti: mox editur inter Fescennina novo proles aliena marito. Idque deum sortes, id Apollinis antra dederunt Consilium: numquam melius nam cedere taedas Responsum est, quam cum praegnans nova nupta iugatur. Hanc tibi, Roma, deam, titulis et honore sacratam Perpetuo, Floras inter Veneresque creasti. Nec mirum; quis enim sapiens dubitaverit, illas Mortali de stirpe satas vixisse, et easdem Laude venustatis claras, in amoribus, usque Ad famae excidium, formae nituisse decore? Quid loquar Antinoum caelesti in sede locatum? Illum delicias nunc divi principis, illum Purpureo in gremio spoliatum sorte virili, Hadrianique dei Ganymedem, non cyathos dis

Following this custom of the ancients, posterity, at an age now teachable, worshipped Augustus with a month, shrines, a flamen, and altars, appeased him with calf and lamb, lay prostrate before his couch, and asked for oracles. Inscriptions bear witness and decrees of the senate reveal it, setting up a temple to Caesar in the likeness of Jupiter. They added a rite by which Livia should become Juno, she who had obtained the couch of a marriage no less infamous than when Saturn’s daughter burned in her brother’s bed. She had not yet emptied her womb in childbirth, but was carrying, near to giving birth, the child conceived by her [former] husband, when the bride’s matron [led her]; already the marriage couch is prepared for the pregnant woman; already the bridegroom, while the bride’s womb leaps, calls his friends, now sure that his betrothed will not be barren. The stepfather, too hot to wait, forestalls the slow birth of a stepson not yet born; soon, amid the wedding songs, another man’s offspring is born to the new husband. And the lots of the gods and the caves of Apollo gave this counsel: for the answer was that the torches never go better than when a pregnant new bride is joined. This goddess, Rome, consecrated with titles and perpetual honor, you created among your Floras and Venuses. No wonder; for what wise man would doubt that those goddesses were born of mortal stock and lived, and that they too, famous for the praise of their charm, shone with the beauty of their form in love affairs, even to the ruin of their reputation? Why should I speak of Antinous, set in a heavenly seat, that one, now the darling of the divine emperor, that one, robbed of his manhood in a purple lap, the Ganymede of the god Hadrian, who [does not pour] cups for the gods,

Notes and citation

Summary: Later Romans deified Augustus and made Livia a Juno, though she married him while pregnant by her former husband, with oracles approving; so too Rome made goddesses of courtesans and set Antinous, Hadrian’s favorite, in heaven.

Livia married Octavian in 38 BC while pregnant with Drusus, her son by Tiberius Claudius Nero. Polemic as written. Stray line numbers were removed; line 254 is read “certus” (scan “certas”).

Notes on the original text

Digital text corrected (OCR text badly garbled: clear slips corrected throughout; stray line numbers, note marks, footnote and apparatus lines removed (readings restored by sense are named in the notes)): Hunc morem veterum docili iam aetate secuta Posteritas mense, atque adytis, et flamine, et aris Augustum coluit, vitulo placavit et agno. Strata ad pulviuar iacuit, responsa poposcit. Testantur tituli, produnt consulta senatus, Caesareum Tovis ad speciem statueutia templum. Adiecere sacrum, fieret quo Livia luuo, [250 Non minus infamis thalami sortita cubile, Quam quum fraterno caluit Saturnia lecto. Nondum maternam partu vacuaverat alvum, Couceptamque viri sobolem paritura gerebat Prouuba ; iam gravidae fulcrum geniale paratur ; lam sponsus, saliente utero nubentis, amicos Advocat, haud sterilem certas fore iam sibi pactam. Vitricus antevenit tardura praefervidus ortum Privigni nondum geniti : mox editur iuter Fescennina novo proles aliena marito. Idque deum sortes, id Apollinis antra dederuut Consilium : numquam melius nam cedere taedas Eesponsum est, quam quum praegnans nova nupta iugatur. Hanc tibi, Roma, deam, titulis et lionore sacratam Perpetuo, Floras inter Veneresque creasti. [265 Nec mirum; quis enim sapiens dubitaverit, illas Mortali de stirpe satas vixisse, et easdem Laude venustatis claras, in amoribus, usque Ad famae excidium, formae nituisse decore? Quid loquar Antinoum caelesti in sede locatum? nium delicias nunc divi principis: illum Purpureo in gremio spoliatum sorte virili, Hadrianique dei Ganyraedem, non cyathos dis → Hunc morem veterum docili iam aetate secuta Posteritas mense, atque adytis, et flamine, et aris Augustum coluit, vitulo placavit et agno, Strata ad pulvinar iacuit, responsa poposcit. Testantur tituli, produnt consulta senatus, Caesareum Iovis ad speciem statuentia templum. Adiecere sacrum, fieret quo Livia Iuno, Non minus infamis thalami sortita cubile, Quam cum fraterno caluit Saturnia lecto. Nondum maternam partu vacuaverat alvum, Conceptamque viri sobolem paritura gerebat Pronuba: iam gravidae fulcrum geniale paratur; Iam sponsus, saliente utero nubentis, amicos Advocat, haud sterilem certus fore iam sibi pactam. Vitricus antevenit tardum praefervidus ortum Privigni nondum geniti: mox editur inter Fescennina novo proles aliena marito. Idque deum sortes, id Apollinis antra dederunt Consilium: numquam melius nam cedere taedas Responsum est, quam cum praegnans nova nupta iugatur. Hanc tibi, Roma, deam, titulis et honore sacratam Perpetuo, Floras inter Veneresque creasti. Nec mirum; quis enim sapiens dubitaverit, illas Mortali de stirpe satas vixisse, et easdem Laude venustatis claras, in amoribus, usque Ad famae excidium, formae nituisse decore? Quid loquar Antinoum caelesti in sede locatum? Illum delicias nunc divi principis, illum Purpureo in gremio spoliatum sorte virili, Hadrianique dei Ganymedem, non cyathos dis.

Cite (SBL): Prudentius, C. Symm. 2.241 (Lanfranchi 2:lines 241–270; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/prudentius-contra-symmachum/2-241). (abbreviation not yet checked)

Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/prudentius-contra-symmachum/2-241

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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin of Lanfranchi's edition (Turin, 1898; OCR, corrections logged); checked afterwards privately against FOTC 52.

2.271Lanfranchi 2:lines 271–300

Porgere, sed medio recubantem cum Iove fulcro Nectaris ambrosii sacrum potare Lyaeum, Cumque suo in templis vota exaudire marito? Ergo his auspicibus Traianus, Nerva, Severus, Et Titus, et fortes gesserunt bella Nerones? Quos terrena viros inlustres gloria fecit, Et virtus fragilis provexit in ardua famae, Adscita terris sub religione iacentes. Quam pudet, hoc illis persuasum, talibus ut se, Romanasque acies censerent Martis amore Posse regi, dum se Paphiae male blandus adulter Venditat, Aeneadasque suos successibus auget! Felices, si cuncta Deo sua prospera Christo Principe disposita scissent! qui currere regna Certis ducta modis, Romanorumque triumphos Crescere, et impletis voluit se infundere saeclis. Sed caligantes animas et luce carentes, In Iovis Augustique adytis, templisque duarum Iunonum, Martisque etiam Venerisque sacellis Mactatas, taetro leti immersere barathro, Supremum regimen crassis in partibus orbis Esse rati, mersoque poli consistere fundo. Quidquid humus, quidquid pelagus mirabile gignunt, Id duxere deos: colles, freta, flumina, flammas. Haec sibi per varias formata elementa figuras Constituere patres, hominumque vocabula mutis Scripserunt statuis, vel Neptunum vocitantes Oceanum, vel cyaneas cava flumina Nymphas, Vel silvas Dryadas, vel devia rura Napaeas. Ipse ignis, nostrum factus qui servit ad usum,

hold out to the gods, but, reclining with Jupiter in the middle of the couch, drinks the sacred wine of ambrosial nectar and hears prayers in the temples with her husband? Was it then under these patrons that Trajan, Nerva, Severus, Titus, and the brave Neros waged their wars? men whom earthly glory made illustrious and frail virtue carried up to the heights of fame, lying on earth under an adopted religion. How shameful that they were persuaded that they and the Roman armies could be ruled by such beings, by the love of Mars, while the ill-flattering adulterer of the Paphian sells himself and increases his descendants of Aeneas with successes! Happy they, had they known that all their prosperity was arranged by God, with Christ as Ruler, who willed that kingdoms should run guided in fixed ways, and the triumphs of the Romans should grow, and that he should pour himself into the fulfilled ages. But they plunged into the foul abyss of death their darkened souls, lacking light, slaughtered in the shrines of Jupiter and Augustus, in the temples of the two Junos, and in the chapels of Mars and Venus too, thinking that the supreme rule was in the gross parts of the world and was located at the sunken bottom of the universe. Whatever wonderful thing the earth or the sea brings forth, that they took for gods: hills, straits, rivers, flames. These elements, formed into various figures, our fathers set up for themselves, and wrote the names of men on dumb statues, calling the Ocean Neptune, or the hollow rivers blue Nymphs, or the forests Dryads, or the out-of-the-way countryside Napaeae. Fire itself, made to serve our use,

Textual problem in this passage: see the notes.

Notes and citation

Summary: Antinous was set beside Jupiter; the great emperors did not win their wars by such gods, but Rome’s triumphs were arranged by God through Christ; the pagans, ignorant of this, deified the elements and named them as persons.

The two Junos are the goddess and Livia. The sense of lines 279–281 is compressed in the scan (perhaps a line lost) and is translated by sense. Stray line numbers were removed. Polemic as written.

Notes on the original text

Digital text corrected (OCR text badly garbled: clear slips corrected throughout; stray line numbers, note marks, footnote and apparatus lines removed (readings restored by sense are named in the notes)): POrgere, sed medio recubantem cum love fulcro, Nectaris ambrosii sacrum potai'e Lyaeum, [275 Cumque suo in templis vota exaudire marito? Ergo his auspicibus Traianus, Nerva, Severus, Et Titus, et fortes gesserunt bella Nerones? Quos terrena viros inlustres gloria fecit, Et virtus fragQis provexit in ardua famae, Adscita terris sub religione iacentes. Quam pudet, hoc illis persuasum, talibus ut se, Eomanasque acies censerent Martis amore [285 Posse regi, dum se Papliiae male blandus adulter Venditat, Aeneadasque suos successibus auget? Felices, si cuncta Deo sua prospera Cliristo Principe disposita scissent ! qui currere regna Certis ducta modis, Romanorumque triumphos Crescere , et impletis voluit se infundere saeclis. Sed caligantes aninias et luce carentes, In lovis Augustique adytis, templisque duarum lunonum, Martisque etiam Venerisque sacellis Mactatas, taetro leti immersere barathro, Supremum regimen crassis in partibus orbis Esse rati, mersoque poli consistere fundo. Quidquid humus, quidquid pelagus mirabile gignunt, Id duxere deos : colles, freta, flumina, flammas. Haec sibi per varias formata elementa figuras Constituere patres, hominumque vocabula mutis Scripserunt statuis, vel JSTeptunum vocitantes Oceanum, vel cyaneas cava flumina Nymphas, Vel silvas Dryadas, vel devia rura Napaeas. Ipse igiiis, nostrum factus qui servit ad usum, → Porgere, sed medio recubantem cum Iove fulcro Nectaris ambrosii sacrum potare Lyaeum, Cumque suo in templis vota exaudire marito? Ergo his auspicibus Traianus, Nerva, Severus, Et Titus, et fortes gesserunt bella Nerones? Quos terrena viros inlustres gloria fecit, Et virtus fragilis provexit in ardua famae, Adscita terris sub religione iacentes. Quam pudet, hoc illis persuasum, talibus ut se, Romanasque acies censerent Martis amore Posse regi, dum se Paphiae male blandus adulter Venditat, Aeneadasque suos successibus auget! Felices, si cuncta Deo sua prospera Christo Principe disposita scissent! qui currere regna Certis ducta modis, Romanorumque triumphos Crescere, et impletis voluit se infundere saeclis. Sed caligantes animas et luce carentes, In Iovis Augustique adytis, templisque duarum Iunonum, Martisque etiam Venerisque sacellis Mactatas, taetro leti immersere barathro, Supremum regimen crassis in partibus orbis Esse rati, mersoque poli consistere fundo. Quidquid humus, quidquid pelagus mirabile gignunt, Id duxere deos: colles, freta, flumina, flammas. Haec sibi per varias formata elementa figuras Constituere patres, hominumque vocabula mutis Scripserunt statuis, vel Neptunum vocitantes Oceanum, vel cyaneas cava flumina Nymphas, Vel silvas Dryadas, vel devia rura Napaeas. Ipse ignis, nostrum factus qui servit ad usum,.

Cite (SBL): Prudentius, C. Symm. 2.271 (Lanfranchi 2:lines 271–300; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/prudentius-contra-symmachum/2-271). (abbreviation not yet checked)

Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/prudentius-contra-symmachum/2-271

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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin of Lanfranchi's edition (Turin, 1898; OCR, corrections logged); checked afterwards privately against FOTC 52.

2.301Lanfranchi 2:lines 301–330

Vulcanus perhibetur, et in virtute superna Fingitur, ac delubra, deus et nomine et ore Adsimilatus, habet: nec non regnare caminis Fertur, et Aeoliae summus faber esse vel Aetnae. Est, qui conspicuis superos quaesivit in astris, Ausus habere deum Solem; cui tramite certo Condicio imposita est, vigilem tolerare laborem, Visibus obiectum mortalibus, orbe rotundo Praecipitem, teretique globo per inane volantem; Et, quod nemo negat, mundo caeloque minorem. Area maior enim, quam qui percurrit in illa: Et longe campi spatium diffusius, in quo Emicat, ac volucri fervens rota volvitur axe. Quamvis nonnullis placeat, terram breviorem Dicere circuitu, quam sit pulcherrimus ille Circulus, et flammas immensi sideris, ultra Telluris normam, porrecto extendere gyro. Numne etiam caeli minor et contractior orbis, Cuius planitiem longo transmittere tractu Circinus excurrens meta interiore laborat? Ille Deus verus, quo non est grandior ulla Materies, qui fine caret, qui praesidet omni Naturae, qui cuncta simul concludit et implet. Solem certa tenet regio, plaga certa coercet, Temporibus variis distinguitur: aut subit ortu, Aut ruit occasu, latet aut sub nocte recurrens: Nec torquere facem potis est ad signa Trionum, Orbe nec obliquo portas Aquilonis adire, Nec solitum conversus iter revocare retrorsum. Hic erit ergo Deus, praescriptis lege sub una

is called Vulcan, imagined as a heavenly power, and has shrines, made like a god in name and face; and he is said to reign over furnaces too, and to be the supreme smith of Aeolia or of Etna. There is one who sought the gods in the visible stars, daring to hold the Sun as god, on whom a condition has been imposed to bear a sleepless labor on a fixed path, set before mortal sight, rushing headlong in its round orbit and flying through the void as a smooth globe, and, as no one denies, smaller than the world and the heaven. For the space is greater than he who runs through it, and the expanse of the field in which he shines out and the burning wheel rolls on its swift axle is far wider. Although some like to say that the earth is shorter in circuit than that most beautiful circle, and that the flames of the immense star stretch beyond the measure of the earth in an extended ring, is the orb of heaven also smaller and more contracted, whose plane the compass, running out with a long sweep, labors to cross with an inner limit? That is the true God, than whom no matter is greater, who has no end, who presides over all nature, who at once encloses and fills all things. A fixed region holds the sun, a fixed tract confines him; he is marked by various times: he either comes up at rising, or rushes down at setting, or lies hidden, running back under the night; he cannot turn his torch toward the signs of the Bears, nor approach the gates of the north wind in a slanting orbit, nor turn round and call back his accustomed path. Will this, then, be God, who, under one law,

Jer 23:24 (echo, low confidence)

Notes and citation

Summary: Fire was deified as Vulcan and the sun as a god, yet the sun is bound to a fixed course and smaller than the heaven it crosses; the true God has no limit, presides over all nature and fills all things.

Jer 23:24 (God fills heaven and earth). Ancient astronomical views as the poet states them.

Notes on the original text

Digital text corrected (OCR text badly garbled: clear slips corrected throughout; stray line numbers, note marks, footnote and apparatus lines removed (readings restored by sense are named in the notes)): Vulcanus perliibotur, et in virtute superna Fingitur, ac delubra, deus et nomiiie et ore Adsimilatus, habet: nec non regnare caminis Fertur, et Aeoliae summus faber esse, vel Ae- Est, qui conspicuis superos quaesivit in astris, Ausus habere deum Solem; cui tramite certo Conditio imposita est, vigilem tolerare laborem, Visibus obiectum mortalibus, orbe rotundo Praecipitem, teretiquo globo per inane volantem ; Et, quod nemo negat, mundo caeloque minorem. Area raaior enim, quam qui percurrit in illa: Et longe campi spatium diffusius, in quo Emicat, ac volucri fervens rota volvitur axe. Quamvis nonnullis placeat, terram breviorem Dicere circuitu, quam sit pulcherrimus ille Circulus, et flammas immensi sideris, ultra Telluris normam, porrecto extendere gyro. Numne etiam caeli minor et contractior orbis, Cuius planitiem longo transmittore tractu Circinus excurrens meta interiore laborat? Ille Deus verus, quo non est grandior ulla Materies, qui fine caret, qui praesidr-t omni Naturae, qui cuncta simul concludit et implet. Solem certa tenet regio, plaga certa coercet, Temporibus variis distinguitur : aut subit ortu, Aut ruit occasu, latet aut sub nocte recurrens : Nec torquere facem potis est ad signa Trionum, Orbe nec obliquo portas Aquilonis adire, Nec solitum conversus iter revocare retrorsum. Hic erit ergo Deus, praescriptis lege sub una → Vulcanus perhibetur, et in virtute superna Fingitur, ac delubra, deus et nomine et ore Adsimilatus, habet: nec non regnare caminis Fertur, et Aeoliae summus faber esse vel Aetnae. Est, qui conspicuis superos quaesivit in astris, Ausus habere deum Solem; cui tramite certo Condicio imposita est, vigilem tolerare laborem, Visibus obiectum mortalibus, orbe rotundo Praecipitem, teretique globo per inane volantem; Et, quod nemo negat, mundo caeloque minorem. Area maior enim, quam qui percurrit in illa: Et longe campi spatium diffusius, in quo Emicat, ac volucri fervens rota volvitur axe. Quamvis nonnullis placeat, terram breviorem Dicere circuitu, quam sit pulcherrimus ille Circulus, et flammas immensi sideris, ultra Telluris normam, porrecto extendere gyro. Numne etiam caeli minor et contractior orbis, Cuius planitiem longo transmittere tractu Circinus excurrens meta interiore laborat? Ille Deus verus, quo non est grandior ulla Materies, qui fine caret, qui praesidet omni Naturae, qui cuncta simul concludit et implet. Solem certa tenet regio, plaga certa coercet, Temporibus variis distinguitur: aut subit ortu, Aut ruit occasu, latet aut sub nocte recurrens: Nec torquere facem potis est ad signa Trionum, Orbe nec obliquo portas Aquilonis adire, Nec solitum conversus iter revocare retrorsum. Hic erit ergo Deus, praescriptis lege sub una.

Cite (SBL): Prudentius, C. Symm. 2.301 (Lanfranchi 2:lines 301–330; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/prudentius-contra-symmachum/2-301). (abbreviation not yet checked)

Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/prudentius-contra-symmachum/2-301

BibTeX · RIS · CSL-JSON (whole work; this passage's key: sophiascriptura-prudentius-contra-symmachum-2-301) · Report an error

Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin of Lanfranchi's edition (Turin, 1898; OCR, corrections logged); checked afterwards privately against FOTC 52.

2.331Lanfranchi 2:lines 331–360

Deditus officiis? Libertas laxior ipsi Concessa est homini: formam cui flectere vitae Atque voluntatis licitum est, seu tramite dextro Scandere, seu laevo malit decurrere campo, Sumere seu requiem, seu continuare laborem, Seu parere Deo, sive in contraria verti. Ista ministranti regimen sollemne dierum Haudquaquam Soli datur a factore potestas: Sed famulus subiectus agit quodcumque necesse est. Hoc sidus currum, rapidasque agitare quadrigas Commenti, et radios capitis, et verbera dextrae, Et frenos, phalerasque et equorum pectora anhela Aeris inaurati, vel marmoris, aut orichalci, Iusserunt nitido fulgere polita metallo. Post trabeas, et eburnam aquilam, sellamque curulem, Cernuat ora senex barbatus, et oscula figit Cruribus aenipedum, si fas est credere, equorum Immotasque rotas, et flecti nescia lora Aut ornat redimita rosis, aut ture vaporat. Haec tamen utcumque est tolerabile. Quid quod et ipsae Dant tibi, Roma, deos inferni gurgitis umbrae? Eumenidum domina Stygio caput exserit antro, Rapta ad Tartarei thalamum Proserpina regis; Et, si quando suos dignatur adire Quirites, Placatur vaccae sterilis cervice resecta, Et regnare simul caeloque Ereboque putatur: Nunc bigas frenare boves, nunc saeva Sororum Agmina vipereo superis immittere flagro, Nunc etiam volucres caprearum in terga sagittas Spargere, terque suas eadem variare figuras.

is given over to prescribed duties? A wider freedom has been granted to man himself: he is allowed to bend the form of his life and will, whether he prefers to climb by the right-hand path or run down the left-hand plain, to take rest or to continue his labor, to obey God or to turn to the contrary. Such power is by no means given by the Maker to the Sun, who ministers the solemn rule of the days, but as a subject servant he does whatever is necessary. They imagined that this star drives a chariot and swift four-horse team, and ordered the rays of his head, the whip of his right hand, the reins, the trappings, and the panting breasts of the horses to shine, polished, in gleaming metal of gilded bronze, or marble, or brass. After the robes of state, the ivory eagle, and the curule chair, a bearded old man bows his face and fixes kisses on the legs of bronze-footed horses, if it is right to believe it, and either adorns the motionless wheels and the reins that cannot bend with wreaths of roses or fumigates them with incense. Yet this is somehow tolerable. What of this, that even the shades of the infernal gulf give you gods, Rome? The mistress of the Furies thrusts her head out of the Stygian cave, Proserpina, snatched away to the bridal chamber of the king of Tartarus; and if ever she deigns to visit her Quirites, she is appeased by the severed neck of a barren cow, and she is thought to reign in heaven and in Erebus at once: now to rein a two-horse chariot of oxen, now to send the savage ranks of her Sisters against those above with a viper whip, now also to scatter flying arrows on the backs of roe deer, and the same goddess to vary her form threefold.

Notes and citation

Summary: Unlike the sun, which is a servant bound to its course, man was given freedom to choose his way; yet senators kiss the statues of the sun’s horses, and Rome even worships the underworld goddess Proserpina in her threefold form.

Free will as the poet states it. Polemic as written.

Notes on the original text

Digital text corrected (OCR text badly garbled: clear slips corrected throughout; stray line numbers, note marks, footnote and apparatus lines removed (readings restored by sense are named in the notes)): Deditus officiis? Libertas laxior ipsi Concessa est homini: formam cui flectere vitae Atque voluntatis iicitum est, seu tramite dextro Scandere, seu laevo malit decurrere campo, Sumere seu requiem, seu continuare laborem, Seu parere Deo, sive in contraria verti. Ista ministranti regimen solemne dierum Haudquaquam Soli datur a factore potestas : Sed famulus subiectus agit quodcumque necesse est. Hoc sidus currum, rapidasque agitare quadrigas Commenti , et radios capitis , et verbera dextrae, Et frenos, plialerasque et equorum pectora anhela Aeris inaurati, vel marmoris, aut orichalci, lusserunt nitido fulgere polita metallo. Post trabeas, et eburnam aquilam, sellamque curulem, Cernuat ora seuex barbatus, et oscula figit Cruribus aenipedum, si fas est credere, equorum Immotasque rotas, et flecti nescia lora Aut ornat redimita rosis, aut ture vaporat. Hgc tamen utciimque est tolerabile. Quid? quod et ipsae Dant tibi, Iioma, deos inferni gurgitis umbrae. Eumenidum domina Styg-io caput exserit antro, Kapta ad Tartarei tlialamum Proserpina regis ; Et, si quando suos dignatur adire Quirites, Placatur vaccae sterilis cervice resecta, Et regnare simul caeloque Erelioqueputatur: Xunc higas frenare boves, nunc saeva Sororum Agmina vipereo superis immittere flagro, Nunc etiam volucres caprearum in terga sagittas Spargere, terque suas eadem variare figoras. [365 → Deditus officiis? Libertas laxior ipsi Concessa est homini: formam cui flectere vitae Atque voluntatis licitum est, seu tramite dextro Scandere, seu laevo malit decurrere campo, Sumere seu requiem, seu continuare laborem, Seu parere Deo, sive in contraria verti. Ista ministranti regimen sollemne dierum Haudquaquam Soli datur a factore potestas: Sed famulus subiectus agit quodcumque necesse est. Hoc sidus currum, rapidasque agitare quadrigas Commenti, et radios capitis, et verbera dextrae, Et frenos, phalerasque et equorum pectora anhela Aeris inaurati, vel marmoris, aut orichalci, Iusserunt nitido fulgere polita metallo. Post trabeas, et eburnam aquilam, sellamque curulem, Cernuat ora senex barbatus, et oscula figit Cruribus aenipedum, si fas est credere, equorum Immotasque rotas, et flecti nescia lora Aut ornat redimita rosis, aut ture vaporat. Haec tamen utcumque est tolerabile. Quid quod et ipsae Dant tibi, Roma, deos inferni gurgitis umbrae? Eumenidum domina Stygio caput exserit antro, Rapta ad Tartarei thalamum Proserpina regis; Et, si quando suos dignatur adire Quirites, Placatur vaccae sterilis cervice resecta, Et regnare simul caeloque Ereboque putatur: Nunc bigas frenare boves, nunc saeva Sororum Agmina vipereo superis immittere flagro, Nunc etiam volucres caprearum in terga sagittas Spargere, terque suas eadem variare figuras..

Topics: Ethics

Cite (SBL): Prudentius, C. Symm. 2.331 (Lanfranchi 2:lines 331–360; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/prudentius-contra-symmachum/2-331). (abbreviation not yet checked)

Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/prudentius-contra-symmachum/2-331

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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin of Lanfranchi's edition (Turin, 1898; OCR, corrections logged); checked afterwards privately against FOTC 52.

2.361Lanfranchi 2:lines 361–390

Denique cum Luna est, sublustri splendet amictu: Cum succincta iacit calamos, Latonia virgo est, Cum subnixa sedet solio, Plutonia coniunx Imperitat Furiis, et dictat iura Megaerae. Si verum quaeris; Triviae sub nomine daemon Tartareus colitur, qui te modo raptat ad aethram, Sidereoque deum venerandum suadet in astro: Per silvas modo mortiferi discurrere mundi, Erroresque sequi subigit, nemorumque putare Esse deam, quae corda hominum pavitantia figat, Quaeque feras perimat letali vulnere mentes: Depressos modo subter humum formidine sensus Obruit, implorent ut numina lucis egena, Seque potestati committant noctis opertae. Respice terrifici scelerata sacraria Ditis, Cui cadit infausta fusus gladiator harena, Heu male lustratae Phlegethontia victima Romae! Nam quid vesani sibi vult ars impia ludi? Quid mortes iuvenum? quid sanguine pasta voluptas? Quid pulvis caveae semper funebris, et illa Amphitheatralis spectacula tristia pompae? Nempe Charon iugulis miserorum se duce dignas Accipit inferias, placatus crimine sacro. Hae sunt deliciae Iovis infernalis: in istis Arbiter obscuri placidus requiescit Averni. Nonne pudet regem populum sceptrisque potentem Talia pro patriae censere litanda salute? Religionis opem subternis poscere ab antris? Evocat, heu! poenis tenebrosa ex sede ministrum Interitus, speciosa hominum cui funera solvat.

In short, when she is the Moon, she shines in a dim robe; when, girt up, she shoots arrows, she is Latona’s virgin daughter; when she sits enthroned, she is Pluto’s wife, commands the Furies, and dictates laws to Megaera. If you seek the truth, under the name of Trivia a demon of Tartarus is worshipped, who now snatches you up to the sky and persuades you that a god must be venerated in a starry body; now forces you to run about through the woods of a deadly world and to follow errors, and to think that there is a goddess of the groves, who pierces the trembling hearts of men, and destroys wild minds with deadly wound; now overwhelms your senses, pressed down below the earth with fear, so that they implore powers without light and commit themselves to the power of covered night. Look at the wicked sanctuaries of terrifying Dis, for whom the gladiator falls, laid low on the ill-omened sand, alas, a victim for Phlegethon from an ill-purified Rome! For what does the impious art of the mad game mean? What do the deaths of young men mean? What the pleasure fed on blood? What the ever-funereal dust of the arena, and those grim spectacles of the amphitheatre’s show? Charon, of course, receives from the throats of the wretched offerings worthy of himself as leader, appeased by a sacred crime. These are the delights of the infernal Jupiter; in these the ruler of dark Avernus rests content. Is it not shameful that a royal people, powerful with sceptres, should judge that such sacrifices must be offered for the safety of the fatherland, and should seek the aid of religion from caves beneath the earth? Alas, it calls up from his dark seat the minister of destruction, to pay him splendid human deaths as penalties.

Notes and citation

Summary: The threefold goddess, Moon, Diana and Proserpina, is a demon of Tartarus; gladiatorial games are human sacrifices to Dis and Charon, a shameful thing for a royal people to offer for the safety of the state.

Gladiatorial games as offerings to the gods of the dead; Prudentius later asks the emperor to abolish them (Book 2). Polemic as written.

Notes on the original text

Digital text corrected (OCR text badly garbled: clear slips corrected throughout; stray line numbers, note marks, footnote and apparatus lines removed (readings restored by sense are named in the notes)): Denique quum Luna est, sublustri splendet amictu: Quum succincta iacit calainos. Latonia virgo est, Quum subnixa sedet solio, Plutonia coniux Imperitat Furiis. et dictat iura Megaerae. Si verum quaeris; Triviae sub iiomiiie daemon Tartareus colitur, qui te modo raptat ad aetliram, Sidereoque deum venerandum suadet in astro : [370 Per silvas modo mortiferi discurrere raundi, Erroresque sequi subigit, nemorumque putare Esse deam, quae corda hominum pavitantia figat, Quaeque feras perimat letali vulnere mentes: Depressos modo subter humum formidine sensus Obruit, imi^lorent ut iiumina lucis egena, Seque potestati committant noctis opertae. Respice terrifici scelerata sacraria Ditis, Cui cadit infausta fusus gladiator arena, Heu male lustratae Phlegetliontia victima Eomae! Xam quid vesani sibi vult ars impia ludi? Quid mortes iuvenum? quid sanguine pasta voluptas? Quid pulvis caveae seraper funebris, et illa Araphitheatralis spectacula tristia pompae? aSTempe Charon iugulis miserorum se duce dignas Accipit inferias, placatus crimine sacro. Hae sunt deliciae lovis infernalis : in istis Arbiter obscuri placidus requiescit Averni. Nonne pudet regem populum sceptrisque potentem Talia pro patriae censere litanda salute? Keligionis opem subternis poscere ab antris? Evocat, heu! poenis tenebrosa ex sede ministrum Interitus, sj^eciosa hominum cui funera solvat. → Denique cum Luna est, sublustri splendet amictu: Cum succincta iacit calamos, Latonia virgo est, Cum subnixa sedet solio, Plutonia coniunx Imperitat Furiis, et dictat iura Megaerae. Si verum quaeris; Triviae sub nomine daemon Tartareus colitur, qui te modo raptat ad aethram, Sidereoque deum venerandum suadet in astro: Per silvas modo mortiferi discurrere mundi, Erroresque sequi subigit, nemorumque putare Esse deam, quae corda hominum pavitantia figat, Quaeque feras perimat letali vulnere mentes: Depressos modo subter humum formidine sensus Obruit, implorent ut numina lucis egena, Seque potestati committant noctis opertae. Respice terrifici scelerata sacraria Ditis, Cui cadit infausta fusus gladiator harena, Heu male lustratae Phlegethontia victima Romae! Nam quid vesani sibi vult ars impia ludi? Quid mortes iuvenum? quid sanguine pasta voluptas? Quid pulvis caveae semper funebris, et illa Amphitheatralis spectacula tristia pompae? Nempe Charon iugulis miserorum se duce dignas Accipit inferias, placatus crimine sacro. Hae sunt deliciae Iovis infernalis: in istis Arbiter obscuri placidus requiescit Averni. Nonne pudet regem populum sceptrisque potentem Talia pro patriae censere litanda salute? Religionis opem subternis poscere ab antris? Evocat, heu! poenis tenebrosa ex sede ministrum Interitus, speciosa hominum cui funera solvat..

Topics: Ethics

Cite (SBL): Prudentius, C. Symm. 2.361 (Lanfranchi 2:lines 361–390; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/prudentius-contra-symmachum/2-361). (abbreviation not yet checked)

Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/prudentius-contra-symmachum/2-361

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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin of Lanfranchi's edition (Turin, 1898; OCR, corrections logged); checked afterwards privately against FOTC 52.

2.391Lanfranchi 2:lines 391–420

Incassum arguere iam Taurica sacra solemus: Funditur humanus Latiari in munere sanguis, Consessusque ille spectantum solvit ad aram Plutonis fera vota sui. Quid sanctius ara, Quae bibit egestum per mystica tela cruorem? Anne fides dubia est tibi, sub caligine caeca Esse deum, quem tu tacitis rimeris in umbris? Ecce, deos Manes cur infitiaris haberi? Ipsa patrum monumenta probant: Dis Manibus illic Marmora secta lego, quaecumque Latina vetustos Custodit cineres, densisque Salaria bustis. Dic, quibus hunc scribis titulum: nisi quod trucis Orci Imperium, verae ceu maiestatis, adoras? En, quibus implicita squalebat regia summi Imperii, tractis maiorum ab origine sacris! Cum princeps, gemini bis victor caede tyranni, Pulchra triumphali respexit moenia vultu, Nubibus obsessam nigrantibus adspicit urbem, Noctis obumbratae caligine: turbidus aer Arcebat liquidum septena ex arce serenum. Ingemuit miserans, et sic ait: « Exue tristes, Fida parens, habitus; equidem praedivite cultu Inlustrata cluis, spoliisque insigne superbis Attollis caput, et multo circumfluis auro: Sed nebulis propter volitantibus obsitus alti Verticis horret apex: ipsas quoque livida gemmas Lux hebetat, spissusque dies, et fumus ab ara Suffusus rutilum frontis diadema retundit. Obscuras video tibi circumferrier umbras, Caeruleasque animas, atque idola nigra volare.

We are used to censuring the Tauric rites in vain: human blood is poured out in the offering to Latiaris, and that assembly of spectators pays at the altar of its Pluto its savage vows. What is holier than the altar that drinks the blood drained through mystic weapons? Or is it a doubtful belief for you that there is a god under blind darkness, whom you search for in the silent shades? See, why do you deny that the Manes are held as gods? The very tombs of the fathers prove it: there I read “To the gods of the Shades” on cut marbles, whatever ones the Latin Way guards, with its ancient ashes, and the Salarian Way with its crowded tombs. Say, to whom do you write this inscription? unless it is that you adore the empire of cruel Orcus as of a true majesty? See, in what things the palace of the supreme empire lay squalid and entangled, its rites drawn from the origin of the ancestors! When the emperor, twice victor in the slaughter of two tyrants, looked back with triumphant face on the beautiful walls, he sees the city beset by black clouds, by the darkness of shadowed night: turbid air kept the clear sky away from the citadel of the seven hills. He groaned in pity, and spoke thus: “Put off your mourning dress, faithful mother: you are famous indeed, made glorious by rich adornment; you lift your head, distinguished by proud spoils, and you are wrapped round with much gold; but the summit of your high head bristles, beset by the clouds flying nearby; a livid light dulls even the jewels, and the thick daylight and smoke spread from the altar blunt the ruddy diadem of your brow. I see dark shades carried about you, and blue-black souls and black idols flying.

Notes and citation

Summary: Human blood is shed in the games for Jupiter Latiaris, and tombstones dedicated “to the gods of the Shades” show that Rome worships the powers of death; Theodosius, returning victorious, sees Rome under a cloud of idolatry and calls on her to put off her mourning.

Jupiter Latiaris, said to be honored with a gladiator’s blood; “D(is) M(anibus)” on tombstones along the Via Latina and Via Salaria. The emperor is Theodosius I, victor over Maximus (388) and Eugenius (394). Line 391 is read “Incassum arguere” (scan “Incassuni arguore”). A stray line number was removed.

Notes on the original text

Digital text corrected (OCR text badly garbled: clear slips corrected throughout; stray line numbers, note marks, footnote and apparatus lines removed (readings restored by sense are named in the notes)): Incassuni arguore iam Taurica sacra solemus: Funditur humanus Latiari in munere sanguis, Consessusque ille spectantum solvit ad aram Plutonis fera vota sui. Quid sanctius ara, Quae bibit egestum per m^-stica tela cruorem? Anne fides dubia est tibi, sub caligine coeca Esse Deum, quem tu tacitis rimeris in umbris? Ecce, deos Manes cur infitiaris haberi? Ipsa patrum monumenta probant : dis Manibus illic Marmora secta lego , quaecumque Latina vetustos Custodit cineres, donsisquo Salaria bustis. Dic, quibus hunc scribis tituhim: nisi quod trucis Orci Imperium, verae ceu inaiestatis, adoras? En quibus implicita squalebat reg-ia summi Imperii, tractis maiorum ab origine sacris ! Quum Princeps, gemini bis victor caede tyranni, Pulchra triumpliali respexit moenia vultu, Nubibus obsessam nigrantibus adspicit urbem, Noctis obumbratae caligine: turbidus aer Arcebat liquidum septena ex arce serenum. Ingemuit miserans, et sic ait: « Exue tristes, Fida parens, habitus; equidem praedivite cultu Inlustrata cluis, spoliisque insigne superbis Attollis caput, et multo circumfluis auro: Sed nebulis propter volitantibus obsitus alti [420 Verticis horret apex : ipsas quoque livida gemmas Lux hebetat, spissusque dies^ et fumus ab ora Suifusus rutilum frontis diadema retundit. Obscuras video tibi circumferrier umbras, Caeruleasque animas, atque idola nigra volare. → Incassum arguere iam Taurica sacra solemus: Funditur humanus Latiari in munere sanguis, Consessusque ille spectantum solvit ad aram Plutonis fera vota sui. Quid sanctius ara, Quae bibit egestum per mystica tela cruorem? Anne fides dubia est tibi, sub caligine caeca Esse deum, quem tu tacitis rimeris in umbris? Ecce, deos Manes cur infitiaris haberi? Ipsa patrum monumenta probant: Dis Manibus illic Marmora secta lego, quaecumque Latina vetustos Custodit cineres, densisque Salaria bustis. Dic, quibus hunc scribis titulum: nisi quod trucis Orci Imperium, verae ceu maiestatis, adoras? En, quibus implicita squalebat regia summi Imperii, tractis maiorum ab origine sacris! Cum princeps, gemini bis victor caede tyranni, Pulchra triumphali respexit moenia vultu, Nubibus obsessam nigrantibus adspicit urbem, Noctis obumbratae caligine: turbidus aer Arcebat liquidum septena ex arce serenum. Ingemuit miserans, et sic ait: « Exue tristes, Fida parens, habitus; equidem praedivite cultu Inlustrata cluis, spoliisque insigne superbis Attollis caput, et multo circumfluis auro: Sed nebulis propter volitantibus obsitus alti Verticis horret apex: ipsas quoque livida gemmas Lux hebetat, spissusque dies, et fumus ab ara Suffusus rutilum frontis diadema retundit. Obscuras video tibi circumferrier umbras, Caeruleasque animas, atque idola nigra volare..

Cite (SBL): Prudentius, C. Symm. 2.391 (Lanfranchi 2:lines 391–420; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/prudentius-contra-symmachum/2-391). (abbreviation not yet checked)

Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/prudentius-contra-symmachum/2-391

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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin of Lanfranchi's edition (Turin, 1898; OCR, corrections logged); checked afterwards privately against FOTC 52.

2.421Lanfranchi 2:lines 421–450

Censeo, sublimem tollas super aera vultum; Sub pedibusque tuis nimbosa elementa relinquas. Omne, quod ex mundo est, tibi subiacet: hoc Deus ipse Constituit, cuius nutu dominaris, et orbi Imperitas, et cuncta potens mortalia calcas. Non decet, ut submissa oculos, regina, caducum Circa humiles rerum partes, quibus ipsa superstas. Non patiar, veteres teneas ut me duce nugas, Ut cariosorum venereris monstra deorum. Si lapis est, senio dissolvitur, aut crepat ictu Percussus tenui; mollis si bractea gypsum Texerat, infido rarescit glutine sensim. Si formam statuae lamnis commisit aenis Lima terens; aut in partem cava membra gravato Pondere curvantur; scabra aut aerugo peresam Conficit effigiem, crebroque foramine rumpit; Nec tibi terra deus, caeli nec sit deus astrum, Nec deus Oceanus, nec vis, quae subter operta est, Infernis triste ob meritum damnata tenebris. Sed nec virtutes hominum deus, aut animarum, Spirituumve, vagae tenui sub imagine formae. Absit ut umbra deus tibi sit, geniusve, locusve, Aut deus aerias volitans phantasma per auras. Sint haec barbaricis gentilia numina pagis, Quos penes omne sacrum est, quidquid formido tremendum Suaserit; horrificos quos prodigialia cogunt Credere monstra deos, quos sanguinolentus edendi Mos iuvat, ut pinguis luco lanietur in alto Victima, visceribus multa inter vina vorandis.

I advise you to lift your face on high above the air and leave the cloudy elements beneath your feet. All that is of the world lies beneath you: God himself established this, by whose will you are mistress, rule the world, and, being powerful, trample on all mortal things. It is not fitting, queen, that you should lower your eyes … about the perishing, lowly parts of things above which you stand. I will not allow you, under my leadership, to keep old trifles, to venerate the monsters of worm-eaten gods. If it is stone, it crumbles with age or cracks when struck by a light blow; if soft leaf has covered the plaster, it gradually thins as the treacherous glue fails; if the file has joined the form of the statue with bronze plates, either the hollow limbs bend to one side under a heavy weight, or rough verdigris eats the image away and bursts it with many holes. Let not earth be your god, nor a star of heaven your god, nor Ocean your god, nor the power hidden below, condemned to the infernal darkness for its grim deserts. And let neither the virtues of men be god, nor shapes of souls or spirits wandering under a thin image. Far be it that a shade should be your god, or a genius, or a place, or a phantom flitting through the airy breezes. Let these be the pagan divinities of barbarian villages, among whom whatever fear has suggested as dreadful is sacred; whom portents compel to believe horrific monsters to be gods; who delight in a bloody custom of eating, that a fat victim be torn in a deep grove, its entrails to be devoured amid much wine.

Notes and citation

Summary: Theodosius urges Rome to lift her eyes above the elements to God, who made her mistress of the world, and to give up decaying idols and every deified power, place or spirit, leaving such gods to the barbarians.

A running head line (an Italian title) was removed, and a word run into the line end in the scan (“ipse”) was restored to its place. A line seems lost after line 426; marked “…”.

Notes on the original text

Digital text corrected (OCR text badly garbled: clear slips corrected throughout; stray line numbers, note marks, footnote and apparatus lines removed (readings restored by sense are named in the notes)): Censeo, sublimem tollas super aera vultum; Sub pedibusque tuis nimbosa elementa relinquas. Omne, quod ex mundo est, tibi subiacet: hoc Deus Constituit, cuius nutu dominaris, et orbi [ipse Imperitas, et cuncta potens mortalia calcas. Non decet, ut submissa oculos, regina, oaducum Latina e Italiana di Raffaele Notari Barnabita. — Torino Circa humiles rerum partes, quibus ipsa superstas. Non patiar(l), voteres teneas ut me duce nugas. Ut cariosorum venereris monstra deorum. Si lapis est, senio dissolvitur, aut crepat ictu Percussus tenui; mollis si bractea gypsum Texerat, infido rarescit glutine sensim. Si formam statuae lamnis commisit aenis Lima terens ; aut in partem cava membra gravato Pondere curvantur; scabra aut aerngo peresam Conficit eifigiem, crebroque foramine rumpit; Nec til)i terra Deus, caeli nec sit Deus astrum, Nec Deus Oceanus, nec vis, quae subter operta est, Infernis triste ob meritum damnata tenebris. Sed nec virtutes liominum Deus, aut animarum, Spirituumve, vagae tenui sub iraagine formae. Absit ut umbra Deus tibi sit, geniusve, locusve, Aut Deus aerias volitans phantasma per auras. Sint haec liarbaricis gentilia numina pagis, Quos penes omne sacrum est, quidquid formido tremendum Suaserit; horrificos quos prodigialia cogunt Credere mon.stra deos, quos sanguinolentus edendi Mos iuvat, nt pinguis luco lanietur in alto Victima, visceribus multa inter vina vorandis. → Censeo, sublimem tollas super aera vultum; Sub pedibusque tuis nimbosa elementa relinquas. Omne, quod ex mundo est, tibi subiacet: hoc Deus ipse Constituit, cuius nutu dominaris, et orbi Imperitas, et cuncta potens mortalia calcas. Non decet, ut submissa oculos, regina, caducum Circa humiles rerum partes, quibus ipsa superstas. Non patiar, veteres teneas ut me duce nugas, Ut cariosorum venereris monstra deorum. Si lapis est, senio dissolvitur, aut crepat ictu Percussus tenui; mollis si bractea gypsum Texerat, infido rarescit glutine sensim. Si formam statuae lamnis commisit aenis Lima terens; aut in partem cava membra gravato Pondere curvantur; scabra aut aerugo peresam Conficit effigiem, crebroque foramine rumpit; Nec tibi terra deus, caeli nec sit deus astrum, Nec deus Oceanus, nec vis, quae subter operta est, Infernis triste ob meritum damnata tenebris. Sed nec virtutes hominum deus, aut animarum, Spirituumve, vagae tenui sub imagine formae. Absit ut umbra deus tibi sit, geniusve, locusve, Aut deus aerias volitans phantasma per auras. Sint haec barbaricis gentilia numina pagis, Quos penes omne sacrum est, quidquid formido tremendum Suaserit; horrificos quos prodigialia cogunt Credere monstra deos, quos sanguinolentus edendi Mos iuvat, ut pinguis luco lanietur in alto Victima, visceribus multa inter vina vorandis..

Cite (SBL): Prudentius, C. Symm. 2.421 (Lanfranchi 2:lines 421–450; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/prudentius-contra-symmachum/2-421). (abbreviation not yet checked)

Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/prudentius-contra-symmachum/2-421

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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin of Lanfranchi's edition (Turin, 1898; OCR, corrections logged); checked afterwards privately against FOTC 52.

2.451Lanfranchi 2:lines 451–480

At te, quae domitis leges ac iura dedisti Gentibus, instituens, magnus qua tenditur orbis, Armorum morumque feros mansuescere ritus, Indignum ac miserum est, in religione tenenda Hoc sapere, immanes populi de more ferino Quod sapiunt, nullaque rudes ratione sequuntur. Seu nos procinctus maneat, seu pace quietas Dictemus leges, seu debellata duorum Colla tyrannorum media calcemus in urbe: Agnoscas, regina, libens mea signa necesse est, In quibus effigies Crucis aut gemmata refulget, Aut longis solido ex auro praefertur in hastis. Hoc signo invictus, transmissis Alpibus, ultor Servitium solvit miserabile Constantinus, Cum te pestifera premeret Maxentius aula. Lugebas longo damnatos carcere centum, Ut scis ipsa, patres; aut sponsus foedera pactae Intercepta gemens, diroque satellite rapta, Immersus tenebris, dura inter vincula flebat: Aut si nupta, torum regis conscendere iussa, Coeperat impurum domini oblectare furorem, Morte maritalis dabat indignatio poenas. Plena puellarum patribus ergastula saevi Principis: abducta genitor si virgine mussans Tristius ingemuit; non ille impune dolorem Prodidit, aut confessa animis suspiria traxit. Testis Christicolae ducis adventantis ad urbem Mulvius, exceptum Tiberina in stagna tyrannum Praecipitans, quanam victricia viderit arma

But for you, who gave laws and rights to the conquered nations, teaching the savage customs of arms and manners to grow gentle wherever the great world stretches, it is unworthy and wretched, in holding to religion, to think as the monstrous peoples think after their bestial way, and to follow no reason in their crudeness. Whether a campaign awaits us, or we dictate quiet laws in peace, or trample the conquered necks of two tyrants in the middle of the city, you must gladly recognize my standards, queen, on which the figure of the Cross either shines set with gems or is carried in front, of solid gold, on long staffs. Unconquered by this sign, Constantine crossed the Alps as avenger and broke the wretched slavery, when Maxentius was oppressing you with his pestilent court. You were mourning, as you yourself know, a hundred fathers condemned to long imprisonment; or a bridegroom, groaning that the compact of his betrothed had been broken and she snatched away by a dreadful henchman, wept, plunged into darkness, amid hard chains; or if a wife, ordered to climb into the tyrant’s bed, had begun to delight the impure fury of her master, her husband’s indignation paid the penalty by death. The workhouses of the cruel prince were full of girls taken from their fathers: if a father, muttering when his virgin daughter was carried off, groaned too sadly, he did not betray his grief unpunished, or draw sighs that confessed his feelings. The Mulvian bridge is witness, when the Christian leader came to the city, hurling the tyrant down into the Tiber’s pools, by what majesty it saw the victorious arms

Textual problem in this passage: see the notes.

Notes and citation

Summary: Rome, which taught the nations civilized law, must not think like barbarians in religion, but recognize the emperor’s standards bearing the Cross, under which Constantine freed her from the tyranny of Maxentius, who imprisoned senators and seized wives and daughters.

The emperor (Theodosius) is still speaking. Constantine’s victory at the Milvian Bridge (312). A line in parentheses in the scan after line 476 (“Vim libertatis nimiae, patriumque dolorem”) is an editor’s gloss or variant, not part of the poem, and was removed.

Notes on the original text

Digital text corrected (OCR text badly garbled: clear slips corrected throughout; stray line numbers, note marks, footnote and apparatus lines removed (readings restored by sense are named in the notes)): At te, quae domitis leges ac iura dedisti Gentibus, instituens, magnus qua tenditur orbis, Armorum inorumque feros mansnescere ritus, Indignum ac miserum est, in religione tenenda Hoc sapere, immanes populi de more ferino Quod sapiunt, nullaque rudes rationesequuntur. Seu nos procinctus maneat, seu pace quietas Dictemus leges, seu debellata duorum CoUa tyrannorum media calcemus in urbe : Agnoscas, regina, libens mea signa necesse est, In quibus eflflgies Crucis aut gemmata refulget, Aut longis solido ex auro praefertur in liastis. Hoc signo invictus, transmissis Alpibus ultor, Servitium solvit miserabile Constantinus. Quum te pestifera premeret Maxentius aula, Lugebas longo damnatos carcere centum, Vt scis ipsa, patres; aut sponsus foedera pactae Intercepta gemens, diroque satellite rapta, Immersus tenebris, dura inter vincula flebat: Aut si nupta, torum regis conscendere iussa, Coeperat impurum domini oblectare furorem, Morte maritalis dabat indignatio poenas. Plena puellarum patribus ergastula saevi Principis: abducta genitor si virgine mussans Tristius ingemuit; non ille impane dolorem Prodidit, autconfessa animis suspiria traxit: (Vim libertatis nimiae, patriumque dolorem.) Testis Christicolae ducis adventantis ad urbem Mulvius, excoptum Tiberina in stagna t3Tannum Praecipitans, quanam victricia viderit arma → At te, quae domitis leges ac iura dedisti Gentibus, instituens, magnus qua tenditur orbis, Armorum morumque feros mansuescere ritus, Indignum ac miserum est, in religione tenenda Hoc sapere, immanes populi de more ferino Quod sapiunt, nullaque rudes ratione sequuntur. Seu nos procinctus maneat, seu pace quietas Dictemus leges, seu debellata duorum Colla tyrannorum media calcemus in urbe: Agnoscas, regina, libens mea signa necesse est, In quibus effigies Crucis aut gemmata refulget, Aut longis solido ex auro praefertur in hastis. Hoc signo invictus, transmissis Alpibus, ultor Servitium solvit miserabile Constantinus, Cum te pestifera premeret Maxentius aula. Lugebas longo damnatos carcere centum, Ut scis ipsa, patres; aut sponsus foedera pactae Intercepta gemens, diroque satellite rapta, Immersus tenebris, dura inter vincula flebat: Aut si nupta, torum regis conscendere iussa, Coeperat impurum domini oblectare furorem, Morte maritalis dabat indignatio poenas. Plena puellarum patribus ergastula saevi Principis: abducta genitor si virgine mussans Tristius ingemuit; non ille impune dolorem Prodidit, aut confessa animis suspiria traxit. Testis Christicolae ducis adventantis ad urbem Mulvius, exceptum Tiberina in stagna tyrannum Praecipitans, quanam victricia viderit arma.

Topics: Marriage, Persecution

Cite (SBL): Prudentius, C. Symm. 2.451 (Lanfranchi 2:lines 451–480; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/prudentius-contra-symmachum/2-451). (abbreviation not yet checked)

Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/prudentius-contra-symmachum/2-451

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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin of Lanfranchi's edition (Turin, 1898; OCR, corrections logged); checked afterwards privately against FOTC 52.

2.481Lanfranchi 2:lines 481–510

Maiestate regi, quod signum dextera vindex Praetulerit, quali radiarint stemmate pila. Christus purpureum, gemmanti textus in auro, Signabat labarum: clipeorum insignia Christus Scripserat: ardebat summis crux addita cristis. Ipse senatorum meminit clarissimus ordo, Qui tunc concreto processit crine, catenis Squalens carcereis, aut nexus compede vasta, Complexusque pedes victoris, ad inclita flendo Procubuit vexilla iacens. Tunc ille senatus Militiae ultricis titulum, Christique verendum Nomen adoravit, quod conlucebat in armis. Ergo cave, egregium caput orbis, inania posthac Prodigia, et larvas stolido tibi fingere cultu, Atque experta Dei virtutem spernere veri. Deponas iam festa velim puerilia, ritus Ridiculos, tantoque indigna sacraria regno. Marmora tabenti respergine tincta lavate, O proceres: liceat statuas consistere puras, Artificum magnorum opera: haec pulcherrima nostrae Ornamenta cluant patriae, nec decolor usus In vitium versae monumenta coinquinet artis. » — Talibus edictis urbs informata refugit Errores veteres, et turbida ab ore vieto Nubila discussit, iam nobilitate parata Aeternas temptare vias, Christumque vocante Magnanimo ductore sequi, et spem mittere in aevum. Tunc primum senio docilis sua saecula Roma Erubuit: pudet exacti iam temporis: odit Praeteritos foedis cum religionibus annos.

to be ruled, what sign the avenging right hand carried before it, with what emblem the javelins shone. Christ, woven in gold set with gems, marked the purple labarum; Christ had written the emblems of the shields; the cross, set on the tops of the crests, blazed. The most illustrious order of senators itself remembers it, which then came forth with matted hair, squalid with prison chains or bound with huge fetters, and, embracing the feet of the victor, lay prostrate weeping before the glorious standards. Then that senate adored the title of the avenging army and the venerable name of Christ, which shone on the arms. So beware, illustrious head of the world, of inventing for yourself henceforth empty portents and specters with stupid worship, and of scorning the power of the true God, which you have experienced. I would have you lay aside now your childish festivals, your ridiculous rites, and shrines unworthy of so great an empire. Wash the marbles stained with putrid spattering, you nobles: let the statues stand clean, the works of great artists; let these be called the most beautiful ornaments of our country, and let no discolored use pollute the monuments of an art turned to vice.” Instructed by such edicts, the city fled its old errors, shook the turbid clouds from its wrinkled face, its nobility now ready to try the eternal ways, to follow Christ at the call of its great-souled leader, and to send its hope into eternity. Then for the first time Rome, teachable in old age, blushed for her ages: she is ashamed of the time gone by; she hates the past years with their foul religions.

Notes and citation

Summary: The Christian labarum and shields led Constantine to victory, and the freed senators adored the name of Christ; Theodosius urges Rome to give up her idols, cleanse her statues and keep them as works of art; Rome, ashamed of her past, turns to Christ.

The labarum with the monogram of Christ. Theodosius’s speech ends at line 502. A stray line number was removed.

Notes on the original text

Digital text corrected (OCR text badly garbled: clear slips corrected throughout; stray line numbers, note marks, footnote and apparatus lines removed (readings restored by sense are named in the notes)): Maiestate regi, quod signum dextera vindex Praetulerit, quali radiiirint stemmate pila. Christus purpureum, gemmanti textus in auro, Signabat labarum: clypeorum insignia Christus Scripserat: ardebat summis crux addita cristis. Ipse senatorum meminit clarissimus ordo ; Qui tunc concreto processit crine, catenis Squalens carcereis, aut nexus compede vasta, Complexusque pedes victoris, ad inclita flendo Procubuit vexilla iacens. Tunc ille senatus Militiae ultricis titulum, Christique verendum495 Nomen adoravit, quod conlucebat in armis. Ergo cave, egregium caput orbis, inania posthac Prodigia, et larvas stolido tibi fingere cultu, Atque experta Dei virtutem spernere veri. Deponas iam festa velim puerilia, ritus Eidiculos, tantoque indigna sacraria regno. Marmora tabenti respergine tincta lavate, 0 proceres: liceat statuas consistere puras Artificum magnorum opera : hae pulcherrima nostrae Ornamenta cluant patriae, nec decolor usus In vitium versae monumenta coinquinet artis. Talibus edictis urbs informata refugit En-ores veteres, et turbida ab ore vieto Nubila discussit, iam nobilitate parata Aeternas tentare vias, Christumque vocante Magnanimo ductore sequi, et spem mittere in aevum. Tunc primum senio docilis sua saecula Roma Erubuit : pudet exacti iam temporis : odit Praeteritos foedis cum religionibus annos. → Maiestate regi, quod signum dextera vindex Praetulerit, quali radiarint stemmate pila. Christus purpureum, gemmanti textus in auro, Signabat labarum: clipeorum insignia Christus Scripserat: ardebat summis crux addita cristis. Ipse senatorum meminit clarissimus ordo, Qui tunc concreto processit crine, catenis Squalens carcereis, aut nexus compede vasta, Complexusque pedes victoris, ad inclita flendo Procubuit vexilla iacens. Tunc ille senatus Militiae ultricis titulum, Christique verendum Nomen adoravit, quod conlucebat in armis. Ergo cave, egregium caput orbis, inania posthac Prodigia, et larvas stolido tibi fingere cultu, Atque experta Dei virtutem spernere veri. Deponas iam festa velim puerilia, ritus Ridiculos, tantoque indigna sacraria regno. Marmora tabenti respergine tincta lavate, O proceres: liceat statuas consistere puras, Artificum magnorum opera: haec pulcherrima nostrae Ornamenta cluant patriae, nec decolor usus In vitium versae monumenta coinquinet artis. » — Talibus edictis urbs informata refugit Errores veteres, et turbida ab ore vieto Nubila discussit, iam nobilitate parata Aeternas temptare vias, Christumque vocante Magnanimo ductore sequi, et spem mittere in aevum. Tunc primum senio docilis sua saecula Roma Erubuit: pudet exacti iam temporis: odit Praeteritos foedis cum religionibus annos..

Cite (SBL): Prudentius, C. Symm. 2.481 (Lanfranchi 2:lines 481–510; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/prudentius-contra-symmachum/2-481). (abbreviation not yet checked)

Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/prudentius-contra-symmachum/2-481

BibTeX · RIS · CSL-JSON (whole work; this passage's key: sophiascriptura-prudentius-contra-symmachum-2-481) · Report an error

Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin of Lanfranchi's edition (Turin, 1898; OCR, corrections logged); checked afterwards privately against FOTC 52.

2.511Lanfranchi 2:lines 511–540

Mox, ubi contiguos fossis muralibus agros Sanguine iustorum innocuo maduisse recordans, Invidiosa videt tumulorum milia circum, Tristis iudicii mage paenitet, ac dicionis Effrenis, nimiaeque sacris pro turpibus irae: Compensare cupit taeterrima vulnera laesae Iustitiae sero obsequio veniaque petenda, Ne tanto imperio maneat, pietate repulsa, Crimen saevitiae, monstrata piacula quaerit, Inque fidem Christi pleno transfertur amore. Laurea victoris Marii minus utilis urbi, Cum traheret Numidam populo plaudente Iugurtham: Nec tantum Arpinas consul tibi, Roma, medelae Contulit, exstincto iusta inter vincla Cethego; Quantum praecipuus nostro sub tempore princeps Prospexit tribuitque boni. Multos Catilinas Ille domo pepulit: non saeva incendia tectis, Aut sicas patribus, sed Tartara nigra animabus, Internoque hominum statui tormenta parantes. Errabant hostes per templa, per atria passim, Romanumque forum et Capitolia celsa tenebant, Qui coniuratas ipsa ad vitalia plebis Moliti insidias, intus serpente veneno Consuerant tacitis pestem miscere medullis. Ergo triumphator latitante ex hoste togatus Clara tropaea refert sine sanguine, remque Quirini Adsuescit supero pollere in saecula regno. Denique nec metas statuit, nec tempora ponit: Imperium sine fine docet, ne Romula virtus Iam sit anus, norit ne gloria parta senectam. Exsultare patres videas, pulcherrima mundi

Soon, when, remembering that the fields next to the city’s trenches had been soaked with the innocent blood of the righteous, she sees the thousands of tombs around, a reproach to her, she repents still more of her grim judgment and of her unbridled rule and her excessive anger on behalf of foul rites: she longs to make amends for the foul wounds of injured Justice by late obedience and by asking pardon, and, lest the crime of cruelty remain on so great an empire, with piety rejected, she seeks the expiation shown her, and passes over into the faith of Christ with full love. The laurel of victorious Marius was less useful to the city when he dragged the Numidian Jugurtha in triumph while the people applauded; nor did the consul from Arpinum bring you, Rome, so much healing when Cethegus was put to death in his just chains, as the outstanding emperor of our time has foreseen and bestowed good. He drove many Catilines from home, men preparing not cruel fires for houses or daggers for the fathers, but black Tartarus for souls, and torments for the inner state of men. Enemies were wandering everywhere through temples and halls, and held the Roman forum and the lofty Capitol, who, plotting conspiracies against the very vitals of the people, were accustomed, with poison creeping within, to mingle a plague with silent marrow. So, a triumphant victor in the toga, from a hidden enemy he brings back famous trophies without blood, and accustoms the state of Quirinus to flourish for ages in a heavenly kingdom. In short, he sets no limits and fixes no times: he teaches an empire without end, so that the valor of Romulus may not now be an old woman, nor the glory won know old age. You may see the fathers exult, the most beautiful lights

Notes and citation

Summary: Remembering the martyrs’ tombs around the city, Rome repents of her persecutions and turns to Christ; Theodosius has saved Rome from enemies of souls more than Marius or Cicero did, and taught her an empire without end.

The martyrs buried outside the walls. Marius and Jugurtha; Cicero and the Catilinarian conspirators (Cethegus). Virgil, Aen. 1.278–279 (“imperium sine fine”). A stray line number was removed, and two lines run together in the scan (“virtus / Iam sit anus”) were separated; line 539 is read “ne” (scan “nec”).

Notes on the original text

Digital text corrected (OCR text badly garbled: clear slips corrected throughout; stray line numbers, note marks, footnote and apparatus lines removed (readings restored by sense are named in the notes)): Mox, ubi, contiguos fossis muralibus agros Sanguine iustorum innocuo maduisse recordans, Invidiosa videt turaulorum millia ch-cum, Tristis iudicii mage poenitet, ac ditionis Effreuis, nimiaeque sacris pro turpibus irae: Componsare cupit taeterrima vulnera laesae lustitiae sero obsequio veniaque petenda, Ne tanto imperio maneat, pietate repulsa, Crimeu saevitiae, monstrata piacula quaerit, Inque fidem Christi i>leno transfertur amore. Laurea victoris IMarii minus utilis urbi, Quum traheret Numidam populo plaudente lugurtham : Xec tautum Arpiiias cousul tibi, lioma, medelae Contulit, exstinto iusta inter vincla Cethego; Quantum praecipuus uostro sub tempore princeps Prospexit tribuitque boui. Multos Catilinas Ille domo populit: uon saeva incendia tectis, Aut sicas patribus, sed Tartara nigra animabus, Internoque hominum statui tormeuta parantes. Errabaut liostes per templa, per atria passim, Romanumque forum et Capitolia celsa tenobant, Qui coniuratas ipsa ad vitalia plebis Moliti insidias, intus serpente veneno CousuOrant tacitis pestem miscere medullis. Ergo triumphator latitante ex hoste togatus [540 Clara tropaea refert sine sanguine, remque Quu"ini Adsuescit supero pollere in saecula regno. Denique nec metas statuit, nec tempora ponit: Imperium sine fine docet, uec Eomula virtus am sit anus, norit ne gloria parta senectam. Exsultare patres videas, pulcherrima mundi → Mox, ubi contiguos fossis muralibus agros Sanguine iustorum innocuo maduisse recordans, Invidiosa videt tumulorum milia circum, Tristis iudicii mage paenitet, ac dicionis Effrenis, nimiaeque sacris pro turpibus irae: Compensare cupit taeterrima vulnera laesae Iustitiae sero obsequio veniaque petenda, Ne tanto imperio maneat, pietate repulsa, Crimen saevitiae, monstrata piacula quaerit, Inque fidem Christi pleno transfertur amore. Laurea victoris Marii minus utilis urbi, Cum traheret Numidam populo plaudente Iugurtham: Nec tantum Arpinas consul tibi, Roma, medelae Contulit, exstincto iusta inter vincla Cethego; Quantum praecipuus nostro sub tempore princeps Prospexit tribuitque boni. Multos Catilinas Ille domo pepulit: non saeva incendia tectis, Aut sicas patribus, sed Tartara nigra animabus, Internoque hominum statui tormenta parantes. Errabant hostes per templa, per atria passim, Romanumque forum et Capitolia celsa tenebant, Qui coniuratas ipsa ad vitalia plebis Moliti insidias, intus serpente veneno Consuerant tacitis pestem miscere medullis. Ergo triumphator latitante ex hoste togatus Clara tropaea refert sine sanguine, remque Quirini Adsuescit supero pollere in saecula regno. Denique nec metas statuit, nec tempora ponit: Imperium sine fine docet, ne Romula virtus Iam sit anus, norit ne gloria parta senectam. Exsultare patres videas, pulcherrima mundi.

Extrabiblical texts: Virgil, Aen. 1.279 (Virgil; allusion)

Topics: Martyrdom, Persecution

Cite (SBL): Prudentius, C. Symm. 2.511 (Lanfranchi 2:lines 511–540; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/prudentius-contra-symmachum/2-511). (abbreviation not yet checked)

Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/prudentius-contra-symmachum/2-511

BibTeX · RIS · CSL-JSON (whole work; this passage's key: sophiascriptura-prudentius-contra-symmachum-2-511) · Report an error

Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin of Lanfranchi's edition (Turin, 1898; OCR, corrections logged); checked afterwards privately against FOTC 52.

2.541Lanfranchi 2:lines 541–570

Lumina, conciliumque senum gestire Catonum Candidiore toga niveum pietatis amictum Sumere, et exuvias deponere pontificales. Iamque ruit, paucis Tarpeia in rupe relictis, Ad sincera virum penetralia Nazareorum Atque ad apostolicos Evandria curia fontes, Anniadum suboles, et pignora clara Proborum. Fertur enim ante alios generosus Anicius urbis Inlustrasse caput: sic se Roma inclita iactat. Quin et Olybriaci generisque et nominis heres, Adiectus fastis, palmata insignis abolla, Martyris ante fores Bruti submittere fasces Ambit, et Ausoniam Christo inclinare securem. Non Paulinorum, non Bassorum dubitavit Prompta fides dare se Christo, stirpemque superbam Gentis patriciae venturo attollere saeclo. Iam quid plebicolas percurram carmine Gracchos, Iure potestatis fultos, et in arce senatus Praecipuos, simulacra deum iussisse revelli, Cumque suis pariter lictoribus omnipotenti Suppliciter Christo se consecrasse regendos? Sescentas numerare domos de sanguine prisco Nobilium licet, ad Christi signacula versas, Turpis ab idolii vasto emersisse profundo. Si persona aliqua est, aut si status urbis, in his est: Si formam patriae facit excellentior ordo, Hi faciunt, iuncta est quotiens sententia plebis, Atque unum sapiunt plures simul ac potiores. Respice ad inlustrem, lux est ubi publica, cellam: Vix pauca invenies gentilibus obsita nugis

of the world, and the council of old Catos eager to put on the snow-white robe of piety, a whiter toga, and to lay aside the spoils of the pontiffs. And now, leaving a few on the Tarpeian rock, the senate-house of Evander rushes to the pure sanctuaries of the Nazarenes and to the apostolic fonts, the offspring of the Annii and the famous children of the Probi. For the noble Anicius is said to have been the first to bring glory to the head of the city: so famous Rome boasts. And the heir of the Olybrian line and name, added to the consular lists, distinguished in the palm-embroidered robe, seeks to lower the fasces of Brutus before the doors of the martyr, and to bow the Ausonian axe to Christ. The ready faith of the Paulini and the Bassi did not hesitate to give themselves to Christ and to raise the proud stock of a patrician family to the age to come. Why now should I run through in song the people-loving Gracchi, supported by the right of power and first in the citadel of the senate, who ordered the images of the gods to be torn down, and consecrated themselves humbly, together with their lictors, to almighty Christ, to be ruled by him? One may count six hundred houses of noble blood of old, turned to the seals of Christ, who have emerged from the vast depth of foul idolatry. If the city has any person or any standing, it is in these; if the more excellent order makes the form of the fatherland, these make it, whenever the opinion of the people is joined with them, and the many and the better think one thing together. Look at the illustrious chamber, where the public light is: you will scarcely find a few minds covered with pagan trifles,

Notes and citation

Summary: The senators lay aside their pagan priesthoods and come to baptism; the great families, the Anicii, Olybrii, Paulini, Bassi and Gracchi, have turned to Christ, so that the Senate and people of Rome are now Christian.

The noble families named are the poet’s; the Gracchus who destroyed a Mithraic shrine as prefect (376/377) is meant. “The martyr” is probably Peter. Footnote marks and a stray line number were removed; line 570 is read “invenies” (scan “inveniens”).

Notes on the original text

Digital text corrected (OCR text badly garbled: clear slips corrected throughout; stray line numbers, note marks, footnote and apparatus lines removed (readings restored by sense are named in the notes)): Lumina, couciliumque seuum gestire Catonum, Candidiore toga niveum i^ietatis amictum Sumez-e, et exuvias deponere pontificales. lamque ruit, paucis Tarpeia in rupe relictis, Ad sincera virum penetralia Nazareorum. Atque ad Apostolicos Evandria curia fontes, Anniadum soboles, et pignora clara Proborum. Fertur enim ante alios generosus Anicius urbis Inlustrasse caput: sic se Eoma inclita iactat. Quin et Olybriaci generisque et nominis iieres, Adiectus fastis, palmata insignis abolla, Martyris ante fores, Bruti submittere fasces Ambit, et Ausoniam Christo inclinare securem(l). Non Paulinorum, non Bassorum dubitavit Trompta fides dare seChristo, stirpemque superbam Gentis patriciae venturo attollere saeclo. [560 lam quid plebicolas percurram carmine Gracchos, lure potestatis fultos, et in arce senatus Praecipuos, simulacra deum iussisse revelii, Cumque suis pariter lictoribus om.nipotenti Suppliciter Christo se consecrasse regendos? Sexcentas numerare domos de sanguine prisco Nobilium licet, ad Christi signacula versas, Turpis ab idolii vasto emersisse profundo. Si persona aliqua est, aut si status urbis, in his est: Si formam patriae facit excellentior ordo, Hi faciunt, iuncta est quoties sententia plebis. Atque unuin sapiunt plures, simul ac potiores. Eespice ad inlustrom, lux est ubi publica, cellam: Vix pauca inveniens gentilibus obsita imgis → Lumina, conciliumque senum gestire Catonum Candidiore toga niveum pietatis amictum Sumere, et exuvias deponere pontificales. Iamque ruit, paucis Tarpeia in rupe relictis, Ad sincera virum penetralia Nazareorum Atque ad apostolicos Evandria curia fontes, Anniadum suboles, et pignora clara Proborum. Fertur enim ante alios generosus Anicius urbis Inlustrasse caput: sic se Roma inclita iactat. Quin et Olybriaci generisque et nominis heres, Adiectus fastis, palmata insignis abolla, Martyris ante fores Bruti submittere fasces Ambit, et Ausoniam Christo inclinare securem. Non Paulinorum, non Bassorum dubitavit Prompta fides dare se Christo, stirpemque superbam Gentis patriciae venturo attollere saeclo. Iam quid plebicolas percurram carmine Gracchos, Iure potestatis fultos, et in arce senatus Praecipuos, simulacra deum iussisse revelli, Cumque suis pariter lictoribus omnipotenti Suppliciter Christo se consecrasse regendos? Sescentas numerare domos de sanguine prisco Nobilium licet, ad Christi signacula versas, Turpis ab idolii vasto emersisse profundo. Si persona aliqua est, aut si status urbis, in his est: Si formam patriae facit excellentior ordo, Hi faciunt, iuncta est quotiens sententia plebis, Atque unum sapiunt plures simul ac potiores. Respice ad inlustrem, lux est ubi publica, cellam: Vix pauca invenies gentilibus obsita nugis.

Topics: Baptism

Cite (SBL): Prudentius, C. Symm. 2.541 (Lanfranchi 2:lines 541–570; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/prudentius-contra-symmachum/2-541). (abbreviation not yet checked)

Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/prudentius-contra-symmachum/2-541

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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin of Lanfranchi's edition (Turin, 1898; OCR, corrections logged); checked afterwards privately against FOTC 52.