3. Vergil, Aeneis, 2.55-2.249, 2.258-2.265, 2.268-2.297, 2.307-2.308, 2.314-2.318, 2.320-2.321, 2.324-2.325, 2.337, 2.343, 2.351-2.358, 2.362-2.363, 2.368-2.434, 2.438-2.566, 2.594-2.620, 2.682-2.704, 2.755 (1st cent. BCE - 1st cent. BCE)
| 2.55. Laocoon, with all his following choir 2.56. hurried indigt down; and from afar 2.57. thus hailed the people: “O unhappy men! 2.58. What madness this? Who deems our foemen fled? 2.59. Think ye the gifts of Greece can lack for guile? 2.60. Have ye not known Ulysses? The Achaean 2.61. hides, caged in yonder beams; or this is reared 2.62. for engin'ry on our proud battlements 2.63. to spy upon our roof-tops, or descend 2.64. in ruin on the city. 'T is a snare. 2.65. Trust not this horse, O Troy, whate'er it bode! 2.66. I fear the Greeks, though gift on gift they bear.” 2.67. So saying, he whirled with ponderous javelin 2.68. a sturdy stroke straight at the rounded side 2.69. of the great, jointed beast. A tremor struck 2.70. its towering form, and through the cavernous womb 2.71. rolled loud, reverberate rumbling, deep and long. 2.72. If heaven's decree, if our own wills, that hour 2.73. had not been fixed on woe, his spear had brought 2.74. a bloody slaughter on our ambushed foe 2.75. and Troy were standing on the earth this day! 2.77. But, lo! with hands fast bound behind, a youth 2.78. by clamorous Dardan shepherds haled along 2.79. was brought before our king,—to this sole end 2.80. a self-surrendered captive, that he might 2.81. although a nameless stranger, cunningly 2.82. deliver to the Greek the gates of Troy . 2.83. His firm-set mind flinched not from either goal,— 2.84. uccess in crime, or on swift death to fall. 2.85. The thronging Trojan youth made haste his way 2.86. from every side, all eager to see close 2.87. their captive's face, and clout with emulous scorn. 2.88. Hear now what Greek deception is, and learn 2.89. from one dark wickedness the whole. For he 2.90. a mark for every eye, defenceless, dazed 2.91. tood staring at our Phrygian hosts, and cried: 2.92. “Woe worth the day! What ocean or what shore 2.93. will have me now? What desperate path remains 2.94. for miserable me? Now have I lost 2.95. all foothold with the Greeks, and o'er my head 2.96. Troy 's furious sons call bloody vengeance down.” 2.97. Such groans and anguish turned all rage away 2.98. and stayed our lifted hands. We bade him tell 2.99. his birth, his errand, and from whence might be 2.100. uch hope of mercy for a foe in chains. 2.102. “O King! I will confess, whate'er befall 2.103. the whole unvarnished truth. I will not hide 2.104. my Grecian birth. Yea, thus will I begin. 2.105. For Fortune has brought wretched Sinon low; 2.106. but never shall her cruelty impair 2.107. his honor and his truth. Perchance the name 2.108. of Palamedes, Belus' glorious son 2.109. has come by rumor to your listening ears; 2.110. whom by false witness and conspiracy 2.111. because his counsel was not for this war 2.112. the Greeks condemned, though guiltless, to his death 2.113. and now make much lament for him they slew. 2.114. I, his companion, of his kith and kin 2.115. ent hither by my humble sire's command 2.116. followed his arms and fortunes from my youth. 2.117. Long as his throne endured, and while he throve 2.118. in conclave with his kingly peers, we twain 2.119. ome name and lustre bore; but afterward 2.120. because that cheat Ulysses envied him 2.121. (Ye know the deed), he from this world withdrew 2.122. and I in gloom and tribulation sore 2.123. lived miserably on, lamenting loud 2.124. my lost friend's blameless fall. A fool was I 2.125. that kept not these lips closed; but I had vowed 2.126. that if a conqueror home to Greece I came 2.127. I would avenge. Such words moved wrath, and were 2.128. the first shock of my ruin; from that hour 2.129. Ulysses whispered slander and alarm; 2.130. breathed doubt and malice into all men's ears 2.131. and darkly plotted how to strike his blow. 2.132. Nor rest had he, till Calchas, as his tool,- 2.133. but why unfold this useless, cruel story? 2.134. Why make delay? Ye count all sons of Greece 2.135. arrayed as one; and to have heard thus far 2.136. uffices you. Take now your ripe revenge! 2.137. Ulysses smiles and Atreus' royal sons 2.139. We ply him then with passionate appeal 2.140. and question all his cause: of guilt so dire 2.141. or such Greek guile we harbored not the thought. 2.142. So on he prates, with well-feigned grief and fear 2.143. and from his Iying heart thus told his tale: 2.144. “Full oft the Greeks had fain achieved their flight 2.145. and raised the Trojan siege, and sailed away 2.146. war-wearied quite. O, would it had been so! 2.147. Full oft the wintry tumult of the seas 2.148. did wall them round, and many a swollen storm 2.149. their embarcation stayed. But chiefly when 2.150. all fitly built of beams of maple fair 2.151. this horse stood forth,— what thunders filled the skies! 2.152. With anxious fears we sent Eurypylus 2.153. to ask Apollo's word; and from the shrine 2.154. he brings the sorrowful commandment home: 2.155. ‘By flowing blood and by a virgin slain 2.156. the wild winds were appeased, when first ye came 2.157. ye sons of Greece, to Ilium 's distant shore. 2.158. Through blood ye must return. Let some Greek life 2.159. your expiation be.’ The popular ear 2.160. the saying caught, all spirits were dimmed o'er; 2.161. cold doubt and horror through each bosom ran 2.162. asking what fate would do, and on what wretch 2.163. Apollo's choice would fall. Ulysses, then 2.164. amid the people's tumult and acclaim 2.165. thrust Calchas forth, some prophecy to tell 2.166. to all the throng: he asked him o'er and o'er 2.167. what Heaven desired. Already not a few 2.168. foretold the murderous plot, and silently 2.169. watched the dark doom upon my life impend. 2.170. Twice five long days the seer his lips did seal 2.171. and hid himself, refusing to bring forth 2.172. His word of guile, and name what wretch should die. 2.173. At last, reluctant, and all loudly urged 2.174. By false Ulysses, he fulfils their plot 2.175. and, lifting up his voice oracular 2.176. points out myself the victim to be slain. 2.177. Nor did one voice oppose. The mortal stroke 2.178. horribly hanging o'er each coward head 2.179. was changed to one man's ruin, and their hearts 2.180. endured it well. Soon rose th' accursed morn; 2.181. the bloody ritual was ready; salt 2.182. was sprinkled on the sacred loaf; my brows 2.183. were bound with fillets for the offering. 2.184. But I escaped that death—yes! I deny not! 2.185. I cast my fetters off, and darkling lay 2.186. concealed all night in lake-side sedge and mire 2.187. awaiting their departure, if perchance 2.188. they should in truth set sail. But nevermore 2.189. hall my dear, native country greet these eyes. 2.190. No more my father or my tender babes 2.191. hall I behold. Nay, haply their own lives 2.192. are forfeit, when my foemen take revenge 2.193. for my escape, and slay those helpless ones 2.194. in expiation of my guilty deed. 2.195. O, by yon powers in heaven which witness truth 2.196. by aught in this dark world remaining now 2.197. of spotless human faith and innocence 2.198. I do implore thee look with pitying eye 2.199. on these long sufferings my heart hath borne. 2.201. Pity and pardon to his tears we gave 2.202. and spared his life. King Priam bade unbind 2.203. the fettered hands and loose those heavy chains 2.204. that pressed him sore; then with benigt mien 2.205. addressed him thus: “ Whate'er thy place or name 2.206. forget the people thou hast Iost, and be 2.207. henceforth our countryman. But tell me true! 2.208. What means the monstrous fabric of this horse? 2.209. Who made it? Why? What offering to Heaven 2.210. or engin'ry of conquest may it be?” 2.211. He spake; and in reply, with skilful guile 2.212. Greek that he was! the other lifted up 2.213. his hands, now freed and chainless, to the skies: 2.214. “O ever-burning and inviolate fires 2.215. witness my word! O altars and sharp steel 2.216. whose curse I fled, O fillets of the gods 2.217. which bound a victim's helpless forehead, hear! 2.218. 'T is lawful now to break the oath that gave 2.219. my troth to Greece . To execrate her kings 2.220. is now my solemn duty. Their whole plot 2.221. I publish to the world. No fatherland 2.222. and no allegiance binds me any more. 2.223. O Troy, whom I have saved, I bid thee keep 2.224. the pledge of safety by good Priam given 2.225. for my true tale shall my rich ransom be. 2.226. The Greeks' one hope, since first they opened war 2.227. was Pallas, grace and power. But from the day 2.228. when Diomed, bold scorner of the gods 2.229. and false Ulysses, author of all guile 2.230. rose up and violently bore away 2.231. Palladium, her holy shrine, hewed down 2.232. the sentinels of her acropolis 2.233. and with polluted, gory hands dared touch 2.234. the goddess, virgin fillets, white and pure,— 2.235. thenceforth, I say, the courage of the Greeks 2.236. ebbed utterly away; their strength was Iost 2.237. and favoring Pallas all her grace withdrew. 2.238. No dubious sign she gave. Scarce had they set 2.239. her statue in our camp, when glittering flame 2.240. flashed from the staring eyes; from all its limbs 2.241. alt sweat ran forth; three times (O wondrous tale!) 2.242. it gave a sudden skyward leap, and made 2.243. prodigious trembling of her lance and shield. 2.244. The prophet Calchas bade us straightway take 2.245. wift flight across the sea; for fate had willed 2.246. the Trojan citadel should never fall 2.247. by Grecian arm, till once more they obtain 2.248. new oracles at Argos, and restore 2.249. that god the round ships hurried o'er the sea. 2.258. that they should build a thing of monstrous size 2.259. of jointed beams, and rear it heavenward 2.260. o might it never pass your gates, nor come 2.261. inside your walls, nor anywise restore 2.262. unto the Trojans their lost help divine. 2.263. For had your hands Minerva's gift profaned 2.264. a ruin horrible—O, may the gods 2.265. bring it on Calchas rather!—would have come 2.272. our doubt dispelled. His stratagems and tears 2.273. wrought victory where neither Tydeus' son 2.274. nor mountain-bred Achilles could prevail 2.275. nor ten years' war, nor fleets a thousand strong. 2.276. But now a vaster spectacle of fear 2.277. burst over us, to vex our startled souls. 2.279. priest unto Neptune, was in act to slay 2.281. Lo! o'er the tranquil deep from Tenedos 2.289. their monstrous backs wound forward fold on fold. 2.290. Soon they made land; the furious bright eyes 2.291. glowed with ensanguined fire; their quivering tongues 2.292. lapped hungrily the hissing, gruesome jaws. 2.293. All terror-pale we fled. Unswerving then 2.294. the monsters to Laocoon made way. 2.295. First round the tender limbs of his two sons 2.296. each dragon coiled, and on the shrinking flesh 2.314. eized now on every heart. “ of his vast guilt 2.315. Laocoon,” they say, “receives reward; 2.316. for he with most abominable spear 2.317. did strike and violate that blessed wood. 2.320. in general acclaim. Ourselves did make 2.324. were 'neath its feet; great ropes stretched round its neck 2.325. till o'er our walls the fatal engine climbed 2.337. and in the consecrated citadel 2.343. The skies rolled on; and o'er the ocean fell 2.351. on to the well-known strand. The King displayed 2.352. torch from his own ship, and Sinon then 2.353. whom wrathful Heaven defended in that hour 2.354. let the imprisoned band of Greeks go free 2.362. King Menelaus, Thoas and Machaon 2.363. and last, Epeus, who the fabric wrought. 2.369. That hour it was when heaven's first gift of sleep 2.370. on weary hearts of men most sweetly steals. 2.371. O, then my slumbering senses seemed to see 2.372. Hector, with woeful face and streaming eyes; 2.373. I seemed to see him from the chariot trailing 2.374. foul with dark dust and gore, his swollen feet 2.375. pierced with a cruel thong. Ah me! what change 2.376. from glorious Hector when he homeward bore 2.377. the spoils of fierce Achilles; or hurled far 2.378. that shower of torches on the ships of Greece ! 2.379. Unkempt his beard, his tresses thick with blood 2.380. and all those wounds in sight which he did take 2.381. defending Troy . Then, weeping as I spoke 2.382. I seemed on that heroic shape to call 2.383. with mournful utterance: “O star of Troy ! 2.384. O surest hope and stay of all her sons! 2.385. Why tarriest thou so Iong? What region sends 2.386. the long-expected Hector home once more? 2.387. These weary eyes that look on thee have seen 2.388. hosts of thy kindred die, and fateful change 2.389. upon thy people and thy city fall. 2.390. O, say what dire occasion has defiled 2.391. thy tranquil brows? What mean those bleeding wounds?” 2.392. Silent he stood, nor anywise would stay 2.393. my vain lament; but groaned, and answered thus: 2.394. “Haste, goddess-born, and out of yonder flames 2.395. achieve thy flight. Our foes have scaled the wall; 2.396. exalted Troy is falling. Fatherland 2.397. and Priam ask no more. If human arm 2.398. could profit Troy, my own had kept her free. 2.399. Her Lares and her people to thy hands 2.400. Troy here commends. Companions let them be 2.401. of all thy fortunes. Let them share thy quest 2.402. of that wide realm, which, after wandering far 2.403. thou shalt achieve, at last, beyond the sea.” 2.404. He spoke: and from our holy hearth brought forth 2.405. the solemn fillet, the ancestral shrines 2.407. Now shrieks and loud confusion swept the town; 2.408. and though my father's dwelling stood apart 2.409. embowered deep in trees, th' increasing din 2.410. drew nearer, and the battle-thunder swelled. 2.411. I woke on sudden, and up-starting scaled 2.412. the roof, the tower, then stood with listening ear: 2.413. 't was like an harvest burning, when wild winds 2.414. uprouse the flames; 't was like a mountain stream 2.415. that bursts in flood and ruinously whelms 2.416. weet fields and farms and all the ploughman's toil 2.417. whirling whole groves along; while dumb with fear 2.418. from some far cliff the shepherd hears the sound. 2.419. Now their Greek plot was plain, the stratagem 2.420. at last laid bare. Deiphobus' great house 2.421. ank vanquished in the fire. Ucalegon's 2.422. hard by was blazing, while the waters wide 2.423. around Sigeum gave an answering glow. 2.424. Shrill trumpets rang; Ioud shouting voices roared; 2.425. wildly I armed me (when the battle calls 2.426. how dimly reason shines!); I burned to join 2.427. the rally of my peers, and to the heights 2.428. defensive gather. Frenzy and vast rage 2.429. eized on my soul. I only sought what way 2.438. is still our own?” But scarcely could I ask 2.439. when thus, with many a groan, he made reply:— 2.440. “Dardania's death and doom are come to-day 2.441. implacable. There is no Ilium now; 2.442. our Trojan name is gone, the Teucrian throne 2.443. Quite fallen. For the wrathful power of Jove 2.444. has given to Argos all our boast and pride. 2.453. is flashing naked, making haste for blood. 2.454. Our sentries helpless meet the invading shock 2.455. and give back blind and unavailing war.” 2.456. By Panthus' word and by some god impelled 2.457. I flew to battle, where the flames leaped high 2.458. where grim Bellona called, and all the air 2.459. resounded high as heaven with shouts of war. 2.460. Rhipeus and Epytus of doughty arm 2.461. were at my side, Dymas and Hypanis 2.462. een by a pale moon, join our little band; 2.463. and young Coroebus, Mygdon's princely son 2.464. who was in Troy that hour because he loved 2.465. Cassandra madly, and had made a league 2.466. as Priam's kinsman with our Phrygian arms: 2.468. When these I saw close-gathered for the fight 2.469. I thus addressed them: “Warriors, vainly brave 2.470. if ye indeed desire to follow one 2.471. who dares the uttermost brave men may do 2.472. our evil plight ye see: the gods are fled 2.473. from every altar and protecting fire 2.474. which were the kingdom's stay. Ye offer aid 2.475. unto your country's ashes. Let us fight 2.476. unto the death! To arms, my men, to arms! 2.477. The single hope and stay of desperate men 2.478. is their despair.” Thus did I rouse their souls. 2.479. Then like the ravening wolves, some night of cloud 2.480. when cruel hunger in an empty maw 2.481. drives them forth furious, and their whelps behind 2.482. wait famine-throated; so through foemen's steel 2.483. we flew to surest death, and kept our way 2.484. traight through the midmost town . The wings of night 2.485. brooded above us in vast vault of shade. 2.486. But who the bloodshed of that night can tell? 2.487. What tongue its deaths shall number, or what eyes 2.488. find meed of tears to equal all its woe? 2.489. The ancient City fell, whose throne had stood 2.490. age after age. Along her streets were strewn 2.491. the unresisting dead; at household shrines 2.492. and by the temples of the gods they lay. 2.493. Yet not alone was Teucrian blood required: 2.494. oft out of vanquished hearts fresh valor flamed 2.495. and the Greek victor fell. Anguish and woe 2.496. were everywhere; pale terrors ranged abroad 2.498. Androgeos, followed by a thronging band 2.499. of Greeks, first met us on our desperate way; 2.500. but heedless, and confounding friend with foe 2.501. thus, all unchallenged, hailed us as his own : 2.502. “Haste, heroes! Are ye laggards at this hour? 2.503. Others bear off the captives and the spoil 2.504. of burning Troy . Just from the galleys ye?” 2.505. He spoke; but straightway, when no safe reply 2.506. returned, he knew himself entrapped, and fallen 2.507. into a foeman's snare; struck dumb was he 2.508. and stopped both word and motion; as one steps 2.509. when blindly treading a thick path of thorns 2.510. upon a snake, and sick with fear would flee 2.511. that lifted wrath and swollen gorge of green: 2.512. o trembling did Androgeos backward fall. 2.513. At them we flew and closed them round with war; 2.514. and since they could not know the ground, and fear 2.515. had whelmed them quite, we swiftly laid them low. 2.516. Thus Fortune on our first achievement smiled; 2.517. and, flushed with victory, Cormbus cried: 2.518. “Come, friends, and follow Fortune's finger, where 2.519. he beckons us what path deliverance lies. 2.520. Change we our shields, and these Greek emblems wear. 2.521. 'Twixt guile and valor who will nicely weigh 2.522. When foes are met? These dead shall find us arms.” 2.523. With this, he dons Androgeos' crested helm 2.524. and beauteous, blazoned shield; and to his side 2.525. girds on a Grecian blade. Young Rhipeus next 2.526. with Dymas and the other soldiery 2.527. repeat the deed, exulting, and array 2.528. their valor in fresh trophies from the slain. 2.529. Now intermingled with our foes we moved 2.530. and alien emblems wore; the long, black night 2.531. brought many a grapple, and a host of Greeks 2.532. down to the dark we hurled. Some fled away 2.533. eeking their safe ships and the friendly shore. 2.534. Some cowards foul went clambering back again 2.536. But woe is me! If gods their help withhold 2.537. 't is impious to be brave. That very hour 2.538. the fair Cassandra passed us, bound in chains 2.539. King Priam's virgin daughter, from the shrine 2.540. and altars of Minerva; her loose hair 2.541. had lost its fillet; her impassioned eyes 2.542. were lifted in vain prayer,—her eyes alone! 2.543. For chains of steel her frail, soft hands confined. 2.544. Coroebus' eyes this horror not endured 2.545. and, sorrow-crazed, he plunged him headlong in 2.546. the midmost fray, self-offered to be slain 2.547. while in close mass our troop behind him poured. 2.548. But, at this point, the overwhelming spears 2.549. of our own kinsmen rained resistless down 2.550. from a high temple-tower; and carnage wild 2.551. ensued, because of the Greek arms we bore 2.552. and our false crests. The howling Grecian band 2.553. crazed by Cassandra's rescue, charged at us 2.554. from every side; Ajax of savage soul 2.555. the sons of Atreus, and that whole wild horde 2.556. Achilles from Dolopian deserts drew. 2.557. 'T was like the bursting storm, when gales contend 2.558. west wind and South, and jocund wind of morn 2.559. upon his orient steeds—while forests roar 2.594. the shielded left-hand thwarts the falling spears 2.595. the right to every vantage closely clings. 2.596. The Trojans hurl whole towers and roof-tops down 2.597. upon the mounting foe; for well they see 2.598. that the last hour is come, and with what arms 2.599. the dying must resist. Rich gilded beams 2.600. with many a beauteous blazon of old time 2.601. go crashing down. Men armed with naked swords 2.603. Thus were our hearts inflamed to stand and strike 2.604. for the king's house, and to his body-guard 2.605. bring succor, and renew their vanquished powers. 2.606. A certain gate I knew, a secret way 2.607. which gave free passage between Priam's halls 2.608. and exit rearward; hither, in the days 2.609. before our fall, the lone Andromache 2.610. was wont with young Astyanax to pass 2.611. in quest of Priam and her husband's kin. 2.612. This way to climb the palace roof I flew 2.613. where, desperate, the Trojans with vain skill 2.614. hurled forth repellent arms. A tower was there 2.615. reared skyward from the roof-top, giving view 2.616. of Troy 's wide walls and full reconnaissance 2.617. of all Achaea 's fleets and tented field; 2.618. this, with strong steel, our gathered strength assailed 2.619. and as the loosened courses offered us 2.620. great threatening fissures, we uprooted it 2.682. th' exulting foe, the aged King did bind 2.683. his rusted armor to his trembling thews,— 2.684. all vainly,— and a useless blade of steel 2.685. he girded on; then charged, resolved to die 2.686. encircled by the foe. Within his walls 2.687. there stood, beneath the wide and open sky 2.688. a lofty altar; an old laurel-tree 2.689. leaned o'er it, and enclasped in holy shade 2.690. the statues of the tutelary powers. 2.691. Here Hecuba and all the princesses 2.692. took refuge vain within the place of prayer. 2.693. Like panic-stricken doves in some dark storm 2.694. close-gathering they sate, and in despair 2.695. embraced their graven gods. But when the Queen 2.696. aw Priam with his youthful harness on 2.697. “What frenzy, O my wretched lord,” she cried 2.698. “Arrayed thee in such arms? O, whither now? 2.699. Not such defences, nor such arm as thine 2.700. the time requires, though thy companion were 2.701. our Hector's self. O, yield thee, I implore! 2.702. This altar now shall save us one and all 2.703. or we must die together.” With these words 2.704. he drew him to her side, and near the shrine 2.755. in mortal agony; a vision too |
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6. Augustine, The City of God, 2.24 (4th cent. CE - 5th cent. CE)
| 2.24. It is certain that Sylla - whose rule was so cruel that, in comparison with it, the preceding state of things which he came to avenge was regretted - when first he advanced towards Rome to give battle to Marius, found the auspices so favourable when he sacrificed, that, according to Livy's account, the augur Postumius expressed his willingness to lose his head if Sylla did not, with the help of the gods, accomplish what he designed. The gods, you see, had not departed from every fane and sacred shrine, since they were still predicting the issue of these affairs, and yet were taking no steps to correct Sylla himself. Their presages promised him great prosperity but no threatenings of theirs subdued his evil passions. And then, when he was in Asia conducting the war against Mithridates, a message from Jupiter was delivered to him by Lucius Titius, to the effect that he would conquer Mithridates; and so it came to pass. And afterwards, when he was meditating a return to Rome for the purpose of avenging in the blood of the citizens injuries done to himself and his friends, a second message from Jupiter was delivered to him by a soldier of the sixth legion, to the effect that it was he who had predicted the victory over Mithridates, and that now he promised to give him power to recover the republic from his enemies, though with great bloodshed. Sylla at once inquired of the soldier what form had appeared to him; and, on his reply, recognized that it was the same as Jupiter had formerly employed to convey to him the assurance regarding the victory over Mithridates. How, then, can the gods be justified in this matter for the care they took to predict these shadowy successes, and for their negligence in correcting Sylla, and restraining him from stirring up a civil war so lamentable and atrocious, that it not merely disfigured, but extinguished, the republic? The truth is, as I have often said, and as Scripture informs us, and as the facts themselves sufficiently indicate, the demons are found to look after their own ends only, that they may be regarded and worshipped as gods, and that men may be induced to offer to them a worship which associates them with their crimes, and involves them in one common wickedness and judgment of God. Afterwards, when Sylla had come to Taranto, and had sacrificed there, he saw on the head of the victim's liver the likeness of a golden crown. Thereupon the same soothsayer Postumius interpreted this to signify a signal victory, and ordered that he only should eat of the entrails. A little afterwards, the slave of a certain Lucius Pontius cried out, I am Bellona's messenger; the victory is yours, Sylla! Then he added that the Capitol should be burned. As soon as he had uttered this prediction he left the camp, but returned the following day more excited than ever, and shouted, The Capitol is fired! And fired indeed it was. This it was easy for a demon both to foresee and quickly to announce. But observe, as relevant to our subject, what kind of gods they are under whom these men desire to live, who blaspheme the Saviour that delivers the wills of the faithful from the dominion of devils. The man cried out in prophetic rapture, The victory is yours, Sylla! And to certify that he spoke by a divine spirit, he predicted also an event which was shortly to happen, and which indeed did fall out, in a place from which he in whom this spirit was speaking was far distant. But he never cried, Forbear your villanies, Sylla! - the villanies which were committed at Rome by that victor to whom a golden crown on the calf's liver had been shown as the divine evidence of his victory. If such signs as this were customarily sent by just gods, and not by wicked demons, then certainly the entrails he consulted should rather have given Sylla intimation of the cruel disasters that were to befall the city and himself. For that victory was not so conducive to his exaltation to power, as it was fatal to his ambition; for by it he became so insatiable in his desires, and was rendered so arrogant and reckless by prosperity, that he may be said rather to have inflicted a moral destruction on himself than corporal destruction on his enemies. But these truly woeful and deplorable calamities the gods gave him no previous hint of, neither by entrails, augury, dream, nor prediction. For they feared his amendment more than his defeat. Yea, they took good care that this glorious conqueror of his own fellow citizens should be conquered and led captive by his own infamous vices, and should thus be the more submissive slave of the demons themselves. |
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