1. Cicero, On Divination, 1.59 (2nd cent. BCE - 1st cent. BCE) Tagged with subjects: •minucius felix (christian apologist) Found in books: Mueller (2002) 92| 1.59. Audivi equidem ex te ipso, sed mihi saepius noster Sallustius narravit, cum in illa fuga nobis gloriosa, patriae calamitosa in villa quadam campi Atinatis maneres magnamque partem noctis vigilasses, ad lucem denique arte et graviter dormire te coepisse; itaque, quamquam iter instaret, tamen silentium fieri iussisse se neque esse passum te excitari; cum autem experrectus esses hora secunda fere, te sibi somnium narravisse: visum tibi esse, cum in locis solis maestus errares, C. Marium cum fascibus laureatis quaerere ex te, quid tristis esses, cumque tu te patria vi pulsum esse dixisses, prehendisse eum dextram tuam et bono animo te iussisse esse lictorique proxumo tradidisse, ut te in monumentum suum deduceret, et dixisse in eo tibi salutem fore. Tum et se exclamasse Sallustius narrat reditum tibi celerem et gloriosum paratum, et te ipsum visum somnio delectari. Nam illud mihi ipsi celeriter nuntiatum est, ut audivisses in monumento Marii de tuo reditu magnificentissumum illud senatus consultum esse factum referente optumo et clarissumo viro consule, idque frequentissimo theatro incredibili clamore et plausu comprobatum, dixisse te nihil illo Atinati somnio fieri posse divinius. | 1.59. I come now to your dream. I heard it, of course, from you, but more frequently from our Sallustius. In the course of your banishment, which was glorious for us but disastrous to the State, you stopped for the night at a certain country-house in the plain of Atina. After lying awake most of the night, finally, about daybreak, you fell into a very profound sleep. And though your journey was pressing, yet Sallustius gave instructions to maintain quiet and would not permit you to be disturbed. But you awoke about the second hour and related your dream to him. In it you seemed to be wandering sadly about in solitary places when Gaius Marius, with his fasces wreathed in laurel, asked you why you were sad, and you replied that you had been driven from your country by violence. He then bade you be of good cheer, took you by the right hand, and delivered you to the nearest lictor to be conducted to his memorial temple, saying that there you should find safety. Sallustius thereupon, as he relates, cried out, a speedy and a glorious return awaits you. He further states that you too seemed delighted at the dream. Immediately thereafter it was reported to me that as soon as you heard that it was in Marius temple that the glorious decree of the Senate for your recall had been enacted on motion of the consul, a most worthy and most eminent man, and that the decree had been greeted by unprecedented shouts of approval in a densely crowded theatre, you said that no stronger proof could be given of a divinely inspired dream than this. [29] |
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2. Dionysius of Halycarnassus, Roman Antiquities, 7.69.2 (1st cent. BCE - missingth cent. CE) Tagged with subjects: •minucius felix (christian apologist) Found in books: Mueller (2002) 92 | 7.69.2. The men ordered to lead the slave to his punishment, having stretched out both his arms and fastened them to a piece of wood which extended across his breast and shoulders as far as his wrists, followed him, tearing his naked body with whips. The culprit, overcome by such cruelty, not only uttered ill-omened cries, forced from him by the pain, but also made indecent movements under the blows. This man, accordingly, they all thought to be the unacceptable dancer signified by the god. |
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3. Tertullian, Apology, 5.6, 9.9, 35.9 (2nd cent. CE - 3rd cent. CE) Tagged with subjects: •minucius felix, christian apologist Found in books: Rizzi (2010) 135| 5.6. accusatoribus damnatione, et quidem tetriore. Quales ergo leges istae quas adversus nos soli exercent impii, iniusti, turpes, truces, vani, dementes? quas Traianus ex parte frustratus est vetando inquiri Christianos, quas nullus Hadrianus, quamquam omnium curiositatum explorator, nullus Vespasianus, quamquam Iudaeorum debellator, nullus Pius, nullus verus inpressit. 9.9. quemque a suis comedi. Longe excurro. 35.9. | |
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| 4. Clement of Alexandria, Exhortation To The Greeks, 4.42, 4.47 (2nd cent. CE - 3rd cent. CE) Tagged with subjects: •minucius felix, christian apologist Found in books: Rizzi (2010) 135 |
| 5. Minucius Felix, Octavius, 2.4, 27.4, 30.5 (2nd cent. CE - 3rd cent. CE) Tagged with subjects: •minucius felix, christian apologist •minucius felix (christian apologist) Found in books: Mueller (2002) 92; Rizzi (2010) 129, 135 |
| 6. Arnobius, Against The Gentiles, 7.38-7.40 (3rd cent. CE - 4th cent. CE) Tagged with subjects: •minucius felix (christian apologist) Found in books: Mueller (2002) 92 |
| 7. Athanasius, Life of Anthony, 91, 90 (3rd cent. CE - 4th cent. CE) Tagged with subjects: •nan Found in books: Rizzi (2010) 135 |
| 8. Eusebius of Caesarea, Ecclesiastical History, 2.16, 2.24 (3rd cent. CE - 4th cent. CE) Tagged with subjects: •nan Found in books: Rizzi (2010) 129 |
| 9. Lactantius, Divine Institutes, 2.7.21 (3rd cent. CE - 4th cent. CE) Tagged with subjects: •minucius felix (christian apologist) Found in books: Mueller (2002) 92 |
10. Augustine, The City of God, 4.26, 8.13 (4th cent. CE - 5th cent. CE) Tagged with subjects: •minucius felix (christian apologist) Found in books: Mueller (2002) 92 | 4.26. But, says Cicero, Homer invented these things, and transferred things human to the gods: I would rather transfer things divine to us. The poet, by ascribing such crimes to the gods, has justly displeased the grave man. Why, then, are the scenic plays, where these crimes are habitually spoken of, acted, exhibited, in honor of the gods, reckoned among things divine by the most learned men? Cicero should exclaim, not against the inventions of the poets, but against the customs of the ancients. Would not they have exclaimed in reply, What have we done? The gods themselves have loudly demanded that these plays should be exhibited in their honor, have fiercely exacted them, have menaced destruction unless this was performed, have avenged its neglect with great severity, and have manifested pleasure at the reparation of such neglect. Among their virtuous and wonderful deeds the following is related. It was announced in a dream to Titus Latinius, a Roman rustic, that he should go to the senate and tell them to recommence the games of Rome, because on the first day of their celebration a condemned criminal had been led to punishment in sight of the people, an incident so sad as to disturb the gods who were seeking amusement from the games. And when the peasant who had received this intimation was afraid on the following day to deliver it to the senate, it was renewed next night in a severer form: he lost his son, because of his neglect. On the third night he was warned that a yet graver punishment was impending, if he should still refuse obedience. When even thus he did not dare to obey, he fell into a virulent and horrible disease. But then, on the advice of his friends, he gave information to the magistrates, and was carried in a litter into the senate, and having, on declaring his dream, immediately recovered strength, went away on his own feet whole. The senate, amazed at so great a miracle, decreed that the games should be renewed at fourfold cost. What sensible man does not see that men, being put upon by maligt demons, from whose domination nothing save the grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord sets free, have been compelled by force to exhibit to such gods as these, plays which, if well advised, they should condemn as shameful? Certain it is that in these plays the poetic crimes of the gods are celebrated, yet they are plays which were re-established by decree of the senate, under compulsion of the gods. In these plays the most shameless actors celebrated Jupiter as the corrupter of chastity, and thus gave him pleasure. If that was a fiction, he would have been moved to anger; but if he was delighted with the representation of his crimes, even although fabulous, then, when he happened to be worshipped, who but the devil could be served? Is it so that he could found, extend, and preserve the Roman empire, who was more vile than any Roman man whatever, to whom such things were displeasing? Could he give felicity who was so infelicitously worshipped, and who, unless he should be thus worshipped, was yet more infelicitously provoked to anger? 8.13. Therefore, although in many other important respects they differ from us, nevertheless with respect to this particular point of difference, which I have just stated, as it is one of great moment, and the question on hand concerns it, I will first ask them to what gods they think that sacred rites are to be performed - to the good or to the bad, or to both the good and the bad? But we have the opinion of Plato affirming that all the gods are good, and that there is not one of the gods bad. It follows, therefore, that these are to be performed to the good, for then they are performed to gods; for if they are not good, neither are they gods. Now, if this be the case (for what else ought we to believe concerning the gods?), certainly it explodes the opinion that the bad gods are to be propitiated by sacred rites in order that they may not harm us, but the good gods are to be invoked in order that they may assist us. For there are no bad gods, and it is to the good that, as they say, the due honor of such rites is to be paid. of what character, then, are those gods who love scenic displays, even demanding that a place be given them among divine things, and that they be exhibited in their honor? The power of these gods proves that they exist, but their liking such things proves that they are bad. For it is well-known what Plato's opinion was concerning scenic plays. He thinks that the poets themselves, because they have composed songs so unworthy of the majesty and goodness of the gods, ought to be banished from the state. of what character, therefore, are those gods who contend with Plato himself about those scenic plays? He does not suffer the gods to be defamed by false crimes; the gods command those same crimes to be celebrated in their own honor. In fine, when they ordered these plays to be inaugurated, they not only demanded base things, but also did cruel things, taking from Titus Latinius his son, and sending a disease upon him because he had refused to obey them, which they removed when he had fulfilled their commands. Plato, however, bad though they were, did not think they were to be feared; but, holding to his opinion with the utmost firmness and constancy, does not hesitate to remove from a well-ordered state all the sacrilegious follies of the poets, with which these gods are delighted because they themselves are impure. But Labeo places this same Plato (as I have mentioned already in the second book ) among the demi-gods. Now Labeo thinks that the bad deities are to be propitiated with bloody victims, and by fasts accompanied with the same, but the good deities with plays, and all other things which are associated with joyfulness. How comes it, then, that the demi-god Plato so persistently dares to take away those pleasures, because he deems them base, not from the demi-gods but from the gods, and these the good gods? And, moreover, those very gods themselves do certainly refute the opinion of Labeo, for they showed themselves in the case of Latinius to be not only wanton and sportive, but also cruel and terrible. Let the Platonists, therefore, explain these things to us, since, following the opinion of their master, they think that all the gods are good and honorable, and friendly to the virtues of the wise, holding it unlawful to think otherwise concerning any of the gods. We will explain it, say they. Let us then attentively listen to them. |
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| 11. Macrobius, Saturnalia, 1.11.2 (4th cent. CE - 5th cent. CE) Tagged with subjects: •minucius felix (christian apologist) Found in books: Mueller (2002) 92 |
| 12. Macrobius, Saturnalia, 1.11.2 (4th cent. CE - 5th cent. CE) Tagged with subjects: •minucius felix (christian apologist) Found in books: Mueller (2002) 92 |
| 13. Jerome, Chronicon Eusebii (Interpretatio Chronicae Eusebii Pamphili), None (5th cent. CE - 5th cent. CE) Tagged with subjects: •minucius felix, christian apologist Found in books: Rizzi (2010) 135 |
| 14. Jerome, On Illustrious Men, 8 (5th cent. CE - 5th cent. CE) Tagged with subjects: •minucius felix, christian apologist Found in books: Rizzi (2010) 129 |
| 15. Valerius Maximus, Memorable Deeds And Sayings, 1.7.4-1.7.5 Tagged with subjects: •minucius felix (christian apologist) Found in books: Mueller (2002) 92 |
