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Ante-Nicene Fathers/Volume VI/Arnobius/Adversus Gentes/Book III/Chapter XLIV

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Ante-Nicene Fathers Vol. VI, Adversus Gentes, Book III
by Arnobius, translated by Hamilton Bryce and Hugh Campbell
Chapter XLIV
158863Ante-Nicene Fathers Vol. VI, Adversus Gentes, Book III — Chapter XLIVHamilton Bryce and Hugh CampbellArnobius

44. Wherefore, if you are assured that in the lofty palaces of heaven there dwells, there is, that multitude of deities whom you specify, you should make your stand on one proposition,[1] and not, divided by different and inconsistent opinions, destroy belief in the very things which you seek to establish. If there is a Janus, let Janus be; if a Bacchus, let Bacchus be; if a Summanus,[2] let Summanus be: for this is to confide, this to hold, to be settled in the knowledge of something ascertained, not to say after the manner of the blind and erring, The Novensiles are the Muses, in truth they are the Trebian gods, nay, their number is nine, or rather, they are the protectors of cities which have been overthrown; and bring so important matters into this danger, that while you remove some, and put others in their place, it may well be doubted of them all if they anywhere exist.


Footnotes

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  1. Lit., “it is fitting that you stand in the limits of,” etc.
  2. i.e., Summus Manium, Pluto.