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

by Arnobius

36. If we sought to subvert the belief in your gods in so many ways, by so many arguments, no one would doubt that, mad with rage and fury, you would demand for us the stake, the beasts, and swords, with the other kinds of torture by which you usually appease your thirst in its intense craving for our blood. But while you yourselves put away almost the whole race of deities with a pretence of cleverness and wisdom, you do not hesitate to assert that, because of us, men suffer ill at the hands of the gods;^[1] although, indeed, if it is true that they anywhere exist, and burn with anger and^[2] rage, there can be no better reason for their showing anger against you,^[3] than that you deny their existence, and say that they are not found in any part of the universe.

Footnotes

1. Lit., “for the sake of our name, men’s affairs are made harassing.”
2. Lit., “with flames of,” etc.
3. The ms., according to Crusius, reads nos—“us.”