Ante-Nicene Fathers/Volume VI/Arnobius/Adversus Gentes/Book IV/Chapter IX

by Arnobius

9. What then? you say; do you declare that these gods exist nowhere in the world, and have been created by unreal fancies? Not we alone, but truth itself, and reason, say so, and that common-sense in which all men share. For who there who believes that there are gods of gain, and that they preside over the getting of it, seeing that it springs very often from the basest employments, and is always at the expense of others? Who believes that Libentina, who that Burnus,^[1] is set over those lusts which wisdom bids us avoid, and which, in a thousand ways, vile and filthy wretches^[2] attempt and practise? Who that Limentinus and Lima have the care of thresholds, and do the duties of their keepers, when every day we see the thresholds of temples and private houses destroyed and overthrown, and that the infamous approaches to stews are not without them? Who believes that the Limi^[3] watch over obliquities? who that Saturnus presides over the sown crops? who that Montinus is the guardian of mountains; Murcia,^[4] of the slothful? Who, finally, would believe that Money is a goddess, whom your writings declare, as though she were the greatest deity, to give golden rings,^[5] the front seats at games and shows, honours in the greatest number, the dignity of the magistracy, and that which the indolent love most of all,—an undisturbed ease, by means of riches.

Footnotes

1. So the ms., both Roman edd., Hild., and Oehler; the others reading Liburnum, except Elm., who reads -am, while Meursius conjectured Liberum—“Bacchus.”
2. Lit., “shameful impurity seeks after;” expetit read by Gelenius, Canterus, and Oberthür, for the unintelligible ms. reading expeditur, retained in both Roman edd.; the others reading experitur—“tries.”
3. The ms. reads Lemons; Hild. and Oehler, Limones; the others, Limos, as above.
4. The ms., LB., Hild., and Oehler read Murcidam; the others, Murciam, as above.
5. i.e., equestrian rank.