City of God (Penguin Classics) (186 page)

65
. Sulla was nicknamed Felix (‘Lucky’) and he assumed the epithet as a title after his triumph over Mithridates.

66
. 6 July 83
B.C.

67
. cf. Liv.,
perioch
., 79.

68
. Bk
II
, 8ff.

69
. Virg., Aen.,
2
, 351.

70
.
2
Cor. 11, 14.

71
. cf. ch. 4, 51.

72
. Cic, 2
Verr.
, 2, 5, 14. Flora was the goddess of crops in flower.

73
. Cat., 3,8.

74
. 63
B.C.,
the conspiracy of Catiline.

75
. The Scriptures were read from the
ambo
, a raised platform in the Christian basilica.

76
. On Regulus cf. Bk I, 15.
c
. Mucius Scaevola, when captured whilst attempting to kill Lars Porsenna, thrust his arm into the fire to show his contempt of death. (Liv. 2, 12). cf Bk. V, 18. Scipio Africanus Major was the victor in the Second Punic War; Scipio Africanus Minor destroyed Carthage in 146
B.C.
; on Scipio Nasica and his son cf. Bk I, 30, 31.
c
. Luscinius Fabricius resisted the bribes of Pyrrhus in 280
B.C.
, and later revealed to Pyrrhus the proposal of the king’s doctor to poison his master (Plut. Pyrrh, 29; Vol. Max.,2, 9, 4).

77
. Virg, Aen., 11,24f.

78
. cf. Bk I,34.

79
. The sacred fire of Vesta, goddess of the hearth, was kept perpetually burning on the altar in the temple of Vesta, tended by Vestal Virgins, and renewed at the start of each year (1 March).

The Capitoline stone
was the primitive statue of Jupiter on the Capitol, called the ‘Jupiter stone’ (Jupiter lapis).

80
. Virg.,
Aen., 1, 278f.

1
. Bk I, 3; 4.

2
. cf. Virg., Aen., 4, 542;
Georg., 1, 502.

3
. Zeus compelled Apollo and Poseidon to help Laomedon, Priam’s father, inthe-inkling of Troy. When the work was finished, Laomedon refused to pay their wages, and Homer ascribes the destruction of Troy to Laomedon’s breach of faith (
II
., 21,441–60; cf. Hor., Carm. 4, 3, 18–24).

4
.
II
., 20, 293–329.

5
. Aen., 5, 810f.

6
. Sail.,
Cat.
, 14.

7
. Virg., Aen., 2, 352.

8
. Virg., Aen., 2, 601ff.

9
.
Cat.
, 6, 1. The tradition that Aeneas was the immediate founder of Rome is followed also by Naevius and Ennius.

10
. M. Terentius Varro (116–27
B.C.
): polymath and voluminous author. Of his seventy-four works in over 600 volumes only the three books on farming (De Re Rustica), six out of twenty-five on Latin grammar (De
Lingua latina)
and about 600 lines of his ‘Menippean Satires’ survive. His great antiquarian work, the ‘Antiquities’, was divided into twenty-five books on ‘Human Affairs’ and sixteen on ‘Divine Affairs’. St Augustine also has references in the
City of God
to his De Cultu
Deorum
, De Gente Populi
Romani
, and De
Philosophia.

11
. Gen. 6,4.

12
. Pagan moralists were unhappy about the story, cf. Cic.,
De Off.
, 3,40; Liv., 1, 67; Hor.,
Epod., 7, 17f.

13
.
c
. Flavius Fimbria: a partisan of Marius in the civil war against Sulla. After Marius’ death in 86
B.C.
Fimbria commanded in Asia. He took Troy; but his troops mutinied, and he committed suicide in 84
B.C.

14
. Virg., Aen., 2, 351f.

15
. Liv.,
Perioch.
, 83.

16
. Virg., Aen., 9, 247.

17
. Aen., 2, 351f.

18
. 235
B.C.
The First Punic War ended in 241. The gates of this temple of Janus, only closed in time of peace, were not shut again till after the battle of Actium in 31
B.C.

19
.
Aen., 8, 326ff.

20
. Jul. Obs.
Prod.
, 87; Cic.,
De
Div.,1, 43, 98.

21
. liv., 43, 13.

22
. St Augustine seems to have confused the war against the Achaean League, which ended with the capture of Corinth in 146
B.C.
, and that against Aristonicus of Fergamum, who tried to prevent the bequest, by his brother Eumenes, of the kingdom of Fergamum to the Roman people. Aristonicus was capturedand executed in 129
B.C.

Antiochus
III (’the Great’), king of Syria, came into conflict with Rome because of his activities in Asia Minor and Greece. He was defeated by Scipio Africanus Major in 190
B.C.

Perseus (or Perses), king of Macedonia, was defeated by Aemilius Paullus at Pydna in 168
B.C.

23
. Aen., 11,836ff; 10,464f.

24
. The temple of Jupiter Capitolinus. Liv., 10, 47, 7

25
.293
B.C
. (Liv., 10,47).

26
. cf. Bk I, 30.

27
. On Cynocephalus and Febris cf. Bk II, 14-

28
. cf. Bk VII,’ 17.

29
. Virg., Aen., 1, 281f

30
. Julia, m. Pompey 59
B.C.
, d. 54.

31
.
Phars.
, 1, 1f.

32
. cf. Virg., Aen., 7, 323ff.

33
. cf. Liv., 1, 12.

34
. cf. Luc,
Phars.
, 1, 1.

35
. Virg., Aen., 10, 821–8.

36
. cf. Bk 1, 6.

37
. Virg., Aen., 6, 814f.

38
. Cat, 2, 2.

39
. Ps. 10, 23.

40
. Virg., Aen., 2, 351f.

41
. cf. ch. 9.

42
. Liv., I, 16; Flor., Epit., I, I, 17f.

43
. Luke 13, 44f.

44
.
De Rep
., 2, 10, 20.

45
.
De Rep
., 2,17.

46
.
Cat
, 3, 1.

47
. Of which only fragments survive.

48
. Virg.,
Aen
., 2, 351f.

49
. Virg.,Aen.,2, 351f.

50
.
Hist., fr
. 1, 11; cf. Bk II, 18.

51
.
Aen
., 6, 820 ff.

52
. Sall.,
Hist
., fr. 1,11.

53
.
Hist
, 1 fr. 11; cf. Bk 11, 18.

54
. 218
B.C.

55
.
Hist
., 1. fr. 12.

56
. Liv., 3, 18.

57
. cf. Bk II, 16.

58
. Cincinnatus (aged 80) in 439
B.C.
; Liv., 4, 12f.

59
.399
B.C.
; Liv., 5,13; cf. Bk II, 11.

60
. 407–396
B.C.
; Liv., 5, 32; cf. Bk II, 17.

61
. 390
B.C.
; Liv., 5, 37–40

62
. 365
B.C
.; Liv., 7, 1.

63
. cf. Bk 1, 32n.

64
. Liv., 8, 18.

65
. 321
B.C.
; Liv., 9, 3–6.

66
. Liv., 10, 31.

67
. 293
B.C.
; Liv., 47; cf. ch. 12.

68
. 283
B.C.
; Liv.,
Perioch.
, 12.

69
. The last ‘secession’ in 286
B.C.
; Liv., Perioch., 11.

70
. Proletarii. Cicero, (
De Re
., 2, 23) gives this etymology, when describing the constitution of Servius Tullius: ‘Those whose property was less than 1,500 he called
prolctarii;
so that it seemed they were expected to supply offspring (
proles
).’ The word occurs in the first of the Twelve Tables (cf. note on Bk II, 9) of 450
B.C.

Pyrrhus, king of Epirus, came to the help of Tarentum against the Romans in 280
B.c.
Cicero (De Dtv., 2, 56, 116) quotes the metrical form of the oracle
aio
te
Aiacida Romanos vincerc
posse. The ambiguity arises because either of the accusatives, te or
Romanos
, could be either subject or object of
vincere
. Cicero observes that (1) Apollo did not speak Latin, (2) this oracle was unknown to the Greeks, and (3) Oracles were no longer being given in verse in the third century. But the ambiguity would remain in a Greek prose version.

71
. Beneventum, 275
B.C.

72
.
De
Div., 2, 54, 110 ff.

73
. A section of ‘Divine Affairs’ in his
Antiquities.

74
.
Secular Games.
St Augustine refers to the celebration of these games in 249
B.C.
They were celebrated at irregular intervals: 463 (or 449), 363, 263, 249, 146, and 17
B.C.
;
A.D.
88 and 204.

75
. cf. Bk 1, 15.

76
. 242
B.C.

77
.
Sacred Symbol
The Palladium, an image of Pallas sent by Zeus to Dardanus (or Ilus) supposedly brought from Troy by Aeneas; it was preserved in the temple of Vesta, and concealed from profane eyes, and its safety was reputed to ensure the safety of the city which possessed it. ‘The Palladium is as it were the guarantee of our safety and of our Empire, and as such it is guarded by Vesta’ (Cic, Pro
Scaur.
, 48).

78
. Troy, Lavinium, Alba.

79
. In 241
B.C.
cf. Ov. 1,
Fast
, 6, 437–54;
Liv
.,
Perioch
., 19.

80
. cf. Florus, 2, 6 (‘The conquering nation were more like a vanquished people’); Liv., 21,1 (‘Those who conquered were nearer to disaster.’)

81
. Liv., 23, 22.

82
. Bullae, the golden armaments of boys of noble birth.

83
. At the start of the Second Punic War, 218
B.C
. 82.

84
.
Hist.
, fr. 1, 11; cf. Bk II, 18.

85
. cf. Gellius, 7, 1.

86
. Liv., 39, 6, 7.

87
. The Galatians, in 189
B.C
.

88
. In 169
B.C.

89
. Africanus Minor, appointed to command 147; captured and destroyed Carthage 146
B.C
.

90
.
Numantia.
c
. Hostilius Mancinus, with an army of 30,000, was defeated by 4,000 Numantians in 138. The treaty he concluded with the victors was repudiated by the senate (Liv.,
Perioch
., 55; Cic,
De Or
., 1, 40, 181).