Tatian the Disciple of Saint Justin: Oration against the Greeks

TATIAN THE ASSYRIAN ORATION AGAINST THE GREEKS

^A 1. The Greeks arrogantly claim the invention of the arts for themselves in vain. — Do not bear an entirely hostile mind towards the barbarians, O Greeks, nor envy their doctrines. For what institution among you did not receive its origin from the barbarians? For the most esteemed of the Telmessians discovered the art of divination from dreams; the Carians, foreknowledge from the stars; the Phrygians and the most ancient of the Isaurians, auspices; the Cyprians, the art of the haruspex; the Babylonians, astronomy; the Persians, magic; the Egyptians, geometry; the Phoenicians, the elements of letters. Therefore, cease to call those things inventions which have been expressed by imitation. For Orpheus taught you to cultivate poetry and to sing; the same also to be initiated; the Tuscans, sculpture; the commentaries of the times among the Egyptians, to adorn histories. But you have adopted the modulation of the pipes from Marsyas and Olympus. Both Phrygians, both rustic men, they discovered the harmony of the flute; ^{B C D}

concentum invenerunt; tubam Tyrrheni, fabricam ^A ærariam Cyclopes, epistolas scribere mulier, Persarum, ut ait Hellanicus, olim regina, cui nomen erat Atossa. Deponite igitur hunc fastum, nec verborum elegantiam ostentate; qui dum vosmetipsos laudatis, domesticos adhibetis patronos. Oportet autem ut qui hanc laudem sibi arrogant, ii, si sapiant, aliorum testimonium exspectent, ac in ipsa sermonis pronuntiatione inter se consentiant. Nunc autem vobis solis contigit ne in colloquiis quidem similes sonos edere. Neque enim Doricorum eadem dictio est ac Atticorum; ^B nec Æoles similiter ut Iones loquuntur. Cum ergo tantum sit inter eos dissidium, inter quos minime oportebat, statuere non possum, quem a me Græcum oporteat appellari. Nam quod omnium absurdissimum est, dictiones, quæ vobis alienæ non sunt, in pretio habetis, et barbaris interdum vocibus abutentes, sartaginem loquendi linguam vestram effecistis. Quamobrem sapientiæ vestræ valediximus, quamvis in hoc genere præclarus omnino et spectatus aliquis essem. Nam, ut ait Comicus:

Infructuosi hæc sunt pampini et loquacitas, Musæ hirundinum: inferunt damnum haud leve Et turpe clamant hujus artis aucupes Corvique ructantur sonos.

Rhetoricam enim ad injustitiam et calumniam instituistis, pretio addicentes sermonum vestrorum libertatem, et ^C sæpe id quod nunc justum, alias haud bonum asserentes. Poeticam vero, ut pugnas describeretis, et deorum amores et animæ corruptelam.

2. Philosophorum vitia et errores. — Quid enim egregii philosophando protulistis, aut quis ex iis, qui præstantissimi fuerunt, extra arrogantiam constitutus fuit? Diogenes, qui dolii ostentatione de ^D se gloriari solitus, quomodo vitam non impudenter instituit?

^A polypus, being raw, 15 having suffered a seizure of [it] through intemperance, died. Aristippus, walking in a purple robe, lived as a spendthrift with credit. Plato, while philosophizing, was sold by Dionysius on account of gluttony. 16 And Aristotle, having ignorantly set a limit to providence, and having delimited happiness in a most unlearned way to those things in which he took pleasure, flattered Alexander, ^B having forgotten that he was a mere youth. And he, in a truly Aristotelian fashion, because his friend was unwilling to worship him, held him captive and carried him about like a bear or a leopard. At any rate, he was quite obedient to the dogmas of his teacher, demonstrating courage and virtue at banquet tables, and running his own and very dear friend through with a spear, and then again weeping and abstaining from food under the pretext of grief, so that he might not be hated by his own household. I would laugh also at those who until now abuse his dogmas, who, while saying that the things after the moon are apart from providence, being closer to the earth than the moon and lower than its course, provide for things unprovided for. For among them there is no beauty, no wealth, no strength of body, [neither is there nobility, among them there is not after Aristotle 17 the happy life.] ^C

(13) Polypus, being raw. On the death of Diogenes, says Laertius lib. vi, various accounts are told. Some say he died seized by a bile-fit after eating a raw octopus; others, when he had held his breath. To this latter opinion is added what Jerome says in lib. ii in Jovinian: He died with his throat compressed during the night, as he said he was not so much dying as excluding a fever by death. Julian defends the deed of Diogenes at greater length in his fifth oration, and contends that he is undeservedly attacked for the raw octopus he devoured. ^D It seems that Gregory Nazianzen refers to this history when he reproaches Diogenes for *opsophagia*, or the gluttony of delicacies, orat. 23, p. 414. Athenaeus counts him among the celebrated *opsophagoi* or gluttons of delicacies, lib. viii, cap. 5, on account of this eaten octopus.

(14) With credit he lived. It seems Tertullian wished to interpret these words of Tatian when he said *Apolog.* c. 46: Aristippus in purple behaves as a spendthrift under a great guise of gravity. But I strongly doubt whether he grasped Tatian's meaning. For Aristippus was not some gloomy sensualist; he did not apply gravity to pleasures, but rather jest and sport, as is perceived from many of his witticisms recorded among the ancients. See Clement of Alexandria *Paedag.* p. 177 and 179. Lactantius records in lib. iii *Institut.*, c. 14, that saying of Aristippus, to which I think Tatian referred: The difference between me and the spendthrifts, Aristippus used to say, is that they get their pleasures at a high price, I get mine for free. It seems that *axiopistos* signifies the same thing with Tatian as "for free" with Lactantius. For it signifies that Aristippus, when he gave himself to pleasures, was not forced to pay money immediately, but that the same habit of honor was held for him as for the rich, who are easily trusted because they are wont to be considered good names. For Tatian is accustomed to take the word *axiopistos* in this sense. He opposes in n. 13 the *axiopistia* to the opinion of poverty and indigence; and in n. 11 he attributes *axiopistia* to the rich; because clearly they are considered good names, and ready money, if they wish to buy anything, or pledges, if they borrow money, are not wont to be demanded of them. Tatian therefore jokes about Aristippus, and indicates that he satisfied his lusts for free, while he says that by *axiopistos* luxury—that is, the law of paying the price immediately—he was exempt, just like some good name.

(15) On account of gluttony he was sold. The Sicilian dishes harmed the reputation of Plato. Hence Xenophon does not obscurely sting him in a certain epistle to Aeschines. Tertullian in the place cited above: Plato, he says, is sold by Dionysius for the sake of his belly. Gregory Nazianzen also carps at him, orat. 3: The Sicilian gluttony of Plato, on account of which he himself is also sold, and is not ransomed by any of his disciples, nay not even by a Greek man. Plato journeyed to Sicily three times, once indeed under Dionysius the elder, twice under the younger, as Plutarch in the *Life of Dion* and Diogenes Laertius lib. iii, and Aristides apud Photius testify. He came into offense with both tyrants: the elder handed him over to Pollis the Lacedaemonian, by whom he was sold in Aegina; under the younger he was brought into danger, as an encourager of Dion in liberating the island. More probably this latter trouble should be attributed to a love of the Sicilian table; for he came to Sicily at the invitation of Dionysius the younger, and did not leave without having tasted the delights of the palace. But that other danger, which he underwent having been handed over to Pollis, cannot be attributed to the same cause. For Plato sailed to Sicily under the elder tyrant with the intention of visiting the island, nor did he insinuate himself into the familiarity of the tyrant: but having been admitted to his conversation through the labors of Dion, he so moved the spirit of the tyrant with his freedom of speech that mandates were immediately given to Pollis about killing or at least selling him, as Plutarch narrates in the *Life of Dion*. Tatian therefore erred in his timing. Much less does St. Cyril agree with Plutarch, who in book xi *adv. Jul.*, p. 50, says of Plato: For they say that Dionysius did not sell him because he was displeased by his flatteries. For he is said to be sold by Dionysius, who was offended by his flatteries.

(16) Having forgotten Alexander. Read in the margin of codex Reg. 2: *Having been honored by Alexander*. That word *memnēmenos* is absent from the Anglican codex; Cotelerius, tom. ii *Monum. Eccl. Græc.*, p. 657, thinks it should be read *memēnēmenon meirakion*, he was flattering a mad youth. But a much more apt emendation, if we read *mē memnēmenos*, is "having forgotten the youth." That *mē* could easily have fallen out due to the similarity of the following syllable. I have no doubt that Tertullian read it this way, for he renders this place of Tatian thus: Aristotle, he says in *Apolog.* p. 46, "flattered Alexander so shamefully, or rather by ruling him." No one fails to see how aptly that of Tertullian, "or rather by ruling him," responds to these words of Tatian: *mē memnēmenos meirakion*, having forgotten that he was a youth.

^A To those to whom beauty, riches, bodily strength, or nobility are wanting, according to Aristotle, happiness is likewise absent. Let such men as these be philosophers!

3. I would not approve of Heraclitus, who, because he was self-taught and arrogant, used to say, "I have investigated myself." Nor would I praise his having concealed his poem in the temple of Diana, so that it might later be published as a mystery. For those who are concerned with these matters say that Euripides the tragedian, in going down and reading it, gradually committed the darkness of Heraclitus to memory with great diligence. But his ignorance was refuted by his death. For, having been seized with dropsy, and having treated medicine just as he did philosophy, he smeared himself with cow dung; and as the dung hardened and pulled at his whole body, he was torn apart and died. ^B For we must set aside Zeno, who declares through his theory of conflagration that the same men rise again for the same purposes—I mean Anytus and Melitus for accusing, Busiris for killing guests, and Hercules again for performing his labors. In his discourse on the conflagration, he introduces more wicked men than just ones, since there was only one Socrates, one Hercules, and not many others of that sort, but few. For the wicked are found to be far more numerous than the good. According to him, God must even ^C be the author of evils, because he did not wish to depart from those darknesses into which he had plunged philosophy, not even when he had become dropsical and was consulting physicians. For, as Laertius says, he asked the physicians by way of an enigma whether they could produce a drought from a rainstorm.

^A And God, according to him, would be proven the creator of evils, occupying Himself with mud, worms, and unspeakable things. For the Sicilian eruptions of fire have proven the arrogance of Empedocles, in that, not being God, he falsely claimed that he was what he said he was. I also mock the geneaology of Pherecydes, and the doctrine he bequeathed to Pythagoras, and his imitator, Plato—even if some deny it. For who would bear witness to the "dog-marriage" of Crates, and not rather, having ^B cast aside the puffy garrulity of those like him, turn to seeking what is truly important? Therefore, let not the festive gatherings of those who are philosophers and those who are not lead you astray; they teach things that are contradictory to themselves, and each one has proclaimed whatever happened to come into his mind. There are also many stumbling blocks among them; for one hates the other, and they contend against one another with opposing opinions, choosing exalted positions out of arrogance. It was fitting, however, that they should neither cultivate empires with ^C anticipated favors, nor fawn upon princes, but wait until the great ones came to them.

4. Rightly do Christians spurn these things and worship God alone. Why then, O Greeks, do you wish to set the states against us as if in a boxing match? ^D

^A And if I am not willing to use the customs of some, why am I hated as if I were a wretch? Does the king order tribute to be paid? I am ready to provide it. Does the master order service and ministration? I acknowledge the service. For man is to be honored in a human way, but God alone is to be feared; He who is not visible to human eyes, nor can be comprehended by art. If I am ordered to deny Him, I will not be persuaded; I would rather die, so that I might not be proven a liar and ungrateful.

Our God has no beginning in time, being the only one without beginning, and He himself is the beginning of all things. God is spirit, not passing through matter, but the maker of material spirits and of the forms that are in matter; both invisible and intangible, He having become the Father of things perceptible and invisible. We know Him through His creation, and we comprehend the invisible of His power through the things that have been made. I do not wish to worship the creation that came into being through Him for our sake. The sun and moon were made for our sake; how then shall I worship my own ministers? How shall I pronounce wood and stone to be gods? For indeed, the spirit that passes through matter is inferior to the more divine spirit; and that which is likened to a soul is not to be honored equally with the perfect God. Nor should the unnameable God be bribed. ^B For He who is in need of nothing should not be blamed by us as if He were in need. But I will explain our position more clearly.

5.

The Christian Doctrine of the Creation of the World through the Word

^A The Word; but the Word, not having gone forth into a vacuum [(44)], becomes the first-begotten work [(45)] of the Father. This we know to be the beginning of the world. It was brought into being by division, not by abscission. For what is abscinded is separated from the first; but what is divided, having assumed the choice of dispensation [(46)], does not leave void [(47)] that from which it has been taken. Non-acceptance of this way of speaking by Justin, who says in *Dialog.* n. 61 that things which are divided and cleft do not remain the same. But that which was displeasing to Justin in this word, Tatian corrects, when he says: "But the Word, having undertaken a voluntary administration, proceeds by communication." For by these words the Word is declared, not as a working force abscinded from the Father, nor as a sound which vanishes into the air, but as the Son, equal to the Father, and having gone forth endowed from eternity with His ideas and all His attributes; and not having been created by such proceeding, nor changed, but having undertaken a voluntary administration. But if this progression of the Word is nothing other than the assumption of a voluntary administration, why is the Word said to be divided [(48)] or to have progressed or been born by communication? Why does Tatian use the example of a torch ^B kindled from another torch, which seems apt and appropriate for explaining an eternal generation? To the explanation of this matter Tertullian helps, when he says: "Then therefore also the speech itself takes its form and adornment, sound and voice, when God says: 'Let there be light' [(49)]," *adv. Prax.*, c. 7. The same author was saying a little before, namely in ch. 5: "For God is rational, and reason is in Him first; and thus all things from Him. Which reason is his own sense; this the Greeks call *Logos*, by which word we also designate speech. And therefore it is already the custom of our people, through the simplicity of interpretation, to say that speech was in the beginning with God, although it is more appropriate to consider reason as more ancient, because God is not speech-like from the beginning, but is rational even before the beginning; and because the speech itself, consisting in reason, shows that reason as its own substance. Nevertheless, it makes no difference even so. For although God had not yet sent forth His speech, He still had it with Himself and in that very reason within Himself, silently thinking and disposing with Himself what He was soon to do through the speech." That subtle consideration of one and the same person under two names was not displeasing to Augustine, who, in his book *Eighty-three Questions*, explaining that of John: "In the beginning was the Word," *q.* 63, speaks thus: "In this place we interpret 'Word' better, so that it may signify not only the relationship to the Father, but also the operative power toward those things which were made through the Word. Reason, however, even if nothing is made through it, is rightly called reason."* ^C* Hither, therefore, returns that which was communicated to the Son by the Father as He proceeded to the creation of the world, namely, form and adornment, sound and voice, as Tertullian says, to whose words the assumption of voluntary administration in Tatian answers. By a subtle distinction, the same person is called now "reason," now "Word"; but one should not suspect a change in the Son any more than in the Father Himself, who is not speech-like from the beginning, but is rational even before the beginning. But why does Tatian, just like Justin, use the example of a torch kindled from another torch? Would it not square more aptly with eternal generation, in which God so handed over His entire substance to the Son that He did not lose it Himself, just as a torch, from which others are kindled, is not in the least diminished? 1° We have already observed in regard to Justin’s *Dialog.* n. 128, that eternal generation and procession are to be distinguished from temporal progression. 2° Justin and Tatian do not for that reason use the example of a torch kindled from another because they believed that the Son of God then began to be Light of Light; but...

in this alone consists the comparison, that just as a torch from which others are kindled is not in the least diminished, so the substance of the Father, as the Son proceeds, is in no way divided, nor did the Word proceeding from the Father’s power make the Begetter lacking. ^A For just as from one torch many fires are kindled, yet the light of the first torch is not diminished by the ignition of the many torches; so also the Word, proceeding from the power of the Father, has not rendered the Begetter devoid of the Word. For indeed I myself speak, and you hear, and surely by the transmission of speech I who am speaking do not become empty of speech; but by putting forth my own voice, I purpose to adorn the unadorned matter within you. And just as the Word, having been begotten in the beginning, in turn begat our creation, having Himself fashioned the matter for Himself; so I also, having been regenerated ^B in imitation of the Word and having achieved the apprehension of the truth, am rearranging the confusion of the matter related to me. For neither is matter without beginning as God is, nor is it on account of being without beginning equal in power to God; but it was created and has not come into being by another, but has been brought forth only by the Creator of all.

6. And for this reason we have believed that there shall be a resurrection of bodies after the consummation of all things, not as the Stoics dogmatize, according to certain cycles of periods, with the same things always being generated and perishing, ^C for no useful end; but once, when our ages have reached their limit, and for all time, by the sole constitution of men, for the sake of judgment. And it is not Minos or Rhadamanthus who judge us, before whose death none of the souls—as they recount in myths—was judged; but the judge is the Creator God Himself. And even if you think us to be utterly prattlers and babblers, we care not, since we have believed in this word. For just as when I did not exist before I was born, I did not know myself, but only existed in the substance of my fleshly ^D [existence]

yet, having come to be, though I once was not, I have attained through generation [the assurance] that I should not doubt that I exist; in the same way, having been born and having ceased to exist and be seen through death, I shall exist again, just as I did not exist before I was born, and was then produced. And even if fire should consume my flesh, the world has received the matter that has been vaporized; and even if I am consumed in rivers, or in the seas, or torn apart by wild beasts, I am stored away in the treasuries of a wealthy Lord. And the poor and godless man does not know what is stored away; but God the Ruler, whenever He wills, will restore the substance visible to Him alone to its former state.

7. How men fell. — For that heavenly Word, ^B a Spirit begotten by the Father, and a Word from the rational power, made man in the image of immortality, in imitation of the Father from whom he was begotten; so that, just as immortality is with God, in the same way man, having partaken of a portion of God, might also possess the immortal. The Word, then, before the creation of men, becomes the creator of the angels. Each species of the creation, however, was created free, not having the nature of the good—for that exists only with God—but being perfected by the freedom of choice on the part of men; so that the base man may be justly punished, having become wicked of his own accord; while the just man may be worthily praised for his virtuous deeds, since he has not transgressed the will of God, while using his free choice. And such is the state of things concerning angels and men. But the power of the Word, foreseeing in itself what would happen freely—not by fate, but by the free will of those choosing—foretold the outcomes of future ^C events; and it was a preventer of wickedness through prohibitions, and a praiser of those who remained good. And since men followed after some one being, more cunning than the rest, because he was the first-born, and held him to be God, even though he resisted the law of God; then the power of the Word [began]...

^A kept away both the initiator of this folly and those who followed him from the life they shared with him. And he who was made in the image of God, upon the departure from him of the stronger Spirit, becomes mortal; but that first-born, on account of his transgression and ignorance, is proven to be a demon, and those who imitated his fantasies have turned into a company of demons, and because of their free will have been handed over to their own foolishness.

8. The source of their apostasy is mankind. For they displayed to them a diagram of the arrangement of the stars ^B, and, like those who play with dice, they introduced a very unjust fate. For both the judge and the judged have been made according to fate, and those who kill and those who are killed, the rich and the poor, are products of the same fate; and all generation ^C, as if in a theatre, provided amusement for these [demons], among whom, as Homer says, *Unquenchable laughter arose among the blessed gods.* For those who watch the combatants, and one favoring another, and the one who marries ^D, and the one who corrupts boys, and the one who commits adultery, and who laughs and is angry, and who flees...

and is wounded, how should he not be considered mortal ^A? For by the very things through which they have revealed to men what sort of beings they were, by these they have urged their hearers to similar deeds. And are not the demons themselves, together with their leader Zeus, subjected to fate, dominated by the same passions just as humans are? And, in any other way, how should those be honored among whom there is great contrariety of dogmas? For Rhea, whom those from the Phrygian mountains call Cybele, they say ordained the excision of the private parts on account of Attis, whom she loved. Venus takes pleasure in the embraces of marriage; Diana is a magician, Apollo a physician. And after the cutting off of the head of the Gorgon, the beloved of Poseidon—from whom the horse Pegasus and Chrysaor sprang—Minerva and Asclepius divided the drops of blood ^B between them; and the one, from these, brought salvation, while the other, as a result of the same gore, became a murderess and a provoker of wars. It seems to me that the Athenians, not wishing to slander her, attributed the child born from his union with Vulcan to the earth, so that Minerva might not appear to have been deprived of her virility by Vulcan, as Atalanta was by Meleager. For the lame god, as is likely, the craftsman of clasps ^C and curved earrings, as is probable, deceived the motherless and orphaned child with women’s ornaments. Poseidon sails, Mars delights in wars, Apollo is a cithara-player, Bacchus plays the tyrant over the Thebans, Saturn is a tyrannicide. Zeus cohabits with his daughter, and the daughter conceives by him. Eleusis will bear testimony to me now, and the mystic Draco, and Orpheus, who says: ^D “Shut the doors against the profane.” Pluto carries off the Maiden, and the deeds of these became mysteries.

^A Ceres laments her daughter, and some are deceived on account of the Athenians. In the sanctuary of the son of Leto there is a place which is called the Omphalos; but the Omphalos is the tomb of Dionysus. I praise thee now, O Daphne, who, having overcome the intemperance of Apollo, hast exposed his divination; for since he did not foresee what concerned thee, his art was of no benefit to him. Let the far-darter Apollo now tell me how Zephyrus killed Hyacinth. Zephyrus conquered him; and as the tragic poet says:

Aura, the most precious carriage of the gods, Conquered by a slight breeze, he lost his beloved.

9. Such are the demons; these are they who have defined fate. Their foundation was the living creation. For the animals upon the earth, and those swimming in the waters, and the quadrupeds upon the mountains, with which they held their life, being cast out from the dwelling in heaven, these they deemed worthy of heavenly honor, so that they themselves might be thought to dwell in heaven, and might demonstrate the irrational life ^B upon earth to be rational through the arrangement of the stars. So that the irascible man, and the laborious, and the continent, and the incontinent, and the man who is in poverty, exist from these very ones who legislated their birth. For the configuration of the zodiacal circle is the creation of the gods. And the light that prevails, as they say, of one of them, surpasses the others, and he who is conquered is wont to prevail in his turn again. And the seven planets satisfy them, just as those who play with dice. We, however, are superior to fate, and instead of wandering demons, we have learned one non-wandering Lord: and being not led by fate, we have rejected its legislators. Tell me, by God, did Triptolemus sow the grain, ^C and after his mourning did he confer a benefit upon the Athenians? But why did Ceres, before she lost her daughter, not deserve well of human beings? The dog of Erigone is shown in the heaven, and Scorpio the helper of Artemis, and Chiron the centaur, and the bisected Argo, and the Bear of Callisto. How then, before these performed the aforesaid deeds, was the heaven unadorned? And to whom will it not seem ridiculous that the Delta, as it pleases some, is among the stars on account of Sicily, or, as it pleases others, on account of the first letter of the name of Zeus? For why not Sardinia

^A and Cyprus also be honored in the heavens? And for what reason are the brothers of Zeus, who divided the kingdoms among themselves, not also established as figures of letters? How is the bound Saturn, who was cast out of his kingdom, appointed as the administrator of fate? And how does he who no longer reigns grant kingdoms? Cast aside this nonsense, therefore, and do not violate divine law through unjust hatred toward us ^B.

10. A fabulous transformation of men is narrated; but even the gods among you are transformed. Rhea becomes a tree; Zeus becomes a serpent for the sake of Proserpina; the sisters of Phaethon are poplars; and Latona is a vile animal, on whose account Ortygia is now called Delos. A god, tell me, becomes a swan, and assumes the form of an eagle, and while he has Ganymede for a cupbearer, does he boast of the base love of boys? What is the point of worshiping gods who are hunters of gifts, and who get angry if they do not receive them? Let them have their fate; I do not wish to worship the wandering stars. Who is that hair of Berenice? ^C And where were its stars before she herself died? And how is the dead Antinoüs, a beautiful youth, consecrated in the moon? Who raised him up to it? Unless perhaps (just as one finds credence if someone asserts, not without perjury and mockery of the gods, that kings hired for a price have ascended into heaven), someone, referring this one also to the gods by a similar reasoning, has been adorned with prizes and gifts. Why are you sacrilegious against God? Why do you disgrace his work? You slaughter a sheep, and the same you worship; a bull is in heaven, and you slay its image. The one they call Engonasin ^D crushes a harmful animal; and the eagle that devoured the creator of man, Prometheus, is honored. Truly the swan is famous, since he was an adulterer. Excellent also are those famous sons of Zeus living on alternate days, the ravishers of the daughters of Leucippus. More outstanding than these is Helen, who, having left the fair-haired Menelaus, followed the turbaned and gold-abundant Paris! Sophron even proved himself just and moderate, he who [escorted] the one who had prostituted herself into the Elysian plains.

^A But not even Tyndaris has been granted immortality; and Euripides wisely represents her as being killed by Orestes.

11. How, therefore, can I accept that a person is born of fate, when I see such moderators of it? I do not wish to reign; I do not desire to be rich; I decline the command of the army; I have hated fornication; I do not practice seafaring for the sake of insatiable greed; I do not strive to obtain crowns; I am freed from the madness of glory; I despise death; I am superior to every kind of disease; sorrow does not consume my soul. If I am a slave, I endure slavery; if I happen to be free, I do not pride myself on my noble birth. I see the sun as the same for all, and death as one for all, whether one lives in pleasure or suffers through want. The rich man sows, and the poor man partakes of the same seed; the wealthiest die, and those who ask for alms have the same limitation of life. The wealthy have need of more things, and they gain prominence through their reputation; but the poor man, and he who is most moderate, desiring that which is sufficient for him, attains it more easily. Why do you wake in the night for the sake of avarice according to fate? Why, repeatedly desiring out of fate, do you repeatedly die? Die to the world, rejecting the madness in it; live to God, rejecting your old generation through the knowledge of Him. We were not made to die, but we die through our own fault. Free will destroyed us; we who were free have become slaves; we were sold through sin. Nothing evil has been made by God; we ourselves brought forth wickedness; but those who have brought it forth are able to reject it again.

12. We know of two kinds of spirits, of which the one is called the soul, ^B but the one greater than the soul, the image and likeness of God. Both existed in the first men, so that one part of them was material, and the other part was superior to matter. And the matter stands thus: it is possible to see the entire construction of the world and the whole of creation as having come to be from matter, and that matter itself was brought forth by God, so that one part of it is understood as being without resource and unformed before it received distinction, and the other part as decorated and ^{C D}

^A brought into order following that same distinction. Therefore, the heaven in it and the stars in it consist of matter; and the earth also, and all that is perceived from it, have a similar constitution, so that the generation of all things is common. Since these things are thus, there are certain differences among those things that consist of matter, so that one thing is more beautiful, while another is indeed beautiful, yet is inferior to something better. For just as the constitution of the body is of one arrangement, and the cause of its birth revolves around it, yet although these things are so, there are certain differences of dignity in it—one thing is the eye, another the ear, another the adornment of hair, or the arrangement of the bowels, or the connection of marrow and bones and nerves—and when one thing differs from another, there is a harmony of agreement according to the arrangement. In like manner also the cosmos, according to the power of him who made it, contains some things more ^B brilliant and some things unlike these, having received a material spirit, as the Maker willed. But one who does not proudly reject the most divine oracles, which were recorded by writing at various times, can perceive these things one by one, for they have made those who attend to them completely beloved by God. Yet, therefore, even the demons—whom you speak of in this way—having received a structure from matter and having drawn spirit from it, have become dissolute and gluttonous; some of them having turned toward purer matter, others having chosen the inferior part of matter and living according to its likeness. These, O Greeks, you worship, though they were made of matter and have been found far removed from right order. For the aforementioned, having turned through their own stupidity toward vainglory and having broken away, sought to become robbers of divinity. But the Lord of all allowed them to amuse themselves until such time as the cosmos, having reached its end, is dissolved, and the Judge arrives, and all men, through the opposition of the ^C demons, desiring the knowledge of the perfect God, might receive a more perfect witness through their struggles on the day of judgment. There is, therefore, spirit in the luminaries, spirit in the angels, spirit in plants and waters, spirit in men, spirit in animals; and, although it exists as one and the same, it possesses differences within itself. As for our speaking these things—not by tongue, nor by probable reasoning, nor by the equipment of sophistic composition, but using the speech of a more divine utterance—those of you who wish to learn, hasten. And you who do not reject ^D the Scythian Anacharsis, do not even now consider it unworthy of you

^A to be instructed by those who follow a barbarian legislation. Adopt our dogmas, even if only as you accept the Babylonian art of looking into the future; give ear to us when we speak, even if only as you would to an oak tree giving prophecies. For as for the things previously mentioned, they are the counter-sophistries of raving demons, but the things of our instruction are higher than worldly comprehension.

13. The soul is not in itself immortal, O Greeks, but mortal. Yet it is possible for the same soul not to die. For it dies and is dissolved together with the body when it does not know the truth, but it rises again at the end of the world together with the body, receiving death through punishment in immortality. And again, it does not die, even if it is dissolved for a time, if it has acquired the knowledge of God. For in itself it is darkness, and there is nothing luminous in it, and this is, then, what has been said: *The darkness does not comprehend the light* (John 1, 5). For the soul did not save the Spirit itself, but it was saved by it, and the light apprehended the darkness. The Word ^B is indeed the light of God, but the ignorant soul is darkness. For this reason, when it dwells alone, it inclines downward toward matter, dying together with the flesh; but when it has acquired the fellowship of the divine Spirit, it is not helpless; it ascends to the regions where the Spirit guides it. For the Spirit’s dwelling place is above, but the soul’s generation is from below.

The Spirit was indeed the soul’s companion from the beginning; but the Spirit left it when the soul was unwilling to follow, and it remained like a spark of its power, and because of the separation the soul does not see the higher things. It has been reduced to darkness, seeking God, but not by searching for Him in the way of truth. And the soul—let us now also speak of it as it is—wanders about, and as it were, falls into the abyss, paying the penalty for its isolation. ^C But when it is again entrusted with the fellowship of the Spirit, it does not remain in the darkness but becomes light. But since we are those who carry about the image of God in this living and moving statue, the human being, we have become an image, a counselor, a companion, a housemate, a fellow-sufferer, and an offering to God for the sake of Christ, ^D whose Spirit is a fellow-dweller, a counselor, an intimate and sharer of the same dwelling, a fellow-sufferer, and an offering. But since the memory of the Spirit, which had been cast away and abandoned, had grown dim, the soul—not being able to see what is perfect—sought for God, wandering about in many places, and did not find Him. It was deceived by demons, and instead of God, it began to venerate the works of the hands.

^A Since it was not able to behold what is perfect, because of its separation from the power of God, and while seeking God, it fashioned many gods by the error of its opinion, following those demons who use counter-sophistry. ^B Now the Spirit of God is not in all, but residing in some who live justly, and being intertwined with their soul, it announced the hidden things to the other souls by means of prophecies. And those which obeyed the wisdom drew to themselves the kindred Spirit, but those which did not obey and rejected the minister of the suffering God were found to be fighting against God rather than venerating Him.

14. Demons are punished more severely than men. — Such are you also, O Greeks, polished indeed in language, but having a deranged mind; you have professed a government of many rather than of one, while you have decided to follow after demons as if they were all-powerful. For just as a robber, being inhuman, is accustomed to subdue those like himself through his audacity, so too the demons, having drifted into great wickedness, have deceived the souls among you that are isolated through ignorance and phantasms. They do not indeed die easily, for they are destitute of flesh, but while living, they practice the institutions of death, dying to the same extent as they educate their followers in sins. ^C And so, that which is now their advantage—that they do not die in the same manner as men—that, when they are about to be punished, will not be theirs; they will not share in eternal life, but will obtain a certain death in immortality. For just as we, to whom dying easily happens now, later receive either immortality with pleasure, or pain with immortality: so also the demons, who abuse their present life for sinning, and die throughout their whole life, will hereafter have immortality, the same indeed as when they were living, but in status like those men who have performed, according to their own will, whatever ^D

^A demons have prescribed. For is it not true that for men, fewer species of sin flourish because they do not live for a long time, whereas for the aforementioned demons, sinning results to a greater degree because of their infinite age?

15. And it is necessary now that we seek what we possess but have lost, that we join the soul with the Holy Spirit and labor for that union which is according to God. Now, the soul of men is multi-part, and not single-part. For it is composite, so as to be manifest through the body. For it would never appear without a body, nor does the flesh rise again without the soul. For man is, not as those croaking-voiced ones dogmatize, a rational animal, capable of mind and knowledge; for it will be shown that, according to them, even irrational creatures are capable of mind and knowledge. But man alone is the image and likeness of God. And by man I do not mean him who acts like the beasts, but him who is far from humanity ^B and has attained unto God Himself. And concerning this, it has been written more accurately by us in the book *On Animals*. But what must now be discussed is what sort of thing that image and likeness according to God is. That which cannot be compared is nothing else than Being itself; but that which is compared is nothing else than that which is similar. Now, the perfect God is without flesh, but man is flesh; the soul is the bond of the flesh, and the flesh is in relation to the soul. And such a species of constitution, if it should be as a temple, God wishes to dwell in it through the ^C interceding Spirit. But if it should suffer with the body, just as is shown by the testimony of observable things, it cannot be bodiless. That is to say, God alone is an unbegotten, needing nothing, and tireless nature, being bodiless, and therefore also invisible; for no one has seen God. But souls, originating from the Creator and Father of all, while being spiritual bodies, have been ordered into limbs discernible by reason.

But if such a tabernacle does not exist, man is superior to the beasts only in his articulate voice, while in all other respects his manner of life is the same as theirs, for he is not a likeness of God. Furthermore, all demons possess no flesh, but they have a spiritual composition, as of fire or air. Only to those who are guarded by the Spirit of God are the bodies ^A of demons discernible [(39)]; to others, however, they are nowhere to be seen — I mean to those who are psychic [(40)]. For the lesser is unable to comprehend the greater. For this reason, then, the substance of the demons has no place for repentance. For they are effulgences of matter and wickedness. Matter, however, wished to dominate the soul, and in accordance with free will, the former handed down the laws of death to men; but men, after the loss of immortality [(42)], have overcome death through the death to be undergone in faith, and through repentance a calling has been granted to them, according to the word that says [(43)]: "Since they were made a little lower than the angels." [(Ps. VIII, 4)] And it is possible for everyone who has been conquered to conquer again, by refusing to accept the constitution of death. And whoever wishes to see what this is, the immortal ^B will be clearly visible to them.

16. Demons needlessly show off their power. They are easily conquered by the virtue of the Holy Spirit. Moreover, the demons who rule over men are not the souls of men. For how could they be active even after death? Unless, perhaps, a man is foolish and weak while he lives, but once he has become a corpse, he is believed to be endowed with more effective power. But the matter is not so, as we have demonstrated elsewhere; and it is very difficult to think that the immortal [(45)] soul, which is impeded by the limbs of the body, becomes more sagacious when it has departed from it. ^C For demons, while they revel in their wickedness against men [(46)], pervert their minds with various and deceitful dramatic performances, so that they look downward and are unable to rise toward the journey in the heavens. But ^D

^A things in the world are not hidden from us, and the divine is easily apprehended by us, if that power which makes souls immortal has approached us. And the demons are also seen by the psychic, sometimes showing themselves to men, that they may be thought to be something, or even to do some harm, being evil friends in their mind, just like enemies, if they provide pretexts for those who hold to the worship of them, to those who are like them. For if it were possible for them, they would certainly have dragged down heaven itself together with the rest of creation. But now they do not do this at all; for they are unable; but with the material below, they fight against the material similar to them. But if one should wish to overcome these (demons), let him renounce the material. For being armed with the breastplate of the heavenly Spirit, he will be able to save everything that is encompassed by it. There are, then, also diseases and disturbances of the ^B material within us; but the demons themselves ascribe the causes of these to themselves when they occur, approaching whenever fatigue takes hold. And there is a time when they themselves, by the storm of their own stupidity, shake the state of the body; but struck by the word of the power of God, they depart in terror, and the sufferer is healed.

17. For regarding the sympathies and antipathies according to Democritus, what have we to say, except this: that according to the common saying, the man from Abdera is an "Abderite" (a chatterer)? But just as he who is the cause of the name for that city, being a friend of Heracles, as they say, was devoured by the horses of Diomedes; in the same way, he who boasts of the magician Ostanes shall at the day of consummation be handed over to the food of eternal fire. And you too, if you do not cease your laughter, shall suffer the same punishments ^C as the magicians. Therefore, O Greeks, listen to me as if I were crying out from on high, and do not, by mocking my folly, bring down upon yourselves the judgment due to your own folly regarding the herald of the truth.

^A transfer your lack of judgment into a herald of the truth. Disease is not removed by secret dissent, nor is one who is raving cured by the hanging of skins. But demons behave like visitors: and both the sick person, and he who says he is in love, and he who hates, and he who desires to take revenge, take these as their helpers. ^B Now their method of trickery is as follows: just as the characters of letters, and the lines consisting of them, are not of themselves able to signify what is planned, but men have created signs of their thoughts for themselves, perceiving through their specific composition what the order of letters was also instituted to signify; likewise, the varieties of roots, and the arrangements of sinews and bones, are not inherently effective in themselves, but are an element of the wickedness of the demons, who have defined what each of them ^C is powerful for. But when they see that men assent to being ministered to through these things, then they come upon them and cause men to serve them. For how could it be honorable to minister to adulteries, or excellent to aid some people in their hatred, or to attribute the cure of those who are raving to created things and not to God! For they turn men away from the worship of God by leading them to put their faith in herbs and roots. But if God had created these things to accomplish that which men desire, He would indeed be the creator of evil things. Yet He created all things that are in a good state; but the profligacy of the demons has abused the things that are in the world for the purpose of doing evil, and this is a species of their wickedness, not of the perfect ^D God. For how could I, who am not in the least evil while alive, when I am dead, become an inanimate remnant that does nothing of my own, which neither moves nor even feels, effect anything that can be perceived? And how could he who has died a most miserable death, ^D be able to lend his aid for the vengeance of another? For if this...

were so, much more would he be able to take vengeance upon his own enemy; for, if he is able to help others, he would be far more capable of acting as his own avenger.

18. The method of healing, and everything contained in it, is of the same artifice. For if anyone is healed by matter, trusting in it, he would be healed far more by attending to the power of God. For just as the poisons are material compositions, in the same way, the remedies are of the same substance. But if often, through the entanglement of one of these evils ^A with another, some attempt to heal, they would be using even these evils for a good purpose. Just as if you were to dine with a robber, even if you yourself are not a robber, still, because you have feasted with him, you become a sharer in his punishment; in the same way, he who is not evil, if he joins himself to the wicked, will be punished by God, the judge, for ^B the sake of that which is considered good. For why does the one who trusts in the management of matter, not wish to trust in God? And for what reason do you not go to the more powerful Master, but rather heal yourself—just as the dog does with grass, the deer with the viper, the pig with freshwater crabs, and the lion with monkeys? And why do you deify for me the things that are in the world? And why, when you heal your neighbor, are you called a benefactor? Follow after the power of the Word. ^C Demons do not heal, but by their art they capture men, ensnaring them with superstition, while they seem to be useful by nature. Thus it is spoken: Although, where there are no incantations, invocations, and characters, it is generally doubtful whether the thing which is bound or in any way joined to the body to be healed, avails by the power of nature (which may be freely used), or whether it proceeds from some significant binding; which a Christian ought to beware of all the more prudently, the more effectively it appears to be of benefit. ^D

^A And those men, by their art, take human beings captive. And the most admirable Justin rightly proclaimed that they are like robbers. For just as it is the custom there to capture some [people], and then restore them to their own [people and kin] for a price; so also do those who are considered gods, after they have crept into the bodies of some, and then by means of dreams have manufactured a reputation for themselves, command them to go forth in public, [and] when they have obtained worldly goods while all are watching, they fly away from the sick—once the disease which they themselves had induced ^B has been wiped out—and restore the men to their former health.

19. You, who do not perceive these things, learn from us who do perceive them. You say that you despise death and practice self-sufficiency—though the philosophers among you fall so far short of such training that some receive six hundred aurei annually from the Roman Emperor for nothing useful, and do not even have their beards allowed to grow for free. Crescens, indeed, that man who had built his nest in the great city, surpassed all in his love for boys, and was altogether intent upon the study of money. Yet this man, who made a show of despising death, feared death so much that he brought machinations against Justin—and against me, too—as [if it were] some great evil, [simply] because, by proclaiming the truth, I called them gluttons and impostors. ^C But even now, who is ignorant that in the great city, at the festival of Jupiter Latiaris, a man is slaughtered?

On the interpretation of the "great city" and the references to Crescent

^D (76) *In the great city.* Fronto Ducæus and others have thought that Megalopolis is what is meant by Tatian. Rufinus and Christophorsonus interpret it better as "the great city" in the *Ecclesiastical History* of Eusebius, who quotes this passage of Tatian in Book IV, chapter 16. That Tatian refers to Rome is clear, both from Justin’s *Minor Apology* and from this very passage, where it is established that Justin suffered [martyrdom] at Rome, and where Tatian mentions the plots of Crescens. In the same way, the great city is denoted by Porphyry in *De abstinentia animalium*, page 226, where he speaks as follows: "But even now, who is ignorant that in the great city, at the festival of Jupiter Latiaris, a man is slaughtered?" Rome is also called [the great city] in Theodoret, in the Epistle of the Council of Constantinople, though the proper name "Rome" is added. Sometimes this name is applied to other cities, as to Alexandria in Evagrius (Book II, chapter 4), to Thebes in Synesius (*De Providentia*, page 94); to Constantinople in the epistle just cited and in St. John Chrysostom (*Oratio ad Antioch.*), and in the epistle of Atticus to Cyril, and in Palladius (*Vita S. Chrysost.*, page 85), and in Photius (*Nomocanon*, chapter 2, title 8).

^A and refuted the philosophers. For whom of the philosophers was he accustomed to persecute, if not us alone? But if you say that one ought not fear death—agreeing with our doctrines—do not seek death, like Anaxarchus, out of an insane love for human praise, but become despisers of death for the sake of the knowledge of God. For the construction of the world is good, but the way of life within it is wicked; and just as in a festival, one may see those who do not know God being applauded and admired in the theater. For what is divination? Why are you deceived by it? It is a minister to you of the covetous desires existing in the world. You wish to wage war, and you take Apollo as an advisor for slaughter. You wish to snatch away a virgin, and you choose the demon to fight on your side. You are ill because of your own actions, and, like Agamemnon desiring ten counselors, you wish to have gods by your side. ^B A woman drinks water and goes mad, and by means of incense she becomes bereft of her senses, and yet you call such a one a prophetess. Apollo was a foreknower and the master of those who divine; yet at Daphne he deceived himself. Does an oak tree, tell me, prophesy, and do birds, in turn, announce the future? Are you then inferior to animals and trees? It would be a fine thing for you to become a divining piece of wood and to take on the flight of those who move through the air. The same one who makes you a lover of money also divines for you regarding how to get rich. The one who stirs up sedition and fighting also predicts the victory in war. If you were to be superior to the passions, you would despise all things that are in the world. Being such as we are, do not hate us, but having rejected the demons, follow after the only God. ^C All things were made by Him, and without Him was not anything made. But if there is any venom in those things which grow, this has befallen them on account of our sin. I can demonstrate an image of these things; only listen, and he who believes will understand. * John 1, 3.

^A If you are cured by drugs, I do not forbid you; but you must ascribe the testimony to God. For the world still pulls us down 90, and because of our weakness it requires material things. For the Spirit of God was the wing of the soul, which, having cast it off through sin, it flew like a fledgling and fell to the ground; and having departed from the heavenly association, it longed for a share of lesser things. The demons were banished 91, the first-formed were cast out; and the former were thrown down from heaven, but the latter from earth—not the earth of this world, but from a better order of things. And we must now, having longed for our ancient state, renounce everything that becomes an obstacle. For the heaven is not infinite, O man, but is bounded and finite 92. And beyond it are the higher ages, which do not have the change of seasons, through which various diseases are established, but having partaken of every temperate state, they possess a day that remains forever, and a light inaccessible to those who are on earth. Those, therefore, who labored on geographies, according to the extent that it was possible for man, made a description of the lands. But as for the regions beyond, being unable to speak because of the impossibility of the vision, they blamed the tides 93, and one sea as green, another as muddy, and of places, some as burning, and others as cold and frozen. But we have learned things unknown to you through the prophets; who, being simultaneously convinced in their soul that the heavenly Spirit will possess the immortal garment of mortality 94, proclaimed all those things which other souls did not know. And it is possible for every one who is stripped [of his sin] to acquire this adornment and to run back to his ancient kinship. ^B

21. That the doctrine of the Christians regarding God who was born in the form of a man is not to be compared to the doctrine of the Greeks concerning their gods.

21. For we do not play the fool, O Greeks, nor do we tell nonsense, when we proclaim that God was born in the form of a man. You who reproach us, compare your own myths with our narratives. Deiphobus, as they say, was Athena on account of Hector, ^C and for the sake of Admetus, Phoebus grazed the shambling kine, 95...

^A and the aged spouse of Zeus came to Semele. While you study such things, how can you mock us? Your Asclepius is dead, and he who deflowered fifty virgins in one night at Thespiae, having delivered himself to devouring fire, has departed. Prometheus, bound to the Caucasus, suffered punishment on account of his benefit to men. Zeus, according to you, is envious, ^B and covers the dream from men, wishing them to perish. Therefore, look to your own records, and admit that you are telling myths just as we might. We are not acting foolishly, but your tales are mere trifles. If you speak of the generation of the gods, you also declare them mortal. For why is Hera not pregnant now? Has she grown old? Or is there no one to bring you the news? Believe me now, O Greeks, and do not draw your myths or your gods into allegory. For if you attempt to do this, ^C your very deities are overthrown by you. For either these demons among you are of base character, if they are such as they are called; or if they are interpreted according to nature, they are not what they are called. As for me, I would neither be persuaded to worship the substance of the elements, nor would I persuade my neighbor. Metrodorus of Lampsacus, in his book on Homer, has argued very foolishly, referring everything to allegory. For he says that neither Hera, nor Athena, nor Zeus is what those who built shrines and temples for them imagine, but rather they are ^D substances of nature and arrangements of the elements. You would also say that Hector, and Achilles of course, and Agamemnon, and all the Greeks and barbarians without exception—together with Helen and Paris—belonging to the same nature, were introduced for the sake of arrangement, so that none of the aforementioned... Thus the Dream by the command of Zeus addressed Agamemnon:

"He bade thee arm the long-haired Achaeans with all their host: For now mayest thou take the wide-wayed city Of the Trojans."

Agamemnon, not understanding that ambiguous voice, which, as Synesius observes in *De Insomniis* (p. 149), contained Achilles and the phalanx of Myrmidons, was foolishly deluded as if he were to take the city in the first assault without the aid of Achilles.

^A

We have set forth these things as a supposition; for it is not holy to compare our apprehension concerning God with those who wallow in matter and mire. ^B

22. For what, indeed, are your teachings? Who would not mock your public festive games, which, celebrated under the pretext of wicked demons, drive men into ignominy? I have often seen some man, and upon seeing him, I marveled; and after I marveled, I despised him, as one who is internally something else, but externally feigns what he is not. This man, I say, I saw utterly dissolute in luxury, broken by every effeminacy, now flashing with his eyes, now twisting his hands hither and thither, and raving with a miry countenance, at one time becoming like Venus, at another like Apollo; a single accuser of all the gods, an epitome of superstition, a calumniator of heroic deeds, an actor of murders, a demonstrator of adultery and avarice, a teacher of the pathic, an occasion for capital sentences; yet that same man was praised by all. But I refused him, as one who lies in everything, and his impiety, and his pursuits, and the man himself. But you are carried off as spoil by these ^C

22. For what, indeed, are your teachings? Who would not mock your public festive games, which, celebrated under the pretext of wicked demons, drive men into ignominy? I have seen someone 7 frequently, and seeing him, I marveled; and after I marveled, I despised him, because he is internally one thing, but externally pretends to be what he is not, swaggering exceedingly, and twisting himself in all ways, and at one moment sparkling with his eyes, at another twisting his hands 8, and through his muddy 9 appearance playacting the demon, becoming at one time like Aphrodite, at another like Apollo, one accuser of all the gods 10, the epitome of superstition 11, a slanderer of heroic actions, an actor of murders, a recorder of adultery, an expert in treasure-thief fiction 12, a teacher of the pathic, an occasion for those who are condemned 13, and such a man as this is praised by all. I, however, rejected him, as one who lies in everything—his godlessness, his pursuits, and the man himself. But you are carried off as spoil by such people. ^D

^A And you heap abuse on those who do not share in your practices. I do not wish to stand gaping at a chorus of many singers, nor do I wish to be swayed by one who nods and moves in a manner contrary to nature. What is there wonderful or remarkable that is achieved among you? They "snort through their noses" at shameful things, and they make movements which they ought not, and your sons and daughters look on as they teach the art of adultery upon the stage. Your lecture halls are excellent, proclaiming everything that is wickedly transacted by night, and delighting the listeners with the declamations of shameful speech. Your lying poets are also excellent, deceiving those who listen through their gestures.

23. ^B I have seen men weighed down by the burden of their bodies, carrying about the weight of their own flesh, for whom prizes and crowns are set forth, while the masters of the games urge them on, not to noble deeds, but to the contention of causing injury and stirring up strife; and he who is the greater striker is crowned. And these are the lesser of your evils; but who would shrink from telling of the greater ones? Some, having surrendered themselves to idleness, sell themselves to be slaughtered on account of their profligacy. The poor man sells himself; the rich man buys murderers; those who bear witness to them sit by, and the boxers fight over nothing, and there is no one who descends to help. Is it really the case that such things are well carried out by you? For the commander among you gathers together an army of bloodthirsty men, professing himself a provider of robbers; and the robbers go forth from him, and all of you gather for the spectacle, becoming judges, partly of the master of the games’ wickedness, and partly of the gladiators themselves. ^C He who has not been present at the slaughter is grieved, because he has not been condemned to be a spectator of wicked, godless, and abominable deeds. You sacrifice animals for the sake of eating flesh, and you buy men, providing your soul with the feast of cannibalism, feeding it with most godless bloodshed. The robber, therefore, kills for the sake of gain; but the rich man buys gladiators for the sake of being killed.

24. What benefit does it bring me to be drawn away by the madman in Euripides, and the matricide of Alcmaeon D

24. On other spectacles

fire, and wears an inhuman garment. Farewell to the myths of Hegesilaus, and to Menander, the poet of his language. And why should I marvel at the mythical piper, or busy myself with Aristoxenus the Theban in the matter of Antigenides? We yield to you things that are useless; do you either be persuaded by our doctrines, or withdraw to us in accordance with your own likeness. ^B

25. *Philosophical ostentation and dissension. The concord and superior teaching of the Christians, innocent customs.* — What great or marvelous thing do the philosophers do among you? For they neglect one of their shoulders, let their hair grow long, nurse a beard, carry about claws like wild beasts, and say they need nothing; yet, after the manner of Proteus, they require a tanner for their bag, a weaver for their cloak, a woodcutter for their staff, and, on account of their gluttony, they require the wealthy and a cook. O man who mimics the dog, you do not know God, and have turned to the imitation of brute beasts. You who shout in public with a certain confidence of one who is not needy, you be the avenger of yourself, and if you do not receive, you abuse; and the art of philosophy becomes for you a means of gaining. You follow the decrees of Plato; behold, the Epicurean sophist opposes you openly and plainly. Again, you wish to follow Aristotle; and some follower of Democritus abuses you. Pythagoras says that he was Euphorbus. But Aristotle is the heir of the doctrine of Pherecydes, and slanders the immortality of the soul. Since you have ^C successors to your doctrines who are ^D full of faction...

you fight against those who are in agreement with themselves. One man says that God is a body—I say He is incorporeal; ^A that the world is indissoluble—I say it is to be dissolved; that a conflagration occurs at various times—I say it will happen once; that Minos and Rhadamanthus are judges—I say it is God Himself; that only the soul is rendered immortal—I say the flesh also, with the soul. What harm do we do you, O Greeks, or why do you hate those who follow the Word of God as if they were the most abominable of men? We do not eat human flesh; you are false witnesses who have been trained to say this. Among you, Pelops is served up for the banquet of the gods, and is the beloved of Neptune; Saturn devours his sons, and Jupiter swallows Metis. ^B

26. Cease to boast of the discourses of others, and stop your scholarly affectations. Desist from making a show of alien learning, and do not deck yourselves out like a jackdaw in feathers that are not your own. If every city were to take away its own peculiar dialect from you, your sophistries would fail you. While you inquire what God is, you are ignorant of what is happening within yourselves, and, gaping at the sky, you fall into pits. The treatments of your books are like labyrinths, and those who read them are like the Danaids with their water-jar. Why do you divide time for me, saying that one part of it is past, another present, and another future? For how can the future pass by, if the present is present? ^C Just as those who are sailing, while the ship is moving, think through their ignorance that the mountains are running, so you also do not perceive that you yourselves are passing by, while the age stands still, until He who created it wills it to be. For why am I accused when I speak of what is mine, and why do you hasten to destroy all that is mine? For have you not been born in the same way as we, and have you not partaken of the same ordering of the world? Why do you claim that wisdom exists only among you, seeing that you have no other sun, no different risings of the stars, no better generation, and no death more exceptional than that of other men? The beginning of your trifling lies with the grammarians, and you who divide wisdom have cut yourselves off from the true wisdom, and have attributed the names of its parts to men. You are ignorant of God, and while you fight among yourselves, you are destroying one another. For this reason you are all nothing at all; and although you claim these discourses for yourselves as if by right, like— ^D

For this does not exist, inasmuch as it has already passed; but the future is not yet present, and therefore it is not at all. He proves that the present cannot be apprehended thus: For the time which is called present, together with the thought and the utterance, flies away even faster. It is utterly impossible to grasp it as present. For it is necessary that we either expect the future or contemplate the past. Inasmuch as it flees, it slips away together with the very thought.

^A ...at all? Why do you take up arguments while keeping far away from deeds; puffed up with glory, but humbled in misfortunes? You misuse appearances contrary to reason; for publicly you make a display, but you hide your discourses in corners [(42)]. Having recognized you for what you are, we have left you behind; we no longer concern ourselves with your affairs, but we follow the word of God. For why, O man, do you invent a war of letters? And why do you strike together their utterances like a boxer’s blows with Athenian stammers, when you should speak more naturally? For if you Atticize, though not an Athenian, tell me the reason for not Doricizing? How does the one seem to you more barbarian, and the other more pleasing in conversation?

^B 27. If, however, you hold to their training, why do you quarrel with me for choosing the dogmas that I please? For how is it not absurd not to punish a thief because of the name with which he is labeled before the truth has been carefully learned, yet to hate us because of an opinion taken up from insults without examination? Diagoras was an Athenian, but you punished him because he danced out [(45)] the mysteries among the Athenians; and by reading his Phrygian books [(44)] [(45)], you have hated us. Possessing the memoranda of Leo, you value them; and you who read his Phrygian books hold us in hatred. This emendation is confirmed by the most learned man with a similar passage from Tertullian, where it reads, *Apol.* cap. 12, edit. Pamel.: You are the same ones who reprehend a certain Seneca for haranguing at greater length and more strongly about your superstition. Better in the edition of Rigaltius, *probatis*.

^C ...that ancient physiology, both among Greeks and barbarians, was a natural rationale wrapped in myths, a theology for the most part hidden through enigmas and underlying meanings, and mysterious, having the things spoken of as no clearer to the crowd than the things kept silent, and the things kept silent as more suspicious than the things spoken of, is clear from the Orphic poems and the Egyptian and Phrygian books. [(original-script column: see facsimile)] ^D ...books that pertain to Cybele, Vossius maintains were discussed by Diagoras, *lib. De historicis Græcis*, cap. 2. Moreover, concerning the refutation of the gods, both Diagoras himself and two others, whom Tatian will mention presently, followed this path, so as to prove them to be either men or inanimate objects. Arnobius, *lib. IV Contra gentes*, enumerates Diagoras and Leo of Pella among the writers who with scrupulous diligence and free-thinking spirit brought hidden things to light; and he declares that by their testimony he can show all these gods to have been men. There is no doubt that these same writers labored not listlessly in recalling fabulous gods to nature. Thus, indeed, regarding the Phrygian and Egyptian books, Plutarch says in Eusebius, *Præp. Evangel.*, lib. III, c. 1: (read: That ancient physiology, both among the Greeks and the barbarians, was a natural reason hidden in fables, and a theology mostly hidden through enigmas and abstruse meanings, and full of mystery, in which both those things which are kept silent and those which are uttered are not clearer among the common people, and those things which are kept silent bring more suspicion than those which are uttered; this is manifest from the Orphic verses and the Egyptian and Phrygian books. Read: [original-script column: see facsimile])

^A you feel annoyed at being refuted by us; and yet you possess the opinions of Apion regarding the gods of Egypt among you, while proclaiming us to be the most godless of men. The tomb of the Olympian Zeus is shown among you, even if some Cretan says that they lie. The gathering of the many gods is nothing. And even if Epicurus, who despises ^B them, acts as a torchbearer, I will not hide from those in authority any more than from God what I think concerning the universe. Why do you advise me to lie about my way of life? And why, when you say that one should despise death, do you tell me to flee from it by artifice? I, for my part, do not have the heart of a deer; but the pursuits of your philosophy are like the immoderate Thersites. How shall I be persuaded by one who says the sun is ^C a mass of fire, and the moon is earth? For these things are a contest of words, and not an illustration of truth. Or how is it not foolish to be persuaded by the books of Herodotus regarding the story of Hercules, proclaiming an upper earth, and that a lion fell down from it, which was slain by Hercules? And what benefit would a fine Attic style provide, or a heap of philosophers, or the probabilities of syllogisms, and the measurement of the earth, and the positions of the stars, and the courses of the sun? For to be occupied in such inquiry ^D is for a man to impose his own dogmas upon himself as law.

28. Therefore, I have condemned the legislation that exists among you. For there ought to have been one common way of life for all. But now, as there are many nations of cities, so there are many institutional laws, so that things which are shameful among some are considered noble among others. For instance, the Greeks consider it something to be avoided to have intercourse ^C with a mother; but this is considered a most noble practice among the Persian magi. And pederasty is pursued by barbarians, but it is honored with privileges by the Romans, who seek to gather herds of boys, like brood-mares.

29. Seeing these things, and having further been a partaker of the mysteries and having tested the religions practiced by all, which are established by effeminates and androgynes—having also found that among the Romans the Latiarian ^D Jupiter takes delight in the gore of men and the blood poured out from homicides; that Artemis, not far from the Great City, likewise holds forth such practices; and that other demons elsewhere engineer up risings of evil deeds—being left to myself,

I sought by what means I might discover the truth ^A. Having turned my mind to all the best things, I happened to encounter certain barbarian books, writings older than the teachings of the Greeks and far more divine than their errors. And I was persuaded by them because their diction was unassuming, their writers were free from artifice, their explanation of the creation of the whole world was easy to comprehend, their foreknowledge of future things was wonderful, their precepts were extraordinary, and their understanding of the universe was monarchical. Instructed by God, my soul understood that while some things are akin to condemnation, others dissolve the servitude in the world and liberate us from a plurality of ruling powers and thousands of tyrants, bestowing upon us not that which we had not received, but rather that which we had received, yet were prevented by error from possessing ^B.

30. How to resist the devil. — Initiated and instructed by this knowledge, I wish, like newborn infants, to strip myself bare. For we know that the nature of wickedness is like the nature of the smallest seeds; for it is strengthened by a small occasion, yet it shall again be dissolved if we give credence to the words of God and do not disperse ourselves. For it has taken over our territory by means of some hidden treasure, while digging for which we have been filled with dust, yet we have provided it with the occasion to take its stand. For, considering everything to be its own possession, it has brought more precious riches into its own power. These things, then, let them be said to those of our own household. But to you Greeks, what else can I say, except that you should not revile your betters, nor, if they are called barbarians, take that as an occasion for mockery? For if you wish, you will be able to find the reason why different people are unable to understand each other's language; for if you are willing to examine our teachings, I shall provide a ready and abundant explanation ^C.

31. How much older our philosophy is than that of the Greeks. Regarding the age of Homer, there are various opinions. — Now, therefore, I believe I have shown our philosophy to be older than that of the Greeks. Those who seek for gold dig up much earth and find only a little.

Let Moses and Homer serve as our boundaries, ^A seeing that both of them are of the greatest antiquity; for the former is the most ancient of poets and historians, and the latter is the primary source of all barbarian wisdom. Let them now be brought forward by us for comparison. For we shall find that not only are our own doctrines older than the disciplines of the Greeks, but even older than the invention of their letters. And I shall not take witnesses from among ourselves, but rather I shall use the Greeks as my assistants. For the one course is foolish, since it would not even be acceptable to you; but the other is shown to be admirable, when I fight against you using your own weapons and take proofs that are not suspected by you ^B. For regarding the poetry of Homer, his lineage, and the time in which he flourished, those most ancient men have made inquiry: Theagenes of Rhegium, who lived in the time of Cambyses, Stesimbrotus the Thasian, Antimachus the Colophonian, Herodotus of Halicarnassus, and Dionysius of Olynthus. After them came Ephorus of Cyme, and Philochorus the Athenian, as well as Megaclides and Chamaeleon, the Peripatetics; these were followed by the grammarians Zenodotus, Aristophanes, Callimachus, Crates, Eratosthenes, Aristarchus, and Apollodorus. Of these, the followers ^C of Crates say that he flourished before the return of the Heraclidae, less than eighty years after the Trojan War; those who follow Eratosthenes say one hundred years after the capture of Ilium; those who follow Aristarchus say at the time of the Ionian migration, which happened one hundred and forty years after the Trojan events; Philochorus says after the Ionian migration, in the archonship of Archippus at Athens, one hundred and eighty years after the Trojan events; the followers of Apollodorus say one hundred years after the Ionian migration, which would be two hundred and forty years ^D after the Trojan events. Some have said that he lived before the Olympiads, that is, four hundred and ninety years after the capture of Ilium.

^A Others have brought the time down lower, saying that Homer was contemporary with Archilochus; but Archilochus flourished in the twenty-third Olympiad, in the time of Gyges the Lydian, five hundred years after the Trojan events. And as for the time of the aforementioned poet—I mean Homer—and the lack of agreement concerning him among those who have spoken about him, let this suffice as a summary for those who are able to examine matters accurately. For it is possible to demonstrate that even the written accounts concerning these matters are false, for among such people it is not even possible to attain to historical truth. For what is the cause of error in writing, if not that what is written is not true?

52.

Christian doctrine, however, is remote from dissent and is adapted to every age and condition.

too, needed him against Troy, but he had the divine sign. ^A What sort of person was Thersites? Yet he was a commander; and had not excessive loquacity, owing to his lack of skill, been present in him, his pointed and bald head would not have been reproached. All those among us who desire to philosophize, we do not judge by their appearance, nor do we evaluate those who come to us by their outward form. For we have reasoned that the strength of the mind can be present in all, even if they be weak in body; whereas yours is full of envy and much sloth.

33. For this reason you are accustomed to prefer those who are honored among you, because our customs are temperate, while yours are filled with much madness. ^B For those among you who say that we babble among women and youths, among maidens and old men, and who mock us because we are not with you, hear the nonsense of the Greek affairs. For their practices are far more foolish than the renown of your gods, and you behave indecently regarding the women’s quarters. For Lysippus made a bronze statue of Praxilla, who said nothing useful through her poems; Menestratus of Learchis; Silanion of the harlot Sappho; Naucydes of Erinna the Lesbian; Boiscus of Myrtis; Cephisodotus of Myro the Byzantine; Gomphus of Praxigoris; and Amphistratus of Cleito. For what need I say concerning Anyta, Telesilla, and Mystis? For of the first, Euthycrates and Cephisodotus are the craftsmen; ^C of the second, Niceratus; of the third, Aristodotus. Euthycrates was the sculptor of Mnesarchis the Ephesian, Silanion of Corinna, and Euthycrates of Thalarchis the Argive. I was eager to mention these, so that you might not think that anything strange is being done among us; and so that, by comparing the things before your eyes, you might not mock those who philosophize among us. And Sappho, indeed, was a profligate and love-mad woman, and she sings of her own wantonness; but all those among us are chaste, and our maidens, while at their distaffs, speak divine utterances ^D more seriously than your girl. Because of this, be ashamed—you who are found to be pupils of women, while those who live among us...

^A show them to be mocked along with the festive gatherings they attend. For what noble child did Glaucippe introduce for you? Or what monster did she give birth to? As her statue demonstrates, made by the Athenian Niceratus, son of Euctemon. For if she gave birth to an elephant, what is the reason for Glaucippe to enjoy public honor? Praxiteles and Herodotus have fashioned the courtesan Phryne for you, and Euthycrates fashioned Panteuchis, pregnant by a debaucher. Denomenes, by his own art, provided that the Pæonian queen, Besantis, be remembered because she gave birth to a black infant. But I condemn both Pythagoras, who placed Europa upon the bull, and you, who have honored the accuser of Zeus because of that man’s art. I laugh also at the skill of Myron, who fashioned a heifer and imposed victory upon it, because it had brought back the prize of adultery and intemperance by having snatched away the daughter of Agenor. The Olynthian Herodotus fashioned the courtesan Glycera and the Argive lyre-player. Bryaxis set up Pasiphae, whose lewdness you commemorate, and you have all but expressed the wish that women today be the same. A certain Melanippe was wise, and because of this Lysistratus fashioned her; yet you do not believe that there are wise women among us.

34. ^B Indeed, the tyrant Phalaris, who devoured suckling children, is shown even now, through the craftsmanship of Polystratus of Ambracia, as a kind of admirable man. And while the Agrigentines feared to look upon his face because of his cannibalism, those who occupy themselves with learning boast that they behold him through an image. For how is it not shameful for fratricide to be honored among you, who look upon the images of Polynices and Eteocles, and instead of having buried them along with their maker, Pythagoras, do not destroy the monuments of ^C wickedness? Why should I consider and contemplate as something admirable a woman who gave birth to thirty children, on account of Periclymenus? For since she had borne many fruits of intemperance, it would have been honorable to detest her, much like the sow among the Romans, which itself is said to have attained some sacred honor on account of a similar birth. Ares committed adultery with Aphrodite, and Andron fashioned for you the Harmonia born of them. Sophron, who committed trifles and absurdities to writing, was more famous on account of ^D the bronze sculpture which exists even now. And it was not only fables that commended the storyteller Aesop to immortality, but also...

^A the sculpture connected with Aristodemus demonstrated it. How then are you not ashamed, possessing so many poetesses who are useful for nothing, and countless harlots and so many wicked men, to slander the temperance of the women among us? What great thing would it be for me to learn that Euanthes gave birth in the Peripatos, or to gape at the art of Callistratus, or to fix my eyes on Neaera at the house of Calliades? She was a harlot. Lais was a prostitute, and Turnus set her up as a monument to prostitution. Why are you not ashamed of the prostitution of Hephaestion, even if Philo crafted an image of him with great skill? And for what reason, on account of the Ganymede of Leochares, do you honor the pathic as a piece of property of great value? Praxiteles also fashioned a woman named Spilumene. It were better, having dismissed all such things, to seek what is truly serious and honorable, and not, while laying claim to the unspeakable inventions of Philaenis and Elephantis, to loathe our way of life.

35. Tatian is an eyewitness of the things he brings against the Greeks. — I have not indeed set forth these things by receiving them from another, for I have wandered through many regions, and have partly exercised myself in your disciplines, and have partly stumbled upon many arts and inventions, and finally, having stayed in the city of the Romans, I saw the varieties of statues exported there by you. For I do not attempt, as most are wont to do, to confirm my own views by the opinions of others; but whatever I have seen, I undertake to commit to writing. Therefore, having said farewell both to the boasting of the Romans and to the cold discourse of the Athenians, and to their ill-patched opinions, I have embraced our barbarian philosophy; and that it is older than your institutions, I, having begun to write, but having deferred it because of the urgency of my exposition, now, when there is time, shall attempt to discourse upon its tenets. For do not let our learning stir your stomach, nor labor in a refutation against us filled with trifles and scurrilous words, saying: "Tatian, above the Greeks, above the infinite multitude of philosophers, is a new follower of the barbarian doctrine." For what harm is there if men whose ignorance has been demonstrated are now convicted by a man of the same nature? Or what is absurd, according to your own sophist, in always growing old while learning something? ^D

^A 36. *Moysis antiquitas probatur testimonio Chaldæorum scriptorum.* — Let Homer be, if you will, not only no later than the events of the Iliad, but even contemporary with the war itself, and let him be thought to have campaigned with Agamemnon, and, if anyone wishes, to have existed even before the discovery of letters. It will be clear that the aforementioned Moses is altogether many years older than the destruction of Troy, as he precedes the building of Ilium and the age of Tros and Dardanus by a long way. For the sake of proof, I shall use as witnesses the Chaldeans, the Phoenicians, and the Egyptians. And why should I say more? It is necessary that he who professes to persuade should relate matters to his hearers briefly and concisely. Berosus the Babylonian, a priest of Bel among the Babylonians, who lived at the same time as Alexander, and dedicated his history of the Chaldeans in three books to Antiochus, who was third after him, set forth the deeds of the kings. He mentions one of them by name, Nabuchodonosor, by whom an expedition was undertaken against the Phoenicians and the Jews. These things we know were predicted by our prophets, and occurred a long time after the age of Moses—namely, seventy years before the Persian empire. Berosus is a most learned writer, and proof of this is Juba, who, in writing about Assyrian affairs, declares that he learned his history from Berosus. He wrote two books concerning the deeds of the Assyrians.

^B 37. *Idem testantur Phœnices.* — The case of the Phoenicians is as follows. There existed among them three men: Theodotus, Hypsicrates, and Mochus. Laetus translated their books into the Greek tongue, and he also accurately wrote the lives of the philosophers. In these histories it is related that, under a certain king, the abduction of Europa took place, as well as the arrival of Menelaus in Phoenicia, and the events concerning Hiram, who gave his daughter in marriage to Solomon, king of the Jews, and supplied all kinds of timber for the construction of the temple. The same things are written by Menander of Ephesus. Now, the age of Hiram is close to the events of the Iliad, but Solomon, who was contemporary with Hiram, is much more recent than the age of Moses.

^C 38. *Moyser sub Inacho Ægyptii collocant.* — The Egyptians, for their part, place [events] accurately ^D according to time...

and an interpreter of the affairs transacted among them is Ptolemy—not the king, but a priest of Mendes. In setting forth the deeds of the kings, he testifies that in the time of Amosis, king of Egypt, the departure of the Jews from Egypt took place into the lands which they occupied, with Moses as their leader. He speaks as follows: "Amosis was contemporary with king Inachus." After him, [Appion] the grammarian, a most learned man, in the fourth book of his *Egyptiaca* (for he has five books), among many other things, testifies that Amosis destroyed Avaris, being contemporary with the Argive Inachus, as Ptolemy of Mendes had recorded in his annals. The time that elapsed from Inachus to the fall of Ilium fills twenty generations; and the proof of this is as follows:

39. *Series Regum Argivorum.* — These were the kings of the Argives: Inachus, Phoroneus, Apis, Criasis, ^B Triopas, Argius, Phorbas, Crotopas, Sthenelaus, Danaus, Lynceus, Proetus, Abas, Acrisius, Perseus, Sthenelaus, Eurystheus, Atreus, Thyestes, Agamemnon, in the eighteenth year of whose reign Troy was captured. But every man of sense ought to diligently observe that, according to the Greek tradition itself, there was no record of history consigned to writing among them. For Cadmus, who handed down the letters to those before mentioned, came to Boeotia many ^C generations later. And after Inachus, under Phoroneus, men were with difficulty drawn away from a savage, nomadic life to a more civilized culture. Wherefore, if Moses appeared as a contemporary of Inachus, he is four hundred years older than the Trojan events. And this is further demonstrated from the succession of the Attic kings, and the Macedonian, and the Ptolemaic, and also the Antiochene [successions]. Whence, if after Inachus the more ^D famous deeds among the Greeks were recorded and became known, it is evident that [they were so] even after Moses. For Phoroneus, who...

^A succeeded Inachus, is recorded as being contemporary with Ogygus among the Athenians, in whose time the first flood occurred. Under Phorbas was Actaeus, from whom the Attic region was also called Actaea; under Triopas, Prometheus, and Epimetheus, and Atlas, and that Diphyes Cecrops, and Io. Under Cecrops, the conflagration of Phaethon and the flood of Deucalion. Under Sthenelus, the kingdom of Amphictyon, the arrival of Danaus in the Peloponnese, the founding of Dardania by Dardanus, and the return of Europa from Phoenicia to Crete. Under Lynceus, the rape of Proserpina, the construction of the temple at Eleusis, the agriculture of Triptolemus, the arrival of Cadmus in Thebes, and the kingdom of Minos. Under Proetus, the war of Eumolpus against the Athenians. Under Acrisius, the descent of Pelops from Phrygia, and the arrival of Ion at Athens, and the second ^B Cecrops, and the deeds of Perseus and Bacchus, and Musaeus, the disciple of Orpheus. Under the reign of Agamemnon, Ilium was taken.

40. Therefore, Moses is shown to be older than the aforementioned ancient heroes, wars, and demons. And it is right to believe one who is older in age, rather than the Greeks, who drew from the fountain but, with an ungrateful mind, [did not receive] his dogmas. For many of the sophists among them, when they inquired more curiously, attempted to adulterate whatever they learned from Moses and from those who philosophized as he did; first, indeed, so that they might seem to say something properly their own; secondly, so that they might cover up what they did not understand with certain eloquent fabrications, ^C and give to the truth the appearance of a fable. Therefore, regarding our own way of life, and the history according to our laws, [and regarding] what the learned among the Greeks have said, and how many there were and what kind they were ^D who took the parts of the truth from the Hebrew prophets before the coming of the Lord, not with knowledge, but instead claimed them as their own dogmas—these people would be thieves and robbers. For the Greek philosophers were thieves and robbers, who, before the coming of the Lord, took parts of the truth from the Hebrew prophets, not with true knowledge, but claimed them as their own dogmas. Therefore, he understood the meaning of "ungrateful mind," the duty of which he thought the Greek philosophers lacked, because they attributed to themselves as their own what they had borrowed from the Hebrews.

^A And how many and who they are among the Greeks who have made mention of these things, will be demonstrated in the book against those who have pronounced judgment on divine matters.

41. ^B But now, what is upon us must be demonstrated with the greatest possible precision, namely that Moses is not only older than Homer, but also older than the writers before him: Linus, Philammon, Thamyris, Amphion, Musæus, Orpheus, Demodocus, Phemius, the Sibyl, Epimenides of Crete, who came to Sparta, Aristeas of Proconnesus, who wrote the Arimaspeia, Asbolus the Centaur, and Isatis, Drymon, and Eumiclus the Cyprian, and Horus the Samian, and Prosnautides the Athenian. For Linus was the teacher of Hercules; and Hercules appeared one generation before the Trojan War, as is evident from his son Tlepolemus, who set out against Ilium. Orpheus was contemporary with Hercules; for the works that are attributed to him are said to have been composed by Onomacritus the Athenian, who lived at the time of the rule of the Pisistratidæ, around the fiftieth Olympiad. Musæus was the disciple of Orpheus. Amphion, since he precedes the Trojan events by two generations, prevents us from setting forth more for those who are eager to learn. Demodocus and Phemius lived at the time of the Trojan War itself; for the one spent his time among the suitors, and the other among the Phæacians. Thamyris and Philammon are not much older than these. As for the treatise on each individual doctrine, and the times and the recording of them, I believe I have written to you with all possible precision. But in order that I may also complete what is hitherto lacking, I will proceed to provide a demonstration concerning those who are considered wise. ^C For Minos, who was deemed to excel in every kind of wisdom, as well as in intelligence and legislation, lived in the time of Lynceus, who reigned after Danaus, in the eleventh generation after Inachus. ^D Lycurgus, born long after the capture of Ilium, prescribed laws for the Lacedæmonians one hundred years before the Olympiads. Draco, around the thirtieth Olympiad, is found...

to have been born; Solon around the ^A forty-seventh, Pythagoras around the sixty-second. We have demonstrated that the Olympiads were instituted four hundred and seven years after the events of Troy. And since these things have been thus demonstrated, we shall no longer add many things concerning the age of the seven wise men. For since Thales, the eldest of those previously mentioned, flourished around the fiftieth Olympiad, the things pertaining also to those born later have been nearly described for you in brief.

42. Tatian’s Peroration.

277 ANALYSIS OF THE APOLOGY OF ATHENAGORAS

Athenagoras presented this Apology in the year 177 to the emperor Marcus Aurelius and his son Commodus, as we demonstrate at greater length in the Preface. He complains (n. 1, 2) that under the most equitable emperors, the Christians, despite their supreme piety toward God, neither obtain the same status as others who engage in various absurd superstitions, nor receive the same form of judicial treatment as those guilty of the most serious crimes, despite their absolute innocence of character. Then (n. 3), he proceeds to the crimes ascribed to the Christians: atheism, Thyestean feasts, and Œdipodean unions.

He proves (n. 4) that Christians are not atheists, based on their doctrine concerning the one and unbegotten God: since poets and philosophers have said similar things (n. 5, 6) and yet have not been seen as atheists, much less should Christians be branded with this crime (n. 7), who do not—like the poets and philosophers—seek God in vain, but rely upon the oracles of the divine Spirit. This doctrine of the Christians is confirmed (n. 8) by the inconveniences resulting from the multitude of gods and by the testimony of the prophets (n. 9). Christians (n. 10) worship with God the Father His Son and the Holy Spirit; they also acknowledge angels; finally, they are informed by such precepts of living, and live in such a way, that no one could suspect them of being atheists (n. 11, 12).

But because the accusation arose mainly from the fact that Christians neither offered sacrifices nor worshipped the gods, Athenagoras proves (n. 13) that God is not to be worshipped with the odors of sacrifices and bloody victims. As for the gods, he demonstrates that if Christians are atheists because they do not worship the same gods as the cities, the same crime inheres in all cities (n. 14), because they are all impious toward one another, while some worship certain gods and others different ones; and even if all were to consent in this superstition, the Christians would still deserve praise (n. 15), because they distinguish the Creator from the created, and matter from God, and worship neither the world (n. 16) nor the parts of the world, much less the works of men, and gods whose names are very recent and whose statues were the invention of the third generation (n. 17).

When, however, some raised the objection that the worship offered to statues is directed toward the gods, and as an argument took the efficacy inherent in some images, he responds (n. 18, 19) that those gods were created by the consent of poets and philosophers and therefore should not be worshipped; and he produces the same result (n. 20, 21, 22) from their absurd forms, shameful deeds, and cupidities and loves, which he demonstrates are vainly called back to nature.

But since it was objected that marvelous things are sometimes done by the statues of gods, to explain that supposed efficacy, Athenagoras sets forth (n. 23) the opinions of Thales and Plato concerning demons; then he himself teaches (n. 24) that angels are acknowledged by Christians, and that when they had been set over the works of God, some remained in their duty, while others were corrupted and became caught by the love of women. From them were born giants, or demons. These demons (n. 25), just like evil angels, while opposing the good of God, afforded some reason for wrongly denying providence. These, greedy for odors, entice men to the images (n. 26), and claim for themselves the names, for whom the statues have been erected; and they bring it about that, as if from the images, empty visions flow into weak souls (n. 27); and if the soul happens to divine by conjecture, or to effect cures and healings, they snatch the glory of this event. Since Athenagoras had promised earlier, namely at n. 17, that he would speak about the names of the gods, and had merely touched upon it lightly, he proves more fully (n. 28, 29) from Herodotus and the poets that those gods were men, and he investigates (n. 30) how they secured the reputation of divinity.

Hatred of Christian virtue produced two other crimes (n. 31), but these have been sufficiently and more than sufficiently refuted by the doctrine held by Christians concerning God and eternal rewards. Furthermore, there is no suspicion of moral lapses in those who consider a freer gaze adultery (n. 32); whose highest virtue is charity in greeting one another, and caution in kissing; who define the use of marriage for the procreation of children (n. 33) and cultivate perpetual virginity, or are content with a single marriage (n. 34). It is therefore grossly unjust that those who are chaste and single-married should be inveighed against as adulterers and corrupters of boys; those who are not only practitioners of justice, but also of patience, are treated as ravishers and evildoers.

Thyestean feasts cannot take place without murder. But no one has ever said that they have seen a man killed by Christians (n. 35). There is no suspicion of this crime in those who would not even wish to look upon a just judicial killing, much less the games of gladiators; and who consider using abortive drugs to be homicide, and exposing children to be parricide. To this is added (n. 36) the doctrine of the Christians concerning the resurrection and eternal rewards, which if they seem absurd, Christians are not on that account wicked; but rather (n. 37) it is equitable that, since they have cleared themselves of all accusations, the emperors should grant their petition, in accordance with their supreme kindness toward all humanity.

ATHENAGORAS THE ATHENIAN, CHRISTIAN PHILOSOPHER: EMBASSY FOR THE CHRISTIANS

To the Emperors Marcus Aurelius Antoninus and Lucius Aurelius Commodus, conquerors of Armenia and Sarmatia, and, which is most important, philosophers:

^A 1. Christian piety cannot obtain the same legal rights as impious superstitions. Your world, greatest kings, uses different customs and laws in different places; and no one is prevented by law or fear of judgment from cherishing ancestral practices, even if they should be ridiculous. But the man of Ilium calls Hector a god, and Helen Adrastia ^B. The Lacedaemonian Aga- ^C