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The Divine Institutes

Lactantius

Book 5 · Chapter 5

About this work

A large Latin presentation of Christian teaching that criticizes pagan religion and philosophy while treating justice, God, creation, Christ, worship, ethics, and the final destiny of humanity.

Author: Lactantius
Date: c. AD 303–311
Origin: North Africa and Nicomedia
Genre: Apology

Chap. V.—There Was True Justice Under Saturnus, But It Was Banished by Jupiter.

Now the promised disputation concerning justice must be given

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;

which

is

either

by

itself

the

greatest

virtue

,

or

by

itself

the

fountain

of

virtue

,

which

not

only

philosophers

sought

,

but

poets

also

,

who

were

much

earlier

,

and

were

esteemed

as

wise

before

the

origin

of

the

name

of

philosophy

.

These

clearly

understood

that

this

justice

was

absent

from

the

affairs

of

men

;

and

they

feigned

that

it

,

being

offended

with

the

vices

of

men

,

departed

from

the

earth

,

and

withdrew

to

heaven

;

and

that

they

may

teach

what

it

is

to

live

justly

(

for

they

are

accustomed

to

give

precepts

by

circumlocutions

)

,

they

repeat

examples

of

justice

from

the

times

of

Saturnus

,

which

they

call

the

golden

times

,

and

they

relate

in

what

condition

human

life

was

while

it

delayed

on

the

earth

.

And

this

is

not

to

be

regarded

as

a

poetic

fiction

,

but

as

the

truth

.

For

,

while

Saturnus

reigned

,

the

religious

worship

of

the

gods

not

having

yet

been

instituted

,

nor

any

race

being

as

yet

set

apart

in

the

belief

of

its

divinity

,

God

was

manifestly

worshipped

.

And

therefore

there

were

neither

dissensions

,

nor

enmities

,

nor

wars

.

“Not yet had rage unsheathed maddened swords,”

as Germanicus Cæsar speaks in his poem translated from Aratus,

“Nor had discord been known among relatives.”

No, nor even among strangers: but there were no swords at all to be unsheathed. For who, when justice was present and in vigour, would think respecting his own protection, since no one plotted against him; or respecting the destruction of another, since no one desired anything?

“They preferred to live content with a simple mode of life,”

as Cicero relates in his poem; and this is peculiar to our religion. “It was not even allowed to mark out or to divide the plain with a boundary: men sought all things in common;” since God had given the earth in common to all, that they might pass their life in common, not that mad and raging avarice might claim all things for itself, and that that which was produced for all might not be wanting to any. And this saying of the poet ought so to be taken, not as suggesting the idea that individuals at that time had no private property, but it must be regarded as a poetical figure; that we may understand that men were so liberal, that they did not shut up the fruits of the earth produced for them, nor did they in solitude brood over the things stored up, but admitted the poor to share the fruits of their labour:—

“Now streams of milk, now streams of nectar flowed.”

And no wonder, since the storehouses of the good liberally lay open to all. Nor did avarice intercept the divine bounty, and thus cause hunger and thirst in common; but all alike had abundance, since they who had possessions gave liberally and bountifully to those who had not. But after that Saturnus had been banished from heaven, and had arrived in Latium,—

“Exiled from his throne By Jove, his mightier heir,”—

since the people either through fear of the new king, or of their own accord, had become corrupted and ceased to worship God, and had begun to esteem the king in the place of God, since he himself, almost a parricide, was an example to others to the injury of piety,—

“The most just Virgin in haste deserted the lands;”

but not as Cicero says,

“And settled, in the kingdom of Jupiter, and in a part of the heaven.”

For how could she settle or tarry in the kingdom of him who expelled his father from his kingdom, harassed him with war, and drove him as an exile over the whole world?

“He gave to the black serpents their noxious poison, And ordered wolves to prowl;”

that is, he introduced among men hatred, and envy, and stratagem; so that they were poisonous as serpents, and rapacious as wolves. And they truly do this who persecute those who are righteous and faithful towards God, and give to judges the power of using violence against the innocent. Perhaps Jupiter may have done something of this kind for the overthrow and removal of righteousness; and on this account he is related to have made serpents fierce, and to have whetted the spirit of wolves.

“Then war’s indomitable rage, And greedy lust of gain;”

and not without reason. For the worship of God being taken away, men lost the knowledge of good and evil. Thus the common intercourse of life perished from among then, and the bond of human society was destroyed. Then they began to contend with one another, and to plot, and to acquire for themselves glory from the shedding of human blood.

Notes

1
[Striking is the language of the Pollio (“Redit et Virgo,” etc.) in which the true Virgin seems to be anticipated.]
2
Ulla. Another reading is “illâ,” as though there were a reference to the family of Saturnus.
3
Germanicus Cæsar, the grandson of Augustus, translated in verse a part of the poems of Aratus. [See p. 36, supra.]
4
Cicero translated in verse part of the poems of Aratus. [This poet is quoted by St. Paul, του̑ γὰρ καὶ γένος ἐσμέν, Acts xvii. 28. Archdeacon Farrar does not consider the natural and impedantic spirit of the Apostle in suiting this quotation to time and place; and, if it was a common-place proverb, all the more suggestive is the accuracy of the reference to “one of your own poets.”]
5
Virg., Georg., i. 126.
6
Ovid, Metam., i. 111.
7
Virg. Æn., viii. 320.
8
Germ. Cæs., Arat., 136.
9
[That is, in his translation of the poetry of Aratus.]
10
[Et Jovis in regno, cœlique in parte resedit. For this fragmentary verse we are indebted to our author; other fragments are given in good editions of Cicero. He translated the Phenomena of Aratus in his youth. My (Paris) edition contains nearly the whole.]
11
Virg., Georg., i. 139.
12
Virg., Æn., viii. 327.