uios swthr, which mean, "Jesus Christ the Son of God, the Saviour," they will make the word ikdus, that is, "fish," in which word Christ is mystically understood, because He was able to live, that is, to exist, without sin in the abyss of this mortality as in the depth of waters."(1)But this sibyl, whether she is the Erythraean, or, as some rather believe, the Cumaean, in her whole poem, of which this is a very small portion, not only has nothing that can relate to the worship of the false or reigned gods, but rather speaks against them and their worshippers in such a way that we might even think she ought to be reckoned among those who belong to the city of God.Lactantius also inserted in his work the prophecies about Christ of a certain sibyl, he does not say which.But Ihave thought fit to combine in a single extract, which may seem long, what he has set down in many short quotations.She says;"Afterward He shall come into the injurious hands of the unbelieving, and they will give God buffets with profane hands, and with impure mouth will spit out envenomed spittle; but He will with simplicity yield His holy back to stripes.And He will hold His peace when struck with the fist, that no one may find out what word, or whence, He comes to speak to hell; and He shall be crowned with a crown of thorns.And they gave Him gall for meat, and vinegar for His thirst: they will spread this table of inhospitality.For thou thyself, being foolish, hast not understood thy God, deluding the minds of mortals, but hast both crowned Him with thorns and mingled for Him bitter gall.But the veil of the temple shall be rent; and at midday it shall be darker than night for three hours.And He shall die the death, taking sleep for three days; and then returning from hell, He first shall come to the light, the beginning of the resurrection being shown to the recalled."Lactantius made use of these sibylline testimonies, introducing them bit by bit in the course of his discussion as the things he intended to prove seemed to require, and we have set them down in one connected series, uninterrupted by comment, only taking care to mark them by capitals, if only the transcribers do not neglect to preserve them hereafter.Some writers, indeed, say that the Erythraean sibyl was not in the time of Romulus, but of the Trojan war CHAP.24.--THAT THE SEVEN SAGES FLOURISHED IN THE REIGN OF ROMULUS, WHEN THE TENTRIBES WHICH WERE CALLED ISRAEL WERE LED INTO CAPTIVITY BY THE CHALDEANS, ANDROMULUS, WHEN DEAD, HAD DIVINE HONORS CONFERRED ON HIM.
While Romulus reigned, Thales the Milesian is said to have lived, being one of the seven sages, who succeeded the theological poets, of whom Orpheus was the most renowned, and were called Sofoi, that is, sages.During that time the ten tribes, which on the division of the people were called Israel, were conquered by the Chaldeans and led captive into their lands, while the two tribes which were called Judah, and had the seat of their kingdom in Jerusalem, remained in the land of Judea.As Romulus, when dead, could nowhere be found, the Romans, as is everywhere notorious, placed him among the gods,--a thing which by that time had already ceased to be done, and which was not done afterwards till the time of the Caesars, and then not through error, but in flattery; so that Cicero ascribes great praises to Romulus, because he merited such honors not in rude and unlearned times, when men were easily deceived, but in times already polished and learned, although the subtle and acute loquacity of the philosophers had not yet culminated.
But although the later times did not deify dead men, still they did not cease to hold and worship as gods those deified of old;nay, by images, which the ancients never had, they even increased the allurements of vain and impious superstition, the unclean demons effecting this in their heart, and also deceiving them by lying oracles, so that even the fabulous crimes of the gods, which were not once imagined by a more polite age, were yet basely acted in the plays in honor of these same false deities.
Numa reigned after Romulus; and although he had thought that Rome would be better defended the more gods there were, yet on his death he himself was not counted worthy of a place among them, as if it were supposed that he had so crowded heaven that a place could not be found for him there.They report that the Samian sibyl lived while he reigned at Rome, and when Manasseh began to reign over the Hebrews,--an impious king, by whom the prophet Isaiah is said to have been slain.
CHAP.25.--WHAT PHILOSOPHERS WERE FAMOUS WHEN TARQUINIUS PRISCUS REIGNEDOVER
THE ROMANS, AND ZEDEKIAH OVER THE HEBREWS, WHEN JERUSALEM WAS TAKENAND THE
TEMPLE OVERTHROWN.
When Zedekiah reigned over the Hebrews, and Tarquinius Priscus, the successor of Ancus Martius, over the Romans, the Jewish people was led captive into Babylon, Jerusalem and the temple built by Solomon being overthrown.For the prophets, in chiding them for their iniquity and impiety, predicted that these things should come to pass, especially Jeremiah, who even stated the number of years.Pittacus of Mitylene, another of the sages, is reported to have lived at that time.
