History of European Morals From Augustus to Charlemagne Volume I Part 26

668 Suet. _Jul. Caes._ lx.x.xviii.

669 Plin. _Hist. Nat._ ii. 23.

670 "Prodigia eo anno multa nuntiata sunt, quae quo magis credebant simplices ac religiosi homines eo plura nuntiabantur" (xxiv. 10).

Compare with this the remark of Cicero on the oracles: "Quando autem illa vis evanuit? An postquam homines minus creduli esse cperunt?"

(_De Div._ ii. 57.)

671 This theory, which is developed at length by the Stoic, in the first book of the _De Divinatione_ of Cicero, grew out of the pantheistic notion that the human soul is a part of the Deity, and therefore by nature a partic.i.p.ator in the Divine attribute of prescience. The soul, however, was crushed by the weight of the body; and there were two ways of evoking its prescience-the ascetic way, which attenuates the body, and the magical way, which stimulates the soul. Apollonius declared that his power of prophecy was not due to magic, but solely to his abstinence from animal food. (Philost. _Ap. of Tyana_, viii.

5.) Among those who believed the oracles, there were two theories.

The first was that they were inspired by daemons or spirits of a degree lower than the G.o.ds. The second was, that they were due to the action of certain vapours which emanated from the caverns beneath the temples, and which, by throwing the priestess into a state of delirium, evoked her prophetic powers. The first theory was that of the Platonists, and it was adopted by the Christians, who, however, changed the signification of the word daemon. The second theory, which appears to be due to Aristotle (Baltus, _Reponse a l'Histoire des Oracles_, p. 132), is noticed by Cic. _De Div._ i.

19; Plin. _H. N._ ii. 95; and others. It is closely allied to the modern belief in clairvoyance. Plutarch, in his treatise on the decline of the oracles, attributes that decline sometimes to the death of the daemons (who were believed to be mortal), and sometimes to the exhaustion of the vapours. The oracles themselves, according to Porphyry (Fontenelle, _Hist. des Oracles_, pp. 220-222, first ed.), attributed it to the second cause. Iamblichus (_De Myst._ -- iii. c. xi.) combines both theories, and both are very clearly stated in the following curious pa.s.sage: "Quamquam Platoni credam inter deos atque homines, natura et loco medias quasdam divorum potestates intersitas, easque divinationes cunctas et magorum miracula gubernare. Quin et illud mec.u.m reputo, posse animum humanum, praesertim, puerilem et simplicem, seu carminum avocamento, sive odorum delenimento, soporari, et ad oblivionem praesentium externari: et paulis per remota corporis memoria, redigi ac redire ad naturam suam, quae est immortalis scilicet et divina; atque ita veluti quodam sopore, futura rerum praesagire."-Apuleius, _Apolog._

672 Aul. Gell. _Noct._ ii. 28. Florus, however (_Hist._ i. 19), mentions a Roman general appeasing the G.o.ddess Earth on the occasion of an earthquake that occurred during a battle.

673 aelian, _Hist. Var._ iv. 17.

_ 674 Hist. Nat._ ii. 81-86.

675 Ibid. ii. 9.

676 Ibid. ii. 23.

677 I have referred in the last chapter to a striking pa.s.sage of Am.

Marcellinus on this combination. The reader may find some curious instances of the superst.i.tions of Roman sceptics in Champagny, _Les Antonins_, tome iii. p. 46.

678 viii. 19. This is also mentioned by Lucretius.

679 viii. 1.

680 viii. 50. This was one of the reasons why the early Christians sometimes adopted the stag as a symbol of Christ.

681 xxix. 23.

682 x.x.xii. 1.

683 vii. 2.

684 xxviii. 7. The blind man restored to sight by Vespasian was cured by anointing his eyes with spittle. (Suet. _Vesp._ 7; Tacit. _Hist._ iv. 81.)

685 Ibid. The custom of spitting in the hand before striking still exists among pugilists.

686 ii. 101.

687 Legendre, _Traite de l'Opinion_, tome ii. p. 17. The superst.i.tion is, however, said still to linger in many sea-coast towns.

688 Lucian is believed to have died about two years before Marcus Aurelius.

689 See his very curious Life by Philostratus. This Life was written at the request of Julia Domna, the wife of Septimus Severus, whether or not with the intention of opposing the Gospel narrative is a question still fiercely discussed. Among the most recent Church historians, Pressense maintains the affirmative, and Neander the negative. Apollonius was born at nearly the same time as Christ, but outlived Domitian. The traces of his influence are widely spread through the literature of the empire. Eunapius calls him "?p????????

? ?? ??????, ????t? f???s?f?? ???? ?? t? ?e?? te ?a? ?????p??

?s??."-_Lives of the Sophists._ Xiphilin relates (lxvii. 18) the story, told also by Philostratus, how Apollonius, being at Ephesus, saw the a.s.sa.s.sination of Domitian at Rome. Alexander Severus placed (_Lampridius Severus_) the statue of Apollonius with those of Orpheus, Abraham, and Christ, for wors.h.i.+p in his oratory. Aurelian was reported to have been diverted from his intention of destroying Tyana by the ghost of the philosopher, who appeared in his tent, rebuked him, and saved the city (Vopiscus, _Aurelian_); and, lastly, the Pagan philosopher Hierocles wrote a book opposing Apollonius to Christ, which was answered by Eusebius. The Fathers of the fourth century always spoke of him as a great magician. Some curious pa.s.sages on the subject are collected by M. Cha.s.sang, in the introduction to his French translation of the work of Philostratus.

690 See his defence against the charge of magic. Apuleius, who was at once a brilliant rhetorician, the writer of an extremely curious novel (_The Metamorphoses, or Golden a.s.s_), and of many other works, and an indefatigable student of the religious mysteries of his time, lived through the reigns of Hadrian and his two successors. After his death his fame was for about a century apparently eclipsed; and it has been noticed as very remarkable that Tertullian, who lived a generation after Apuleius, and who, like him, was a Carthaginian, has never even mentioned him. During the fourth century his reputation revived, and Lactantius, St. Jerome, and St. Augustine relate that many miracles were attributed to him, and that he was placed by the Pagans on a level with Christ, and regarded by some as even a greater magician. See the sketch of his life by M. Betolaud prefixed to the Panckoucke edition of his works.

_ 691 Life of Alexander._ There is an extremely curious picture of the religious jugglers, who were wandering about the Empire, in the eighth and ninth books of the _Metamorphoses_ of Apuleius. See, too, Juvenal, _Sat._ vi. 510-585.

692 Porphyry's _Life of Plotinus_.

693 Eunapius, _Porph._

694 Ibid. _Iamb._ Iamblichus himself only laughed at the report.

695 Eunapius, _Iamb._

696 See her life in Eunapius, _descus_. aelian and the rhetorician Aristides are also full of the wildest prodigies. There is an interesting dissertation on this subject in Friedlaender (_Trad.

Franc._ tome iv. p. 177-186).

697 "Credat Judaeus Apella."-Hor. _Sat._ v. 100.

698 This appears from all the writings of the Fathers. There were, however, two forms of Pagan miracles about which there was some hesitation in the early Church-the beneficent miracle of healing and the miracle of prophecy. Concerning the first, the common opinion was that the daemons only cured diseases they had themselves caused, or that, at least, if they ever (in order to enthral men more effectually) cured purely natural diseases, they did it by natural means, which their superior knowledge and power placed at their disposal. Concerning prophecy, it was the opinion of some of the Fathers that intuitive prescience was a Divine prerogative, and that the prescience of the daemons was only acquired by observation. Their immense knowledge enabled them to forecast events to a degree far transcending human faculties, and they employed this power in the oracles.

_ 699 De Origine ac Progressu Idolatriae_ (Amsterdam).

700 This characteristic of early Christian apology is forcibly exhibited by Pressense, _Hist. des trois premiers Siecles_, 2me serie, tome ii.

701 The immense number of these forged writings is noticed by all candid historians, and there is, I believe, only one instance of any attempt being made to prevent this pious fraud. A priest was degraded for having forged some voyages of St. Paul and St. Thecla.

(Tert. _De Baptismo_, 17.)

_ 702 Apol._ i.

_ 703 Strom._ vi. c. 5.

704 Origen, _Cont. Cols._ v.

_ 705 Oratio_ (apud Euseb.) xviii.

_ 706 De Civ. Dei_, xviii. 23.

707 Constantine, _Oratio_ xix. "His testimoniis quidam revicti solent eo confugere ut aiant non esse illa carmina Sibyllina, sed a nostris conficta atque composita."-Lactant. _Div. Inst._ iv. 15.

708 Antonius Possevinus, _Apparatus Sacer_ (1606), verb. "Sibylla."

709 This subject is fully treated by Middleton in his _Free Enquiry_, whom I have closely followed.

710 Irenaeus, _Contr. Haeres._ ii. 32.

711 Epiphan. _Adv. Haeres._ ii. 30.

712 St. Aug. _De Civ. Dei_, xxii. 8.