Arnobius

Footnotes

^[4615] Lit., “through the times given to itself.”

^[4616] The ms. reads s-oli,—changed into Toli by the first four edd., Elm., and Oberthür. The others omit s.

^[4617] [“Belittle.” This word here is noteworthy. President Jefferson is said to have coined it, and I have never before seen it in a transatlantic book.]

^[4618] i.e., “which you pretend to worship.”

^[4619] So the edd., reading formar-e, except Hild. and Oehler, who retain the ms. reading i—“that images be formed.”

^[4620] The ms. and both Roman edd. read corruptly insolidi, corrected ita or sic coli, as above, in all except the last two edd.

Chapter IX

^[4621] [It is manifest that nothing of the kind was said by Christians. See p. 506, note 3, supra.]

^[4622] i.e., you do not seek access to the gods directly, and seek to do them honour by giving that honour to the idols instead.

^[4623] i.e., the transmission of the sacrifice to the gods is made dependent on idols.

^[4624] This corresponds exactly to the English, “to shoot at the pigeon and hit the crow.”

Chapter X

^[4625] Lit., “with vicarious substitution for.” [A very pertinent question as to the images worshipped in Rome to this day. There is one Madonna of African hue and features. See also Murray’s Handbook, Italy, p. 72.]

^[4626] The ms. reads effi-gitur, corrected as above, effin., in all edd. except Hild., who reads efficitur—“is made,” and Stewechius, effigiatur—“is formed.”

^[4627] Lit., “boy’s age.”

^[4628] Flavus, so invariably associated with blue eyes, that though these are the feature brought into contrast, they are only suggested in this way, and not directly mentioned—a mode of speech very characteristic of Arnobius.

^[4629] i.e., a fact which can be seen to be true by appealing to analogy.

^[4630] So the ms., LB., Hild., and Oehler, reading donastis, the others donatis—“you give.”

^[4631] As the appearance of the moon is the same in some of its phases as in others, it is clear that Arnobius cannot mean that it has thirty distinct forms. We must therefore suppose that he is either speaking very loosely of change upon change day after day, or that he is referring to some of the lunar theories of the ancients, such as that a new moon is created each day, and that its form is thus ever new (Lucr., v. 729–748).

^[4632] Lit., “is changed through a thousand states with daily instability.”

^[4633] Lit., “are.”

^[4634] Lit., “intestine and domestic.”

^[4635] The ms. reads leon-e-s torvissimam faciem, emended, as above, leonis t. f., in LB., Orelli, Hild., and Oehler, and l. torvissima facie—“lions of very stern face,” in the others. Nourry supposes that the reference is to the use of lions, or lion-headed figures, as architectural ornaments on temples (cf. the two lions rampant surmounting the gate of Mycenæ), but partially coincides in the view of Elm., that mixed figures are meant, such as are described by Tertullian and Minucius Felix (ch. 28: “You deify gods made up of a goat and a lion, and with the faces of lions and of dogs”). The epithet frugifer, however, which was applied to the Egyptian Osiris, the Persian Mithras, and Bacchus, who were also represented as lions, makes it probable that the reference is to symbolic statues of the sun.

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