St. Augustine, Of the citie of God vvith the learned comments of Io. Lod. Viues. Englished by I.H.

Whether the gods, to whome the Romaines and the Greekes exhibited like worship, had sufficient cause giuen them to let Troy be destroyed. CHAP. 2.

FIrst therfore of Troy, or Ilium, whence the Romaines claime the discent (for we may not omit nor neglect what we touched at in the 1. booke:) why was Troy beseeged, & destroyed by the Greekes that adored the same gods that it did; The

priuity of (a) Laomedon: the father (say some) was wreaked in this sack, vpon Priam the son. Wel then it is true that (b) Apollo & Neptune serued as workmen vnder the * 1.1 same Laomedon, for otherwise the tale is not true that saith that he promised them pay and brake his oth vnto them afterwards. Now cannot I but maruell that such a great fore-knower, as Apollo was, would worke for Laomedon, and could not foretell that he would deceiue him: nor is it decent to affirme that Neptune his vncle Iupiters brother & king of al the sea, should haue no foresight at al in things to come. For (c) Homer brings him in foretelling great matters of the progeny of Aeneas, whose successors built Rome (yet is Homer (d) reported to haue liued before * 1.2 the building of Rome) nay more, he saueth Aeneas from Achilles by a cloud, desi∣ring to raze this periurd citty of Troy though it were his own handy-worke as (e) Virgill declareth of him. Thus then these two gods, Neptune and Apollo, were * 1.3 vtterly ignorant of Laomedons intention to delude them, and builded the walles of Troy (f) for thankes and for thankelesse persons. Looke now, whether it be a worse matter to put confidence in such gods, or to consume them. But Homer him-selfe (it seemes) did hardly beleeue this tale, for he maketh (g) Neptune to fight against Troy, and Apollo for it; whereas the fable giueth them both one cause of being of∣fended, namely Laomedons periury. Let those therefore that beleeue such re∣ports be ashamed to acknowledge such deities: and those that beleeue them not, let them neuer draw cauills from the Troians periuries, nor maruell that the gods should hate periuries at Troy, and loue them at Rome. For otherwise, how could it come to passe, that besides the aboundance of all other corruption in the city of Rome, there should bee such a great company in Catilines conspiracy that liued onely by their tongues practise in periury and their hands in murder? what other thing did the senators by taking bribes so plentifully and by so many false iudgments? what other thing did thee (i) people by selling of their voices, & play∣ing double in all things wherein they dealt, but (k) heape vp the sinne of periury? for euen in this vniuersall corruption, the ould custome of giuing & taking othes was still obserued, but that was not for the restraint of wickednesse by awe of religion, but to ad periury also vnto the rest of their monstrous exorbitances.

L. VIVES.

THe periurie (a) of Laomedon] Virgill in the first of his Georgikes:

—Sat is iampridem sanguine nostro, Laomedont•…•…ae luimus periuria Troi•…•….

—Our bloud hath long agone, Paid for the faith-breach of Laomedon.

(a) Then it is true] Apollo and Neptune seeing Laomedon the King of Phrygia, laying the foun∣dations of the walles of Troy, and marking the hugenesse of the worke hee went about, agreed for a great summe of gould, to make an end of this worke for him, which hauing done, he denied that he promised them any thing (c) Homer brings] Aeneas vpon a certaine time being in fight with Achilles, and being put to the worst, in so much that he was almost slaine, Neptune speaketh thus: Homer Iliad. 5.

〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉. &c.

as followeth in English thus.

But let vs saue him yet ere he be slaine, Least great Achilles fury if againe It burst into effect, we helpe too late: Whilest it is time, let vs deceiue his fate: Least all the stocke be quite abolished Of Dardanus whom I so valued: Whome Ioue his father prised aboue all His sonnes, whose mothers were terrestriall. But seeing Ioue doth now detest his line, This man, in birth and valour neare diuine, Shall rule the Phrygians: and through him, their King, There to an endlesse nation shall they spring,

* 1.4

Because of these verses in Homer, Dionisius Halicarnasseus writeth that many haue affirmed, that Aeneas leauing his fellowes in Italy, returned into Phrigia, and there hauing repaired Troy, reigned as King, and left the crowne to his posterity after him. But Homer speaketh of the Italian Troy, and the kingdome which arose from that Phygian Troy, namely of the Albi∣ans & the Lauinians; both which nations descended from the Troians that accompanied Aene∣as (d) Homer reported] at what time Rome was built, or at what time Homer liued the auncient writers do not iustly and vniformely define: though the first be lesse dubitable then the latter. Plutarch in the life of Romulus saith that hee and Remus first founded the walles in the third yeare of the sixt Olimpiad on which day was an eclips of the moone: Dionisius and Eusebius say. the 1. yeare of the 7. Olympiade: after the destruction of Troy CCCCXXXII. yeares. Solin. in Polihist. Cincius will haue it built in the twelth Olympiad: Pictor in the eighth: Nepos, and Luctatius, (to whom Eratosthenes and Apollodorus agree) the seauenth Olympiade, the second yeare. Pomponius Atticus and Tully, the seauenth and the third yeare, therefore by all corres∣pondency of the Greeke computations to ours, it was built in the beginning of the seauenth Olympiad CCCCXXXIII. yeares after the ruine of Troy. About Homers time of liuing, his country, and his parentage, the Greeke writers keepe a great adoe: Some say he was present at the warres of Troy: Indeed he himselfe brings in his Phemius singing in the banquet of the wooers (Odissi.) But whether he do it through an ambitious desire to grace his M^r. in beyond the reach of the time or no, it is doubtful. Others say he liued not vntil an hundred yeares after this warre of Phrigia: and some there bee that ad fifty more vnto the number. Aristarchus gives him to those times about which there was a Colonye planted in Ionia, sixty yeares after the subuersion of the Heraclidae: CXXX. yeares after the Troians warrs. Crates thinketh that there was not foure-score yeares betweene the demolishing of Troy and the birth of Homer: Some affirme him to haue beene sonne to Telemachus, Vlisses his sonne, and Tolycasta, daugh∣ter to Nestor. In the cronicle of Eusebius Bishop of Caesarea we find this recorded: We find (saith he) in the latine history, that Agrippa reigning amongst the Latines, Homer florished amongst the Greekes, as Appollodorus the Grammarian, and Euphorbeus the Historiographer do both testifie, CXXIIII yeares before the building of Rome, and as Cornelius Nepos saith before the fi•…•…st Olympiade an C. yeares. Howsoeuer then it fall out Homer was before the building of Rome: which Tully also doth beare witnesse of in his Quaestiones Tusculanae. (e) Uirgill decla∣reth.] Aeneid. 5.

—Pelidae tunc ego f•…•…rti, Congressum Aeneam, nec diis nec viribus aequis, Nube caua eripui: cuperem cum vertere ab imo, Structa meis ma•…•…ibus periturae maenia Troiae &c.

—Then in an hollow cloud, I sau'd him, when he combatted that Greeke, Though hauing neither fate, nor force alike. Then when mine own•…•… worke Troy, I sought to raze &c.

(f) for thankes and thankelesse] Gratis, & ingratis: that, an aduerbe, this an adiectiue, (g) Nep∣tune] * 1.5 Neptune after that Laomedon had thus cheated him, was alwayes a heauy enemy of the Troyans: But Apollo, being more gentle, and remisse, was as good friends with them as before. Virgill, Aeneid. 6.

Phaebe graues Troiae semper miscrate lab•…•…res. Dardana qui Paridis direxti •…•…ela manusque, Corpus in Acacidae &c.

Phaebus, that alwaies pitied Troies distresse, And g•…•…ue the hand of Paris good successe. Against Achilles life. &c.

(h) the senators] by the Semprnoian law which Caius Gracchus preferred, the Gentlemen of Rome had the iudging all causes twenty yeares together without any note of infamy and then by the law Plautian were selected fifteene out of euery tribe, by the suffrages of the people * 1.6 to be iudges for that yeare, this was done in the second yeare of the Italian warre. Cn. Pompeius, sonne to Sextus, and L. Cato being consuls, Afterwards the law Cornelian which Silla instituted, the authority was reduced to the senat: who iudged ten yeares together most par∣tially, and most corruptedly When the greater sort iudged saith Tully against Verres) there was great complaning of vniust indgements. Last of all by the law Aurelian, preferred by M Aureli∣us Cotta being praetor, both senat and people combined, had the hearing and censuring of cau∣ses (i) the people] Lucane in his first booke.

Hinc raptifasces precio, sectorque fauoris, Ipse sui populus, lethalisque ambitus vrbi: Annua venali referens certamima campo.

Hence, coyne Fought consulships, through this deiection The people sold their voices: this infection, Fild Mars his field with strife at each election.

(k) But heapt vp] for the iudges were sworne to iudge truly, and the people before they gaue their voices were sworne at a sacrifice, not to hold any reward, or fauour of the worth of the commonwealths estate and safety.

Notes

• * 1.1

  Apollo and Neptune worke the building of Troy.
• * 1.2

  Iliad 2.
• * 1.3

  Aeneid. 5.
• * 1.4

  Neptunes Prophecy.
• * 1.5

  Apollo fa∣uoreth the Troians.
• * 1.6

  The law Sempronian of iudge∣ments. The Plau∣tian The Corne∣lian, The Aure∣lian.