# City of God - Author: [Augustine of Hippo](https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/authors/augustine-of-hippo/) - Latin title: *De civitate Dei* - Date: 413–426 (approximate) - Source: Emanuel Hoffmann, ed., Sancti Aureli Augustini De civitate dei libri XXII, CSEL 40.1–2 (Vienna: Tempsky; Leipzig: Freytag, 1899–1900) (Latin text: Dombart and Hoffmann, De civitate dei (CSEL 40, 1899-1900), digitized by Open Greek and Latin (csel-dev, University of Leipzig), CC BY-SA 4.0) - Translation: Claude, from the original text, unless a passage says otherwise; each passage below gives the translator - Editions and translations: Bernhard Dombart and Alphons Kalb, eds., Aurelii Augustini De civitate dei libri XXII, 2 vols., CCSL 47-48 (Turnhout: Brepols, 1955) - Work page: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/augustine-civitate-dei/ - Passages: 660 ## City of God 1.1 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/augustine-civitate-dei/1-1/#p-1-1 - Source: CSEL 40:4–6 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Augustine introduces the pagan enemies of the city of God, many of whom survived the sack of Rome only by taking refuge in Christian churches, yet now blame Christ for the disaster. ### Latin text CAPUT I. De aduersariis nominis Christi, quibus in uastatione Urbis propter Christum barbari pepercerunt. Ex hac namque existunt inimici, aduersus quos defendenda est Dei ciuitas, quorum tamen multi correcto inpietatis errore ciues in ea fiunt satis idonei; multi uero in eam tantis exardescunt ignibus odiorum tamque manifestis beneficiis redemtoris eius ingrati sunt, ut hodie contra eam linguas non mouerent, nisi ferrum hostile fugientes in sacratis eius locis uitam, de qua superbiunt, inuenirent. An non etiam illi Romani Christi nomini infesti sunt, quibus propter Christum barbari pepercerunt? Testantur hoc martyrum loca et basilicae apostolorum, quae in illa uastatione Urbis ad se confugientes suos alienosque receperunt. Huc usque cruentus saeuiebat inimicus, ibi accipiebat limitem trucidatoris furor, illo ducebantur a miserantibus hostibus, quibus etiam extra ipsa loca pepercerant, ne in eos incurrerent, qui similem misericordiam non habebant. Qui tamen etiam ipsi alibi truces adque hostili more saeuientes posteaquam ad loca illa ueniebant, ubi fuerat interdictum quod alibi belli iure licuisset, tota feriendi refrenabatur inmanitas et captiuandi cupiditas frangebatur. Sic euaserunt multi, qui nunc Christianis temporibus detrahunt et mala, quae illa ciuitas pertulit, Christo inputant; bona uero, quae in eos ut uiuerent propter Christi honorem facta sunt. non inputant Christo nostro sed fato suo, cum potius deberent, si quid recti saperent, illa, quae ab hostibus aspera et dura perpessi sunt, illi prouidentiae diuinae tribuere, quae solet corruptos hominum mores bellis emendare adque conterere itemque uitam mortalium iustam adque laudabilem talibus adflictionibus exercere probatamque uel in meliora transferre uel in his adhuc terris propter usus alios detinere: illud uero, quod eis uel ubicumque propter Christi nomen uel in locis Christi nomini dicatissimis et amplissimis ac pro largiore misericordia ad capacitatem multitudinis electis praeter bellorum morem truculenti barbari pepercerunt, hoc tribuere temporibus Christianis, hinc Deo agere gratias, hinc ad eius nomen ueraciter currere, ut effugiant poenas ignis aeterni, quod nomen multi eorum mendaciter usurparunt, ut effugerent poenas praesentis exitii. Nam quos uides petulanter et procaciter insultare seruis Christi, sunt in eis plurimi, qui illum interitum clademque non euasissent, nisi seruos Christi se esse finxissent. Et nunc ingrata superbia adque inpiissima insania eius nomini resistunt corde peruerso, ut sempiternis tenebris puniantur, ad quod nomen ore uel subdolo confugerunt, ut temporali luce fruerentur. ### English translation (Claude) Chapter 1. On the enemies of the name of Christ, whom the barbarians spared for Christ's sake when the City was laid waste. From this world, then, come the enemies against whom the city of God must be defended. Many of them, however, once they have corrected the error of their ungodliness, become quite worthy citizens in it; but many burn against it with such fires of hatred, and are so ungrateful for the plain benefits of its Redeemer, that today they would not be moving their tongues against it had they not found in its sacred places, as they fled the enemy's sword, the very life they are so proud of. Are not even those Romans hostile to the name of Christ whom the barbarians spared for Christ's sake? The shrines of the martyrs and the basilicas of the apostles bear witness to it: in that devastation of the City they received those who fled to them, their own people and strangers alike. Up to that point the bloodthirsty enemy raged; there the butcher's fury met its limit; to those places the enemies who had mercy led those whom they had spared even outside those places, so that they would not fall in with others who had no such mercy. Even those who elsewhere were savage and raged in the manner of an enemy, once they came to those places, where what the law of war would have allowed elsewhere was forbidden, found all their brutality in striking restrained and their greed for taking captives broken. So many escaped who now disparage these Christian times and blame Christ for the evils that the City suffered; but the good that was done them for the honor of Christ, so that they might live, they do not credit to our Christ but to their own fate. Yet if they had any right judgment, they ought rather to ascribe the harsh and bitter things they suffered from their enemies to that divine providence which is accustomed to correct and crush the corrupt morals of men by wars, and likewise to exercise the just and praiseworthy life of mortals by such afflictions, and, once it is proved, either to transfer it to better things or to keep it still on this earth for other purposes. And the fact that the savage barbarians, contrary to the custom of war, spared them, whether anywhere for the name of Christ or in the places dedicated to the name of Christ, places very large and chosen, in more generous mercy, to hold a multitude, this they ought to ascribe to the Christian times; for this they ought to give thanks to God; for this they ought to run truly to his name, so as to escape the punishment of eternal fire, the name that many of them usurped falsely so as to escape the punishment of present destruction. For among those whom you see insulting the servants of Christ with such insolence and impudence there are very many who would not have escaped that slaughter and disaster had they not pretended to be servants of Christ. And now, with ungrateful pride and most ungodly madness, they resist his name with a perverse heart, so as to be punished with eternal darkness, the name to which they fled with a mouth that was at least deceitful, so as to enjoy the light of this passing life. ### Translation notes - The opening sentence (“From this world, then …”) continues the preface to Book 1, which is not part of this staged text. The chapter headings (capitula) are printed with the text in this edition and are translated with it. - “The City” (Urbs) is Rome, sacked by the Goths under Alaric in August 410. ### Citation (SBL) Augustine, Civ. 1.1 (CSEL 40:4–6; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/augustine-civitate-dei/1-1/#p-1-1). ## City of God 1.2 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/augustine-civitate-dei/1-1/#p-1-2 - Source: CSEL 40:6–7 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Augustine argues from Virgil's account of Troy that conquerors never spared the defeated for the sake of the defeated people's gods, whose images could not even protect themselves. ### Latin text CAPUT II. Quod nulla umquam bella ita gesta sint, ut uictores propter deos eorum, quos uicerunt, parcerent uictis. Tot bella gesta conscripta sunt uel ante conditam Romam uel ab eius exortu et imperio: legant et proferant sic ab alienigenis aliquam captam esse ciuitatem, ut hostes, qui ceperant, parcerent eis, quos ad deorum suorum templa confugisse compererant, aut aliquem ducem barbarorum praecepisse, ut inrupto oppido nullus feriretur, qui in illo uel illo templo fuisset inuentus. Nonne uidit Aeneas Priamum per aras Sanguine foedantem quos ipse sacrauerat ignes? Nonne Diomedes et Ulixes caesis summae custodibus arcis Corripuere sacram effigiem manibusque cruentis Virgineas ausi diuae contingere uittas? Nec tamen quod sequitur uerum est: Ex illo fluere ac retro sublabsa referri Spes Danaum. Postea quippe uicerunt, postea Troiam ferro ignibusque deleuerunt, postea confugientem ad aram Priamum obtruncauerunt. Nec ideo Troia periit, quia Mineruam perdidit. Quid enim prius ipsa Minerua perdiderat, ut periret? an forte custodes suos? Hoc sane uerum est; illis quippe interemtis potuit auferri. Neque enim homines a simulacro, sed simulacrum ab hominibus seruabatur. Quo modo ergo colebatur, ut patriam custodiret et ciues, quae suos non ualuit custodire custodes? ### English translation (Claude) Chapter 2. That no war was ever waged in which the victors spared the vanquished for the sake of the gods of those they had conquered. So many wars are on record, whether before Rome was founded or since its rise and rule: let them read and produce a case in which a city was taken by foreigners and the enemies who took it spared those they found had fled to the temples of their gods, or in which some barbarian commander ordered that, once the town was stormed, no one found in this or that temple should be struck down. Did not Aeneas see Priam “at the altars, defiling with his blood the fires he himself had hallowed”? Did not Diomedes and Ulysses, “having slain the guards of the citadel's height, seize the sacred image, and with bloody hands dare to touch the virgin goddess's fillets”? And yet what follows is not true: “From that time the hopes of the Greeks ebbed and slipped back.” For afterwards they conquered; afterwards they destroyed Troy with sword and fire; afterwards they cut down Priam as he fled to the altar. Nor did Troy perish because it lost Minerva. For what had Minerva herself lost first, that she should perish? Her guards, perhaps? That is certainly true: once they were slain she could be carried off. For the men were not protected by the image; the image was protected by the men. How then was she worshipped so that she might guard the country and its citizens, when she could not guard her own guards? ### Extrabiblical texts - Virgil, Aen. 2.501–502 (Virgil): quotation, high confidence - Virgil, Aen. 2.166–170 (Virgil): quotation, high confidence ### Translation notes - Quotations from Virgil, Aeneid 2.501–502, 2.166–168, and 2.169–170. The image is the Palladium of Minerva. ### Citation (SBL) Augustine, Civ. 1.2 (CSEL 40:6–7; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/augustine-civitate-dei/1-1/#p-1-2). ## City of God 1.3 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/augustine-civitate-dei/1-1/#p-1-3 - Source: CSEL 40:7–9 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Augustine mocks the belief that Rome depended on the conquered household gods of Troy, since Virgil himself shows those gods needing human protection. ### Latin text CAPUT III. Quam inprudenter Romani deos penates, qui Troiam custodire non potuerant, sibi crediderint profuturos. Ecce qualibus dis Urbem Romani seruandam se commisisse gaudebant! o nimium miserabilem errorem! Et nobis suscensent, cum de dis eorum talia dicimus; nec suscensent auctoribus suis, quos ut ediscerent mercedem dederunt doctoresque ipsos insuper et salario publico et honoribus dignissimos habuerunt. Nempe aput Vergilium, quem propterea paruuli legunt, ut uidelicet poeta magnus omniumque praeclarissimus adque optimus teneris ebibitus animis non facile obliuione possit aboleri, secundum illud Horatii: Quo semel est inbuta recens seruabit odorem Testa diu - aput hunc ergo Vergilium nempe Iuno inducitur infesta Troianis Aeolo uentorum regi aduersus eos inritando dicere: Gens inimica mihi Tyrrhenum nauigat aequor Ilium in Italiam portans uictosque penates. Itane istis penatibus uictis Romam, ne uinceretur. prudentes commendare debuerunt? Sed haec Iuno dicebat uelut irata mulier, quid loqueretur ignorans. Quid Aeneas ipse, pius totiens appellatus, nonne ita narrat: Panthus Othryades, arcis Phoebique sacerdos, Sacra manu uictosque deos paruumque nepotem Ipse trahit cursuque amens ad limina tendit? Nonne deos ipsos, quos uictos non dubitat dicere, sibi potius quam se illis perhibet commendatos, cum ei dicitur: Sacra suosque tibi commendat Troia penates? Si igitur Vergilius tales deos et uictos dicit et, ut uel uicti quoquo modo euaderent, homini commendatos: quae dementia est existimare his tutoribus Romam sapienter fuisse commissam et nisi eos amisisset non potuisse uastari? Immo uero uictos deos tamquam praesides ac defensores colere, quid est aliud quam tenere non numina bona, sed nomina mala? Quanto enim sapientius creditur, non Romam ad istam cladem non fuisse uenturam, nisi prius illi periissent, sed illos potius olim fuisse perituros, nisi eos quantum potuisset Roma seruasset! Nam quis non, cum aduerterit, uideat quanta sit uanitate praesumtum non posse uinci sub defensoribus uictis et ideo periisse, quia custodes perdidit deos, cum uel sola esse potuerit causa pereundi custodes habere uoluisse perituros? Non itaque, cum de dis uictis illa conscriberentur adque canerentur, poetas libebat mentiri, sed cordatos homines cogebat ueritas confiteri. Verum ista opportunius alio loco diligenter copioseque tractanda sunt: nunc, quod institueram de ingratis hominibus dicere, parumper expediam ut possum, qui ea mala, quae pro suorum morum peruersitate merito patiuntur, blasphemantes Christo inputant; quod autem illis etiam talibus propter Christum parcitur, nec dignantur adtendere et eas linguas aduersus eius nomen dementia sacrilegae peruersitatis exercent, quibus linguis usurpauerunt mendaciter ipsum nomen, ut uiuerent, uel quas linguas in locis ei sacratis metuendo presserunt, ut illic tuti adque muniti, ubi propter eum inlaesi ab hostibus fuerunt, inde in eum maledictis hostilibus prosilirent. ### English translation (Claude) Chapter 3. How imprudently the Romans believed that the household gods, who had not been able to guard Troy, would benefit them. See to what kind of gods the Romans rejoiced to have entrusted the City for safekeeping! O most pitiable error! And they are angry with us when we say such things about their gods; yet they are not angry with their own authors, whom they paid money to learn by heart, and whose teachers they even held most worthy of a public salary and honors. Indeed, in Virgil, whom small boys read precisely so that this great poet, the most famous and the best of all, drunk in by tender minds, may not easily be blotted out by forgetfulness, according to that saying of Horace: “The jar will long keep the scent with which it was once steeped when new”, in this Virgil, I say, Juno is brought on, hostile to the Trojans, saying to Aeolus, king of the winds, as she stirs him up against them: “A race hateful to me sails the Tyrrhenian sea, carrying Ilium and its conquered household gods into Italy.” Ought prudent men to have entrusted Rome to these conquered household gods, so that it might not be conquered? But, they say, Juno said this like an angry woman, not knowing what she was saying. What of Aeneas himself, so often called “dutiful”: does he not tell it thus: “Panthus, son of Othrys, priest of the citadel and of Phoebus, himself drags along in his hand the sacred things, the conquered gods, and his little grandson, and runs frantic to the threshold”? Does he not declare that these very gods, whom he does not hesitate to call conquered, were entrusted to him rather than he to them, when it is said to him: “To you Troy commends its sacred things and its household gods”? If, then, Virgil says that such gods were both conquered and, so that even when conquered they might somehow escape, entrusted to a man, what madness it is to think that Rome was wisely committed to these guardians and could not have been laid waste unless it had lost them! Indeed, what else is it to worship conquered gods as protectors and defenders than to hold not good deities but bad omens? How much wiser to believe, not that Rome would not have come to this disaster unless they had perished first, but rather that they would have perished long ago had Rome not preserved them as far as it could! For who, if he pays attention, does not see how empty the presumption is that Rome could not be conquered under conquered defenders, and that it perished because it lost its guardian gods, when the only cause of its perishing could well have been its willingness to have guardians who were bound to perish? So when these things were written and sung about the conquered gods, it was not that poets liked to lie, but that truth compelled men of sense to confess it. But these matters will be treated carefully and at length more fittingly in another place. Now I shall briefly, as best I can, finish what I had begun to say about ungrateful men, who blasphemously blame Christ for the evils they suffer deservedly for the perversity of their morals. That they are spared for Christ's sake, even such as they are, they do not deign to notice; and in the madness of sacrilegious perversity they use against his name the very tongues with which they falsely usurped that name so as to live, or the tongues they held in check out of fear in the places consecrated to him, so that, safe and protected there, where for his sake they were unharmed by the enemy, they might leap out from there against him with hostile curses. ### Extrabiblical texts - Horace, Ep. 1.2.69–70 (Horace): quotation, high confidence - Virgil, Aen. 1.67–68 (Virgil): quotation, high confidence - Virgil, Aen. 2.319–321 (Virgil): quotation, high confidence - Virgil, Aen. 2.293 (Virgil): quotation, high confidence ### Translation notes - Horace, Epistles 1.2.69–70; Virgil, Aeneid 1.67–68, 2.319–321, 2.293. - “Not good deities but bad omens” renders a wordplay in the Latin: non numina bona, sed nomina mala. ### Citation (SBL) Augustine, Civ. 1.3 (CSEL 40:7–9; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/augustine-civitate-dei/1-1/#p-1-3). ## City of God 1.4 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/augustine-civitate-dei/1-1/#p-1-4 - Source: CSEL 40:9–10 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Augustine contrasts Juno's sanctuary at Troy, used by the Greeks to hold captives and plunder, with the basilicas of the apostles, where the Goths spared refugees and restored property. ### Latin text CAPUT IIII. De asylo Iunonis in Troia, quod neminem liberauit a Graecis, et basilicis apostolorum, quae omnes ad se confugientes a barbaris defenderunt. Ipsa, ut dixi, Troia, mater populi Romani, sacratis locis deorum suorum munire non potuit ciues suos ab ignibus ferroque Graecorum, eosdem ipsos deos colentium; quin etiam Iunonis asylo Custodes lecti, Phoenix et dirus Ulixes, Praedam adseruabant; huc undique Troia gaza Incensis erepta adytis mensaeque deorum Crateresque auro solidi captiuaque uestis Congeritur. Pueri et pauidae longo ordine matres Stant circum. Electus est uidelicet locus tantae deae sacratus, non unde captiuos non liceret educere, sed ubi captiuos liberet includere. Conpara nunc asylum illud non cuiuslibet dei gregalis uel de turba plebis, sed Iouis ipsius sororis et coniugis et reginae omnium deorum cum memoriis nostrorum apostolorum. Illuc incensis templis et dis erepta spolia portabantur, non donanda uictis, sed diuidenda uictoribus; huc autem et quod alibi ad ea loca pertinere conpertum est cum honore et obsequio religiosissimo reportatum est. Ibi amissa, hic seruata libertas; ibi clausa, hic interdicta captiuitas; ibi possidendi a dominantibus hostibus premebantur, huc liberandi a miserantibus ducebantur: postremo illud Iunonis templum sibi elegerat auaritia et superbia leuium Graeculorum, istas Christi basilicas misericordia et humilitas etiam inmanium barbarorum. Nisi forte Graeci quidem in illa sua uictoria templis deorum communium pepercerunt adque illo confugientes miseros uictosque Troianos ferire uel captiuare non ausi sunt, sed Vergilius poetarum more illa mentitus est. Immo uero morem hostium ciuitates euertentium ille descripsit. ### English translation (Claude) Chapter 4. On the sanctuary of Juno at Troy, which freed no one from the Greeks, and the basilicas of the apostles, which protected from the barbarians all who fled to them. Troy itself, as I said, the mother of the Roman people, could not protect its citizens by the consecrated places of its gods from the fire and sword of the Greeks, who worshipped those same gods. On the contrary, “in Juno's sanctuary chosen guards, Phoenix and dread Ulysses, kept watch over the booty. Here from every side the treasure of Troy, torn from the burning shrines, the tables of the gods, bowls of solid gold, and captured garments are heaped together. Boys and trembling mothers stand around in a long line.” Evidently a place consecrated to so great a goddess was chosen, not as a place from which it was unlawful to lead captives away, but as a place in which it pleased them to shut captives up. Compare now that sanctuary, not of some common god or one of the rank and file, but of the sister and wife of Jupiter himself and queen of all the gods, with the memorial shrines of our apostles. To the one the spoils snatched from the burnt temples and from the gods were carried, not to be given back to the vanquished but to be divided among the victors; to the other, even what was found elsewhere to belong to those places was carried back with honor and the most reverent respect. There liberty was lost, here preserved; there captivity was confined, here forbidden; there people were herded to be possessed by enemies who were their masters, here they were led to be set free by enemies who had pity on them. In short, the avarice and pride of the fickle Greeks had chosen that temple of Juno for themselves; the mercy and humility of even savage barbarians chose these basilicas of Christ. Unless perhaps the Greeks in their victory did spare the temples of the gods they shared, and did not dare to strike down or take captive the wretched and conquered Trojans who fled there, and Virgil lied in the manner of poets! No, he described the custom of enemies who overthrow cities. ### Extrabiblical texts - Virgil, Aen. 2.761–767 (Virgil): quotation, high confidence ### Translation notes - Virgil, Aeneid 2.761–767. The “memorial shrines” (memoriae) are the churches built over the apostles' tombs; church treasures found elsewhere were restored to St Peter's during the sack. ### Citation (SBL) Augustine, Civ. 1.4 (CSEL 40:9–10; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/augustine-civitate-dei/1-1/#p-1-4). ## City of God 1.5 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/augustine-civitate-dei/1-1/#p-1-5 - Source: CSEL 40:10–11 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Augustine cites Cato's speech in Sallust, which lists the plundering of shrines among the ordinary horrors of a captured city. ### Latin text CAPUT V. De generali consuetudine hostium uictas ciuitates euertentium quid Cato senserit. Quem morem etiam Cato, sicut scribit Sallustius, nobilitatae ueritatis historicus, sententia sua, quam de coniuratis in senatu habuit, conmemorare non praetermittit: rapi uirgines pueros, diuelli liberos a parentum conplexu, matres familiarum pati quae uictoribus conlibuisset, fana adque domos spoliari, caedem incendia fieri: postremo armis cadaueribus cruore adque luctu omnia conpleri. Hic si fana tacuisset, deorum sedibus solere hostes parcere putaremus. Et haec non ab alienigenis hostibus, sed a Catilina et sociis eius, nobilissimis senatoribus et Romanis ciuibus, Romana templa metuebant. Sed hi uidelicet perditi et patriae parricidae. ### English translation (Claude) Chapter 5. What Cato thought of the general custom of enemies who overthrow conquered cities. This custom Cato too, as Sallust, a historian of celebrated truthfulness, writes, does not fail to mention in the speech he gave in the senate about the conspirators: “maidens and boys are carried off, children torn from their parents' embrace, mothers of families suffer whatever the victors please, shrines and houses are plundered, slaughter and burning are done; in short, everything is filled with weapons, corpses, blood, and mourning.” Had he said nothing about shrines here, we might suppose that enemies usually spare the dwellings of the gods. And the Roman temples feared these things, not from foreign enemies, but from Catiline and his associates, senators of the highest nobility and Roman citizens. But these, no doubt, were abandoned men and parricides of their country. ### Extrabiblical texts - Sallust, Cat. 51.9 (Sallust): quotation, high confidence ### Translation notes - Sallust, Catiline 51.9. In Sallust these words belong to Caesar's speech, not Cato's; Augustine assigns them to Cato. ### Citation (SBL) Augustine, Civ. 1.5 (CSEL 40:10–11; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/augustine-civitate-dei/1-1/#p-1-5). ## City of God 1.6 - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/augustine-civitate-dei/1-1/#p-1-6 - Source: CSEL 40:11–12 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 Summary: Augustine shows from the examples of Marcellus at Syracuse and Fabius at Tarentum that even the most restrained Roman conquerors never granted asylum in temples. ### Latin text CAPUT VI. Quod ne Romani quidem ita ullas ceperint ciuitates, ut in templis earum parcerent uictis. Quid ergo per multas gentes, quae inter se bella gesserunt et nusquam uictis in deorum suorum sedibus pepercerunt, noster sermo discurrat? Romanos ipsos uideamus, ipsos, inquam, recolamus respiciamusque Romanos, de quorum praecipua laude dictum est: Parcere subiectis et debellare superbos, et quod accepta iniuria ignoscere quam persequi malebant: quando tot tantasque urbes, ut late dominarentur, expugnatas captasque euerterunt, legatur nobis quae templa excipere solebant, ut ad ea quisquis confugisset liberaretur. An illi faciebant et scriptores earundem rerum gestarum ista reticebant? Ita uero, qui ea quae laudarent maxime requirebant, ista praeclarissima secundum ipsos pietatis indicia praeterirent? Egregius Romani nominis Marcus Marcellus. qui Syracusas urbem ornatissimam cepit, refertur eam prius fleuisse ruituram et ante eius sanguinem suas illi lacrimas effudisse. Gessit et curam pudicitiae etiam in hoste seruandae. Nam priusquam oppidum uictor iussisset inuadi, constituit edicto, ne quis corpus liberum uiolaret. Euersa est tamen ciuitas more bellorum, nec uspiam legitur ab imperatore tam casto adque clementi fuisse praeceptum, ut quisquis ad illud uel illud templum fugisset haberetur inlaesus. Quod utique nullo modo praeteriretur, quando nec eius fletus nec quod edixerat pro pudicitia minime uiolanda potuit taceri. Fabius, Tarentinae urbis euersor, a simulacrorum depraedatione se abstinuisse. laudatur. Nam cum ei scriba suggessisset quid de signis deorum, quae multa capta fuerant, fieri iuberet, continentiam suam etiam iocando condiuit. Quaesiuit enim cuius modi essent, et cum ei non solum multa grandia, uerum etiam renuntiarentur armata, , inquit