On the Governance of God 7.51–7.100
Latin text: CSEL 8 (Latin text: CSEL, digitized by Open Greek and Latin (csel-dev, University of Leipzig), CC BY-SA 4.0).English: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), public domain (CC0).
Chapter 7
7.51CSEL 8:171
sed ubi apud nos emendatio aut quae pars Romani orbis quamuis afflicta corrigitur? omnes enim, ut legimus, declinauerunt, simul inutiles facti sunt. et ideo propheta ad deum clamat et dicit: percussisti eos et non doluerunt, adtriuisti eos et renuerunt accipere disciplinam: indurauerunt facies suas super petram et noluerunt reuerti. quam uere autem etiam hoc in nos cadat res ipsa indicat.
But where is amendment among us, or what part of the Roman world, though afflicted, is corrected? For all, as we read, have turned aside, together they have become useless. And so the prophet cries to God and says: “You struck them and they did not grieve; you crushed them and they refused to receive discipline; they hardened their faces above rock and would not return.” How truly this falls on us too the fact itself shows.
Ps 14:3 (13:3 Vulg.) (quotation, high confidence) · Jer 5:3 (quotation, high confidence)
Notes and citation
Summary: No part of the Roman world is amended by its afflictions.
- Ps 14:3 (Vulgate 13:3); Jer 5:3.
Cite (SBL): Salvian, Gub. 7.51 (CSEL 8:171; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-gubernatione/7-51). (abbreviation not yet checked)
Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-gubernatione/7-51
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin of the staged edition (corrections logged). No public-domain English translation is available to us and no FOTC volume covers Salvian, so each batch was re-read against the Latin.
7.52CSEL 8:171
uastata est diu Gallia: ergo emendata est, cum in uicino esset, Hispania? nec inmerito, quia nullus erat omnino timor nulla correctio, flammis, quibus arserant Galli, Hispani ardere coeperunt. in quo illud est, ut supra dixi, sceleratissimum et grauissimum, quod cum arserint, ut ita dicam, membra hominum peccatorum, curata non sunt uitia peccantium. et ideo compulsus est criminibus nostris deus, ut hostiles plagas de loco in locum de urbe in urbem spargeret et excitas paene ab ultimis terrae finibus gentes etiam trans mare mitteret, quae Afrorum scelera punirent. quid enim?
Gaul was long devastated: was Spain, then, being near, amended? Not undeservedly, because there was no fear at all, no correction, the Spaniards began to burn with the flames in which the Gauls had burned. In this is what I said above is most wicked and grievous: that, though the limbs of sinful men burned, so to speak, the vices of the sinners were not cured. And so God was compelled by our crimes to spread the enemy’s blows from place to place, from city to city, and to send nations roused almost from the last ends of the earth even across the sea to punish the crimes of the Africans. For what?
Notes and citation
Summary: Spain was not amended by Gaul’s example and burned too; then the Vandals were sent to Africa.
Cite (SBL): Salvian, Gub. 7.52 (CSEL 8:171; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-gubernatione/7-52). (abbreviation not yet checked)
Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-gubernatione/7-52
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin of the staged edition (corrections logged). No public-domain English translation is available to us and no FOTC volume covers Salvian, so each batch was re-read against the Latin.
7.53CSEL 8:171–172
numquid abductae a solo patrio degere intra Gallias non potuerant? aut ut non degerent, quem timebant quae inlaesae a nobis usque ad tempus illud cuncta uastauerant? sed esto, intra Gallias formidabant. quid in Hispania, ubi etiam exercitus nostros bellando contriuerant, numquid consistere aut permanere metuebant iam uictores iam triumphantes, quibus usque ad hunc fortitudinis fastum contigerat ascendere, ut post experimenta belli diu parati intellegerent sibi Romanae rei publicae uires etiam cum barbarorum auxiliis pares esse non posse?
Could they, once led from their native soil, not have lived within the Gauls? Or whom did they fear so as not to live there, they who had laid everything waste unharmed by us up to that time? But suppose they were afraid within the Gauls. What of Spain, where they had even crushed our armies in battle: were they afraid to stay or remain there, already victors, already triumphant, who had risen to such pride of strength that, after the trials of war long prepared, they understood that the forces of the Roman commonwealth, even with barbarian auxiliaries, could not be equal to them?
Notes and citation
Summary: The Vandals had no military reason to leave Spain.
Cite (SBL): Salvian, Gub. 7.53 (CSEL 8:171–172; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-gubernatione/7-53). (abbreviation not yet checked)
Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-gubernatione/7-53
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin of the staged edition (corrections logged). No public-domain English translation is available to us and no FOTC volume covers Salvian, so each batch was re-read against the Latin.
7.54CSEL 8:172
Potuerunt ergo illic degere nec timebant. sed illa utique caelestis manus, quae eos ad punienda Hispanorum flagitia illuc traxerat, etiam ad uastandam Africam transire cogebat. ipsi denique fatebantur non suum esse quod facerent: agi enim se diuino iussu ac perurgeri. ex quo intellegi potest quanta sint mala nostra, ad quos uastandos atque cruciandos ire barbari compelluntur inuiti secundum illud scilicet, quod uastator terrae Israheliticae rex Assyriorum ait: numquid sine domini uoluntate ascendi ad locum istum? dominus dixit mihi: ascende ad terram hanc et demolire eam. et alibi sacer sermo: haec dicit dominus exercituum, deus Israhel: ecce ego mittam et adsumam Nabochodonosor regem Babylonis seruum meum, ueniensque percutiet terram Aegypti.
So they could have lived there and were not afraid. But that heavenly hand which had drawn them there to punish the shameful deeds of the Spaniards compelled them to cross over to devastate Africa as well. In short, they themselves confessed that what they did was not their own: for they were driven and pressed on by divine command. From this it can be understood how great our evils are, since barbarians are compelled against their will to go to devastate and torment us; according, that is, to what the king of the Assyrians, the devastator of the land of Israel, said: “Have I come up to this place without the will of the Lord? The Lord said to me: Go up against this land and destroy it.” And elsewhere the sacred word: “Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I will send and take Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, my servant, and he will come and strike the land of Egypt.”
Isa 36:10 (quotation, high confidence) · Jer 43:10 (50:10 LXX) (quotation, high confidence) · Jer 43:11 (50:11 LXX) (quotation, high confidence)
Notes and citation
Summary: The Vandals said they were driven to Africa by God, as Assyria and Babylon were sent.
- Isa 36:10 (2 Kgs 18:25); Jer 43:10–11 (LXX 50:10–11). The chapter numeral “XIII” is removed.
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (chapter numeral leaked into the text; stray mark): XIII. Potuerunt ergo → Potuerunt ergo; haec dicit dominus. exercituum → haec dicit dominus exercituum.
Cite (SBL): Salvian, Gub. 7.54 (CSEL 8:172; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-gubernatione/7-54). (abbreviation not yet checked)
Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-gubernatione/7-54
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin of the staged edition (corrections logged). No public-domain English translation is available to us and no FOTC volume covers Salvian, so each batch was re-read against the Latin.
7.55CSEL 8:172–173
unde agnoscere possumus cuncta quidem, quae adfliguntur, iudicio dei percuti, sed tamen, ut saepe memoraui, propter peccata subuerti. ac per hoc quicquid actum est peccatis non deo adscribendum, quia recte illi rei factum adscribitur, quae ut quid fieret exegit. nam et homicida, cum a iudice occiditur, suo scelere punitur, et latro aut sacrilegus, cum flammis exuritur, suis criminibus concrematur.
From this we can recognize that all who are afflicted are struck by God’s judgment, but, as I have often said, overthrown because of sins. And so whatever has been done must be ascribed to sins, not to God, because a deed is rightly ascribed to that which demanded that it be done. For a murderer too, when killed by a judge, is punished by his own crime; and a robber or sacrilegious man, when burned in the flames, is burned by his own crimes.
Notes and citation
Summary: Punishment is to be ascribed to sin, not to God.
Cite (SBL): Salvian, Gub. 7.55 (CSEL 8:172–173; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-gubernatione/7-55). (abbreviation not yet checked)
Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-gubernatione/7-55
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin of the staged edition (corrections logged). No public-domain English translation is available to us and no FOTC volume covers Salvian, so each batch was re-read against the Latin.
7.56CSEL 8:173
unde et quod Wandali ad Africam transierunt non est diuinae seueritati sed Afrorum sceleri deputandum; graui enim eos, antequam illuc pergerent, ac longa iniquitate traxerunt. et ideo intellegere debemus, quia pietatis diuinae fuit, quod poenam diu debitam distulit, piaculorum autem et criminum, quod aliquando peccator populus quae merebatur excepit. nisi forte Afros hoc non meruisse credimus, cum utique nulli magis, utpote in quos omnia simul improbitatum atque impuritatum genera confluxerint.
Hence that the Vandals crossed to Africa must be attributed not to divine severity but to the crime of the Africans; for these drew them by grave and long iniquity before they went there. And so we ought to understand that it was of divine kindness that he long postponed the punishment owed, but of sins and crimes that the sinful people at last received what it deserved. Unless perhaps we believe the Africans did not deserve this, when indeed none deserved it more, since all kinds of wickedness and impurity flowed together into them.
Notes and citation
Summary: The Africans’ crimes, not God’s severity, brought the Vandals.
Cite (SBL): Salvian, Gub. 7.56 (CSEL 8:173; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-gubernatione/7-56). (abbreviation not yet checked)
Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-gubernatione/7-56
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin of the staged edition (corrections logged). No public-domain English translation is available to us and no FOTC volume covers Salvian, so each batch was re-read against the Latin.
7.57CSEL 8:173
ceteri enim homines, etsi nonnullis uitiorum flagitiis obligati sunt, quibusdam tamen non implicantur, etsi uinolentia non carent maliuolentia carent, etsi libidine aestuant rapacitate non saeuiunt: multos denique, etsi accusat incontinentia corporum, simplicitas commendat animorum. in Afris uero paene omnibus nihil horum est, quod ad utrumque pertineat, id est bonum aeque ac malum, quia totum admodum malum. adeo exclusa naturae originalis sinceritate aliam quodammodo in his naturam uitia fecerunt. Exceptis enim paucissimis dei seruis quid fuit totum.
For other men, even if bound by some shameful vices, are still not entangled in certain others: if they are not free of drunkenness, they are free of ill will; if they burn with lust, they do not rage with rapacity; in short, many, even if incontinence of the body accuses them, are commended by simplicity of mind. But in almost all the Africans there is nothing of these things that belongs to both, that is, good and evil equally, because it is wholly evil. So completely, the sincerity of their original nature being excluded, have vices made in them, as it were, another nature. For, apart from a very few servants of God, what was the whole
Notes and citation
Summary: Others mix good with evil; the Africans are wholly evil.
- The chapter numeral “XIIII” is removed. The sentence continues in 7.58.
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (chapter numeral leaked into the text; stray mark): incontinentia corporum,. simplicitas → incontinentia corporum, simplicitas; fecerunt. XIIII. Exceptis enim → fecerunt. Exceptis enim.
Cite (SBL): Salvian, Gub. 7.57 (CSEL 8:173; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-gubernatione/7-57). (abbreviation not yet checked)
Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-gubernatione/7-57
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin of the staged edition (corrections logged). No public-domain English translation is available to us and no FOTC volume covers Salvian, so each batch was re-read against the Latin.
7.58CSEL 8:173–174
Africae territorium quam domus una uitiorum, aeneo illi similis, de quo propheta dicit: o ciuitas sanguinum! aeneum, in quo est aerugo, non exiit de eo, quia sanguis non exiet de eo? ciuitatem, ut uidemus, aeneo et iniquitatem sanguini comparauit, ut intellegamus scilicet sic esse in ciuitate populi iniquitatem, sicut in aeneo sanguinem bullientem. non dissimile autem est huic illud sermonis sacri: factae sunt mihi domus Israhel commixtae omnes aeramento et ferro et stanno et plumbo, in medio argentum permixtum est. propterea dic haec: sic dicit dominus deus: pro eo, quod facti estis omnes in permixtionem unam, conflabo uos et insufflabo in uos in igni irae.
territory of Africa but one house of vices, like that bronze pot of which the prophet says: “O city of blood! A bronze pot in which there is rust, and it has not gone out of it, because the blood will not go out of it”? He compared, as we see, the city to a bronze pot and its iniquity to blood, so that we might understand that iniquity is in the people of the city as blood boiling in a bronze pot. And not unlike this is that word of the sacred text: “The house of Israel has become to me all mixed with bronze and iron and tin and lead; in the middle silver is mixed. Therefore say this: Thus says the Lord God: Because you have all become one mixture, I will smelt you and blow on you in the fire of wrath.”
Ezek 24:6 (quotation, high confidence) · Ezek 22:18 (quotation, high confidence) · Ezek 22:19 (quotation, high confidence) · Ezek 22:21 (quotation, medium confidence)
Notes and citation
Summary: Africa was a house of vices like Ezekiel’s rusted pot and mixed metals.
- Ezek 24:6; Ezek 22:18–21.
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (split word; stray mark; words run together): Africae territorium quam domus una uitiorum, aeneo illi similis, de quo propheta dicit; → Africae territorium quam domus una uitiorum, aeneo illi similis, de quo propheta dicit:; non exiet de e o? → non exiet de eo?; commixtae omnes ae ramento → commixtae omnes aeramento; in igniirae → in igni irae.
Cite (SBL): Salvian, Gub. 7.58 (CSEL 8:173–174; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-gubernatione/7-58). (abbreviation not yet checked)
Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-gubernatione/7-58
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin of the staged edition (corrections logged). No public-domain English translation is available to us and no FOTC volume covers Salvian, so each batch was re-read against the Latin.
7.59CSEL 8:174
dissimillima inter se genera metallorum sacer sermo memorauit. et quomodo in eodem conflatorio res diuersae conflantur? scilicet quia in diuersitatibus metallorum dissimilitudo hominum designatur. et ideo etiam argentum, id est nobilioris materiae metallum, isdem ignibus datur, quia naturae nobilioris ingenium uita degenerante damnarunt. sicut etiam de principe Tyri dixisse legimus dominum per prophetam: fili hominis, accipe lamentum super principem Tyri, et dic illi: haec dicit dominus deus: tu consignatio similitudinis, et corona decoris in deliciis paradisi fuisti: omnem lapidem optimum indutus es, sardium et topazium et smaragdum. et iterum argento, inquit, et auro implesti thesauros tuos, a multitudine negotiationis implesti promptuaria tua.
The sacred word mentioned the most unlike kinds of metals. And how are different things smelted in the same furnace? Because the unlikeness of men is signified in the differences of metals. And so even silver, that is, the metal of nobler material, is given to the same fires, because men of nobler nature have condemned their gifts by a degenerate life. As we read the Lord said through the prophet of the prince of Tyre: “Son of man, take up a lament over the prince of Tyre and say to him: Thus says the Lord God: You were the seal of likeness and a crown of beauty in the delights of paradise; you were clothed with every finest stone, sardius and topaz and emerald.” And again: “With silver,” he says, “and gold you have filled your treasuries; from the multitude of your trade you have filled your storehouses.”
Ezek 28:12 (quotation, high confidence) · Ezek 28:13 (quotation, high confidence) · Ezek 28:4 (quotation, high confidence) · Ezek 28:5 (quotation, medium confidence)
Notes and citation
Summary: Even the noble silver is smelted; Ezekiel’s lament over Tyre fits Africa.
- Ezek 28:12–13; Ezek 28:4–5.
Cite (SBL): Salvian, Gub. 7.59 (CSEL 8:174; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-gubernatione/7-59). (abbreviation not yet checked)
Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-gubernatione/7-59
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin of the staged edition (corrections logged). No public-domain English translation is available to us and no FOTC volume covers Salvian, so each batch was re-read against the Latin.
7.60CSEL 8:174–175
quae omnia numquid non talia sunt, ut specialiter de Afris dicta uideantur? ubi enim maiores thesauri ubi maior negotiatio ubi promptuaria pleniora? auro, inquit, implesti thesauros tuos a multitudine negotiationis tuae. ego plus addo: tam diuitem quondam Africam fuisse, ut mihi copia negotiationis suae non suos tantum sed etiam mundi thesauros uideatur implesse. et quid post haec? exaltatum est, inquit, cor tuum in decore tuo, propter multitudinem peccatorum tuorum in terram te proieci.
Are not all these such that they seem to have been said specially of the Africans? For where were greater treasures, where greater trade, where fuller storehouses? “With gold,” he says, “you have filled your treasuries from the multitude of your trade.” I add more: that Africa was once so rich that by the abundance of its trade it seems to me to have filled not only its own treasuries but those of the world. And what after this? “Your heart was exalted in your beauty; because of the multitude of your sins I have cast you to the ground.”
Ezek 28:4 (quotation, high confidence) · Ezek 28:17 (quotation, high confidence)
Notes and citation
Summary: Rich Africa, like Tyre, was cast down for pride and sin.
- Ezek 28:4–5, 17.
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (stray mark): specialiter de Afris dicta, uideantur → specialiter de Afris dicta uideantur.
Cite (SBL): Salvian, Gub. 7.60 (CSEL 8:174–175; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-gubernatione/7-60). (abbreviation not yet checked)
Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-gubernatione/7-60
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin of the staged edition (corrections logged). No public-domain English translation is available to us and no FOTC volume covers Salvian, so each batch was re-read against the Latin.
7.61CSEL 8:175
quomodo Africanae potentiae et hoc competit aut quemadmodum proiecta esse uidetur in terram? quomodo nisi quia, quando amisit potentiae ueteris altitudinem, quasi caelestem perdidit dignitatem? et educam, inquit, ignem de medio tui, hic te deuorabit. quid hac re uerius? de media quippe eorum iniquitate ignis peccati exiit, qui felicitatem prioris temporis deuorauit. et omnes, inquit, qui nouerunt inter nationes, contristabuntur super te. conuenire illis hoc non putemus, si non euersio Africani soli luctus est generis humani. perditio, inquit, factus es et non eris amplius in aeternum. in perditionem iam illic deducta omnia satis constat: superest ne malorum praesentium poenas etiam aeternorum continuatio consequatur.
How does this fit African power, or in what way does it seem to have been cast to the ground? How but that, when it lost the height of its ancient power, it lost, as it were, a heavenly dignity? “And I will bring forth fire,” he says, “from your midst; it will devour you.” What truer than this? For from the midst of their iniquity came the fire of sin, which devoured the happiness of former time. “And all who knew you among the nations,” he says, “will be saddened over you.” Let us not think this fits them, if the overthrow of African soil is not a grief to the human race. “You have become a ruin,” he says, “and will be no more forever.” It is quite certain that everything there has already been brought to ruin: it remains that the continuance of eternal evils not follow the punishments of present ones.
Ezek 28:18 (quotation, high confidence) · Ezek 28:19 (quotation, high confidence)
Notes and citation
Summary: Africa’s fall, like Tyre’s, came from its own sin; may eternal punishment not follow.
- Ezek 28:18–19.
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (OCR slip): felicilotatem → felicitatem.
Cite (SBL): Salvian, Gub. 7.61 (CSEL 8:175; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-gubernatione/7-61). (abbreviation not yet checked)
Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-gubernatione/7-61
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin of the staged edition (corrections logged). No public-domain English translation is available to us and no FOTC volume covers Salvian, so each batch was re-read against the Latin.
7.62CSEL 8:175–176
Non patiatur hoc autem pro affectu suae misericordiae deus. nam quantum ad meritum nostrorum criminum pertinet, ita se res habet, ut pati posse uideatur. quid enim piaculorum est non illic semper admissum? nec de omnibus dico, quia et enormia fere sunt et sciri ac dici tanta non possunt. de sola uel maxime obscenitate impuritatum loquor et, quod est grauius, sacrilegiorum. praetermitto in aliquo rabiem cupiditatis, uitium totius generis humani: praetereo auaritiae inhumanitatem, proprium est Romanorum paene omnium malum: relinquatur ebrietas, nobilibus ignobilibusque communis; taceatur superbia et tumor: tam peculiare hoc diuitum regnum est, ut aliquid forsitan de iure suo se putent perdere, si hinc sibi alius quicquam uoluerit uindicare: transeatur denique prope omne fraudium falsitatum periuriorum nefas: nulla umquam his malis Romana ciuitas caruit.
May God not allow this, out of the affection of his mercy. For as far as the merit of our crimes goes, the matter stands so that it seems he could allow it. For what sin was not always committed there? Nor do I speak of all, because they are almost boundless and cannot be known or told, so many are they. I speak only, or chiefly, of the obscenity of impurities and, what is graver, of sacrileges. I pass over in anyone the madness of covetousness, the vice of the whole human race; I pass over the inhumanity of greed, the proper evil of almost all Romans; let drunkenness be left aside, common to nobles and commoners; let pride and swelling be passed over in silence: this is so peculiarly the kingdom of the rich that they think they perhaps lose something of their right if anyone else wishes to claim anything of it for himself; let us pass over, finally, almost every outrage of frauds, falsehoods, and perjuries: no Roman city was ever without these evils.
Notes and citation
Summary: Salvian will speak only of Africa’s impurities and sacrileges, passing over common vices.
- The chapter numeral “XV” is removed.
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (chapter numeral leaked into the text): XV. Non patiatur hoc → Non patiatur hoc.
Cite (SBL): Salvian, Gub. 7.62 (CSEL 8:175–176; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-gubernatione/7-62). (abbreviation not yet checked)
Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-gubernatione/7-62
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin of the staged edition (corrections logged). No public-domain English translation is available to us and no FOTC volume covers Salvian, so each batch was re-read against the Latin.
7.63CSEL 8:176
etsi specialius hoc scelus Afrorum omnium fuit. nam sicut in sentinam profundae nauis conluuiones omnium sordium, sic in mores eorum quasi de omni mundo uitia fluxerunt. nullam enim improbitatem scio, quae illic non redundauerit, cum utique etiam paganae ac ferae gentes, etsi habent specialiter mala propria, non sint tamen in his omnia execratione digna.
Though this crime belonged more specially to all the Africans. For as the filth of all dirt flows into the bilge of a deep ship, so vices flowed into their morals as if from the whole world. For I know no wickedness that did not overflow there, whereas even pagan and savage nations, though they have their special evils, still do not have all deserving of execration.
Notes and citation
Summary: All the world’s vices flowed into Africa like filth into a ship’s bilge.
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (OCR slip): uitia fluxerrunt → uitia fluxerunt.
Cite (SBL): Salvian, Gub. 7.63 (CSEL 8:176; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-gubernatione/7-63). (abbreviation not yet checked)
Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-gubernatione/7-63
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin of the staged edition (corrections logged). No public-domain English translation is available to us and no FOTC volume covers Salvian, so each batch was re-read against the Latin.
7.64CSEL 8:176
Gothorum gens perfida sed pudica est, Alanorum impudica sed minus perfida, Franci mendaces sed hospitales, Saxones crudelitate efferi sed castitate mirandi: omnes denique gentes habent sicut peculiaria mala ita etiam quaedam bona. in Afris paene omnibus nescio quid non malum. si accusanda est inhumanitas inhumani sunt, si ebrietas ebriosi, si falsitas fallacissimi, si dolus fraudulentissimi, si cupiditas cupidissimi, si perfidia perfidissimi. impuritas eorum atque blasphemia his omnibus admiscenda non sunt, quia illis quae supra diximus malis aliarum gentium uitia, his autem etiam sua ipsa uicerunt.
The nation of the Goths is faithless but chaste; that of the Alans unchaste but less faithless; the Franks are liars but hospitable; the Saxons savage in cruelty but admirable in chastity; in short, all nations have, as their peculiar evils, so also some goods. In almost all the Africans I know of nothing that is not evil. If inhumanity is to be accused, they are inhuman; if drunkenness, drunkards; if falsehood, most deceitful; if guile, most fraudulent; if covetousness, most covetous; if faithlessness, most faithless. Their impurity and blasphemy are not to be mixed with all these, because by the evils we mentioned above they surpassed the vices of other nations, but by these they surpassed even their own.
Notes and citation
Summary: Each barbarian nation has good and bad traits; the Africans have only vices.
Cite (SBL): Salvian, Gub. 7.64 (CSEL 8:176; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-gubernatione/7-64). (abbreviation not yet checked)
Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-gubernatione/7-64
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin of the staged edition (corrections logged). No public-domain English translation is available to us and no FOTC volume covers Salvian, so each batch was re-read against the Latin.
7.65CSEL 8:176
Ac primum, ut de impuritate dicamus, quis nescit Africam totam obscenis libidinum taedis semper arsisse, non ut terram ac sedem hominum, sed ut Aetnam putes impudicarum fuisse flammarum? nam sicut Aetna intestinis quibusdam naturae feruentis ardoribus sic illa abominandis iugiter fornicationum ignibus aestuauit. nec uolo in hac re adsertionibus meis credi, testimonium requiratur generis humani. quis non omnes omnino Afros generaliter impudicos sciat nisi ad deum forte conuersos, id est fide ac religione mutatos?
And first, to speak of impurity, who does not know that all Africa always burned with the obscene torches of lusts, so that you would think it not a land and dwelling of men but an Etna of unchaste flames? For as Etna seethes with certain inner fires of burning nature, so it continually seethed with the abominable fires of sexual immorality. Nor do I wish to be believed on my own assertions in this matter: let the testimony of the human race be sought. Who does not know that all the Africans without exception are generally unchaste, except perhaps those converted to God, that is, changed by faith and religion?
Notes and citation
Summary: Africa burned with lust like Etna, as all the world knows.
- The chapter numeral “XVI” is removed.
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (chapter numeral leaked into the text; stray mark): XVI. Ac primum, ut de impuritate → Ac primum, ut de impuritate; testimonium requiratur. generis humani → testimonium requiratur generis humani.
Topics: Ethics
Cite (SBL): Salvian, Gub. 7.65 (CSEL 8:176; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-gubernatione/7-65). (abbreviation not yet checked)
Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-gubernatione/7-65
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin of the staged edition (corrections logged). No public-domain English translation is available to us and no FOTC volume covers Salvian, so each batch was re-read against the Latin.
7.66CSEL 8:176–177
sed hoc tam rarum est ac nouum quam rarum uideri potest quemlibet Gaium non esse Gaium aut quemcumque Seium non esse Seium. tam infrequens enim est hoc et inusitatum, impudicum non esse Afrum, quam nouum et inusitatum Afrum non esse Afrum. ita enim generale in eis malum impuritatis est, ut quicumque ex eis impudicus esse desierit, Afer non esse uideatur. nec discurram per loca singula aut cunctas discutiam ciuitates, ne studiose uidear quaerere atque inuestigare quae dicam.
But this is as rare and new as it might seem rare for any Gaius not to be Gaius or any Seius not to be Seius. For it is as infrequent and unusual for an African not to be unchaste as it is new and unusual for an African not to be an African. For the evil of impurity is so general among them that whoever of them ceases to be unchaste seems not to be an African. Nor will I run through individual places or examine all the cities, lest I seem to seek out and track down zealously what I say.
Notes and citation
Summary: An African who is chaste seems no longer an African.
- Gaius and Seius: stock names, like “John Doe”.
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (OCR slip): sed hoc tam rarum est ac nonum quam → sed hoc tam rarum est ac nouum quam; quam nonum et inusitatum Afrum → quam nouum et inusitatum Afrum.
Topics: Ethics
Cite (SBL): Salvian, Gub. 7.66 (CSEL 8:176–177; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-gubernatione/7-66). (abbreviation not yet checked)
Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-gubernatione/7-66
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin of the staged edition (corrections logged). No public-domain English translation is available to us and no FOTC volume covers Salvian, so each batch was re-read against the Latin.
7.67CSEL 8:177
una tantum uniuersarum illic urbium principe et quasi matre contentus sum, illa scilicet Romanis arcibus semper aemula, armis quondam et fortitudine, post splendore ac dignitate. Carthaginem dico et urbi Romae maxime aduersariam et in Africano orbe quasi Romam: quae mihi ideo in exemplum ac testimonium sola sufficit, quia uniuersa penitus, quibus in toto mundo disciplina rei publicae uel procuratur uel regitur, in se habuit.
I am content with only one, the chief and, as it were, mother of all the cities there, the one always rival to the Roman citadels, once in arms and strength, later in splendor and dignity. I mean Carthage, most hostile to the city of Rome and, as it were, a Rome in the African world: which alone suffices me for example and testimony, because it had in itself absolutely everything by which the discipline of the commonwealth is managed or ruled in the whole world.
Notes and citation
Summary: Salvian takes Carthage, Rome’s rival, as his one example.
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (OCR slip): quia uniersa penitus → quia uniuersa penitus.
Cite (SBL): Salvian, Gub. 7.67 (CSEL 8:177; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-gubernatione/7-67). (abbreviation not yet checked)
Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-gubernatione/7-67
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin of the staged edition (corrections logged). No public-domain English translation is available to us and no FOTC volume covers Salvian, so each batch was re-read against the Latin.
7.68CSEL 8:177
illic enim omnia officiorum publicorum instrumenta illic artium liberalium scolae illic philosophorum officinae cuncta denique uel linguarum gymnasia uel morum: illic quoque etiam copiae militares et regentes militiam potestates illic honor proconsularis illic iudex cotidianus et rector, quantum ad nomen quidem proconsul, sed quantum ad potentiam consul: illic denique omnes rerum dispensatores et differentes inter se tam gradu quam uocabulo dignitates, omnium, ut ita dicam, platearum et compitorum procuratores, cuncta ferme et loca urbis et membra populi gubernantes.
For there were all the instruments of public offices, there the schools of the liberal arts, there the workshops of the philosophers, in short all the gymnasia of languages and of morals; there too military forces and the powers ruling the army; there the proconsular honor; there a daily judge and governor, proconsul in name but consul in power; there, finally, all the administrators of affairs and the dignities differing from one another in rank as in title, the overseers of, so to speak, all the streets and crossroads, governing almost all the places of the city and the members of the people.
Notes and citation
Summary: Carthage had every institution of government and learning.
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (OCR slip; stray marks): cuncta denique \\ uel linguarum → cuncta denique uel linguarum; et competorum procuratores → et compitorum procuratores.
Cite (SBL): Salvian, Gub. 7.68 (CSEL 8:177; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-gubernatione/7-68). (abbreviation not yet checked)
Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-gubernatione/7-68
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin of the staged edition (corrections logged). No public-domain English translation is available to us and no FOTC volume covers Salvian, so each batch was re-read against the Latin.
7.69CSEL 8:177–178
hac ergo tantum contenti sumus ad exemplum ac testimonium ceterarum, ut intellegamus scilicet quales illae fuerint ciuitates, quae minores habuerunt probi officii procurationes, cum uiderimus qualis extiterit, ubi summi semper fuere rectores. quo loco prope est ut paeniteat me promissionis meae, id est, quod superius spopondi, cunctis prope Afrorum criminibus praetermissis de impuritatibus praecipue ac blasphemiis eorum me esse dicturum.
With this one alone, then, we are content as example and testimony of the others, so that we may understand what those cities were like which had lesser administrations of upright office, when we have seen what that was like where there were always the highest governors. At this point I almost regret my promise, that is, what I pledged above, to pass over almost all the crimes of the Africans and speak chiefly of their impurities and blasphemies.
Notes and citation
Summary: If Carthage, with its governors, was so corrupt, the lesser cities were worse.
Cite (SBL): Salvian, Gub. 7.69 (CSEL 8:177–178; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-gubernatione/7-69). (abbreviation not yet checked)
Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-gubernatione/7-69
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin of the staged edition (corrections logged). No public-domain English translation is available to us and no FOTC volume covers Salvian, so each batch was re-read against the Latin.
7.70CSEL 8:178
uideo enim quasi scaturrientem uitiis ciuitatem, uideo urbem omnium iniquitatum genere feruentem, plenam quidem turbis sed magis turpitudinibus, plenam diuitiis sed magis uitiis, uincentes se inuicem homines nequitia flagitiorum suorum, alios rapacitate alios impuritate certantes, alios uino languidos alios cruditate distentos, hos sertis redimitos illos unguentis oblitos, cunctos uario luxus marcore perditos, sed paene omnes una errorum morte prostratos, non omnes quidem uinolentia temulentos sed omnes tamen peccatis ebrios. populos putares non sani status non sui sensus, non animo incolumes non gradu, quasi in morem crapulatarum turbarum cateruatim in se ruentes.
For I see a city bubbling, as it were, with vices; I see a city seething with every kind of iniquity, full indeed of crowds but more of baseness, full of riches but more of vices; men surpassing one another in the wickedness of their shameful deeds, some vying in rapacity, others in impurity, some languid with wine, others swollen with indigestion, these crowned with garlands, those smeared with ointments, all lost in the various languor of luxury, but almost all laid low by the one death of errors; not all drunk with wine, but all nevertheless drunk with sins. You would think them peoples not of sound condition, not in their senses, not sound in mind nor steady in step, rushing on one another in troops after the manner of drunken crowds.
Notes and citation
Summary: Carthage seethed with every vice, its people drunk with sin.
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (stray mark): hos sertis redimitos illos. unguentis → hos sertis redimitos illos unguentis; sed omnes. tamen peccatis → sed omnes tamen peccatis.
Topics: Ethics
Cite (SBL): Salvian, Gub. 7.70 (CSEL 8:178; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-gubernatione/7-70). (abbreviation not yet checked)
Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-gubernatione/7-70
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin of the staged edition (corrections logged). No public-domain English translation is available to us and no FOTC volume covers Salvian, so each batch was re-read against the Latin.
7.71CSEL 8:178
iam uero illud cuiusmodi aut quam graue, genere quidem dispar, sed iniquitate non dispar, nisi in hoc dispar forte quia maius. proscriptiones dico orfanorum uiduarum afflictiones pauperum cruces: qui ingemescentes cotidie ad deum ac finem malorum inprecantes et, quod grauissimum est, interdum ui nimiae amaritudinis etiam aduentum hostium postulantes, aliquando a deo impetrarunt, ut euersiones tandem ac barbaris in commune tolerarent, quas soli a Romanis ante tolerauerant.
And now what of this, of what kind and how grave, different in kind but not different in iniquity, unless different in this, that it is perhaps greater? I mean the proscriptions of orphans, the afflictions of widows, the crosses of the poor, who, groaning daily to God and praying for an end of evils, and, what is most grievous, sometimes from the force of excessive bitterness even asking for the coming of the enemy, at length obtained from God that they bore in common with all at the hands of the barbarians the overthrows which they alone had borne before at the hands of the Romans.
Notes and citation
Summary: The oppressed poor of Carthage prayed even for the enemy’s coming, and God granted it.
Topics: Ethics
Cite (SBL): Salvian, Gub. 7.71 (CSEL 8:178; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-gubernatione/7-71). (abbreviation not yet checked)
Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-gubernatione/7-71
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin of the staged edition (corrections logged). No public-domain English translation is available to us and no FOTC volume covers Salvian, so each batch was re-read against the Latin.
7.72CSEL 8:178–179
Sed esto haec omnia praetermittantur, quia et in omni ferme aguntur orbe Romano et spopondi me de his malis hoc loco pauca dicturum. quid ergo impudicitia atque impuritas, de qua loquor, numquid non ad euersionem Afrorum sola suffecerat? quae enim fuit pars ciuitatis non plena sordibus, quae intra urbem platea aut semita non lupanar? adeo omnia paene competa omnes uias aut quasi foueae libidinum interciderant aut quasi retia praetexebant; ut etiam qui ab hac re penitus abhorrerent tamen uitare uix possent.
But granted all these things are passed over, because they are done in almost the whole Roman world and I promised to say little of these evils here. What then of the unchastity and impurity of which I speak: was it not alone enough for the overthrow of the Africans? For what part of the city was not full of filth, what street or path within the city was not a brothel? So completely had they cut up almost all crossroads, all ways, as if with pits of lust, or spread them as if with nets, that even those who wholly abhorred this could scarcely avoid it.
Notes and citation
Summary: Carthage was full of brothels, its streets like traps of lust.
- The chapter numeral “XVII” is removed.
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (chapter numeral leaked into the text; stray mark): XVII. Sed esto haec omnia → Sed esto haec omnia; aut quasi foueae. libidinum → aut quasi foueae libidinum.
Topics: Ethics
Cite (SBL): Salvian, Gub. 7.72 (CSEL 8:178–179; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-gubernatione/7-72). (abbreviation not yet checked)
Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-gubernatione/7-72
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin of the staged edition (corrections logged). No public-domain English translation is available to us and no FOTC volume covers Salvian, so each batch was re-read against the Latin.
7.73CSEL 8:179
latronum quodammodo excubias uideres commeantium uiatorum spolia captantes, qui insidiarum frequentium densitate ita omnes admodum calles omnes anfractus ac diuerticula saepsissent, ut nullus ferme tam cautus esset, qui non in aliquos insidiarum laqueos incurreret, etiam qui se de plurimis expedisset. faetebant, ut ita dixerim, cuncti urbis illius ciues caeno libidinis, spurcum sibimetipsis mutuo impudicitiae nidorem inalantes.
You would have seen, as it were, the watches of robbers seeking the spoils of passing travelers, who had fenced all paths, all windings and byways with such density of frequent ambushes that hardly anyone was so cautious as not to run into some snares of the ambushes, even one who had freed himself from very many. All the citizens of that city stank, so to speak, with the mud of lust, breathing on one another the filthy reek of unchastity.
Notes and citation
Summary: Lust lay in ambush for everyone in Carthage.
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (OCR slip; stray mark): excubias uidexes → excubias uideres; tam cautus. esset → tam cautus esset.
Topics: Ethics
Cite (SBL): Salvian, Gub. 7.73 (CSEL 8:179; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-gubernatione/7-73). (abbreviation not yet checked)
Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-gubernatione/7-73
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin of the staged edition (corrections logged). No public-domain English translation is available to us and no FOTC volume covers Salvian, so each batch was re-read against the Latin.
7.74CSEL 8:179
sed horrori eis tamen horrida ista non erant, quia idem omnes horror infecerat. unam enim putes fuisse illic libidinum fornicationumque sentinam, caenum quasi ex omni platearum et cloacarum labe collectum. et quae illic spes esse poterat, ubi praeter id, quod in domini templo erat, nihil uideri penitus nisi sordidum non licebat? quamquam quid dicam in dei templo? hoc quippe totum ad sacerdotes tantum et clerum pertinet: quos non discutio, quia domini mei ministerio reuerentiam seruo, et quos ita solos puros fuisse arbitror in altario, sicut pereuntibus Sodomis solum Loth fuisse legimus in monte.
But these horrors were not horrible to them, because the same horror had infected all. You would think there had been there one bilge of lusts and sexual immorality, a mud collected as it were from the filth of all the streets and sewers. And what hope could there be there, where, apart from what was in the temple of the Lord, nothing at all could be seen but what was filthy? Though why do I say in the temple of God? For this wholly concerns only the priests and clergy: whom I do not examine, because I keep reverence for the ministry of my Lord, and whom I think were alone pure at the altar, as we read that, when Sodom perished, Lot alone was on the mountain.
Gen 19:30 (allusion, medium confidence)
Notes and citation
Summary: Only the clergy at the altar, Salvian supposes, were pure in Carthage, like Lot in Sodom.
- “Priests” (sacerdotes) here are the bishops and presbyters. Gen 19 (Lot fled to the mountains, 19:17, 30).
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (stray mark): ad sacerdotes tantum et clerum, pertinet → ad sacerdotes tantum et clerum pertinet.
Topics: Church office
Cite (SBL): Salvian, Gub. 7.74 (CSEL 8:179; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-gubernatione/7-74). (abbreviation not yet checked)
Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-gubernatione/7-74
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin of the staged edition (corrections logged). No public-domain English translation is available to us and no FOTC volume covers Salvian, so each batch was re-read against the Latin.
7.75CSEL 8:179–180
ceterum quantum ad plebem pertinet, quis in illo numero tam innumero castus fuit? castum dico? quis non fornicarius non adulter, et hoc sine cessatione sine termino? rursum clamitem itaque necesse est: quae spes in illo populo esse poterat, ubi cum unus interdum adulter plebem ecclesiasticam polluat, ibi inter illa tot milia, si diligentissime quaereres, castum uel in ecclesia inuenire uix posses.
But as far as the people goes, who in that so innumerable number was chaste? Chaste, do I say? Who was not a fornicator, not an adulterer, and this without ceasing, without end? So I must cry out again: what hope could there be in that people, where, though one adulterer at times pollutes a church congregation, there among so many thousands, if you searched most diligently, you could scarcely find a chaste man even in the church?
Notes and citation
Summary: Hardly a chaste man could be found among the Christians of Carthage.
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (split word with stray letter; stray mark): quantum ad plebem per-I tinet → quantum ad plebem pertinet; quis non fornicarius-non adulter → quis non fornicarius non adulter.
Topics: Ethics
Cite (SBL): Salvian, Gub. 7.75 (CSEL 8:179–180; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-gubernatione/7-75). (abbreviation not yet checked)
Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-gubernatione/7-75
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin of the staged edition (corrections logged). No public-domain English translation is available to us and no FOTC volume covers Salvian, so each batch was re-read against the Latin.
7.76CSEL 8:180
plus multo dicam. utinam haec essent sola, quae diximus, et contenta illic uirorum impuritas fuisset solis sordidarum mulierum fornicationibus inquinari. illud grauius et scelestius, quod illa, de quibus beatus apostolus Paulus cum summa animi lamentatione conqueritur, in Afris paene omnia fuerunt: scilicet quia masculi relicto naturali usu feminae exarserunt in desideriis suis in inuicem, masculi in masculos turpitudinem exercentes et mercedem quam oportuit erroris sui in semetipsos recipientes.
I will say much more. Would that these were the only things we have mentioned, and that the impurity of the men there had been content to be stained only by sexual immorality with filthy women. What is graver and more wicked is that the things of which the blessed apostle Paul complains with the greatest lamentation of soul were almost all found among the Africans: namely, that “men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their desires toward one another, men with men working shamefulness and receiving in themselves the recompense of their error which was due.”
Rom 1:27 (quotation, high confidence)
Notes and citation
Summary: Paul’s description of same-sex relations among men applied to Carthage.
- Rom 1:27. Salvian’s charge is translated as written.
Topics: Ethics
Cite (SBL): Salvian, Gub. 7.76 (CSEL 8:180; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-gubernatione/7-76). (abbreviation not yet checked)
Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-gubernatione/7-76
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin of the staged edition (corrections logged). No public-domain English translation is available to us and no FOTC volume covers Salvian, so each batch was re-read against the Latin.
7.77CSEL 8:180
et sicut non probauerunt deum habere in notitia, tradidit illos deus in reprobum sensum, ut faciant quae non conuenit. numquid hoc beatus apostolus de barbaris ac feris gentibus dixit? non utique, sed de nobis, id est specialiter de Romanis: quos quidem Afri, quia nequaquam olim uincere imperio ac sublimitate ualuerunt, quod potuerunt unum, impuritate uicerunt. quicumque ergo iure se mihi irasci putat magis apostolo irascatur, scilicet quia, quod dicimus nos fuisse Afros, hoc ille dixit dominos eorum esse Romanos.
“And as they did not see fit to have God in knowledge, God gave them up to a reprobate mind, to do what is not fitting.” Did the blessed apostle say this of barbarian and savage nations? Certainly not, but of us, that is, specially of the Romans: whom indeed the Africans, since they could never once surpass them in empire and loftiness, surpassed in the one thing they could, in impurity. So whoever thinks he is rightly angry with me, let him rather be angry with the apostle, because what we say the Africans were, he said their masters, the Romans, were.
Rom 1:28 (quotation, high confidence)
Notes and citation
Summary: Paul wrote this of the Romans, whom the Africans surpassed in impurity.
- Rom 1:28 (the letter is addressed to Rome).
Topics: Ethics
Cite (SBL): Salvian, Gub. 7.77 (CSEL 8:180; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-gubernatione/7-77). (abbreviation not yet checked)
Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-gubernatione/7-77
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin of the staged edition (corrections logged). No public-domain English translation is available to us and no FOTC volume covers Salvian, so each batch was re-read against the Latin.
7.78CSEL 8:180–181
Sed forte id uel occultum quod loquimur erat, aut saltim hoc prouidebant procuratores publicae passim disciplinae, ne oculos ciuitatis sceleratissimum propalata polluerent. quod si factum utique fuisset, quamuis multi extitissent opere ipso sordidi, non omnes tamen fuerant uisu atque animo sordidati, et solet res satis flagitiosa, quando agitur occulte, fidem facinoris non mereri. supra omnem autem monstruosi piaculi exsecrationem est scelus summum admittere et pudorem sceleris non habere. quid, rogo, fieri illic prodigiosius potuit?
But perhaps what we speak of was hidden, or at least the overseers of public discipline took care that the most wicked thing, made public, should not pollute the eyes of the city. If that had indeed been done, though many would have been filthy in the act itself, still not all would have been defiled in sight and mind; and a quite shameful thing, when done secretly, usually does not win belief in the deed. But beyond every execration of monstrous sin is to commit the highest crime and have no shame for the crime. What, I ask, could be done there more monstrous?
Notes and citation
Summary: Worse than the crime was that it was done openly and without shame.
- The chapter numeral “XVIII” is removed.
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (chapter numeral leaked into the text; stray mark): XYIU. Sed forte id uel occultum → Sed forte id uel occultum; non omnes tamen fuerant. uisu → non omnes tamen fuerant uisu.
Topics: Ethics
Cite (SBL): Salvian, Gub. 7.78 (CSEL 8:180–181; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-gubernatione/7-78). (abbreviation not yet checked)
Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-gubernatione/7-78
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin of the staged edition (corrections logged). No public-domain English translation is available to us and no FOTC volume covers Salvian, so each batch was re-read against the Latin.
7.79CSEL 8:181
in urbe christiana, in urbe ecclesiastica, quam quondam doctrinis suis apostoli instituerant, quam passionibus suis martyres coronarant, uiri in semetipsis feminas profitebantur, et hoc sine ullo pudoris umbraculo, sine ullo uerecundiae amictu, ac sic, quasi parum piaculi esset, si malo illo malorum tantum inquinarentur auctores, per publicam sceleris professionem fiebat etiam scelus integrae ciuitatis. uidebat quippe hoc uniuersa urbs et patiebatur, uidebant iudices et adquiescebant, populus uidebat et adplaudebat, ac sic diffuso per totam urbem dedecoris scelerisque consortio, etsi hoc commune omnibus non faciebat actus, commune omnibus faciebat adsensus.
In a Christian city, in a city of the church, which the apostles once established by their teachings, which the martyrs had crowned by their sufferings, men professed themselves women, and this without any shelter of shame, without any cloak of modesty; and so, as though it were too little a sin if only the authors of that evil were stained by it, through the public profession of the crime it became the crime of the whole city. For the whole city saw this and tolerated it; the judges saw and acquiesced; the people saw and applauded; and so, the partnership of disgrace and crime being spread through the whole city, even if the act did not make it common to all, assent made it common to all.
Notes and citation
Summary: In Christian Carthage men openly lived as women and the city approved.
- Salvian’s charge is translated as written.
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (split word with stray mark): dedecoris scele* risque → dedecoris scelerisque.
Topics: Ethics
Cite (SBL): Salvian, Gub. 7.79 (CSEL 8:181; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-gubernatione/7-79). (abbreviation not yet checked)
Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-gubernatione/7-79
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin of the staged edition (corrections logged). No public-domain English translation is available to us and no FOTC volume covers Salvian, so each batch was re-read against the Latin.
7.80CSEL 8:181
sed finis aliquando forsitan mali aut emendatio aliqua labis istius fuit. quis credere aut etiam audire possit, conuertisse in muliebrem tolerantiam uiros non usum suum tantum atque naturam, sed etiam uultum incessum habitum et totum penitus quicquid aut in sexu est aut in uisu uiri? adeo uersa in diuersum omnia erant, ut cum uiris nihil magis pudori esse oporteat, quam si muliebre aliquid in se habere uideantur, illic nihil uiris quibusdam turpius uideretur, quam si in aliquo uiri uiderentur.
But perhaps there was at some time an end of the evil or some amendment of this stain. Who could believe or even hear that men had turned into womanly submission not only their use and nature, but even their face, gait, dress, and absolutely everything that belongs to a man in sex or appearance? So completely was everything turned upside down that, whereas nothing ought to be more shameful to men than to seem to have something womanly in them, there nothing seemed more shameful to certain men than to seem in anything to be men.
Notes and citation
Summary: These men even adopted women’s appearance and dress.
Topics: Ethics
Cite (SBL): Salvian, Gub. 7.80 (CSEL 8:181; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-gubernatione/7-80). (abbreviation not yet checked)
Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-gubernatione/7-80
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin of the staged edition (corrections logged). No public-domain English translation is available to us and no FOTC volume covers Salvian, so each batch was re-read against the Latin.
7.81CSEL 8:181–182
Sed paucorum hoc, inquis, dedecus fuit, et quod non a pluribus perpetratum est cunctis nocere non potuit. iam quidem supra dixi saepissime in dei populo etiam unius facinus pestem fuisse multorum, sicut ex furto Achar ruit populus, sicut ex zelo Saulis orta est pestilentia, sicut ex sancti Dauid dinumeratione mortalitas. ita est enim dei ecclesia quasi oculus. nam ut in oculum etiamsi parua sordes incidat, totum lumen obcaecat, sic in ecclesiastico corpore, etiamsi pauci sordida faciant, prope totum ecclesiastici splendoris lumen obfuscant.
“But this,” you say, “was the disgrace of a few, and what was not done by many could not harm all.” I have already said above very often that among the people of God even one man’s deed was the plague of many: as the people fell through the theft of Achan, as pestilence arose from the zeal of Saul, as mortality from the numbering by holy David. For the church of God is like an eye. For as, if even a small speck falls into the eye, it blinds the whole sight, so in the body of the church, even if a few do filthy things, they darken almost the whole light of the church’s splendor.
Josh 7:5 (allusion, high confidence) · 2 Sam 21:1 (allusion, high confidence) · 2 Sam 24:15 (allusion, high confidence)
Notes and citation
Summary: Even the sin of a few, like a speck in the eye, darkens the whole church.
- Josh 7; 2 Sam 21:1–2 (famine for Saul’s zeal against the Gibeonites); 2 Sam 24. The chapter numeral “XVIIII” is removed.
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (chapter numeral leaked into the text; stray mark): XVIlli. Sed paucorum → Sed paucorum; parua sordes incidat,. totum → parua sordes incidat, totum; in ecclesiastico corpore.. etiamsi → in ecclesiastico corpore, etiamsi.
Cite (SBL): Salvian, Gub. 7.81 (CSEL 8:181–182; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-gubernatione/7-81). (abbreviation not yet checked)
Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-gubernatione/7-81
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin of the staged edition (corrections logged). No public-domain English translation is available to us and no FOTC volume covers Salvian, so each batch was re-read against the Latin.
7.82CSEL 8:182
et ideo saluator ipse principalem ecclesiae partem oculum nominauit dicens: lucerna corporis tui est oculus tuus. si fuerit oculus tuus simplex, totum corpus tuum lucidum erit: si autem oculus tuus nequam fuerit, totum corpus tuum tenebrosum erit. unde et apostolus nescitis, inquit, quia modicum fermentum totam massam corrumpit? quamuis ego illic non modicum de hoc malo, sed nimis fuisse dicam, non quia molles plurimi fuerunt, sed quia mollities paucorum labes est plurimorum. nam etsi pauci sint qui dedecorosa sustineant, multi sunt qui paucorum sordibus polluantur. sicut enim una meretrix multos fornicatores facit, sic plurimam ferme populi partem inquinat paucorum effeminatorum abominanda permixtio. et nescio qui eorum ante deum deteriores sint, cum aequali in scriptis sacris sorte damnentur. neque enim molles, inquit, neque masculorum concubitores regnum dei possidebunt.
And so the Savior himself named the chief part of the church the eye, saying: “The lamp of your body is your eye. If your eye is single, your whole body will be full of light; but if your eye is evil, your whole body will be dark.” Hence the apostle also says: “Do you not know that a little leaven corrupts the whole lump?” Though I would say that there was not a little of this evil there but too much; not because very many were effeminate, but because the effeminacy of a few is the stain of very many. For even if few submit to disgraceful things, many are polluted by the filth of the few. For as one prostitute makes many fornicators, so the abominable mingling of a few effeminate men defiles almost the greatest part of the people. And I do not know which of them are worse before God, since they are condemned by an equal lot in the sacred writings. “For neither the effeminate,” it says, “nor those who lie with males will possess the kingdom of God.”
Matt 6:22 (quotation, high confidence) · Matt 6:23 (quotation, high confidence) · 1 Cor 5:6 (quotation, high confidence) · 1 Cor 6:9 (quotation, high confidence)
Notes and citation
Summary: The sin of a few defiles the whole church, as Christ’s image of the eye and Paul’s leaven show.
- Matt 6:22–23; 1 Cor 5:6; 1 Cor 6:9–10. Molles is rendered “effeminate”.
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (OCR slip; stray marks): nam etsi panci sint → nam etsi pauci sint; neque enim molles; inquit, -neque → neque enim molles, inquit, neque.
Topics: Ethics
Cite (SBL): Salvian, Gub. 7.82 (CSEL 8:182; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-gubernatione/7-82). (abbreviation not yet checked)
Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-gubernatione/7-82
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin of the staged edition (corrections logged). No public-domain English translation is available to us and no FOTC volume covers Salvian, so each batch was re-read against the Latin.
7.83CSEL 8:182–183
illud ergo magis ingemescendum atque lugendum est, quod tale hoc scelus crimen etiam totius rei publicae uidebatur et uniuersa Romani nominis dignitas facinoris prodigiosi inurebatur infamia. cum enim muliebrem habitum uiri sumerent et magis quam mulieres gradum frangerent, cum indicia sibi quaedam monstruosae impuritatis innecterent et femineis tegminum inligamentis capita uelarent, atque hoc publice in ciuitate Romana, urbe illic summa et celeberrima, quid aliud quam Romani imperii dedecus erat, ut in medio rei publicae sinu execrandissimum nefas palam liceret admitti? potestas quippe magna et potentissima, quae inhibere scelus maximum potest, quasi probat debere fieri, si sciens patitur perpetrari; in cuius enim manu est ut prohibeat iubet agere, si non prohibet admitti.
This, then, is the more to be groaned over and mourned: that such a crime seemed the crime of the whole commonwealth, and the whole dignity of the Roman name was branded with the infamy of a monstrous deed. For when men put on women’s dress and minced their steps more than women, when they bound on themselves certain signs of monstrous impurity and veiled their heads with the feminine fastenings of coverings, and this publicly in a Roman city, the greatest and most celebrated city there, what else was it but the disgrace of the Roman empire, that in the very bosom of the commonwealth the most execrable outrage could openly be committed? For a great and most mighty power, which can prevent the greatest crime, approves, as it were, that it should be done if it knowingly allows it to be committed; for he in whose hand it is to forbid commands it to be done if he does not forbid it.
Notes and citation
Summary: The authorities’ tolerance made the crime that of the whole empire.
Topics: Ethics
Cite (SBL): Salvian, Gub. 7.83 (CSEL 8:182–183; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-gubernatione/7-83). (abbreviation not yet checked)
Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-gubernatione/7-83
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin of the staged edition (corrections logged). No public-domain English translation is available to us and no FOTC volume covers Salvian, so each batch was re-read against the Latin.
7.84CSEL 8:183
Iterum, quia dolor exigit, ab his qui irascuntur requiro, in quibus haec barbaris gentibus aut facta sint umquam aut fieri publica impunitate licuerit? denique, ne longius de hac re ambigi aut inuestigari necesse sit, ipsos illos Africae uastatores Afrorum populis comparemus. uideamus quid simile a Wandalis factum sit.
Again, because grief demands it, I ask of those who are angry: among which barbarian nations have these things ever been done, or been allowed to be done with public impunity? In short, lest there need be further doubt or inquiry about this, let us compare those very devastators of Africa with the peoples of Africa. Let us see what like thing was done by the Vandals.
Notes and citation
Summary: Salvian compares the Vandals with the Africans.
- The chapter numeral “XX” is removed.
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (chapter numeral leaked into the text): XX. Iterum, quia dolor → Iterum, quia dolor.
Cite (SBL): Salvian, Gub. 7.84 (CSEL 8:183; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-gubernatione/7-84). (abbreviation not yet checked)
Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-gubernatione/7-84
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin of the staged edition (corrections logged). No public-domain English translation is available to us and no FOTC volume covers Salvian, so each batch was re-read against the Latin.
7.85CSEL 8:183
et certe barbari elatione tumidi uictoria superbi diuitiarum ac deliciarum affluentia dissoluti, qui profecto etiamsi continentissimi et castigatissimi semper fuissent, mutari tamen tanta rerum obsecundantium felicitate potuerunt, ingressi scilicet, ut in diuinis litteris scriptum est, terram lacte ac melle manantem fecundam, opulentissimam omnium deliciarum copiis quasi ebriam: in qua utique minime mirum fuerat si luxuriasset gens barbara, ubi similis quodammodo luxurianti erat ipsa natura.
And certainly they were barbarians swollen with elation, proud in victory, slackened by the abundance of riches and delights, who, even if they had always been most continent and most disciplined, could still have been changed by such good fortune of compliant circumstances: having entered, that is, as it is written in the divine letters, a land flowing with milk and honey, fruitful, most opulent, as it were drunk with abundance of all delights; in which it would have been no wonder at all if a barbarian nation had grown luxurious, where nature itself was in a way like one reveling.
Exod 3:8 (allusion, high confidence)
Notes and citation
Summary: The Vandals entered a rich land where luxury would have been no wonder.
- Exod 3:8.
Cite (SBL): Salvian, Gub. 7.85 (CSEL 8:183; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-gubernatione/7-85). (abbreviation not yet checked)
Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-gubernatione/7-85
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin of the staged edition (corrections logged). No public-domain English translation is available to us and no FOTC volume covers Salvian, so each batch was re-read against the Latin.
7.86CSEL 8:183–184
ingressos haec loca Wandalos quis non putet omni se uitiorum atque impuritatum caeno inmersisse aut, ut leuissime dicam, saltim illa fecisse, quae ab Afris iugiter facta fuerant, in quorum iura migrarant? et certe, si ea tantum, continentissimi ac modestissimi iudicandi erant, quos non fecisset corruptiores ipsa felicitas. quotus enim quisque sapientium est, quem secunda non mutent, cui non crescat cum prosperitate uitiositas? ac per hoc temperantissimos fuisse Wandalos certum est, si quales illi fuerunt, qui capti ac subiugati sunt, tales illi fuere uictores.
Who would not think that the Vandals, having entered these places, plunged themselves into every mud of vices and impurities, or, to say it most mildly, at least did the things continually done by the Africans into whose rights they had passed? And certainly, if they had done only those, they would have to be judged most continent and moderate, whom prosperity itself had not made more corrupt. For how few of the wise are there whom good fortune does not change, in whom viciousness does not grow with prosperity? And so it is certain that the Vandals were most temperate, if the victors were such as those were who were captured and subjugated.
Notes and citation
Summary: One would expect the Vandals to have been corrupted by Africa.
- The last sentence is garbled in the digital text (probably “if the victors were not such as the vanquished”); translated by sense.
Cite (SBL): Salvian, Gub. 7.86 (CSEL 8:183–184; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-gubernatione/7-86). (abbreviation not yet checked)
Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-gubernatione/7-86
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin of the staged edition (corrections logged). No public-domain English translation is available to us and no FOTC volume covers Salvian, so each batch was re-read against the Latin.
7.87CSEL 8:184
igitur in tanta affluentia rerum atque luxuria nullus eorum mollis effectus est. numquid parum uidetur? certe familiariter etiam nobiles hoc fuere Romani. sed quid adhuc addo? nullus uel qui Romanorum illic mollium pollueretur incestu. certe hoc apud Romanos iam pridem tale existimatum est, ut uirtus potius putaretur esse quam uitium, et illi se magis uirilis fortitudinis esse crederent, qui maxime uiros feminei usus probrositate fregissent.
And yet in such abundance of things and luxury none of them became effeminate. Does this seem little? Certainly even noble Romans were familiarly this. But what do I add further? None was even polluted by the incest of the effeminate Romans there. Certainly this has long been thought among the Romans to be a virtue rather than a vice, and those believed themselves of more manly strength who had most broken men by the shame of feminine use.
Notes and citation
Summary: No Vandal became effeminate or joined in the Romans’ vice.
Topics: Ethics
Cite (SBL): Salvian, Gub. 7.87 (CSEL 8:184; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-gubernatione/7-87). (abbreviation not yet checked)
Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-gubernatione/7-87
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin of the staged edition (corrections logged). No public-domain English translation is available to us and no FOTC volume covers Salvian, so each batch was re-read against the Latin.
7.88CSEL 8:184
unde etiam illud fuit, quod lixis puerorum quondam exercitus prosequentibus haec quasi bene meritis expeditionibus stipendia laboris decernebantur, ut quia uiri fortes essent, uiros in mulieres demutarent. pro nefas! et hoc Romani, plus addo, et hoc Romani non huius temporis, attamen, ne ueteres accusemus, Romani, sed non antiqui, iam scilicet corrupti iam dissoluti iam sibi ac suis dispares et Graecis quam Romanis similiores, ut, quod saepe iam diximus, minime mirum sit, si Romana res publica aliquando patitur, quod iam diu meretur.
Hence also it once happened that, to the camp-followers of boys accompanying the armies, these were decreed as the wages of labor for campaigns well served, as it were: that, because they were brave men, they should change men into women. O shame! And this the Romans; I add more, and this the Romans not of this time, yet, lest we accuse the ancients, Romans, but not the old ones; Romans already corrupted, already dissolute, already unlike themselves and their own, more like Greeks than Romans: so that, as we have often said, it is no wonder at all if the Roman commonwealth at last suffers what it has long deserved.
Notes and citation
Summary: Even Roman armies once tolerated such vice among camp boys.
Topics: Ethics
Cite (SBL): Salvian, Gub. 7.88 (CSEL 8:184; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-gubernatione/7-88). (abbreviation not yet checked)
Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-gubernatione/7-88
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin of the staged edition (corrections logged). No public-domain English translation is available to us and no FOTC volume covers Salvian, so each batch was re-read against the Latin.
7.89CSEL 8:184–185
Haec ergo impuritas in Romanis ante Christi euangelium esse coepit et, quod est grauius, nec post euangelia cessauit. et quis post haec non admiretur populos Wandalorum? qui ingressi urbes opulentissimas, ubi haec omnia passim agebantur, ita delicias corruptorum hominum indepti sunt, quod corruptelas morum repudiarunt, et usum bonarum rerum possident, malarum inquinamenta uitantes. sufficere igitur ad laudem eorum haec possunt talia, etiamsi alia non dicam: abominati enim sunt uitiorum impuritates; plus adhuc addo: abominati etiam feminarum, horruerunt lustra ac lupanaria, horruerunt concubitus contactusque meretricum.
This impurity, then, began among the Romans before the gospel of Christ and, what is graver, did not cease after the gospels. And who after this would not admire the peoples of the Vandals? Who, having entered most opulent cities where all these things were done everywhere, so took over the delights of corrupt men that they rejected the corruptions of morals, and possess the use of good things while avoiding the defilements of evil ones. These things, then, could suffice for their praise even if I said no others: for they abominated the impurities of vices; I add still more: they abominated even those with women; they shuddered at dens and brothels, they shuddered at intercourse and contact with prostitutes.
Notes and citation
Summary: The Vandals rejected the vices of Carthage and shunned brothels and prostitutes.
- The chapter numeral “XXI” is removed.
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (chapter numeral leaked into the text): XXI. Haec ergo impuritas → Haec ergo impuritas.
Topics: Ethics
Cite (SBL): Salvian, Gub. 7.89 (CSEL 8:184–185; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-gubernatione/7-89). (abbreviation not yet checked)
Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-gubernatione/7-89
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin of the staged edition (corrections logged). No public-domain English translation is available to us and no FOTC volume covers Salvian, so each batch was re-read against the Latin.
7.90CSEL 8:185
numquid hoc credibile ullis uideri potest, Romanos haec admisisse, barbaros horruisse? aut numquid est post ista, quae diximus, quod dici posse uideatur? sed est tamen et multo plus est. nam quod uitasse eos res foedas diximus, minus est; potest enim quis inhonesta horrere, non tollere: illud magni ac singularis est meriti, non solum ipsum labe non pollui, sed prouidere etiam ne umquam alii polluantur. procurator enim est quodammodo salutis humanae, qui non tantum id agit, ut ipse bonus sit, sed efficere et hoc nititur, ut alii mali esse desistant.
Can it seem credible to anyone that the Romans committed these things and the barbarians shuddered at them? Or is there anything, after what we have said, that seems possible to say? But there is, and much more. For that we said they avoided foul things is the lesser; for one can shudder at shameful things without removing them. That is of great and singular merit, not only not to be polluted oneself by the stain, but also to see to it that others are never polluted. For he is in a way a guardian of human salvation who not only acts so that he himself is good, but also strives to bring it about that others cease to be bad.
Notes and citation
Summary: The Vandals not only avoided vice but removed it from others.
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (split word with stray letter): num- I quid hoc credibile → numquid hoc credibile.
Topics: Ethics
Cite (SBL): Salvian, Gub. 7.90 (CSEL 8:185; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-gubernatione/7-90). (abbreviation not yet checked)
Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-gubernatione/7-90
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin of the staged edition (corrections logged). No public-domain English translation is available to us and no FOTC volume covers Salvian, so each batch was re-read against the Latin.
7.91CSEL 8:185
grande est profecto, quod dicimus, grande ac supereminens. quis credit Wandalos in ciuitatibus Romanis ista fecisse? remota quippe est ab illis omnibus carnis impuritas. at quomodo remota? non sicut remoueri aliqua a Romanis solent, qui statuunt non furandum et furantur, qui statuunt non adulterandum et primi adulterant. quamuis paene non possim dicere, quod furentur; non enim sunt quae agunt furta, sed latrocinia. punit enim iudex in alio peculationem, cum sit ipse peculator, punit rapinam, cum ipse sit raptor, punit sicarium, cum ipse sit gladiator, punit effractores claustrorum et ostiorum, cum sit ipse euersor urbium, punit expoliatores domorum, cum sit ipse expoliator prouinciarum.
Great indeed is what we say, great and surpassing. Who believes the Vandals did this in Roman cities? For impurity of the flesh has been removed from all of them. But how removed? Not as things are usually removed by the Romans, who decree that one must not steal and steal, who decree that one must not commit adultery and are the first to commit it. Though I can hardly say that they steal; for what they do is not theft but robbery. For the judge punishes embezzlement in another when he himself is an embezzler; he punishes plunder when he himself is a plunderer; he punishes the assassin when he himself is a gladiator; he punishes those who break bars and doors when he himself is an overthrower of cities; he punishes the despoilers of houses when he himself is the despoiler of provinces.
Rom 2:21 (echo, medium confidence)
Notes and citation
Summary: Unlike Roman officials who commit what they punish, the Vandals truly removed vice.
- Rom 2:21–22 is echoed.
Topics: Ethics
Cite (SBL): Salvian, Gub. 7.91 (CSEL 8:185; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-gubernatione/7-91). (abbreviation not yet checked)
Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-gubernatione/7-91
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin of the staged edition (corrections logged). No public-domain English translation is available to us and no FOTC volume covers Salvian, so each batch was re-read against the Latin.
7.92CSEL 8:185–186
atque hoc utinam illi tantum, qui in potestate sunt positi et quibus ius exercendorum latrociniorum honor ipse largitur: illud grauius ac magis intolerabile, quod hoc faciunt et priuati, isdem ante honoribus functi. tantum eis indeptus semel honor dat beneficii, ut semper habeant ius latrocinandi. adeo etiam, cum destiterint ad administrandum potestatem habere publicam, non desinunt tamen ad latrocinandum potestatem habere priuatam, ac sic leuior est potestas illa quam habuerunt iudices, quam haec quam priuati habent; in illa enim eis saepe succeditur, in hac numquam.
And would that only those did this who are placed in power and to whom office itself grants the right of practicing robbery! What is graver and more intolerable is that private men do it too, who have formerly held the same offices. So much benefit does office once obtained give them that they always have the right of robbery. So, even when they have ceased to hold public power for administering, they do not cease to hold private power for robbing; and so the power they had as judges is lighter than this which they have as private men; for in that they are often succeeded, in this never.
Notes and citation
Summary: Former officials continue their robbery as private men, without end.
Topics: Ethics
Cite (SBL): Salvian, Gub. 7.92 (CSEL 8:185–186; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-gubernatione/7-92). (abbreviation not yet checked)
Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-gubernatione/7-92
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin of the staged edition (corrections logged). No public-domain English translation is available to us and no FOTC volume covers Salvian, so each batch was re-read against the Latin.
7.93CSEL 8:186
ecce quid ualeant statuta legum, ecce quid proficit definitio sanctionum, quae illi spernunt maxime qui ministrant. sane ad parendum humiles abiectique coguntur, compelluntur iussis obtemperare pauperculi, et nisi obtemperauerint, puniuntur. eandem enim in hac re rationem habent quam in tributis: soli iussis publicis seruiunt, sicut soli tributa soluunt. ac sic in ipsis legibus et in ipsa iusta rerum praeceptione maximum iniustitiae scelus agitur, cum ea minores quasi sacra obseruare cogantur, quae maiores iugiter quasi nulla conculcant.
Behold what the statutes of laws avail, behold what the definition of sanctions profits, which those most despise who administer them. Indeed the humble and abject are forced to comply, the poor are compelled to obey orders, and if they do not obey, they are punished. For in this they have the same principle as in taxes: they alone serve public orders as they alone pay taxes. And so in the very laws and the just prescription of things the greatest crime of injustice is committed, since the lesser are forced to observe as sacred what the greater continually trample as nothing.
Notes and citation
Summary: Laws bind only the poor, while the powerful trample them.
Topics: Ethics
Cite (SBL): Salvian, Gub. 7.93 (CSEL 8:186; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-gubernatione/7-93). (abbreviation not yet checked)
Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-gubernatione/7-93
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin of the staged edition (corrections logged). No public-domain English translation is available to us and no FOTC volume covers Salvian, so each batch was re-read against the Latin.
7.94CSEL 8:186
Excessi paulisper coeptum sermonis ordinem rerum indignitate compulsus: nunc ad superiora redeamus. diximus quippe plenas fuisse impuritatibus monstruosis Africae ciuitates et praecipue illic reginam et quasi dominam, Wandalos autem his omnibus non fuisse pollutos. non tales ergo isti, de quibus loquimur, barbari ad emendandam nostrarum turpitudinum labem extiterunt. abstulerunt enim de omni Africae loco sordes uirorum mollium, contagiones etiam horruere meretricum, nec horruerunt tantum aut temporarie summouerunt, sed penitus iam non esse fecerunt.
I have strayed a little from the order of the discourse begun, driven by the unworthiness of things: now let us return to what we were saying. We said that the cities of Africa were full of monstrous impurities, and especially the queen and, as it were, mistress there, but that the Vandals were not polluted by any of these. Not such, then, were these barbarians of whom we speak; they stood forth to amend the stain of our baseness. For they removed from every place in Africa the filth of effeminate men, they shuddered even at the contagions of prostitutes, and not only shuddered or removed them temporarily, but made them cease to exist altogether.
Notes and citation
Summary: The Vandals removed effeminate men and prostitution from all Africa.
- The chapter numeral “XXII” is removed.
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (chapter numeral leaked into the text): XXII. Excessi paulisper → Excessi paulisper.
Topics: Ethics
Cite (SBL): Salvian, Gub. 7.94 (CSEL 8:186; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-gubernatione/7-94). (abbreviation not yet checked)
Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-gubernatione/7-94
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin of the staged edition (corrections logged). No public-domain English translation is available to us and no FOTC volume covers Salvian, so each batch was re-read against the Latin.
7.95CSEL 8:186–187
o pie domine! o saluator bone! quantum efficiunt per te studia disciplinae, per quae mutari possunt uitia naturae, sicut ab illis scilicet immutata sunt. at quomodo immutata? interest enim non solum effectus rerum, sed etiam efficientes causas dicere. difficile est quippe impudicitiam uerbo aut iussione tolli, nisi fuerit ablata, et difficile est pudicitiam uerbo exigi, nisi fuerit exacta.
O kind Lord! O good Savior! How much do the efforts of discipline achieve through you, by which the vices of nature can be changed, as indeed they were changed by them! But how changed? For it matters to tell not only the effects of things but also their causes. For it is hard to remove unchastity by word or command unless it has been removed in fact, and hard to demand chastity by word unless it has been enforced.
Notes and citation
Summary: Discipline can change even vices of nature; Salvian will tell how the Vandals did it.
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (OCR slip): sed etiam efficiunt causas dicere → sed etiam efficientes causas dicere.
Cite (SBL): Salvian, Gub. 7.95 (CSEL 8:186–187; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-gubernatione/7-95). (abbreviation not yet checked)
Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-gubernatione/7-95
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin of the staged edition (corrections logged). No public-domain English translation is available to us and no FOTC volume covers Salvian, so each batch was re-read against the Latin.
7.96CSEL 8:187
quod illi utique scientes sic impudicitiam summouerunt, quod impudicas conseruauerunt, non interficientes mulierculas infelices, ne uitiorum curam crudelitate respergerent, et dum peccata auferre cuperent, ipsi in peccatorum resecatione peccarent. sed ita errantes emendauerunt, ut factum eorum medicina esset, poena non esset.
Knowing this, they removed unchastity in such a way that they preserved the unchaste women, not killing the unhappy little women, lest they stain the cure of vices with cruelty, and, while wishing to take away sins, themselves sin in cutting away sins. But they so amended those who erred that their act was medicine, not punishment.
Notes and citation
Summary: The Vandals reformed prostitutes without killing them.
Topics: Ethics
Cite (SBL): Salvian, Gub. 7.96 (CSEL 8:187; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-gubernatione/7-96). (abbreviation not yet checked)
Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-gubernatione/7-96
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin of the staged edition (corrections logged). No public-domain English translation is available to us and no FOTC volume covers Salvian, so each batch was re-read against the Latin.
7.97CSEL 8:187
iusserunt siquidem et compulerunt omnes ad maritalem torum transire meretrices, scorta in conubia uerterunt, implentes scilicet apostoli dictum atque mandatum, ut et unaquaeque mulier uirum haberet suum et unusquisque uir coniugem suam; ut quia cohiberi incontinentia sine hac carnalis usus permissione non posset, ita legitimum usum calor corporalis acciperet, ut peccatum incontinentia non haberet.
For they ordered and compelled all prostitutes to pass to the marriage bed; they turned harlots into wives, fulfilling the saying and command of the apostle, “that each woman should have her own husband and each man his own wife”; so that, since incontinence could not be restrained without this permission of fleshly use, bodily heat might receive a lawful use in such a way that incontinence would have no sin.
1 Cor 7:2 (quotation, high confidence) · 1 Cor 7:9 (allusion, medium confidence)
Notes and citation
Summary: The Vandals made prostitutes marry, fulfilling Paul’s command.
- 1 Cor 7:2, 9.
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (OCR slip; stray mark): transire meretrices, scorta. in conubia → transire meretrices, scorta in conubia; legitimum usum ealor corporalis → legitimum usum calor corporalis.
Cite (SBL): Salvian, Gub. 7.97 (CSEL 8:187; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-gubernatione/7-97). (abbreviation not yet checked)
Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-gubernatione/7-97
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin of the staged edition (corrections logged). No public-domain English translation is available to us and no FOTC volume covers Salvian, so each batch was re-read against the Latin.
7.98CSEL 8:187
in quo quidem non id tantummodo prouisum est, ut uiros feminae haberent, quae sine uiris esse non possent, sed etiam ut per conseruatores domesticos saluae essent, quae se ipsas seruare nescirent, et adhaerente eis iugiter gubernaculo maritali, etiamsi ad improbum eas facinus consuetudo ante actae impuritatis inliceret, coniugalis tamen custodia ab improbitate prohiberet.
In this not only was it provided that women who could not be without men should have husbands, but also that those who did not know how to keep themselves should be kept safe by guardians at home; and, with the husband’s governance continually attached to them, even if the habit of past impurity enticed them to a wicked deed, the custody of marriage would still keep them from wickedness.
Notes and citation
Summary: Marriage gave former prostitutes guardians to keep them chaste.
Topics: Marriage
Cite (SBL): Salvian, Gub. 7.98 (CSEL 8:187; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-gubernatione/7-98). (abbreviation not yet checked)
Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-gubernatione/7-98
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin of the staged edition (corrections logged). No public-domain English translation is available to us and no FOTC volume covers Salvian, so each batch was re-read against the Latin.
7.99CSEL 8:187–188
addiderunt quoque hoc ad libidinem comprimendam, seueras pudicitiae sanctiones, decretorum gladio impudicitiam coercentes, ut puritatem scilicet utriusque sexus et domi conubii reseruaret affectus et in publico metus legum, ac sic duplici praesidio castimonia niteretur, cum et intus esset quod amaretur et foris quod timeretur. leges autem ipsae nequaquam illis sunt legibus consentaneae, quae ita partem improbitatis remouent, ut partem obscenitatis admittant, aut ut Romana illa decreta, quae scortatores quidem ab alienis uxoribus remouerunt, ad omnes autem solitarias passim admiserunt, adulteria uetantes, lupanaria aedificantes. timuerunt uidelicet ne nimis casti homines ac puri essent, si ab omni eos penitus impuritate prohiberent.
They added also, to suppress lust, severe sanctions for chastity, restraining unchastity with the sword of decrees, so that the affection of marriage at home and the fear of laws in public might preserve the purity of both sexes; and so chastity rested on a double defense, since there was within something to be loved and outside something to be feared. And these laws are in no way like those laws which remove part of wickedness so as to admit part of obscenity, or like those Roman decrees which kept fornicators from other men’s wives but admitted them indiscriminately to all unattached women, forbidding adulteries while building brothels. No doubt they feared that men would be too chaste and pure if they kept them wholly from all impurity.
Notes and citation
Summary: The Vandals punished unchastity by law, unlike Roman laws that forbade adultery but allowed brothels.
Cite (SBL): Salvian, Gub. 7.99 (CSEL 8:187–188; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-gubernatione/7-99). (abbreviation not yet checked)
Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-gubernatione/7-99
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin of the staged edition (corrections logged). No public-domain English translation is available to us and no FOTC volume covers Salvian, so each batch was re-read against the Latin.
7.100CSEL 8:188
at non ita isti, de quibus loquimur: qui sic inhibuerunt scorta ut adulteria, qui et feminas nullis uolunt esse feminas nisi maritis suis, et uiros nullis uolunt mulieribus esse masculos nisi uxoribus suis, qui euagari obscenas libidines extra legitimum torum non sinunt, leges suas scilicet ad diuinae legis regulam dirigentes, ut nihil sibi in hac re crederent licere, quod deus uoluit non licere. et ideo non putauerunt a se ulli homini permittendum, nisi quod fuisset omnibus a diuinitate permissum.
But not so these of whom we speak: who prohibited harlotry as they did adultery, who want women to be women to none but their own husbands, and men to be males to no women but their own wives, who do not allow obscene lusts to wander outside the lawful bed, directing their laws, that is, by the rule of the divine law, so that they believed nothing permitted to them in this matter which God willed not to be permitted. And so they thought nothing should be allowed by them to any man except what had been allowed to all by the Godhead.
Notes and citation
Summary: The Vandals confined sexual relations to marriage, following God’s law.
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (OCR slip): qui sic ingibuerunt scorta → qui sic inhibuerunt scorta.
Cite (SBL): Salvian, Gub. 7.100 (CSEL 8:188; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-gubernatione/7-100). (abbreviation not yet checked)
Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-gubernatione/7-100
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin of the staged edition (corrections logged). No public-domain English translation is available to us and no FOTC volume covers Salvian, so each batch was re-read against the Latin.