To the Nations 1.11
Summary: The slander that Christians worship an ass's head comes from Tacitus, who contradicts himself, and pagans themselves worship asses and all kinds of animals.
Latin text · Oehler 1:331–332
Nec tantum in hoc nomine rei desertae communis religionis, sed superductae monstruosae superstitionis. Nam ut quidam somniastis caput asininum esse deum nostrum, hanc Cornelius Tacitus suspicionem fecit. Is enim in quarta Historiarum suarum, ubi de bello Iudaico digerit, ab origine gentis exorsus, et tam de ipsa origine quam de nomine religionis ut voluit argumentatus, Iudaeos refert in expeditione vastis in locis aquae inopia laborantes onagris, qui de pastu aquam petituri aestimabantur, indicibus fontis usos evasisse; ita ob eam gratiam consimilis bestiae superficiem a Iudaeis coli. Inde opinor praesumptum, nos quoque, ut Iudaicae religionis propinquos, eidem simulacro initiari. At enim idem Cornelius Tacitus, sane ille mendaciorum loquacissimus, oblitus affirmationis suae in posterioribus refert Pompeium Magnum de Iudaeis debellatis captisque Hierosolymis templum adisse et perscrutatum nihil simulacri reperisse. Ubi ergo is deus fuerit? Utique nusquam magis quam in templo tam memorabili, praesertim omnibus praeter sacerdotibus clauso, quo non vererentur extraneum. Sed quid ego defendam, professus interim confessionem temporalem omnium in vobis ex pari transferendorum? Credatur deus noster asinina aliqua persona; certe negabitis vos eadem habere nobiscum? Sane vos totos asinos colitis et cum sua Epona, et omnia iumenta et pecora et bestias, quae perinde cum suis praesepibus consecratis. Et hoc forsitan crimini datis, quod inter cultores omnium tantum asinarii sumus.
English · Claude translation
Nor are we charged under this name only with having deserted the common religion, but with having brought in a monstrous superstition. For some of you have dreamed that our god is an ass's head. Cornelius Tacitus planted this suspicion. For in the fourth book of his Histories, where he treats the Jewish war, beginning from the origin of the nation and arguing as he pleased about both that origin and the name of their religion, he reports that the Jews, when on a march through desert places they were suffering from want of water, escaped by using as guides to a spring some wild asses, which were thought to be going to look for water after grazing; and that for this favor the likeness of a similar beast is worshipped by the Jews. From this, I suppose, it was presumed that we too, as near to the Jewish religion, are initiated into the same image. But the same Cornelius Tacitus, surely the most talkative of liars, forgetting his assertion, reports later that Pompey the Great, having defeated the Jews and taken Jerusalem, entered the temple, searched it, and found no image. Where then was that god? Surely nowhere more than in so memorable a temple, especially one closed to all but the priests, where they need not fear an outsider. But why should I defend this, when I have for the moment declared a confession of everything, all of which is to be turned back equally upon you? Let our god be believed to be some asinine person: surely you will not deny that you have the same thing as we? Indeed you worship whole asses, together with their Epona, and all beasts of burden, cattle, and wild beasts, which you likewise consecrate together with their stalls. And perhaps this is what you charge as a crime: that among worshippers of every beast, we worship only asses.
About this passage
Notes
Translation notes
- The passage is Tacitus, Histories 5.3–4, and Pompey's entry into the temple is Histories 5.9; the text reads “fourth” (quarta), though the account stands in book 5 of modern editions.
Cite this passage
Tertullian, Nat. 1.11 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/tertullian-nationes/1/11/).
Plain text
Tertullian, Nat. 1.11 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/tertullian-nationes/1/11/).
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