again in the obfervation of our times of reft; while thofe that can use their swords in war, and can put their enemies to flight when they attack them, cannot bear to fubmit to fuch laws about their way of living: Whereas our being accustomed willingly to fubmit to laws in thefe inftances, renders us fit to fhew our fortitude upon other occafions alfo.

34. Yet do the Lyfimachi and the Molones, and fome other waters (unfkilful fophifts as they are) and the deceivers of young men, reproach us as the vileft of mankind. Now I have no mind to make an inquiry into the laws of other na tions; for the cuftom of our country is to keep our own laws, but not to bring accufations against the laws of others. And indeed our legiflator hath exprefsly forbidden us to laugh at and revile thofe that are efleemed gods by other people,* on account of the very name of God alcribed to them. But fince our antagonists think to run us down upon the comparison of their religion and ours, it is not poffible to keep filence here, efpecially while what I fhall fay to confute thefe men will not be now first faid, but hath been already faid by many, and thefe of the highest reputation alfo: For who is there among those that have been admired among the Greeks for wifdom, who hath not greatly blamed both the moft famous poets, and moft celebrated legiflators for fpreading fuch notions origin ally among the body of the people concerning the gods? luch as thefe, that they may be allowed to be as numerous as they have a mind to have them; that they are begotten one by nother, and that after all the kinds of generation you can im agine. They alfo diftinguish them in their places and ways ol living as they would diftinguish several sorts of animals: As fome to be under the earth; as fome to be in the fea; and the ancienteft of them all to be bound in hell: And for thole to whom they have allotted heaven, they have fet over them one, who in title is their father, but in his actions a tyrant and a lord; whence it came to pass that his wife, and brother, and daughter (which daughter he brought forth from his own head) made a confpiracy against him to feize upon him and eonfine him, as he had himielf feized upon, and confined bis own father before.

35. And justly have the wifeft men thought thefe notions deserved fevere rebukes; they alfo laugh at them for deter mining that we ought to believe fome of the gods to be beardlefs and young, and others of them to be old, and to have beards accordingly: That fome are fet to trades; that one god is a fmith, and another goddefs is a weaver; that one god is a warrior, and fights with men; that fome of them are barpers or delight in archery; and befides, that mutual feditions arife among them, and that they quarrel about men, and this o far, that they not only, lay hands upon one another, but

See Antiq. B. IV. ch xiii, fect, 10. Vol. I. and it: note.

that they are wounded by men, and lament, and take on for fuch their afflictions. But what is the groffe of all in, point of lasciviousness, are those unbounded lufts afcribed to almoft all of them, and their amours; which how can it be other than a moft abfurd fuppofal, especially when it reaches to the male gods, and to the female goddeffes alfo? Moreover, the chief of all their gods, and their firft father himfelf, overlooks thofe goddeffes whom he hath deluded and begotten with child, and fuffers them to be kept in prifon, or drowned in the fea. He is also so bound up by fate, that he cannot fave his own off. fpring, nor can he bear their deaths without fhedding of tears. Thele are fine things indeed! as are the reft that follow. Adulteries truly are fo impudently looked in heaven by the gods, that fome of them have confeffed they envied thofe that were found in the very act. And why should they not do fo, when the eldest of them, who is their king alfo, hath not been able to reftrain himfelf, in the violence of his luft, from lying with his wife fo long as they might get into their bed chamber. Now fome of the gods are lervants to men, and will fometimes be builders for a reward, and fometimes will be fhepherds; while others of them, like malefactors, are bound in a prison of brafs. And what fober perfon is there who would not be provoked at fuch ftories, and rebuke thofe that forged them, and condemn the great fillinefs of those that admit them for true? Nay, others there are that have advanced a certain timorousness and fear, as alfo madness and fraud, and any other of the vileft paffions into the nature and form of gods, and have perfuaded whole cities to offer facrifice to the better fort of them; on which account they have been abfolutely forced to efteem fome gods as the givers of good things, and to call others of them averters of evil. They allo endeavour to move them, as they would the vileft of men, by gitts and prefents, as looking for nothing elle than to receive fome great mifchiet from them, unless they pay them fuch wages.

36. Wherefore it deferves our inquiry, what fhould be the occafion of this unjuft management, and of thele ícandals from the Deity? And truly I fuppofe it to be derived from the imperfect knowledge the heathen legiflators had at firit of the true nature of God; nor did they explain to the people even fo far as they did comprehend of it; nor did they compofe the other parts of their political fettlements according to it, but omitted it as a thing of very little confequence, and gave leave both to the poets to introduce what gods they pleated, and thofe fubject to all forts of paffions, and to the orators to procure political decrees from the people for the admiflion of luch foreign gods as they thought proper. The painters allo, and ftatuaries of Greece had herein great power, as each of them could contrive a fhape [proper for a god]; the one to be formed out of clay, and the other by making a bare picture of

Tuch a one. But those workmen that were principally admired had the use of ivory and of gold as the constant materials for their new ftatues: [Whereby it comes to pass, that some temples are quite deferted, while others are in great esteem, and adorned with all the rites of all kinds of purification]. Befides this, the first gods, who have long flourished in the honours done them, are now grown old, while those that flourifhed after them are come in their room as a second rank, that I may fpeak the most honourable of them I can: Nay, certan other gods there are who are newly introduced, and newly worshipped, as we by way of digreffion have faid already, and yet have left their places of worship defolate]; and for their temples, fome of them are already left defolate, and others are built anew, according to the pleasure of men; whereas they ought to have preferved their opinion about God, and that worship which is due to him, always and immutably the fame.

37. But now, this Apollonius Molo was one of thefe foolish and proud men. However, nothing that I have faid was unknown to thole that were real philolophers among the Greeks, nor were they unacquainted with thole trigid pretences of allegories, [which had been alledged for fuch things]; on which account they juftly defpiled them, but have ftill agreed with us as to the true and becoming notions of God; whence it was that Plato would not have political fettlements admit of any one of the other poets, and difmiffes even Homer himself, with a garland on his head, and with ointment poured upon him, and this because he fhould not destroy the right notions of God with his fables. Nay, Plato principally imitated our legiflator in this point, that he injoined his citizens to have the main regard to this precept, That every one of them fhould learn their laws accurately. He alfo ordained, that they should not admit of foreigners intermixing with their own people at random; and provided that the commonwealth fhould keep itself pure, and confift of fuch only as perfevered in their own laws. Apollonius Molo did no way confider this, when he made it one branch of his accufation against us, that we do not admit of fuch as have different notions about God, nor will we have fellowship with thofe that choose to observe a way of living different from ourselves; yet is not this method peculiar to us, but common to all other men; not among the ordinary Grecians only, but among fuch of those Grecians as are of the greateft reputation among them. Moreover, the Lacedemonians continued in their way of expelling foreigners, and would not indeed, give leave to their own peo ple to travel abroad. as fuipetting that thofe two things would introduce a diffolution of their own laws And perhaps there may be fome reason to blame the rigid feverity of the Lacedemonians, for they beftowed the privilege of their city on no foreigners, nor indeed would give leave to them to Aay among them: Whereas we, though we do not think fit tọ

imitate other inftitutions, yet do we willingly admit of those that defire to partake of ours, which, I think, I may reckon to be a plain indication of our humanity, and at the fame time of our magnanimity alfo.

38. But I fhall fay no more of the Lacedemonians. As for the Athenians, who glory in having made their city to be common to all men, what their behaviour was, Apollonius did not know, while they punished thofe that did but fpeak one word contrary to their laws about the gods, without any mercy For on what other account was it that Socrates was put to death by them? For certainly he neither betrayed their city to its enemies, nor was he guilty of any facrilege with regard to any of their temples; but it was on this account, that he fwore certain new oaths, and that he affirmed either in earneft, or, as fome fay, only in jeft, that a certain demon ufed to make figns to him [what he fhould not do. For thefe reafons he was condemned to drink poison, and kill himself. His accufer alfo complained, that he corrupted the young men, by inducing them to defpife the political fettlement, and laws of their city; and thus was Socrates, the citizen of Athens punished. There was alfo Anaxagorus, who although he was of Clazomenæ, was within a few fuffrages of being condemned to die, because he faid the fun, which the Athenians thought to be a god, was a ball of fire. They alfo made this proclamation, That they would give a talent to any one who would kill Diagorus of Melos, because it was reported of him that he laughed at their myfteries: Protagoras alfo, who was thought to have written fomewhat that was not owned for truth by the Athenians, about the gods, had been feized upon, and put to death, if he had not fled immediately away. Nor need we at all wonder that they thus treated fuch confiderable men, when they did not fpare even women allo; for they ve ry lately flew a certain priestess, because fhe was accused by fomebody that fhe initiated people into the worship of ftrange gods, it having been forbidden fo to do by one of their laws: And a capital punishment had been decreed to fuch as introduced a strange god; it being manifeft, that they who make ufe of fuch a law, do not believe thofe of other nations to be really gods, otherwife they had not envied themfelves the advantage of more gods than they already had. And this was the happy administration of the affairs of the Athenians! Now as to the Scythians, they take a pleasure in killing men, and differ little from brute beafts, yet do they think it reasonable to have their inftitutions obferved. They alfo flew Anacharfis, a perfon greatly admired for his wifdom among the Greeks, when he returned to them, because he appeared to come

See what these novel oaths were in Dr Hudfon's note, viz To fwear by an sak, by a gost, and by a dog, as alfo by a gander, as fays Philostratus and others. This fwearing ftrange oaths was alio forbidden by the Tyrians, B I. fect. 22. Vol. I. as Spanheim here notes.

fraught with Grecian customs; one may alio find many to have been punished among the Perfians, on the very fame account. And to be fure Apollonius was greatly pleafed with the laws of the Perfians, and was an admirer of them, because the Greeks enjoyed the advantage of their courage, and had the very fame opinion about the gods which they had! This laft was exemplified in the temples which they burnt, and their courage in coming, and almoft entirely enflaving the Gre cians. However, Apollonius has imitated all the Perfian inftitutions, and that by his offering violence to other men's wives, and gelding his own fons. Now with us it is a capital crime, if any one does thus abuse even a brute beast: And as for us, neither hath the fear of our governors, nor a defire of following what other nations have in fo great efleem, been able to withdraw us from our own laws; nor have we exerted our courage in failing up wars to increase our wealth, but only for the obfervation of our laws: And when we with patience bear other lofles, yet when any perfons would compel us to break our laws, then it is that we choole to go to war, though it be beyond our ability to purfue it, and bear the greatest ca. lamities to the laft with much fortitude. And indeed, what reafon can there be why we fhould defire to imitate the laws of other nations, while we fee they are not observed by their own legiflators? And why do not the Lacedemonians think of abolishing that form of their government, which fuffers them not to affociate with any others, as well as their contempt of matrimony? And why do not the Eleans and Thebans abolish that unnatural and impudent luft, which makes them lic with males? For they will not fhew a fufficient fign of their repentance of what they of old thought to be very excellent, and very advantageous in their practices, unless they entirely avoid all fuch actions for the time to come: Nay, fuch things are inferted into the body of their laws, and had once fuch a power among the Greeks, that they afcribed thele Sodomitical practices to the gods them felves, as a part of their good character; and indeed it was according to the fame manner that the gods married their own fifters. This the Greeks contrived as an apology for their own abfurd and unnatural pleafures.

39. I omit to fpeak concerning punishments, and how many ways of efcaping them the greatest part of the legislators have afforded malefactors, by ordaining that for adulteries, fines in money fhould be allowed, and for corrupting* [vir

Why Jofephus here fhall blame fome heathen legislators, when they allowed fo eafy a compofition for fimple fornication, as an obligation to marry the virgin that was corrupted, is hard to say, seeing he had himself truly informed us, that it was a law of the Jews, Antiq. B. IV. ch. viii. fect. 13. vol III. as it is the law of Christianity alfo; foe Horeb Covenant; page 61. I am almost ready to fuípect that for yaues, we fhould here read yah, and that corrupting wedlock, or other men's wives, is the crime for which these heathens wickedly allowed this come pofition in money.