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But whether Venus could bear Æneas to a human father Anchises, or
Mars beget Romulus of the daughter of Numitor, we leave as unsettled
questions. For our own Scriptures suggest the very similar question,
whether the fallen angels had sexual intercourse with the daughters of
men, by which the earth was at that time filled with giants, that is,
with enormously large and strong men. At present, then, I will
limit my discussion to this dilemma: If that which their books relate
about the mother of Æneas and the father of Romulus be true, how can
the gods be displeased with men for adulteries which, when committed by
themselves, excite no displeasure? If it is false, not even in this
case can the gods be angry that men should really commit adulteries,
which, even when falsely attributed to the gods, they delight in.
Moreover, if the adultery of Mars be discredited, that Venus also
may be freed from the imputation, then the mother of Romulus is left
unshielded by the pretext of a divine seduction. For Sylvia was a
vestal priestess, and the gods ought to avenge this sacrilege on the
Romans with greater severity than Paris' adultery on the Trojans.
For even the Romans themselves in primitive times used to go so far as
to bury alive any vestal who was detected in adultery, while women
unconsecrated, though they were punished, were never punished with
death for that crime; and thus they more earnestly vindicated the
purity of shrines they esteemed divine, than of the human bed.
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