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First, then, why was Troy or Ilium, the cradle of the Roman
people (for I must not overlook nor disguise what I touched upon in
the first book), conquered, taken and destroyed by the Greeks,
though it esteemed and worshipped the same gods as they? Priam, some
answer, paid the penalty of the perjury of his father Laomedon. Then
it is true that Laomedon hired Apollo and Neptune as his workmen.
For the story goes that he promised them wages, and then broke his
bargain. I wonder that famous diviner Apollo toiled at so huge a
work, and never suspected Laomedon was going to cheat him of his pay.
And Neptune too, his uncle, brother of Jupiter, king of the sea,
it really was not seemly that he should be ignorant of what was to
happen. For he is introduced by Homer (who lived and wrote before
the building of Rome) as predicting something great of the posterity
of Æneas, who in fact founded Rome. And as Homer says, Neptune
also rescued Æneas in a cloud from the wrath of Achilles, though
(according to Virgil) "All his will was to destroy His own
creation, perjured Troy."
Gods, then, so great as Apollo and Neptune, in ignorance of the
cheat that was to defraud them of their wages, built the walls of Troy
for nothing but thanks and thankless people. There may be some doubt
whether it is not a worse crime to believe such persons to be gods,
than to cheat such gods. Even Homer himself did not give full
credence to the story for while he represents Neptune, indeed, as
hostile to the Trojans, he introduces Apollo as their champion,
though the story implies that both were offended by that fraud. If,
therefore, they believe their fables, let them blush to worship such
gods; if they discredit the fables, let no more be said of the
"Trojan perjury;" or let them explain how the gods hated Trojan,
but loved Roman perjury. For how did the conspiracy of Catiline,
even in so large and corrupt a city, find so abundant a supply of men
whose hands and tongues found them a living by perjury and civic
broils? What else but perjury corrupted the judgments pronounced by so
many of the senators? What else corrupted the people's votes and
decisions of all causes tried before them? For it seems that the
ancient practice of taking oaths has been preserved even in the midst of
the greatest corruption, not for the sake of restraining wickedness by
religious fear, but to complete the tale of crimes by adding that of
perjury.
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