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I add another instance: If the sins of men so greatly incensed those
divinities, that they abandoned Troy to fire and sword to punish the
crime of Paris, the murder of Romulus' brother ought to have
incensed them more against the Romans than the cajoling of a Greek
husband moved them against the Trojans: fratricide in a newly-born
city should have provoked them more than adultery in a city already
flourishing. It makes no difference to the question we now discuss,
whether Romulus ordered his brother to be slain, or slew him with his
own hand; it is a crime which many shamelessly deny, many through
shame doubt, many in grief disguise. And we shall not pause to
examine and weigh the testimonies of historical writers on the subject.
All agree that the brother of Romulus was slain, not by enemies, not
by strangers. If it was Romulus who either commanded or perpetrated
this crime; Romulus was more truly the head of the Romans than Paris
of the Trojans; why then did he who carried off another man's wife
bring down the anger of the gods on the Trojans, while he who took his
brother's life obtained the guardianship of those same gods?
If, on the other hand, that crime was not wrought either by the hand
or will of Romulus, then the whole city is chargeable with it,
because it did not see to its punishment, and thus committed, not
fratricide, but parricide, which is worse. For both brothers were
the founders of that city, of which the one was by villainy prevented
from being a ruler. So far as I see, then, no evil can be ascribed
to Troy which warranted the gods in abandoning it to destruction, nor
any good to Rome which accounts for the gods visiting it with
prosperity; unless the truth be, that they fled from Troy because
they were vanquished, and betook themselves to Rome to practise their
characteristic deceptions there. Nevertheless they kept a footing for
themselves in Troy, that they might deceive future inhabitants who
re-peopled these lands: while at Rome, by a rider exercise of their
malignant arts, they exulted in more abundant honors.
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