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These things, I say, I pass in silence; but I can by no means be
silent regarding the order given by Mithridates, king of Asia, that
on one day all Roman citizens residing anywhere in Asia (where great
numbers of them were following their private business) should be put to
death: and this order was executed. How miserable a spectacle was
then presented, when each man was suddenly and treacherously murdered
wherever he happened to be, in the field or on the road, in the town,
in his own home, or in the street, in market or temple, in bed or at
table! Think of the groans of the dying, the tears of the
spectators, and even of the executioners themselves. For how cruel a
necessity was it that compelled the hosts of these victims, not only to
see these abominable butcheries in their own houses, but even to
perpetrate them: to change their countenance suddenly from the bland
kindliness of friendship, and in the midst of peace set about the
business of war; and, shall I say, give and receive wounds, the
slain being pierced in body, the slayer in spirit! Had all these
murdered persons, then, despised auguries? Had they neither public
nor household gods to consult when they left their homes and set out on
that fatal journey? If they had not, our adversaries have no reason
to complain of these Christian times in this particular, since long
ago the Romans despised auguries as idle. If, on the other hand,
they did consult omens, let them tell us what good they got thereby,
even when such things were not prohibited, but authorized, by human,
if not by divine law.
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