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It is also believed that it was by the help of the gods that the
successor of Romulus, Numa Pompilius, enjoyed peace during his
entire reign, and shut the gates of Janus, which are customarily kept
open during war. And it is supposed he was thus requited for
appointing many religious observances among the Romans. Certainly
that king would have commanded our congratulations for so rare a
leisure, had he been wise enough to spend it on wholesome pursuits,
and, subduing a pernicious curiosity, had sought out the true God
with true piety. But as it was, the gods were not the authors of his
leisure; but possibly they would have deceived him less had they found
him busier. For the more disengaged they found him, the more they
themselves occupied his attention. Varro informs us of all his
efforts, and of the arts he employed to associate these gods with
himself and the city; and in its own place, if God will, I shall
discuss these matters. Meanwhile, as we are speaking of the benefits
conferred by the gods, I readily admit that peace is a great benefit;
but it is a benefit of the true God, which, like the sun, the rain,
and other supports of life, is frequently conferred on the ungrateful
and wicked. But if this great boon was conferred on Rome and
Pompilius by their gods, why did they never afterwards grant it to the
Roman empire during even more meritorious periods? Were the sacred
rites more efficient at their first institution than during their
subsequent celebration? But they had no existence in Numa's time,
until he added them to the ritual; whereas afterwards they had already
been celebrated and preserved, that benefit might arise from them.
How, then, is it that those forty-three, or as others prefer it,
thirty-nine years of Numa's reign, were passed in unbroken peace,
and yet that afterwards, when the worship was established, and the
gods themselves, who were invoked by it, were the recognized guardians
and patrons of the city, we can with difficulty find during the whole
period, from the building of the city to the reign of Augustus, one
year, that, viz., which followed the close of the first Punic war,
in which, for a marvel, the mans were able to shut the gates of war?
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