Tfhio - JScholarship - Johns Hopkins University

APOLOGETICVS 32, 33, 34 101
that to be a great oath. But demons, that is genii, we have
been accustomed to adjure, in order to drive them out of men,
not to swear by them, in order to confer the honour of divinity
upon them.
CHAP. XXXIII. But why should I say more about the
rehgious attitude and the loyalty of the Christians towards the
emperor? We are bound to look up to him as the one whom
our Lord has chosen. I should be justified in saying: the
Caesar is more ours (than yours), as having been appointed by
•our tjod. Accordingly, as he is mine, I work more for his safety,
since I not only ask it from Him who is able to grant it, or
because I who ask it am such an one as deserves to obtain it,
but also because by lowering the greatness of the Caesar 'as
•compared with that of God, I commend him the more to God,
to whom alone I subject him. But I subject him to Him, to
whom I do not make him equal. For I will not call the emperor
God, whether it is because I am unable to lie, fir whether I do
not dare to mock him, or because he himself -will not even wish
to be called God. If he be a man, it is man's interest to yield
to God; let him be content to be styled emperor. This also is
a great name, bestowed upon him by God. He who calls the
Caesar God, denies him to be what he is, an emperor; unless
he be a man, he is not emperor. That he is a man he is reminded
even when he is riding in his triumphal chariot. For a hint
comes to him from the rear: 'Look behind you! Remember
that you are a man!' And surely he is all the more carried away
by the thought of his resplendent glory, that a reminder of his
lot is necessary to him. He were smaller (than he is), if he
were then called God, because he would not be truly so called.
He who is recalled to himself lest he should think himself
God, is the greater.
CHAP. XXXIV. Augustus, the creator of the empire,
refused even to be called Lord: for this too is a surname of
God. Of course I shall call the emperor lord, but with the
usual spelhng, and only when I am not forced to call him Lord
with a capital, in place of God. But I am free so far as he is
concerned; for I have but one Master, the almighty and eternal
God, the same who is also his God. How can he who is father
of his native city be its lord? Moreover, the name -which
suggests affectionate care is more pleasing than that which
suggests authority. Even of a household men are called fathers
rather than lords. So far is it from being a right of the emperor
to be»ealled God, which is incredible [except] by a flattery that