Arnobius — Against the Nations 2.38

38.1. For what does it profit the world—to begin from serious things—that there be greatest kings here? What tyrants, what lords, what countless other and most ample powers? What generals most experienced in military affairs, skilled in taking cities, soldiers unmoved and most unconquered in cavalry fights or in infantry battle? What orators, grammarians, poets? What writers, dialecticians, musicians?

2. What pantomimes, what little mimes, actors, singers blowing trumpet, pipes and reed? What runners, what boxers, charioteers, vaulters, stilters, rope-walkers, jugglers? What pitch-workers, salt-workers, fishers, perfume-sellers, goldsmiths, fowlers, weavers of winnowing-fans and baskets? What fullers, wool-workers, embroiderers, cooks, all-heal compounders, muleteers, pimps, butchers, prostitutes? What other kinds of retailers, what of professors and of arts—for enumerating which every age is too narrow—do they contribute to the reasons and constitutions of the world, so that it should be believed it could not have been founded without humans, nor would keep its own integrity unless the contention of a wretched and superfluous animal were joined to it?