Commodian — Instructiones 50
If the enemy’s war suddenly comes flooding, and before they could flee he seized inert little ones, they are not to be reproached, though they seem captured. Nor do I wholly excuse: perhaps for parents’ faults they earned it, therefore God handed them over. Yet I urge adults to run back into the hall, and be born again as if from their mother’s womb, always fleeing the terrible and bloodstained nation — impious, untaught, living a beast’s life. For when another war must perhaps be waged, whoever can conquer or at least already know how to beware — ******
Latin
50 DE INFANTIBUS. Debellum hostis <si> subito uenit inundans, Et prius quam fugerent, paruulos occupauit inertes, Inproperandum eis non est, licet capti uidentur. Nec quidem excuso: ob delicta forte parentum Fuere promeriti, ideo Deus tradidit illos. Attamen adultos hortor, in aula recurrant, Nascunturque quasi denuo suae matri de uentre, Terribilem gentem fugiens semperque cruentam, Impiam, indocilem, ferina uita uiuentem Bellum enim alium cum fuerit forte gerendum Uincere qui poterit aut certe iam scire cauere, S............................................