The eternal fire and the moral comparison of Christians with pagans
Octavius is still replying to Caecilius, now describing the eternal punishment that awaits the wicked and then comparing Christian morals with pagan practice.
And yet people are warned by the books of the most learned men and by the poems of the poets about that river of fire and the burning heat that constantly surrounds the Stygian marsh. They have handed down that this fire is prepared for eternal torments, known both from the testimony of demons and from the oracles of the prophets.
That is why among them even King Jupiter himself swears religiously by the torrential banks and the black abyss. Foreknowing the punishment appointed for himself and his worshippers, he shudders at it.
Nor is there any limit or end to the torments. There the wise fire burns the limbs and restores them, tears them away and feeds them. Just as the fires of lightning touch bodies without consuming them, just as the fires of Mount Etna and Mount Vesuvius and of burning lands everywhere blaze without being spent, so that penal fire is not fed by the loss of what burns, but is nourished by the unending tearing of bodies.
But that those who do not know God are tormented as impious and unjust, no one deliberates unless he is profane, since to be ignorant of the parent and lord of all is no less a crime than to harm him.
And although ignorance of God is enough for punishment, just as knowledge avails for pardon, still if we Christians are compared with you, even though our discipline is inferior in some respects, we will nevertheless be found much better than you.
For you prohibit adulteries and commit them; we are born husbands solely for our wives. You punish crimes once committed; among us even to think of sin is to sin. You fear witnesses; we fear even our conscience alone, without which we cannot exist. Finally, the prison swarms with your number; no Christian is there unless he is accused of his religion or a fugitive.
Latin
Et tamen admonentur homines doctissimorum libris et carminibus poetarum illius ignei fluminis et de Stygia palude saepius ambientis ardoris, quae cruciatibus aeternis praeparata et daemonum indiciis et de oraculis profetarum cognita tradiderunt.
et ideo apud eos etiam ipse rex Iuppiter per torrentes ripas et atram uoraginem iurat religiose: destinatam enim sibi cum suis cultoribus poenam praescius perhorrescit.
nec tormentis aut modus ullus aut terminus. illic sapiens ignis membra urit et reficit, carpit et nutrit. sicut ignes fulminum corpora tangunt nec absumunt, sicut ignes Aetnaei montis et Vesuui montis et ardentium ubique terrarum flagrant nec erogantur: ita poenale illud incendium non damnis ardentium pascitur, sed inexesa corporum laceratione nutritur.
eos autem mento torqueri, qui lJeum nesciunt, ut impios, ut iniustos, nisi profanus nemo deliberat, cum parentem omnium et omnium dominum non minoris sceleris sit ignorare quam laedere.
et quamquam inperitia Dei sufficiat ad poenam, ita ut notitia prosit ad ueniam, tamen si uobiscum Christiani comparemur, quamuis in nonnullis disciplina nostra minor est, multo tamen uobis meliores deprehendemur.
uos enim adulteria prohibetis et facitis, nos uxoribus nostris solummodo uiri nascimur: uos scelera admissa punitis, apud nos et cogitare peccare est: uos conscios timetis, nos etiam conscientiam solam, sine qua esse non possumus: denique de uestro numero carcer exaestuat, Christianus ibi nullus nisi aut reus suae religionis aut profugus.