Tag: Lactantius

Cibi vero in alvum recepti et cum potus humore permixti, cum iam calore percocti fuerint, eorum succus inenarrabili modo per membra diffusus irrigat universum corpus et vegetat. intestinorum quoque multiplices spirae ac longitudo in se convoluta et uno tantum substricta vinculo—quam mirificum Dei opus est! nam ubi maceratos ex se cibos alvus emiserit, paulatim per illos internorum anfractus extruduntur, ut quicquid ipsis ineset succi quo corpus alitur membris omnibus dividatur. et tamen necubi forte obhaereant ac resistant—quod fieri poterat propter ipsorum voluminum flexiones in se saepe redeuntes, et fieri sine pernicie non poterat—opplevit ea intrinsecus crassiore succo ut purgamenta illa ventris ad exitus suos facilius per lubricum niterentur. illa quoqe ratio subtilissima est quod vesica—cuius usum volucres non habent—cum sit ab intestinis separata nec ullam habeat fistulam qua ex illis urinam trahat, completur tamen et humore distenditur. id quomodo fiat non est difficile pervidere. intestinorum enim partes quae ab alvo cibum potumque suscipiunt patentiores sunt quam ceterae spirae et multo tenuiores. hae vesicam complectuntur et continent: ad quas partes cum potus et cibus mixti pervenerint, firmum quidem crassius fit et transmeat. humor autem omnis per illam teneritudinem percolatur, eumque vesica, cuius aeque tenuis subtilisque membrana est, absorbet ac colligit ut foras qua natura exitium patefecit emittat.
(Lactantius, De Opificio Dei 11)

But once the stomach receives the food, thoroughly mixed with moisture from what we drink and then digested by heat, the juice from this spreads in an indescribable manner through the limbs, watering and enlivening the whole body. Also, the many coils of the intestines, folding lengthwise upon themselves and tied together in just one cord—what an amazing work of God this is! For when the stomach ejects the softened food, it is pressed out little by little through those internal bendings, and any juice inside that nourishes the body divides among all parts. However, so that nothing gets stuck and stays back anywhere—a disastrous result that could occur because the bends in those rolls often turn back on themselves—God filled them inside with thicker juice so that what is cleaned from the stomach can push its way out more easily through something slippery. This structure is also quite intricate because the bladder—whose use birds do not have—fills up with fluid and swells even though it is separated from the intestines ad has no tube to get urine from them. How this happens is not hard to see. For the parts of the intestines that get food and drink from the stomach are more open than the other coils and much finer. These surround and contain the bladder: when the mixed food and drink gets to these parts, the excrement actually becomes thicker and passes through. But all the moisture is strained through its thin fabric, and the bladder, whose membrane is equally thin and delicate, absorbs and collects it in order to expel it outside where nature makes an opening. (tr. Brian P. Copenhaver)

Iam mota inter eos fuerant arma civilia. et quamvis se Maxentius Romae contineret, quod responsum acceperat periturum esse, si extra portas urbis exisset, tamen bellum per idoneos duces gerebatur. plus virium Maxentio erat, quod et patris sui exercitum receperat a Severo et suum proprium de Mauris atque Gaetulis nuper extraxerat. dimicatum, et Maxentiani milites praevalebant, donec postea confirmato animo Constantinus et ad utrumque paratus copias omnes ad urbem propius admovit et a regione pontis Mulvii consedit. imminebat dies quo Maxentius imperium ceperat, qui est a.d. sextum Kalendas Novembres, et quinquennalia terminabantur. commonitus est in quiete Constantinus, ut caeleste signum dei notaret in scutis atque ita proelium committeret. facit ut iussus est et transversa X littera, summo capite circumflexo, Christum in scutis notat. quo signo armatus exercitus capit ferrum. procedit hostis obviam sine imperatore pontemque transgreditur, acies pari fronte concurrunt, summa vi utrimque pugnatur: neque his fuga nota neque illis.
(Lactantius, Mort. Pers. 44.1-6)

And now a civil war broke out between Constantine and Maxentius. Although Maxentius kept himself within Rome, because the soothsayers had foretold that if he went out of it he should perish, yet he conducted the military operations by able generals. In forces he exceeded his adversary; for he had not only his father’s army, which deserted from Severus, but also his own, which he had lately drawn together out of Mauritania and Italy. They fought, and the troops of Maxentius prevailed. At length Constantine, with steady courage and a mind prepared for every event, led his whole forces to the neighbourhood of Rome, and encamped them opposite to the Milvian bridge. The anniversary of the reign of Maxentius approached, that is, the sixth of the kalends of November [i.e. the 27th of October], and the fifth year of his reign was drawing to an end. Constantine was directed in a dream to cause the heavenly sign to be delineated on the shields of his soldiers, and so to proceed to battle. He did as he had been commanded, and he marked on their shields the letter Χ, with a perpendicular line drawn through it and turned round thus at the top, being the cipher of Christ. Having this sign (☧), his troops stood to arms. The enemies advanced, but without their emperor, and they crossed the bridge. The armies met, and fought with the utmost exertions of valour, and firmly maintained their ground. (tr. Alexander Roberts & James Donaldson)

Itaque cum simul proposita sint homini bona et mala, considerare unumquemque secum decet, quanto satius sit, perpetuis bonis mala brevia pensare, quam pro brevibus et caducis bonis mala perpetua sustinere. nam sicut in hoc saeculo, cum est propositum cum hoste certamen, prius laborandum est, ut sis postmodum in otio; esuriendum, sitiendum, aestus, frigora perferenda, humi quiescendum, vigilandum, periclitandum est ut, salvis pignoribus et domo et re familiari, et omnibus pacis ad victoriae bonis perfrui possis: sin autem praesens otium malueris quam laborem, malum tibi maximum facias necesse est; praeoccupabit enim adversarius non resistentem; vastabuntur agri, diripietur domus, in praedam uxor ac liberi venient, et tu ipse interficiere aut capiere: quae omnia ne accidant, praesens commodum differendum est, ut maius longiusque pariatur.
(Lactantius, Divinae Institutiones 6.4)

Since, therefore, good and evil things are set before man at the same time, it is befitting that every one should consider with himself how much better it is to compensate evils of short duration by perpetual goods, than to endure perpetual evils for short and perishable goods. For as, in this life, when a contest with an enemy is set before you, you must first labour that you may afterwards enjoy repose, you must suffer hunger and thirst, you must endure heat and cold, you must rest on the ground, must watch and undergo dangers, that your children, and house, and property being preserved, you may be able to enjoy all the blessings of peace and victory; but if you should choose present ease in preference to labour, you must do yourself the greatest injury: for the enemy will surprise you offering no resistance, your lands will be laid waste, your house plundered, your wife and children become a prey, you yourself will be slain or taken prisoner; to prevent the occurrence of these things, present advantage must be put aside, that a greater and more lasting advantage may be gained. (tr. William Fletcher)