DEDICATION

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Volumna goddess who presided over the will, Bellona goddess of war, Victoria, Honorinus god of honor, Aesculanus god of copper coinage, Pecunia goddess of money, Fessonia goddess of the weary, Pellonia goddess who drives away enemies, Spiniesis god of thorns, invoked when clearing fields, Rubigo god of mildew or grain rust, Fortuna, Muta goddess of silence, Agenoria goddess of industry, Stimula goddess of incitement, Murtia goddess of sloth or "the Myrtle-one", Runcina goddess of weeding, Aesculapius god of healing, Iugatinus god of joining, specifically in marriage, Vallonia goddess of valleys, Seja goddess of sown grain, Segetia goddess of standing crops, Tutilina goddess who protects the harvested grain, Flora goddess of flowers, Matura goddess of ripening, Ruana goddess of the harvest, Forculus god of doors, Limentinus god of the threshold, Priapus god of fertility, Portulus god of ports, Carda goddess of hinges, Sylvanus god of the forests, Febris goddess of fever, Pavor god of fear, Meretrix the "harlot" goddess, a derogatory reference to Venus, Cloacina goddess of the sewers, Quies goddess of rest, Theatrica goddess of the theater, Proma and Pertunda deities of the storeroom and the consummation of marriage, Patellana or Patula the "Opener" of the grain husk, Nodutis or Nodutus god of the "knots" in the stalks of grain, Orbona goddess of orphans and bereavement, Mellona goddess of honey, the God Lucrius god of gain or profit, Libentina goddess of pleasure, Volupia goddess of delight, Consus god of counsel or granaries, Victa goddess of food, Potua or Potina goddess of drink, Educa or Edusa goddess of eating, Laverna goddess of thieves, Fauna or Fatua goddess of prophecy and nature.

And who would be sufficient to review them all? Whoever desires to hear more and greater details about these and their duties should consult the third and fourth books of Arnobius’s Arnobius of Sicca was an early Christian apologist who wrote Adversus Gentes (Against the Pagans) around 303 AD. Arguments Against the Pagans, as well as the observations on them on pages 74, 75, 82, 83, and 104; indeed, he should read that entire work, which is most worthy of reading. See also the Holy Doctor Augustine, Giovanni Boccaccio, and Guevara’s The Dial of Princes, Book 1, Chapter 12.

"O religious assertion of the Gods!" original: "O Deorum... assertio religiosa!" (if one may exclaim along with Arnobius). "O venerable dignity, showing and instilling a fearful greatness! Is this how, I ask you (namely, the Pagans), the eminence of the heavenly powers is born among you? Do you count these among the Gods whom you worship, to whom you become suppliants, whom you distinguish with such names," original: "quæ ipse pudor atque naturalis verecundiæ lex abscondere jubet" (as Petronius says) "which the very law of modesty and natural shame commands to be hidden? Which no honest man would dare to enumerate or follow up on?"

From these and infinite other examples, no less absurd than they are impious, we see that if men wish to seek God outside the revealed Word and the Scripture, they are cast headlong into infinite and inexplicable Labyrinths. However, the ancient Pagan world was crowded with such a multitude not of Divinities, but of Idols, taken up from among men into the number of the Gods...