The Beard-Hater and Letters

maintain? But among the Latin authors, Lucretius Titus Lucretius Carus (c. 99–55 BCE), whose poem "On the Nature of Things" promoted Epicureanism and was often viewed as atheistic by later Christians. is read, and among the Greeks, Porphyry A Neoplatonic philosopher who famously wrote "Against the Christians." and Lucian A Greek satirist known for mocking both traditional religion and early Christianity. are published and read in both Greek and Latin; and yet I believe there is no one who complains that the works original: "monumenta" of these men still exist. For it pertains primarily to the benefit of history and to the knowledge of antiquity not only to know that such men once lived, but also to learn who they were and what they were like. But, you might say, they were impious. So be it, since even their examples are useful for deterring men and calling them back from impiety; hence that unhappy Theseus In Greek mythology, Theseus was a legendary king of Athens; Martini refers here to his eternal punishment in the underworld as described by Virgil. cries out in the underworld as an example of his own misery, just as it is written in Virgil’s Aeneid, Book 6:

Be warned, learn justice, and do not despise the gods. original: "Discite justitiam moniti, & non temnere divos."

Furthermore, the history of Julian is worthy of a certain special attention and consideration. In him were extraordinary gifts of nature and character, great and almost singular virtue in administering the affairs of war and peace; added to these many good qualities was a knowledge of true piety Referring to Julian's Christian upbringing before his later rejection of the faith., adorned even by ample testimonies of his life. But the man, burning with a desire for power and captured by the deceits and arts of magic, renounced Christ; and having attained the supreme power of the empire, he most cruelly harassed the Christians: he banned them from schools, removed them from magistracies, despoiled them of their goods, a- The text cuts off mid-sentence; the catchword "A-" suggests the next word is "Atque" (And) or another word beginning with A.