CHAPTER XXVIII.

2. The same evil influence drives you to force us to sacrifice for the emperor's welfare. This we refuse to do, and therefore we are charged, secondly, with Disloyalty to Caesar.

Now as it would at once appear unjust for free men to be compelled against their will to offer sacrifice (for a willing mind is enjoined at other times too in the performance of religious duties), it would certainly also be thought ridiculous for any one to be forced by another to do honour to those gods whom he ought for his own sake voluntarily to propitiate, lest there should be a ready opening for the retort, 'I do not want Jupiter to be propitious to me; you, who are you? Let Janus meet me angrily with whichever front he likes : what business is it of yours?' It is surely the same spirits who influence you to compel us to sacrifice for the safety of the emperor; and the necessity of coercing us is just as much laid upon you, as the duty of incurring danger by our refusal is imposed upon us.

We come, then, to the second charge, that of [94] insult to a more august majesty, since indeed you regard Caesar with a greater dread and a more calculating fear than even Jupiter ruling from Olympus,— and rightly so, if you only knew it ⁷⁶. For who is he among the living who is not more powerful than any one you please among the dead? But not even this do you do on principle, so much as from respect to a power of immediate operation; so that herein you are convicted of impiety towards your gods, since you render more reverence to a human lordship. With you, in fact, one swears falsely by all the gods sooner than by the single genius of Caesar.