CHAPTER XXXIV.

'Lord' is no proper title of Caesar, but belongs to God.

AUGUSTUS, the founder of the empire, was unwilling to be even called 'lord;' for this also is an epithet of God. I will indeed call the emperor 'lord,' but only in the conventional acceptation of the word, and when I am not compelled to style him 'lord' in the sense of God. Yet as regards [102] him, I am a free man ⁸⁴; for One Is my Lord, the omnipotent and eternal God, the Same Who is also his God. How can he, who is the father of his country, be its 'lord?' Besides, the title which implies affectionate care is more pleasing than that which denotes authority; even of a family men are called the fathers rather than the lords. So far is it from being the emperor's due to be called a god (which cannot be believed) by a flattery⁸⁵ which is not only most disgraceful but also dangerous : just as if, when you have an emperor, you were to call another by the title, would not such conduct give occasion for very great and implacable offence to him whom you had,—offence which might also prove dangerous to him whom you called emperor? Be loyal ⁸⁶ towards God, you who wish Him to be propitious to the emperor. Cease to worship or believe in another god, and so to speak of him as a god who has need of God. If your flattery is of such a kind that it blushes not at the falsehood of calling a man a god, let it at least fear the ill-luck attached to so doing. It is equivalent to an imprecation to call Caesar a god before his apotheosis. [103]