[83] "Pluvia defit, causa Christiani." Similar accusations and similar replies may be seen in the celebrated passage of Tertullian's _Apol._ c. 40, and in the eloquent exordium of Arnobius, _C. Gentes_. [84] Augustine is supposed to refer to Symmachus, who similarly accused the Christians in his address to the Emperor Valentinianus in the year 384. At Augustine's request, Paulus Orosius wrote his history in confutation of Symmachus' charges. [85] Tertullian (_Apol._ c. 24) mentions Cœlestis as specially worshipped in Africa. Augustine mentions her again in the 26th chapter of this book, and in other parts of his works. [86] Berecynthia is one of the many names of Rhea or Cybele. Livy (xxix. 11) relates that the image of Cybele was brought to Rome the day before the ides of April, which was accordingly dedicated as her feast-day. The image, it seems, had to be washed in the stream Almon, a tributary of the Tiber, before being placed in the temple of Victory; and each year, as the festival returned, the washing was repeated with much pomp at the same spot. Hence Lucan's line (i. 600), 'Et lotam parvo revocant Almone Cybelen,' and the elegant verses of Ovid, _Fast._ iv. 337 et seq. [87] "Fercula," dishes, or courses. [88] See Cicero, _De Nat. Deor._ ii. 24. [89] Prov. vi. 26. [90] Fugalia. Vives is uncertain to what feast Augustine refers. Censorinus understands him to refer to a feast celebrating the expulsion of the kings from Rome. This feast, however (celebrated on the 24th February), was commonly called "Regifugium." [91] Persius, _Sat._ iii. 66-72. [92] See below, books viii.-xii. [93] "Galli," the castrated priests of Cybele, who were named after the river Gallus, in Phrygia, the water of which was supposed to intoxicate or madden those who drank it. According to Vitruvius (viii. 3), there was a similar fountain in Paphlagonia. Apuleius (_Golden Ass_, viii.) gives a graphic and humorous description of the dress, dancing, and imposture of these priests; mentioning, among other things, that they lashed themselves with whips and cut themselves with knives till the ground was wet with blood. [94] Persius, _Sat._ iii. 37. [95] Ter. _Eun._ iii. 5. 36; and cf. the similar allusion in Aristoph. _Clouds_, 1033-4. It may be added that the argument of this chapter was largely used by the wiser of the heathen themselves. Dionysius Hal. (ii. 20) and Seneca (_De Brev. Vit._ c. xvi.) make the very same complaint; and it will be remembered that his adoption of this reasoning was one of the grounds on which Euripides was suspected of atheism. [96] This sentence recalls Augustine's own experience as a boy, which he bewails in his _Confessions_. [97] Labeo, a jurist of the time of Augustus, learned in law and antiquities, and the author of several works much prized by his own and some succeeding ages. The two articles in Smith's Dictionary on Antistius and Cornelius Labeo should be read.