content of this first book is once again almost completely present in the
Apologeticum, although restructured and adapted to the aim of the argument, which
has required a process of selection that has led Tertullian to present the material
more concisely and to exclude some information and explanations present in Ad
nationes.
The second book has a more original character. Here, Tertullian undertakes to
criticize pagan religions in general, and in particular attacks Roman beliefs concern-
ing gods, incisively ridiculing them; he explores the concept of god and proves that
pagan divinities are purely human inventions, or are simply men deified after death,
so it is not the gods that have made the Roman state great, nor, therefore, can the
fall of the Roman state be a consequence of abandoning its cult. Tertullian thus responds
to the accusations against Christians. To prove the doctrines concerning their gods
irrational and their morals reproachable, Tertullian resorts to numerous examples and
details taken from historiography, poetry, and philosophy, which are proof of the
thoroughness of his knowledge and mastery of Roman literary tradition. Unlike the
first book, the content of this second book appears more concisely in Apologeticum.
The tone of this book is no longer defensive but decidedly aggressive, because from
subtly calling the audience ignorant in the first book, he here calls them miserandae
nationes, an overtly offensive denomination: “Our defense requires that we should
at this point discuss with you the character of your gods, O ye heathen, fit objects
of our pity, appealing even to your own conscience to determine whether they be
truly gods, as you would have it supposed, or falsely, as you are unwilling to have
proved” (Nat.2.1.1).
In this case, too, the opening words announce the theme of the book: the gods
of the Romans and the question of truth and falsehood. However, Tertullian’s aim
goes beyond the philosophical discussion on the nature of gods. In this first chap-
ter he makes it clear that he will undertake an incisive criticism, embracing not just
the gods but the actual practices of traditional Roman religion, the institutions of
elders, the mechanisms of legitimization:
It is therefore against these things that our contest lies – against the institutions of
our ancestors, against the authority of tradition, the laws of our governors, and the
reasonings of the wise; against antiquity, custom, submission; against precedents,
prodigies, miracles – all which things have had their part in consolidating that spurious
system of your gods. (Nat.2.1.7)To proceed with this objective, Tertullian must move away from the path of Greek
apologists (Becker 1954: 88) and resort to material about Roman gods and prac-
tices. This material he finds in the work of Marcus Terentius Varro, Antiquitates
rerum divinarum XVI libri. In the first chapter of the second book, Tertullian begins
with a presentation of Varro’s system, the entire book becoming a dialogue and dis-
cussion with the Roman author. Varro’s work is not just Tertullian’s starting point
but also the structuring principle of this book, because he presents Varro’s system
and proceeds systematically, following it point by point. Tertullian utilizes Varro’s
classification (tria genera theologiae), which distinguishes gods from philosophers, genus462 Cecilia Ames