Letter 50: Earth reels and heaven trembles at the report of the enormous crime and unprecedented cruelty which has made your streets and temples run red with blood, and ring with the shouts of murderers. You have buried the laws of Rome in a dishonoured grave, and trampled in scorn the reverence due to equitable enactments. The authority of emperors you ne...

The most notorious crime of your savagery, and your unheard-of cruelty, shakes the earth and strikes heaven, so that in your streets and shrines blood gleams and murder resounds. Among you the Roman laws lie buried, the dread of righteous courts is trampled underfoot. Among you there is certainly no reverence or fear for the emperors. Among you the innocent blood of sixty brothers has been shed, and whoever killed the most has won praise and held the chief place in your council. Come now, let us turn to the principal matter. If you say your Hercules is yours, well then, we shall give him back: metals are at hand, stones are not lacking; varieties of marble are available, and craftsmen abound. Indeed, your god will be carefully sculpted, turned on the lathe, and adorned. We shall even add red paint to color the blush, so that your sacred vows may ring out. For if you claim your Hercules, we shall buy you a god from your own craftsman, each of you contributing a single coin. Give back, then, the lives that your savage hand has twisted away, and just as your Hercules is restored by us, so let the souls of so many be restored by you.

Letter 50 (A.D. 399) To the Magistrates and Leading Men, or Elders, of the Colony of Suffectum, Bishop Augustine Sends Greeting. Earth reels and heaven trembles at the report of the enormous crime and unprecedented cruelty which has made your streets and temples run red with blood, and ring with the shouts of murderers. You have buried the laws of Rome in a dishonoured grave, and trampled in scorn the reverence due to equitable enactments. The authority of emperors you neither respect nor fear. In your city there has been shed the innocent blood of sixty of our brethren; and whoever approved himself most active in the massacre, was rewarded with your applause, and with a high place in your Council. Come now, let us arrive at the chief pretext for this outrage. If you say that Hercules belonged to you, by all means we will make good your loss: we have metals at hand, and there is no lack of stone; nay, we have several varieties of marble, and a host of artisans. Fear not, your god is in the hands of his makers, and shall be with all diligence hewn out and polished and ornamented. We will give in addition some red ochre, to make him blush in such a way as may well harmonize with your devotions. Or if you say that the Hercules must be of your own making, we will raise a subscription in pennies, and buy a god from a workman of your own for you. Only do you at the same time make restitution to us; and as your god Hercules is given back to you, let the lives of the many men whom your violence has destroyed be given back to us.

EPISTOLA 50 Scripta formasse a. 399. A. Sufetanorum ductoribus expostulans de LX Christifidelium nece pollicensque suum ipsorum illis reddendum Herculem.   Ductoribus ac principibus vel senioribus Coloniae Suffectanae, Augustinus episcopus 1. Immanitatis vestrae famosissimum scelus, et inopinata crudelitas terram concutit, et percutit coelum, ut in plateis ac delubris vestris eluceat sanguis, et resonet homicidium. Apud vos Romanae sepultae sunt leges, iudiciorum rectorum calcatus est terror. Imperatorum certe nulla veneratio nec timor. Apud vos LX numero fratrum innocens effusus est sanguis, et si quis plures occidit, functus est laudibus, et in vestram curiam tenuit principatum. Age, nunc principalem veniamus ad causam. Si Herculem vestrum dixeritis, porro reddemus: adsunt metalla, saxa nec desunt; accedunt et marmorum genera, suppeditat artificum copia. Caeterum deus vester cum diligente sculpitur, tornatur et ornatur. Addimus et rubricam quae pingit ruborem, quo possint vota vestra sacra sonare. Nam si vestrum Herculem dixeritis, collatis singulis nummis ab artifice vestro vobis emimus deum. Reddite igitur animas, quas truculenta manus vestra contorsit, et sicuti a nobis vester Hercules redhibetur, sic etiam a vobis tantorum animae reddantur.