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Show 444 I)ISSl•'R·r . v nr. , '--v--1 H l S T 0 R Y 0 F M· E 'X I C ~· Romans, three ht1:1dred men, partly fenators and part1y Roman knights,. u'pqn an altar erected to t~at new deity. LaC.~an ius, wh? was ~ man well inihueted in the affiurs of the Romans, who flounlhed m the foltrth century of the church, iays expreOly, that even in his time, thofe fkrifices were made to }npitcr Latialisft). Nor were the Spaniards free from this barbarous fupcrflition. Strabo recounts, in book iii. that the · J ~ufit,mians fitcrifi ed prifoners) cut off their right hand to confecrate it to their go~s, obfcrvcd their entmils, and examined them for auguries ~ that ~11 the inhabitants of the mohn tain$ ufed to f.'lcrifi ce prlfoncrs as well as horfcs, offering thei.r victims by hundreds at a time to the god Mars; and [peaking in general, he fays, it was peculiar to the Spaniards to facFificc themfelves for their friend's. This is not ver'j' different from what Silius Italicus reports of the Betic(, his anceftot·s, which is, that after they had paO.ed the age of youth, grown weary of life, they committed fuicide ;. and which he praifes as an 11ieroic aCl:ion. Who would believe, that ancient cull:om of Betica woul'd be revived at this time in England and Fr;ance. To come to later. times, Mariana, in fpeaking of the Goths, who occupied Spain, writes thus : " Becaufe they were per.Cuaded that the war would 11 never be profperous when they did not make an offering of human ,., blood for the army, they fa<i:rificed the prifoners of war to the god Man, " to whom they were principally devoted, and ufed alfo to offer him '' the fidl: of the fpoilsp and fufpend from the trunks of trees the fkins " of thofc whom they had flain." If thofe Spaniards who wrote the hi!l:ory 'of Mex~co, had not forgotten this, which happened to their own peninfula, they would not have, wondered fo much at the facdfices nf the Mexi ans. Whoever would will! to fee more examples, may confult Eufebius of Crefarea, in book iv. de Pr·eparatione Evangelica, where lie gives a long detail of the nations by whom fuch barbarous facrifices were prac-tifcd : what we have faid is enough to !hew that the Mexicans have clone nothing but trod in the fieps of the moft celebrated nation$ of the old continent, and that their rites were neither more cruel, nor lefs rational. It is, perhap~, gre:ltcr cruelty and inhumanity t0 facrifice (t,~ Ln~'l~ ntiu s , Infl it, J)ivin. lih. i. c:tp.: r, fcl- • H I S 'T 0 R Y 0 F · M E X I C 0. tefro'W-citik~ns~ chifdten, and . tflemt'el es,. as . 'the grt tel! pa .t of il\~8fe' A~tlons dtd, tha'n ro ' ftrtrifib~ pr~foners df ¢, r -ds \ ,] '· p~ac~ifed itndng' the· M ~:icans. The Mdcic<frls were 'nC er !Ctr6'wn to Ltcrifice ' ei~ oWn· coClrtt'ryn1c'nr,. urlt fs it w.s thdfe who fo ·f~itcd their lives by ltieit' {i'imes' ;. or tHe Wives ofi1nob1es, 'chit they :MfgM ::lccomJ1~[1y t~cir. nxtt'b~'rHl ' to the' otHe'r ~o'rW. THat a r~tr' Wl\ich 1Mbnrezum~ ga'Ve t co~te~, who e}i~o~ched him fior'the ·crcr~ltt of tne-'Mexit~m~ raenfilces,. f.he\~S US that altl~ough their fentitnents wer lflotjuh:,' 'fh'ey were led m.:. confiilen't than.tnofe of other nations wh6 haH.fallerl into the fu rno fuper• · iHtions. '"We,.'' he .G'Tid, "have a dght to take away the life of our u. eneh1id ; we t<DtrlCl ·1 'iU fhem iti t,J:ie heat' Of ba n'le as· you · do your "' enemies. Wl).at injuiHce ii tl ere in mrlking' th'ein, ' ~ho are con~ • Lternned to Clcath, die in hononr o£ o1:1r gods.~· · The frequency Of fuch facrifides via Certainly nodefs irrEgypt, Italy,, Spain, aril:l' G:ru1,. thah in Mexico. If in the city df Eliopol.is ~lone, , tlley annual'ly facrificed,. as Manetho fays,.more t~a~ a tho.nfand vrchms ~o · the goddefs Junor;. how many muft hav.e been flcnfited m the other c1• ties of Egypt to the fatnous goddefs Ifis, and other innumerable deities, . adored by that moft fuperiHtiotts nation ? . HbW' frequ~n t muft the! have been among ~he Pelafgians,. wh,o facrtficed a tenth p~lrt of their· ~hildren to their gods ?. What numbers of men mufl: have been con- · fumed in th.ofe· hecatombs of the ahcicnt Spaniards ?. And what lhall we fay of the Gauls, who; after having fucrificed prifohers of war and rna Iefatl:ors , made alfo innocent citizens die in f.'1crifice, a. s Cccfar relatesd?· The number of the Mexican fac r.ifices has certainly been exaggerate · ey the Spani01 hiftorians,. as we h~e already obfer:ed. . The very humane Romans·, who had iliruples In · obforvwg human entrails,, although. at· the end of fix centuries a~d a half a.ftcr the fuumlation of their famous metropolis· they' forb1d th: ii1~nfices ~f m· en, ft1'l l permitted with great frequency the glad1atonan 1( {ac•n - fices.. So we call thofe barbarous combats, whi ~ h, a.s well· as . erv1ng for the. am'ufement of thnt fierce people, were l 1k~wtft: pre (c~·l bed by their religion. Befides· th~ great quantity of bl.ood fp:lt at the C1rcenfian . games, and at banq~ets; there was not .a ltttle alfo. 1he~ at. the ru- . nerals- o£ wealthy perfonJ;, either of glad1ators, or pnfonct s who were nut to death: to. appeafe the xn:tnes oft the decei1fed ; and they were • [o l 4'45 0199l':Rrn. volir • |