Arnobius — Against the Nations 2.30
30.1. “But the punishments mentioned among the dead and the many kinds of torments?” - And who will be so stupid and ignorant of consequences of things as to believe that Tartarean darknesses can harm incorruptible souls, or fiery rivers, or marshes with muddy gulfs, or the turnings of whirling wheels? 2. For what is not touchable and is removed from the laws of dissolution, though it be surrounded by all the flames of torrential rivers, rolled in mire, covered by falls of looming rocks and ruins of huge mountains, must remain unharmed and untouched and take on no sense of death-bearing suffering.
3. What of this—that that persuasion is not only a goad to vices by the very freedom of sinning, but even takes away philosophy’s own reason and declares it to be taken up emptily by the difficulty of superfluous work? For if it is true that souls share in no end and proceed with all ages in the perpetuity of times, what danger is there, when virtues—by which life is narrower and harsher—have been scorned and passed over, in giving oneself to pleasures and in pouring out through all kinds of lusts the unbridled heat of immense desire? 4. Lest it wilt in delights and be corrupted by softness of vices? - And by what reason can that be corrupted which is immortal, which always is and is liable to no suffering? Lest it grow filthy and be polluted by the foulness of base acts? - And how can that be polluted which does not have bodily substance, or where can contamination set a seat where there is no space in which a mark of contamination itself can fasten? Again, if souls approach the gates of death, as Epicurus’s judgment defines, neither then is there a fitting cause why philosophy ought to be sought, even if it is true that by it souls are purged and rendered clean from all viciousness. 5. For if they commonly die and in the bodies themselves their sense perishes and vital sense is extinguished, it is not only of greatest error but of stupid blindness to rein in inborn appetites, to keep life in narrows, to indulge nature nothing, not to do what desires have ordered and spurred, when no rewards of such great toil await you when the day of death has come and you have been loosed from bodily bonds.
Latin
30.1. ''Sed memoratae apud inferos poenae et suppliciorum generibus multiformes?''. - Et quis erit tam brutus et rerum consequentias nesciens, qui animis incorruptibilibus credat aut tenebras Tartareas posse aliquid nocere aut igneos fluvios aut caenosis gurgitibus paludes aut rotarum volubilium circumactus? 2. Quod enim contiguum non est et ab legibus dissolutionis amotum est, licet omnibus ambiatur flammis torrentium fluminum, volvatur in caeno [non], saxorum imminentinm casibus et immanium montium operiatur ruinis, inlibatum necesse est permaneat et intactum neque ullum sensum mortiferae passionis adsumere. 3. Quid quod ista persuasio non tantum est incitatrix ad vitia libertate ex ipsa peccandi, verum etiam philosophiae ipsius causam tollit et inaniter eam suscipi supervacanei operis difficultate declarat. Nam si verum est, animas nullius esse participes finis et cum omnibus saeculis aevorum perpetuitate procedere, quid periculi res habet contemptis praetermissisque virtutibus, quibus est contractior atque horridior vita, voluptatibus se dare ac per omnia libidinum genera eflrenatum spargere inmensae cupiditatis ardorem?
4. Ne deliciis marceat et corrumpatur mollitudine vitiorum? - Et qua poterit ratione corrumpi id quod immortale, quod semper est et nulli obnoxium passioni? Ne sordescat et polluatur actionum turpium foeditate? - Et qui poterit pollui corporalem quod substantiam non habet, aut ubi sedem contaminatio ponere, ubi spatium nullum est in quo nota se possit ipsius contaminationis adfigere? Rursus vero si animae leti adeunt ianuas, Epicuri ut sententia definitur, nec sic causa est conpetens, cur expeti philosophia debeat, etiamsi verum est purgari hac animas atque ab omni puras vitiositate praestari. 5. Nam si communiter obeunt et in ipsis corporibus sensus eis deperit extinguiturque vitalis, non lantum est erroris maximi verum stolidae caecitatis, frenare ingenitos adpetitus, cohibere in angustiis vitam, nihil indulgere naturae, non quod cupidines iusserint atque instigaverint facere, cum nulla te praemia tanti laboris expectent cum dies mortis advenerit et corporalibus fueris vinculis exsolutus.