Arnobius: the first God suffices; his court is honored in him without naming each
To this pagan charge the early Christians answered with Arnobius: "For the duty of worshiping the divine, the first God is enough for us, the Father of all things and their Lord, the founder and ruler of everything. In him we worship all that is to be worshiped; we adore what it is right to adore; and what calls for the homage of veneration we honor with our veneration."
"Since we hold fast to the head of divinity itself, from which the divinity of all divine beings, whatever they are, is derived, we think it pointless to go through them person by person. We do not know who they are or what names they have, and we cannot have any clear, firm, or tested knowledge of how many of them there are."
He then illustrates this with the very comparison from princes' courts that the pagans used on this point: "In earthly kingdoms no necessity forces us to pay homage by name to the members of the royal family along with the princes. In the honor paid to the kings themselves, everything connected with them feels itself silently included. In the same way, whoever these gods are whom you set before us, if they are royal offspring sprung from the sovereign head, they understand that, even if they receive no worship from us by name, they are honored together with their king and included in the veneration given to him." (Arnobius, Against the Nations, book 3, beginning.)
Latin
LXIV. Nam ad istam Ethnicorum criminationem sic cum Arnobio respondent. Ad cultum divinitatis obeundum satis est nobis Deus primus, pater rerum ac Dominus, constitutor, moderatorque cunctorum. In hoc omne quod colendum est colimus, quod adorare convenit adoramus, quod obsequium venerationis exposcit, venerationibus promeremur. Cum enim divinitatis ipsius teneamus caput, a quo ipsa divinitas divinorum omnium, quaecunque sunt, ducitur, supervacuum putamus personas ire per singulas, cum & ipsi qui sint, & quae habeant nomina nesciamus, & cujus sint praeterea numeri, neque liquidum, neque comprehensum, neque exploratum habere possimus. Quod postea illustrat illa ipsa ab aulis principum allata similitudine quam eadem hac in re Ethnici usurpabant. Atque, inquit, ut in terrestribus regnis necessitate nulla compellimur, regalibus in familiis constitutos nominatim cum principibus adorare, sed in Regum ipsorum cultu quicquid illis annexum est tacita vi se sentit honorificentia comprehendi; non alia ratione quicunque hi dii sunt, quos esse nobis proponitis, si sunt progenies regia, & principali oriuntur e capite, etiamsi nullos accipiant a nobis nominatim cultus, intelligunt se tamen honorari communiter cum suo Rege, atque in illius venerationibus contineri. Arnob. contra gentes lib. 3. init.