Arnobius: ADVERSVS NATIONES LIBRI VII

1.1 "Quid ergo, dixerit quispiam, sacrificia censetis nulla esse omnino facienda?". - Ut vobis non nostra, sed Varronis vestri sententia respondeamus: "Nulla". "Quid ita?". "Quia, inquit, dii veri neque desiderant ea neque deposcunt, ex aere autem facti, testa, gypso vel marmore multo minus haec curant: carent enim sensu; neque ulla contrahitur, si ea non feceris, culpa, neque ulla, si feceris, gratia". 2. - Sententia repperiri nulla potest integrior, verior et quam quivis possit, quamvis ille sit scaevus et difficillimus, occupare. Quis est enim pectoris tam optunsi, qui aut rebus nullum habentibus sensum hostias caedat et victimas aut eis existimet dandas qui sunt ab his longe natura et beatitudine disiugati?

1.1 "What then, someone will say, do you judge that no sacrifices at all are to be performed?". - That we may answer you not with our opinion, but with the opinion of your own Varro: "None." "Why so?" "Because," he says, "the true gods neither desire them nor demand them, while those made of bronze, clay, gypsum, or marble care for these things much less: for they lack sense; and no guilt is contracted, if you have not done them, nor any favor, if you have done them." 2. - No opinion could be found more integral, truer, and such as anyone could seize upon, even though he be perverse and most difficult. For who is of heart so obtuse as either to slaughter offerings and victims to things that have no sense, or to think they must be given to those who are far disjoined from these by nature and by beatitude?

2.1. "Qui sunt, inquitis, di veri?" - Ut | f. 135 | communi vobis et simplici respondeamus verbo, non scimus. Quos enim vidimus numquam, qui sint scire quemadmodum possumus? 2. Ex vobis audire consuevimus deos esse quam plurimos et numinum in serie conputari: qui si sunt, ut dicitis, uspiam verique, ut Terentius credit, eos esse consequitur sui consimiles nominis, id est tales quales eos universi debere esse conspicimus et nominis huius appellatione dicendos, quinimmo ut breviter finiam qualis dominus rerum est atque omnipotens ipse, quem dicere nos omnes deum scimus atque intellegimus verum, cum ad eius nominis accessimus mentionem.

2.1. "Who, you say, are the true gods?" - So that | f. 135 | we may answer you with a common and simple word: we do not know. For those whom we have never seen, how can we know who they are? 2. We have been accustomed to hear from you that there are very many gods and that the numina are reckoned in a series: who, if they are anywhere, as you say, and are true, as Terentius believes, it follows that they are like their own name—that is, such as we all perceive they ought to be, and to be called by the appellation of this name; nay rather, to conclude briefly, such as the lord of things is and the Omnipotent himself, whom we all know and understand to call the true God, when we have come to the mention of his name.

3. Deus enim ab altero in eo quo deus est nulla in re differt, nec quod unum est genere, suis esse in partibus minus aut plus potest qualitatis propriae uniformitate servata. Quod cum dubium non sit, sequitur ut geniti numquam perpetuique ut debeant esse, extrinsecus adpetentes nihil nec carpentes aliquas terrenas ex materiae opibus voluptates.

3. For a god does not differ from another, in that in which he is a god, in any respect; nor can that which is one in genus be in its parts either less or more, with the uniformity of its proper quality preserved. Since this is not doubtful, it follows that they should be never-begotten and perpetual, desiring nothing from without, nor plucking any terrestrial pleasures from the resources of matter.

3.1. Ergo si haec ita sunt, primum illud a vobis expetimus noscere, quae sit causa, quae ratio, sacrificia ut ista faciatis, quid deinde ea hoc lucri ad deos ipsos perveniat atque in eorum commoditate subsidat. 2. Quicquid enim geritur, debet habere causam sui neque ita esse ab ratione seiunctum, ut in operibus geratur cassis et in vacuis ludat inanitatis erroribus. 3. Numquid forte dii caelestes aluntur his sacris et ad eorum conpaginem retinendam nonnullius opus est suffectione materiae?

3.1. Therefore, if these things are so, first we seek to learn this from you: what is the cause, what the rationale, that you perform those sacrifices; then what of lucre from them comes through to the gods themselves and settles into their advantage. 2. For whatever is done ought to have its cause, nor be so severed from reason that it is carried on in empty works and plays in the vacant errors of inanition. 3. Is it perhaps that the heavenly gods are nourished by these rites, and that, for retaining their structure, there is need of some supply of matter?

4. Et quis ita est hominum deus prorsus qui sit ignorans, ut eos | f. 135b | existimet contineri alicuius alimonii genere et cibi esse munus quod eos faciat vivere et inmensa in perpetuitate durare? 5. Quicquid enim causis et rebus fulcitur extraneis, necesse est esse mortale et habere ad periculum viam pronam, ubi aliquid coeperit deesse quo vivitur. 6. Tum quod ex his rebus quae admoventur altaribus nihil videmus accedere atque ad numinum substantias pervenire.

4. And who is there among men so utterly ignorant, as to suppose that they | f. 135b | are contained by some kind of aliment, and that the gift of food is what makes them live and endure unmeasured in perpetuity? 5. For whatever is propped up by external causes and things must needs be mortal and have a path sloping toward danger, whenever that begins to be lacking by which it lives. 6. Then too, because from these things which are brought near to the altars we see nothing be added and reach to the substances of the divinities.

7. Aut enim thus datur et liquefactum carbonibus disperit, aut animalis est hostia et ab canibus abligurritur sanguis, aut si aliquod viscus aris fuerit traditum, ratione ardescit pari et dissolutum in cinerem labitur. 8. Nisi forte hostiarum deus animas devorat aut ex aris ardentibus nidorem consectatur et fumos, pasciturque de cnisis, quas evomunt ardentia viscera adhuc uda de sanguine et prioribus umecta de sucis. 9. Sed si deus ut dicitur nullius est corporis omnique est incontiguus tactu, qui fieri potis est, ut corporalibus rebus nutriatur incorporeum, quod mortale est ut inmortale sustineat subdatque salutem rei quam contingere nequeat et motus subministrare vitalis?

7. Either frankincense is given and, liquefied, vanishes upon the coals, or the victim is an animal and the blood is licked up by dogs; or if some entrail has been handed to the altars, by the same reasoning it kindles and, dissolved, slips down into ash. 8. Unless perhaps the god devours the souls of the victims, or from the burning altars pursues the reek and the smokes, and is fed on the cinders which the blazing entrails vomit forth, still wet with blood and moistened with their former juices. 9. But if god, as it is said, belongs to no body and is incontiguous to every touch, how can it be that the incorporeal is nourished by corporeal things, that what is mortal should sustain what is immortal and impart health to a thing which it cannot touch, and supply vital motions?

Cessat ergo ut apparet sacrorum hic ratio, neque dici a quopiam potis est ea causa sacrificia celebrari, quod alantur his numina et eorum sustineantur e pastu.

Therefore, as is apparent, this rationale of the sacred rites falls away, nor can it be said by anyone that sacrifices are celebrated for this cause: that the divinities (numina) are nourished by these and are sustained from their feeding.

4.1. Numquid, si forte hoc non est, voluptatis alicuius animi que ut dicitur causa caeduntur diis hostiae et succensis adiciuntur altaribus? 2. Et quisquam est hominum qui deos sibi persuadeat voluptatum diffusione mollescere, gestire in libidinis gaudium et velut animal | f. 136 | vile blandis sensibus affici et dulcedinis labilis volucri titillatione mulceri? 3. Quod enim voluptate dissolvitur, id contraria necesse est tristitia contrahatur, nec immune existere ab anxietate maeroris quod laetitia trepidat et levitatibus extollitur gaudiorum.

4.1. Perhaps, if by chance this is not the case, are victims slaughtered to the gods for the cause, as it is said, of some pleasure and of the spirit, and, the fires having been kindled, are added to the altars? 2. And is there anyone of men who would persuade himself that the gods are softened by the diffusion of pleasures, to exult in the joy of lust and, like an | f. 136 | animal vile, to be affected by flattering senses and to be soothed by the winged titillation of labile sweetness? 3. For what is dissolved by pleasure, that by the contrary sadness must needs be contracted, nor can that exist immune from the anxiety of mourning which trembles with gladness and is lifted up by the levities of joys.

4. Utroque autem affectu debent esse dii liberi, si eos esse perpetuos et mortalium volumus fragilitate privatos. 5. Quid quod omnis voluptas quasi quaedam est adulatio corporis notisque illis sensibus adsumitur quinque: quam si superi sentiunt, et eorum necesse est sint participes corporum, per quae via est sensibus et accipiendis voluptatibus ianua. 6. Postremo quod gaudium est innoxiorum animantium mactatione laetari, miserabilis saepe exaudire mugitus, rivos sanguinis cernere, animas cum cruore fugientes patefactisque secretis provolvier intestina cum stercore et ex residuo spiritu exultantia adhuc corda tremibundis que palpitantes in visceribus venas?

4. But from both affections the gods ought to be free, if we wish them to be perpetual and deprived of mortal fragility. 5. What of this, that every pleasure is as it were a certain adulation of the body and is taken up by those well-known five senses: which, if the gods above perceive, it is necessary that they also be participants of bodies, through which there is a way for the senses and a doorway for receiving pleasures. 6. Finally, what joy is it to rejoice in the slaughter of innocent living creatures, to hear often the pitiable bellowings, to behold streams of blood, souls fleeing with gore, and, the hidden parts laid open, the intestines rolling out with excrement, and from the remaining breath hearts still exulting, and, in the entrails, the veins trembling and palpitating?

7. Semiferi nos homines, quinimmo, apertius ut pronuntiemus quod est verius atque aptius dictu, feri, quos infelix necessitas et malus usus edocuit cibos ea his carpere, miseratione interdum commovemur illorum, arguimus nos ipsi penitusque re visa atque inspecta damnamus, quod humanitatis iure deposito naturalis initii consortia ruperimus. 8. Deos aliquis credet pios beneficos mites caede pecorum delectari diffundique laetitia, si quando sub his concidunt et spiritum miserabiliter ponunt? Et voluptatis ergo ut cernimus nulla est in sacrificiis causa nec cur fiant ratio est, quoniam nec est ulla, ac si forte est aliqua, in deos eam cadere nulla | f. 136b | posse ratione monstratum est.

7. We men are half-beasts—nay rather, to pronounce more openly what is truer and fitter to say, beasts—whom unhappy necessity and evil custom have taught to pluck foods from them; we are at times moved by pity for them, we arraign ourselves and, the matter having been seen and examined thoroughly, we condemn ourselves, for that, the right of humanity being laid aside, we have broken the consortia of our natural origin. 8. Will anyone believe that the gods—pious, beneficent, gentle—delight in the slaughter of cattle and are diffused in joy, whenever beneath these they fall and miserably lay down their breath? And therefore, as we see, there is no cause of pleasure in sacrifices nor any rationale why they are done, since there is none; and if perchance there is some, it has been shown that by no reasoning can it fall upon the gods, no | f. 136b | way at all.

5.1. Sequitur ut illam quoque inspiciamus partem, quam iactari audimus vulgo et populari in persuasione versari: sacrificia superis ea fieri diis causa, ut iras atque animos ponant reddanturque mites et placidi fervidorum pectorum indignatione sedata. 2. At si definitionem teneamus illam, quam pertinaciter meminisse convenit nos semper, universos animorum adfectus ignotos diis esse, consectaneum est credere numquam deos irasci, quinimmo nullum adfectum magis esse ab his longe quam qui feris et beluis proximus turbat tempestatibus patientes et ad periculum interitionis inducit. 3. Quicquid enim vexatur rei alicuius e motu, passibile esse constat et fragile: quod passioni fragilitatique subiectum est, id necesse est esse mortale: ira autem vexat et patientes se solvit: ergo esse mortale dicendum est quod passionibus subiectum est irae.

5.1. It follows that we should also inspect that part which we hear is bruited about commonly and circulates in popular persuasion: that sacrifices are made to the supernal gods for this cause, that they may lay down their wraths and tempers and be rendered mild and placid, the indignation of their seething breasts having been calmed. 2. But if we hold to that definition, which it behooves us always to remember pertinaciously, that all affections of the mind are unknown to the gods, it is consequent to believe that the gods never grow angry—nay rather, that no affect is farther from them than the one which, being next to wild beasts and brute animals, throws the sufferers into tempests and leads them to the peril of perishing. 3. For whatever is vexed by the motion of some thing is manifestly passible and fragile; what is subject to passion and fragility must needs be mortal; but anger vexes and unravels those who undergo it: therefore that which is subject to passions, to anger, must be said to be mortal.

4. Atquin deos scimus esse oportere perpetuos et naturam inmortalitatis tenere: quod si constat et liquidum est, ira ab his longe et ab eorum condicione disiuncta est. Nullis ergo rationibus convenit id in superis velle placare quod posse non videas in eorum beatitudinem convenire.

4. And yet indeed we know that the gods ought to be perpetual and to hold the nature of immortality; and if this is agreed and clear, ire is far from them and disjoined from their condition. Therefore by no reasons is it fitting to wish to placate, in the gods above, that which you do not see to be able to accord with their beatitude.

6.1. Sed concedamus, ut vultis, perturbationem huiusmodi familiarem diis esse placandique eius causa res divinas fieri et sacrorum sollemnia celebrari: quando ergo conveniat adhiberi haec munia vel in tempore quo dari? 2. Antequam sunt irati et perciti an cum fuerint moti ipsisque in indignationibus constituti? Si ne sumant animos, occurrendum est his ante, feras nobis proponitis, non deos, | f. 137 | quibus, ne saeviant concitatae et cavearum discutiant claustra, obiectari moris est escas in quas rabide saeviant et cupidinem vexationis inclinent.

6.1. But let us concede, as you wish, that a perturbation of this kind is familiar to the gods, and that for the sake of placating it divine rites are performed and the solemnities of sacred things are celebrated: when, then, is it fitting that these duties be applied, or at what time to be given? 2. Before they are angry and incited, or when they have been moved and are themselves set in indignations? If, so that they may not take on spirit, one must forestall them beforehand, you are setting before us wild beasts, not gods, | f. 137 | for whom, lest when aroused they rage and shake the bars of their cages, it is the custom that baits be thrown, upon which they may rage rabidly and incline their desire for vexation.

3. Sin autem iam fervidis atque indignatione flagrantibus satisfactio ista sacrificiorum oggeritur, non inquiro, non exigo, an illa laeta et sublimis magnanimitas numinum homunculorum offensione moveatur habeatque pro vulnere, si quid animal caecum atque in nubibus semper ignorationis incedens dissignaverit, dixerit quo illorum minueretur auctoritas.

3. But if, however, when they are already seething and blazing with indignation, this satisfaction of sacrifices is obtruded upon them, I do not inquire, I do not exact, whether that cheerful and sublime magnanimity of the numina is moved by the offense of homunculi and counts it as a wound, if some blind animal, ever walking in the clouds of ignorance, has marked out something, has said something by which their authority would be diminished.

7.1. Sed neque illud dici aut audire deposco, quas irarum in homines habeant dii causas, ut sacrificiis debeant contracta offensione mulceri: numquid aliquas leges sanxere aliquando mortalibus constitutum que est ab his umquam, quid eos agere conveniret vel quid non, quid consectari, quid fugere, vel coli se saltem quibus rationibus cuperent, ut aliter quam imperaverant gesta ultionibus persequerentur irarum contemptique se vellent de audacibus et transgressoribus vindicare? 2. Ut opinor, ab his numquam neque constitutum est aliquid neque sancitum, quoniam nec visi aliquando, neque si sunt ulli, apertissima potuit cognitione dinosci. Quaenam est ergo iustitia, ut eis ob aliquas causas irascantur dii caelites quibus neque se ease monstrare aliquando dignati sunt neque ullas dederint aut imposuerint leges quas coli ab his vellent et inviolabili obsecutione servari?

7.1. But neither do I ask that it be said or heard what causes of wraths the gods have against men, such that, the offense having been contracted, they ought to be soothed by sacrifices: have they ever sanctioned any laws for mortals, and has anything ever been constituted by them, what it would be fitting for them to do or what not to do, what to pursue, what to flee, or at least by what methods they would desire themselves to be cultivated—so that, if things were done otherwise than they had commanded, they would pursue them with revenges and, being held in contempt, would wish to vindicate themselves upon the bold and the transgressors? 2. As I suppose, by them never has anything either been constituted or sanctioned, since they have neither ever been seen, nor, if there are any, could they be discerned by the most open cognition. What justice, therefore, is it, that the heavenly gods grow angry with those to whom they have not deigned at any time to show themselves to exist, nor have they given or imposed any laws which they would wish to be cultivated by them and to be observed with inviolable obsequy?

8.1. Sed hoc ut dixi praetereo et silentio patior abire donatum. Unum illud prae omnibus quaero: quae causa est, ut si ego poreum occidero, deus mutet | f. 137b | adfectum animosque et rabiem ponat, si gallinulam, vitulum sub illius oculis atque altaribus concremaro, oblivionem inducat, iniuriae et ab sensu penitus offensionis abscedat? 2. Quid ad eius dolorem ex opere hoc migrat, aut remedii cuius est anser, caper aut pavus, ut ea eius cruore medicina adhibeatur irato?

8.1. But this, as I said, I pass over and suffer to depart pardoned in silence. This one thing before all I ask: what cause is there, that if I shall have killed a pig, the god changes | f. 137b | his affect and spirits and lays down his rabid rage; if I shall have burned up a little hen, a calf beneath his eyes and at his altars, he brings in oblivion of the injury, and withdraws utterly from the sense of offense? 2. What is transferred to his pain from this deed, or of what remedy is a goose, a he-goat, or a peacock, that by their blood such a medicine should be administered to him in his wrath?

3. Ergone iniurias suas dii vendunt atque ut parvuli pusiones, animos parcant abstineantque ploratibus, passerculos pupulos eculeospanes accipiunt, quibus avocare se possint, ita di inmortales placamenta ista sumunt, quibus iras atque animos ponant et in gratiam suis cum offensoribus redeant? 4. Atquin ego rebar deos, si modo rectum est credere quod motibus exagitentur irarum, sine ullis praemiis nullisque mercedibus iras atque animos ponere et peccatoribus delicta donare. 5. Hoc est enim proprium numinum, liberales venias et concessiones habere gratuitas.

3. So then, do the gods sell their injuries, and, like tiny little boys, they may spare their spirits and refrain from weeping, accept little sparrows, little dolls, little ponies, loaves (panes), by which they can be diverted—so the immortal gods take up those placations, by which they may lay down their wraths and spirits and return into favor with their offenders? 4. And yet I supposed the gods—if indeed it is right to believe that they are driven by motions of angers—to lay down wraths and spirits without any rewards and with no fees, and to grant to sinners a remission of their offenses. 5. For this is proper to the divinities, to have liberal pardons and concessions gratuitous.

Quod si fieri non potest, sapientius multo est pertinaciter eos in offensione durare quam munerum corruptione mitescere. Crescit enim multitudo peccantium cum redimendi peccati spes datur, et facile itur ad culpas ubi est venalis ignoscentium gratia.

But if this cannot be done, it is much wiser for them to endure pertinaciously in offense than to grow mild by the corruption of gifts. For the multitude of sinners increases when the hope of redeeming sin is given, and there is an easy going to faults where the grace of the forgivers is venal.

9.1. Ecce si bos aliquis aut quodlibet ex his animal, quod ad placandas caeditur mitigandasque ad numinum furias, vocem hominis sumat eloquaturque his verbis: "Ergone o Iuppiter, aut quis alius deus es, humanum est istud et rectum aut aequitatis alicuius in aestimatione ponendum, ut cum alius peccaverit, ego occidar et de meo sanguine fieri tibi patiaris satis, | f. 138 | qui numquam te laeserim, numquam sciens aut nesciens tuum numen maiestatemque violarim, animal ut scis mutum, naturae meae simplicitatem sequens nec multiformium morum varietatibus lubricum? 2. Numquid aliquando tuos ludos minus sancte diligenterque perfecta numquid aliquem praesulem, tuum numen qui offenderet, ante traduxi? numquid iuravi per te falso?

9.1. Behold, if some ox, or any one of those animals which are cut down to placate and to mitigate the furies of the numina, should assume a human voice and speak in these words: “So then, O Jupiter, or whoever other god you are, is that thing human and right, or to be placed in the estimation of any equity, that when another has sinned, I should be killed, and you should allow satisfaction to be made to you from my blood, | f. 138 | I who have never harmed you, never wittingly or unwittingly violated your numen and majesty—an animal, as you know, mute, following the simplicity of my nature and not slippery in the varieties of multiform manners? 2. Have I ever performed your games less than sacredly and diligently? Have I ever before brought any presiding priest, one who offended your numen, into public derision? Have I ever sworn falsely by you?”

numquid sacrilegis furtis tua rapui spoliavique donaria? numquid erui sacratissimos lucos aut religiosa quaedam loca substructionibus pollui profanavique privatis? 3. Quaenam est ergo causa ut alienum crimen meo luatur e sanguine et in nefas extraneum mea vita et innocentia producatur?

Did I by sacrilegious thefts snatch and despoil your donaries? Did I tear up the most sacred groves, or defile and profane certain religious places with private substructions? 3. What then is the cause that another’s crime should be expiated by my blood, and that into an alien impiety my life and innocence should be brought forth?

An quod animal vile sum nae rationis nec consilii particeps, quemadmodum pronuntiant isti qui se homines nominant et ferocitate transiliunt beluasa nonne primordiis isdem eadem et me genuit informavitque natura nonne spiritus unus est qui et illos et me regit? non consimili ratione respiro et video et ceteris adfiecor sensibus? 4. Habent iecora pulmones corda intestina ventriculos: et mihi membrorum non idem est numerus attributus?

Or is it because I am a vile animal, not a participant in reason nor in counsel, as those pronounce who call themselves men and, in ferocity, overleap the beasts, did not the same nature, from the same primordials, both beget and fashion me as well? is there not one spirit that rules both them and me? do I not by a like rationale respire and see and am affected by the other senses? 4. They have livers, lungs, hearts, intestines, stomachs: and has not the same number of members been assigned to me?

Amant suos fetus et gignendis conveniunt liberis: non et mihi prolis et subrogandae est cura et dulcedo cum fuerit procreata? 5. Sed rationales illi sunt et articulatas exprimunt voces. Et unde illis notnm est an et ego quod facio meis rationibus faciam et vos ista quam promo mei generis verba sint | f. 138b | et solis intellegantur a nobis?

They love their offspring and come together for the begetting of children: is there not for me as well a care for progeny and for subrogating a successor, and a sweetness when it has been procreated? 5. But they are rational and express articulated voices. And how is it known to them whether I too do what I do by my own reasons, and whether these things which I bring forth are words of my own kind | f. 138b | and are understood by us alone?

6. Interroga Pietatem, utrumne sit aequius me occidi, me confici, hominem venia et commissorum inpunitate donari? Quis in gladium formavit ferruma non homo? quis cladem gentibus, quis nationibus imposuit servitutema non homo?

6. Ask Piety, whether it is more equitable that I be killed, that I be finished off, and that a man be endowed with pardon and with impunity for things committed? Who fashioned the iron into the sword—was it not man? who laid devastation upon peoples, who imposed servitude upon nations—was it not man?

quis parentibus, fratribus, quis uxoribus, quis amicis mortiferas subdidit commiscuitque potiones? non homo? 7. quis maleficia repperit aut commentatus est tanta, quanta via explicari decem milibus nequeant vel annalium vel dierum?

who has subjected and commixed deadly potions for parents, brothers, who for wives, who for friends? not a man? 7. who has discovered malefices or contrived such great ones as cannot by any way be unfolded in 10,000 annals or 10,000 days?

non homo? ita istud non ferum, non inmane, non saevum est, non tibi, o Iuppiter, iniustum videtur et barbarum, me occidi, me caedi, ut fias tu placidus et ut scelerosis contingat inpunitas?". 8. Ergo ob hanc causam, id est numina ut placentur irata, inaniter fieri sacrificia constitit, cum docuerit nos ratio neque deos irasci aliquando neque alterum velle pro altero confici, caedi nec innoxii sanguine abolitionem dissignationibus comparari.

not a man? thus that is not feral, not immense, not savage; does it not seem to you, O Jupiter, unjust and barbarous, that I be killed, that I be cut down, so that you may become placid and that impunity should befall the criminal?". 8. Therefore on this account, that is, in order that the numina may be placated when enraged, it has been established that sacrifices are performed in vain, since reason has taught us neither that the gods ever grow angry nor that they wish one to be done to death, to be hewn down, for another, nor that by the blood of an innocent an abolition of the notations is procured.

10.1. Sed fortasse aliquis dicet: "Idcirco dis hostias et cetera, inpendimus munera, ut familiares quodammodo nostris supplicationibus facti res tribuant prosperas avertantque a nobis mala, cum gaudiis faciant agere nos semper, tristitias vero propellant ex casibus inminentia fortuitis". 2. - Non exiguam curam locus iste desiderat nec quod dicitur facile tam consuetum est vel audiri vel credi. Advolabit enim continuo universus ille doctissimorum chorus, qui adseverans et conprobans | f. 139 | fato fieri quaecumque fiunt eripiat nobis e manibus opinionem istam et inanibus nos arguat persuasionibus fidere. 3. "Quicquid in mundo, inquiet, gestum est, geritur et geretur, olim definitum et fixum est habetque immobiles causas, per quas sibi res nexae et inexpugnabilem conserant praeteritorum cum imminentibus necessitatem". - Si definitum et fixum est, quid optingere singulis mali debeat bonive iam certum est.

10.1. But perhaps someone will say: "For this reason to the gods we expend victims and the rest, we lay out gifts, so that, made in a certain way familiar by our supplications, they may grant prosperous things and turn away evils from us, may cause us to live always with joys, but drive away sadnesses the things impending from fortuitous accidents." 2. - This passage demands no small care, nor is what is said so customary as to be easily either heard or believed. For straightway there will fly hither that whole chorus of the most learned, which, asserting and proving | f. 139 | that whatever things happen are done by fate, would snatch from our hands that opinion and charge us with trusting in empty persuasions. 3. "Whatever in the world has been done, is being done, and will be done," he says, "was long ago defined and fixed, and it has immovable causes, through which bound together among themselves and they weave an unconquerable necessity of the past with the things that are imminent." - If it is defined and fixed, what of evil or of good ought to befall individuals is already certain.

4. Quod si certum est et fixum, vacant omnia deorum auailia, vacant odia, vacant benignitates. Tam enim praestare non possunt id quod non potest fieri quam prohibere ne fiat id quod necesse est evenire; nisi quod validius premere opinionem istam, si voluerint, quibunt, ut etiam ipsos deos frustra dicant a vobis coli et supervacaneis supplicationibus adorari. Cum enim ordinem vertere et fatalia nequeant constituta mutare, quid rei, quid causae est fatigare et obtundere eorum aures velle quorum auailiis nequeas supremis in necessitatibus fidere?

4. But if it is certain and fixed, all the gods’ auxiliaries are empty, hatreds are empty, benignities are empty. For they can no more furnish what cannot be done than forbid to be done what it is necessary to come to pass; unless this—that, if they wish, they will be able to press that opinion more strongly, so as even to say that the gods themselves are worshiped by you in vain and adored with superfluous supplications. Since they cannot overturn the order nor change the fated ordinances that have been set, what point, what cause is there to weary and batter their ears, to desire the help of those whose aids you cannot trust in utmost necessities?

11.1. Postremo si tristia atque inportuna dii pellunt, si ea quae sunt laeta atque amica largiuntur: unde sunt mundo tanti tamque innumerabiles miseri, unde tot infelices lacrimabilem vitam in extrema sorte ducentes? 2. Cur immunes a calamitatibus non sunt qui momenta per singula, qui per puncta sacrificiis onerant atque adcumulant aras? 3. "Nonne alios, inquiunt, videmus ex illis domicilia esse morborum, eatinctis luminibus atque auribus obseratis, pedum carere processu, truncos sine manibus degere, incendiis, naufragiis et ruinis mergi obrui confici, patrimoniis | f. 139b | ab ingentibus evolutos mercennario sese labore fulcire, stipes emendicare supremas, exterminari, proscribi, semper esse in luctibus, liberorum orbitatibus fractos, vexari per infortunia cetera quorum species et formas nulla potest enumeratio definire?". 4. - Quod utique non fieret, si propulsare, si flectere mala ista dii possent sacrorum meritis obligati.

11.1. Finally, if the gods drive away the sad and inopportune things, if they lavish what is glad and friendly: whence are there in the world so many and so innumerable wretches, whence so many unhappy ones leading a lamentable life in the lowest lot? 2. Why are they not immune from calamities who at every moment, who point by point, burden and heap up the altars with sacrifices? 3. “Do we not see some of them,” they say, “to be domiciles of diseases, with their lights quenched and their ears barred, to lack the forward progress of their feet, to live as trunks without hands, to be sunk, overwhelmed, and undone by fires, shipwrecks, and collapses, stripped of immense patrimonies | f. 139b | to prop themselves by hireling labor, to beg the last alms, to be driven out, proscribed, to be always in mourning, broken by the bereavements of their children, to be harassed by the other misfortunes, whose kinds and forms no enumeration can define?” 4. — Which assuredly would not happen, if the gods, bound by the merits of rites, could repel, if they could bend aside, these evils.

Nunc vero quia casibus nullus est in his locus sed ineluctabili omnia necessitate confiunt, agit sese ordo praescriptus et quod semel decretum est perficit.

Now indeed, since there is no place for chances in these things, but all things come to pass by ineluctable necessity, the prescribed order bestirs itself and perfects what has once been decreed.

12.1. Aut ingrati esse dicendi sunt caelites, si cum habeant iura prohibendi, patiuntur infelix genus tot poenis et calamitatibus implicari. 2. Set fortasse aliquid dicant magnum nec quod auribus debeat frustratoriis, levibus et contemnentibus sumi. 3. Quas tamen nos partes, quia res nimiam longi est multique sermonis, inexplicatas transcurrimus atque intactas, solum illud posuisse contenti, inhonestas vos famas adiungere diis vestris, si eos aliter negatis praestare quae bona sunt atque inimica transvertere, nisi prius empti capellarum fuerint atque ovium sanguine et ceteris quae admoventur altaribus.

12.1. Either the celestials must be said to be ungrateful, if, though they have the right to prohibit, they allow the unhappy race to be entangled in so many penalties and calamities. 2. But perhaps they say something weighty, and not what ought to be taken up by ears that are deceptive, light, and contemning. 3. Which parts, however, since the matter is of excessively long and much discourse, we pass over unexplained and untouched, content to have set down only this: that you attach dishonorable rumors to your gods, if you deny that they otherwise furnish the things that are good and turn aside what is inimical, unless first they have been bought with the blood of she-goats and of sheep, and with the other things that are applied to altars.

4. Indignum enim primum est, ut illa vis numinum sublimitasque caelestium beneficia credatur sua habere venalia, prius sumere atque ita praestare; tum quod foedius multo est, nisi acceperint, prodesse nulli perpetiquemiserrimos discriminum subire fortunas, cum prohibere possint ac subvenire. 5. Si ex duobus facientibus res sacras nocens unus et locuples, alter angusto lare sed innocentia fuerit et probitate laudabilis, centum ille | f. 140 | caedat boves totidemque cum agniculis suis matres, thus pauper exiguum et odoris alicuius unam concremet glebulam: nonne erit consequens ut debeat credi, si modo nihil numina nisi praemiis antecedentibus praestant, ut favorem suum commodent locupleti, avertant a pauperculo lumina, quem restrictum non animus sed familiaris rei necessitas fecit? 6. Ubi enim venalis et mercennarius dator est, ibi necesse est gratiam pro magnitudine muneris tribui et eo inclinare suffragium, unde ad eum qui praestat mercedis plus multo et indecorae corruptionis adfluxerit.

4. For in the first place it is unworthy that that force of the numina and the sublimity of the celestials be believed to have their benefactions venal, to take first and thus to bestow; then—which is much more foul—that unless they have received, they benefit no one and allow themost wretched to undergo the fortunes of crises, though they can prevent and succor. 5. If, out of two performing sacred rites, the one be guilty and wealthy, the other of a narrow hearth but laudable for innocence and probity, let the former | f. 140 | slaughter a hundred oxen and as many mothers with their little lambs, while the poor man burns a scant bit of incense and a single little clod of some fragrance: will it not follow that it ought to be believed—if indeed the numina grant nothing except upon antecedent rewards—that they lend their favor to the man of means, turn their eyes away from the poor little one, whom constraint has been made not by spirit but by the necessity of his household means? 6. For where the giver is venal and mercenary, there it is necessary that favor be allotted in proportion to the magnitude of the gift, and that the suffrage incline thither whence there has flowed to him who dispenses much more of hire and of unseemly corruption.

7. "Quid?". - Si populi rursus duo hostilibus dissidentes armis sacrificiis paribus superorum locupletalo verint aras alterque in alterum postulent vires sibi atque auxilium commodari: nonne iterum necesse est credi, si praemiis sollicitantur ut prosint, eos partes inter utrasque debere haesitare, defigi nec repperire quid faciant, cum suas intellegant gratias sacrorum acceptionibus obligatas? 8. Aut enim auxilia hinc et inde praestabunt, id quod fieri non potest; pugnabunt enim contra ipsos se ipsi, contra suas gratias voluntatesque nitentur: aut ambobus populis opem subministrare cessabunt; id quod sceleris magni est post inpensam acceptamque mercedem. 9. Itaque ergo ab diis longe infamia est ista tota pellenda neque est omnino dicendum praemiis eos ac mercedibus allici, bonas ut res conferant dimoveantque contrarias, si modo dii veri sunt atque in nominis huius exceptione ponendi.

7. "What?" - If two peoples again, dissenting with hostile arms, have enriched the altars of the supernal ones with equal sacrifices, and each against the other demands that forces and assistance be lent to themselves: is it not again necessary to believe, if they are solicited by rewards in order to benefit, that they must hesitate between the two parties, be fixed and not find what they should do, since they understand their favors bound by the acceptances of sacred rites? 8. For either they will furnish auxiliaries on this side and on that—that which cannot be; for they will fight against themselves, they themselves against themselves, they will strive against their own favors and wills—or they will cease to supply help to both peoples; which is a great wickedness after the expenditure and the received fee. 9. And so, therefore, this whole infamy is to be driven far from the gods, nor is it at all to be said that they are allured by rewards and fees to confer good things and to remove contraries, if only they are true gods and ought to be placed under the designation of this name.

| f. 140b | 10. Aut enim fato fiunt quaecumque fiunt, et ambitionis et gratiae nullus locus in diis est: aut si excluditur et eicitur fatum, non est superae dignitatis boni operis favores et conlatas munificentias venditare.

| f. 140b | 10. For either whatever things happen happen by fate, and there is no place for ambition and favor among the gods: or, if fate is excluded and cast out, it is not of supernal dignity to vend the favors of good work and the conferred munificences.

13.1. Satis ut opinor ostendimus frustra diis immortalibus hostias rebus cum consequentibus admoveri, quod neque alantur his neque ullam percipiant voluptatem neque iras aut animos ponant, neque ut res tribuant faustas neque ut abigant averruncentquecontrarias.2. Sequitur ut illam quoque inspiciamus partem quae ab nonnullis consueta est adseri et causis caerimonialibus adplicari. 3. Aiunt enim sacra haec honorandis esse instituta caelestibus, et ea quod faciant, honoris ergo facere et his numinum potentias auctitare. 4. - Quid?

13.1. Enough, as I think, we have shown that victims, together with their consequents, are brought to the immortal gods in vain, since neither are they nourished by these nor do they perceive any pleasure, nor do they lay down wraths or dispositions, nor either to bestow auspicious things or to drive away and averruncate thecontrary.2. It follows that we should also examine that part which by some is wont to be asserted and to be applied to ceremonial causes. 3. For they say that these sacred rites were instituted for honoring the celestials, and that what they do, they do for the sake of honor, and by these to augment the powers of the numina. 4. - What?

si similiter dicant evigilare sese atque dormire, deambulare subsistere, conscribere aliquid et lectitare, ut honorem dis habeant et dignitatibus eos faciant ampliores? 5. Quid enim cruore de pecorum, quid sacrorum confectione de cetera superadditur his rei, quid adponitur atque adicitur potestatis? 6. Etenim honos omnis qui haberi ab aliquo dicitur et reverentiae potioris adtribui relativi est ad alterum generis et constans partibus duabus, ex concessione tribuentis et amplificatione sumentis.

if they should likewise say that they keep vigil and also sleep, walk about and stand still, conscribe something and read it over, so that they may have honor for the gods and make them ampler in dignities? 5. For what, indeed, by the gore of cattle, what by the making of sacred rites, is superadded to them of reality; what is set on and added of power? 6. For every honor which is said to be had from someone and to be attributed as a superior reverence is relative to another of the kind and consists of two parts, from the concession of the one bestowing and the amplification of the one receiving.

7. Ut si quispiam viso potentissimi nominis atque auctoritatis viro via decedat, adgurgat, caput revelet vehiculoque desiliat, tum deinde salutet adclinis, ancillatum servuli pavibundis trepidationibus imitatus; video | f. 141 | quid agatur in huiusmodi honorationis officio: summissione alterius datur alteri plurimum efficiturque ut videatur magnus quem suspectio minoris eatulerit et suis anteposuerit rebus.

7. As, for instance, if someone, at the sight of a man of most potent name and authority, should step aside from the road, gather himself up, uncover his head, and leap down from his vehicle, then thereafter salute him while inclined, playing the maidservant, aping a little slave with fear-stricken flutters; I see | f. 141 | what is being done in the office of such an honoring: by the submission of the one, much is given to the other, and it is brought about that he seem great whom the deference of the lesser has exalted and set before his own affairs.

14.1. Sed concessio haec omnis et honoris de qua loquimur attributio solis habet in hominibus sedem, quos naturalis infirmitas et amor in altioribus standi docet gaudere de fastibus et aliorum comparationibus anteponi. 2. At, quaero, in superis ubi est honoris locus, vel quas eis eminentias addier sacrorum ea confectionibus invenitur? 3. Augustiores, potentiores mactatis pecudibus fiunt, additur illis ea hoc quicquam, aut esse dii magis divinitate occipiunt ampliat?

14.1. But all this concession and the attribution of honor of which we speak has its seat only among human beings, whom natural infirmity and a love of standing in higher places teach to rejoice in haughtiness and to be set before others by comparisons. 2. But, I ask, among the supernal beings where is there any place for honor, or what eminences are found to be added to them by those completions of sacred rites? 3. Do they become more august, more potent, by slaughtered cattle? Is anything by this added to them, or does their being gods begin to be enlarged in divinity?

4. Atqui ego contumeliae proximum, quinimmo esse plenam contumeliam iudico, cum honorari ab homine deus dicitur et muneris alicuius oblatione mactari. 5. Etenim si honos auget eiusque adcumulat dignitatem cui fuerit attributus, sequitur ut auctior deus fiat ab homine, a quo fuerit munere et honoris conlatione donatus: atque ita perducitur res eo ut inferior deus sit qui honoribus mactatur humanis, homo vero sublimiar qui auget potentiam numinis.

4. And yet I judge it next to contumely—nay rather, to be full contumely—when a god is said to be honored by a man and to be sacrificed by the oblation of some gift. 5. For if honor increases and heaps up the dignity of him to whom it has been attributed, it follows that the god becomes more augmented by the man by whom he has been endowed with a gift and a conferment of honor; and thus the matter is brought to this point, that the god is inferior who is sacrificed with human honors, but the man more exalted, who augments the power of the divinity.

15.1. "Quid ergo, inquiet aliquis, honorem diis dandum nullum esse omnino censetis?". - Si deos nobis proponitis tales, quales, si sunt, debent esse, quosque dicere nos omnes in istius nominis praedicatione sentimus: quemadmodum possumus honorem his non habere vel maximum, cum etiam homines colere potentioribus | f. 141b | acceperimus imperiis, cuiuscumque ordinis fuerint, cuiuscumque fortunae? 2. "Quisnam iste est maximus?". - Officiosior multo quam habetur a vobis et potentiore in genere constitutus. 3. "Dicite, inquitis, quae sit opinio de dis [primum] digna, recta et honesta nec turpitudinis alicuius deformitate culpabilis". - ut neque illos credas quicquam hominis habere consimile nec quicquam expectare quod sit ab se foris atque eatrinsecus veniens, tunc quod saepius dictum est, non ardescere irarum flammis, non gestire corporea voluptate, non exambiri ut prosint praemiis, non ut noceant proritari, benignitatem et gratiam non habere venalem, non gaudere honore conlato, non indignari et adfici non dato, sed quod rei divinae est proprium, sua se vi nosse nec se alienis adulationibus aestimare.

15.1. "What then," someone objects, "do you judge that absolutely no honor at all is to be given to the gods?" - If you set before us gods such as, if they are, they ought to be, and such as we all feel that we mean to say in the predication of that name: how can we not have for these even the greatest honor, since we have learned also to revere men more powerful | f. 141b | with their commands, of whatever order they may be, of whatever fortune? 2. "Which, pray, is this greatest?" - Far more full of dutiful service than is held by you, and constituted in a more potent genus. 3. "Say," you insist, "what opinion about the gods is first worthy, right, and honorable, and not blameworthy by the deformity of any turpitude." - that you believe them to have nothing similar to a human being, nor to expect anything that is outside themselves and comes from without; then, as has been said more often, not to blaze with the flames of angers, not to exult in corporeal pleasure, not to be bought so as to benefit by rewards, not to be spurred so as to harm, not to have benignity and grace for sale, not to rejoice in conferred honor, not to be indignant and affected if it is not given, but—what is proper to the divine reality—to know themselves by their own power and not to value themselves by others’ adulations.

4. Et tamen, ut videamus istud quod dicitur quale sit, quod est istud honoris genus, vervecem arietem taurum dei sub ore conectere conspectuque in eius occidere? Quod est honoris genus, deum invitare ad sanguinem, quem cum canibus videas eum sumere atque habere communem? Quod est honoris genus, lignorum structibus incensis caelum fumo subtexere et effigies numinum nigrore oiauscare ferali?

4. And yet, that we may see what this thing is which is said—what kind of honor is this: to bind a wether, a ram, a bull beneath the god’s mouth and to slay it in his very sight? What kind of honor is it to invite a god to blood, which you may see him take together with the dogs and have in common with them? What kind of honor is it, when the piles of wood are set ablaze, to veil the sky with smoke and to obscure the effigies of the numina with funereal blackness?

5. Quod si ea quae fiunt propria vi pendere, non ante sumptis placet opinionibus aestimari, arae istae quas dicitis altariaque haec pulchra infelicissimi animalium generis ustrinae, rogi sunt et busticeta in opus structa foedissimum atque in sedem fabricata faetorum.

5. But if it is pleasing that the things which are done be weighed by their own proper force, and not judged beforehand by opinions assumed in advance, those altars which you speak of, and these fair high-altars, are crematories of the most unfortunate race of animals—pyres and graveyards—built for the most foul work and fashioned into a seat of stenches.

.16.1. Quid dicitis, o isti? Ergone ille putor qui ea coriis tollitur atque expirat ardentibus, | f. 142 | qui ex ossibus, qui ex saetis, ex agnorum lanitiis gallinarumque de plumis, dei munus et honor est, mactanturque hoc illi quorum templa cum adire disponitis, ab omni vos labe puros, lautos castissimosque praestatis? 2. Et quid esse his potest coinquinatius infelicius spurcius, quam si ita facti sunt sensus sui natura, ut in amoribus habeant tam saeva sintque illis in voluptate putores, quos neque ipsi sacrificantes ferre nec ingenuae sustinere tractos valeant per spiritum nares?

.16.1. What do you say, O you there? So then that putrid stench which is lifted from and breathes out of those hides as they burn, | f. 142 | which from the bones, which from the bristles, from the fleeces of lambs and from the feathers of hens, is a god’s gift and honor, and is it with this that those are honored (by sacrifice), whose temples, when you decide to approach them, you present yourselves pure from every stain, laved and most chaste? 2. And what can be more contaminated, more infelicitous, more filthy than this: that their senses are so made by their nature, that in their loves they have, and in their pleasure there are for them, such savage stenches as neither they themselves, sacrificing, can endure, nor can freeborn noses sustain, when drawn in through the breath?

3. Quodsi animantium cruore honorari et adfici superorum animos existimatis, cur non eis et mulos et elephantos mactatis et asinosa cur non et canes, ursos et vulpes, camellos et belbas et leones? 4. Et quoniam volucres hostiarum quoque in numeris ponitis, cur non vulturios aquilas ciconias inmussilos buteones corvos accipitres noctuas cumque illis salamandras natrices viperas solifugas? 5. Nempe subest et his sanguis et consimili ratione vitali agitantur spiritu.

3. But if you suppose that with the blood of living beings the minds of the gods are to be honored and gratified, why do you not slaughter for them mules and elephants and—asses, why not also dogs—bears and foxes, camels and wild beasts and lions? 4. And since you also place winged creatures among the numbers of victims, why not vultures, eagles, storks, kites, buzzards, crows, hawks, owls, and along with them salamanders, water-snakes, vipers, solifuges? 5. Surely blood is present in these as well, and they are animated by vital spirit according to a similar rationale.

Quid in illis maioris est operis aut sollertiae in his minus, ut ista non augeant, superorum illa amplificent dignitatem? 6. "Quia rebus ex his, inquit, deos par est honorare caelestes, quibus ipsi alimur, sustentamur et vivimus et quas nobis ad victum sui numinis tribuere benignitate dignati sunt". 7. - Sed et cuminum nasturcium rapa bulbos apium carduos radices cucurbitas rutam mentam ocimum puleium porrumque sectivum idem tribuere dii vobis esseque in usibus vestris alimoniarum in parte iusserunt. Quid ergo cessatis altaribus et haec dare rebusque his omnibus conilam superspergere bubulam et acrimonias intermiscere ceparum?

What is there of greater work in those, or of less skill in these, that these do not augment, while those amplify the dignity of the supernal ones? 6. "Because with things of this sort," he says, "it is fitting to honor the celestial gods, by which we ourselves are nourished, sustained, and live, and which they have deigned by their benignity to bestow upon us for sustenance from their own numen." 7. - But cumin, nasturtium, turnips, bulbs, celery, thistles, roots, gourds, rue, mint, basil, pennyroyal, and the cut-leek (chive) the gods likewise have granted to you and have ordered to be in your uses as a part of nutriments. Why then do you not also give these to the altars, and over all these things sprinkle cunila (savory), beef drippings, and intermingle the acrimonies of onions?

VII.17.1. Ecce, | f. 142b | si vos canes - necesse est enim quaedam fingi, perspici ut liquidius res possint - si, inquam, canes et asini, si motacillae cum his simul, si hirundines garrulae pariterque cum his porci sensu aliquo humanitatis accepto deos putarent atque existimarent vos esse sacraque vobis intenderent honoris ergo facere, non ex materiis aliis aliisque de rebus sedquibus ali moris est illis et naturali adpetitione fulciri audire a vobis exposcimus, utrumne hunc honorem an contumeliam potius esse iudicaretis amplissimam, cum hirundines vobis muscas, motacillae caederent consecrarentque formiculas, cum altaribus vestris darent asini faenum paleasque libarent, cum inponerent canes ossa et humani stercoris proluviem concremarent, cum ad ultimum porculi caenum vobis profunderent ex volutabris horrentibus, lutosis et voraginibus sumptum? Ita ergo non despui vestras inflammaremini dignitates stercoribus que vos accipi inter atroces conputaretis iniurias? 2. "Sed taurorum corporibus honoratis vos deos et aliorum animantium caedibus". - Et quid hoc ab illo differt, cum et ipsa si nondum, mota tamen futura sint stercora et exigui temporis contracta interiectione putescant?

7.17.1. Behold, | f. 142b | if dogs—for certain things must needs be feigned, so that matters can be seen more lucidly—if, I say, dogs and asses, if wagtails together with them, if chattering swallows and, along with these, swine, having received some sensation of humanity, should think gods and reckon you to be such, and should direct sacred rites to you to do in order to confer honor, not from other materials and from other sorts of things, but from those by which it is the custom for them to be nourished and to be supported by natural appetition, we ask to hear from you whether you would judge this to be a very great honor, or rather a most ample contumely: when swallows should give you flies, when wagtails should smite and consecrate little ants, when asses should give hay to your altars and should libate chaff, when dogs should lay on bones and burn together a deluge of human excrement, when at the last piglets should pour out for you filth taken from horrid, muddy wallowings and sinkholes. Would you not thus blaze up that your dignities are spat upon with dung, and reckon that you are receiving this among atrocious injuries? 2. “But you honor the gods with the bodies of bulls and with the slaughters of other living creatures.” — And how does this differ from that, since even these, if not yet dung, yet once set in motion are destined to be dung, and, with the interposition of a brief time, contracted, they putrefy?

3. Denique desinite supponere aris ignem: iam profectocernitis viscera illa taurorum sacra, quibus honor a vobis auctificatur deorum, fervescere vermibus et fluctuare, vitiare et corrumpere statum caeli et ea odoribus morbidis regiones consauciare vicinas; quam si vobis praecipiant dii curam vestram in valetudinem vertere, prandia inde | f. 143 | vel cenas sollemni ea more conficere, longe fugiatis execratique odoris genus veniam poscatis a superis facturos que vos eis numquam talia sacra iuretis. 4. Ita istud non ludere est, non confiteri, non pandere, quid sit deus nescire nec cui potentiae debeat nominis huius vis subdi appellatio que supponi? 5. Cibis novis auctificatis deos, nidoribus cohonestatis et suci<di>s, et quia vobis iucunda et grata sunt ea quae vos alunt, deos etiam creditis in eorum adfluere voluptates, latratorum et canum ritu offis saevitias ponere atque adludere porrigentibus saepius?

3. Finally, cease placing fire beneath the altars: now indeed youperceive those sacred entrails of bulls, by which the honor of the gods is augmented by you, to seethe with worms and to heave, to vitiate and corrupt the condition of the sky and to infect the neighboring regions with morbid odors; which, if the gods should bid you to turn your care toward health, to make from them lunches | f. 143 | or dinners in that solemn manner, you would flee far away and, execrating that kind of stench, would ask pardon from the supernal powers and would swear that you will never do such rites for them. 4. Thus is that not to trifle, to confess, to lay open that one does not know what a god is, nor under what potency the force of this name ought to be subjected and the appellation to be applied? 5. With new foods you augment the gods, you grace them with the reeks of roasting and with drippings, and because those things which nourish you are pleasant and pleasing to you, you also believe the gods to be carried away by their pleasures, after the rite of barkers and dogs to lay aside their savageries for bones and to play when these are often proffered?

18.1. Et quoniam nobis in manibus hostiarum sermo versatur, quae causa, quae ratio est, ut cum dii inmortales - sint enim et per nos licet quicumque esse creduntur - sint uniussententiae vel unius debeant esse naturae, generis et qualitatis unius, non omnibus omnes hostiis sed quibusdam quidam sacrorum mulceantur e legibus? 2. Quae est enim causa, requiram ut eadem rursus, ut ille tauris deus, haedis alius honoretur aut ovibus, hic lactentibus porculis, alter intonsis agnis, hic virginibus bubulis, capris ille cornutis, hic sterilibus vacculis, at ille incientibus scrofis, hic albentibus, ille taetris, alter feminei generis, alter vero animantibus masculinis? 3. Si enim honoris et reverentiae causa mactantur dis hostiae, quid refert aut interest, cuius animalis e capite luatur hoc debitum, cuius ira offensioque ponatur?

18.1. And since our discourse about victims is in hand, what cause, what rationale is there, that although the immortal gods — for indeed even by our leave whoever are believed to exist do exist — are of onesententia or ought to be of one nature, of one genus and quality, not all are soothed by all victims, but certain ones by certain sacred rites according to the statutes? 2. For what is the cause, I ask again the same, that that god is honored with bulls, another with kids or with sheep, this one with suckling piglets, another with unshorn lambs, this one with virgin heifers, that one with horned goats, this one with barren little cows, but that one with sows that are conceiving, this one with white ones, that one with dark ones, one with animals of the female kind, but another with creatures of the male sex? 3. For if victims are slaughtered for the sake of honor and reverence to the gods, what does it matter or make a difference from the head of which animal this debt is paid, whose wrath and offense are laid aside?

An numquid alterius alteri minus gratior et iucundior sanguis est, alteri vero alterius voluptatem infundit et gaudium? Aut, ut fieri moris est, observationis alicuius | f. 143b | et religionis metu ille caprina abstinet se carne, porcinum alius execratur attactum, huic ovilla fetulenta sunt viscera, ac ne stomachum fatiget invalidum, hic bubulam duritiem vitat et lactentium lenitatem, quo digerat expeditius, sumit?

Or is perhaps the blood of one to one less gratifying and less jocund, while to another the blood of another pours in voluptuousness and joy? Or, as is wont to be the custom, by fear of some observance | f. 143b | and religion that man abstains from caprine flesh, another execrates the touch of porcine flesh, to this man ovine entrails are fetid, and, lest he fatigue a feeble stomach, this one avoids the hardness of beef and takes the tenderness of sucklings, in order that he may digest more expeditiously?

19.1. "Sed erras, inquit, et laberis: nam dis feminis feminas, mares maribus hostias immolare abstrusa et interior ratio est vulgique a cognitione dimota". - Non inquiro, non exigo, quid sacrorum praecipiant vel quid contineant leges; sed si vicerit ratio atque obtinuerit veritas, differentiam generum nullam in diis esse neque ullis sexibus eos esse discretos, nonne solvi necesse est [nonne] rationes has omnes et stultissimis creditas opinationibus comprobari, inveniri? 2.Sapientium virorum non advocabo sententias, qui risum nequeunt continere, cum discrimina sexuum diis audiunt immortalibus attributa: unoquoque ab hominum quaero, an ipse apud se credat sibique ipse persuadeat, distinctum esse deorum genus, mares ac feminas hos esse et ad generandos fetus convenientium membrorum dispositione formatos? 3. Sed si sexibus sexus pares, id est feminas feminis, mares autem hostias dis maribus immolari sacrificiorum iura praescribunt: quae in coloribusratio est, ut merito his albas, illis atras conveniat nigerrimasque mactari?4. "Quia superis diis, inquit, atque ominum dexteritate pollentibus color laetus acceptus est ac felix hilaritate candoris, at vero diis laevis sedesque habitantibus inferas color furvus est gratior et tristibus suffectus e fucis". 5. - Sed si rursus optinuerit | f. 144 | ratio, inferorum penitus cassum esse nomen et vacuum neque ulla sub terris regna esse domiciliaque Plutonia opinionem necesse est id quoque frustrari quam super atris pecudibus habetis divisque subterreis.

19.1. "But you err, he says, and you slip: for that to goddesses female, to gods male victims be immolated is an abstruse and inner rationale, removed from the cognition of the vulgus." - I do not inquire, I do not exact, what the precepts of the sacred rites or what the laws contain; but if reason shall have conquered and truth prevailed, that there is no difference of kinds among the gods nor are they distinguished by any sexes, must it not needs be that all these rationales be dissolved and be found to be approved by most foolish opinions, believed by them? 2. I will not call in the sententiae of wise men, who cannot contain their laughter when they hear distinctions of sexes attributed to immortal gods: I ask of each one of men whether he himself believes within himself and persuades himself that the race of the gods is distinguished, that these are males and females and formed with a disposition of members suitable for generating offspring. 3. But if the rites of sacrifices prescribe sexes to be matched with sexes, that is, females to female deities, but male victims to male gods: what is the rationale in colors,that with good reason white ones befit these, but black and the blackest be slaughtered for those?4. "Because for the supernal gods, he says, and for those excelling in the right-handedness of omens, a cheerful color is acceptable and fortunate with the hilarity of whiteness; but for the left-hand gods and those inhabiting infernal seats a dusky color is more pleasing and tinged with sad dyes." 5. - But if again | f. 144 | reason shall have prevailed, that the name of the infernal ones is utterly empty and void and that there are no realms beneath the earth nor Plutonian dwellings, it is necessary that that opinion also be frustrated which you hold concerning black cattle and the subterranean gods.

6. Quodsi inferi nulli sunt, deos etiam Manium necesse est esse nullos. Fieri enim qui potest, ut cum loca sint nulla, eorum quae non sunt ulli perhibeantur esse cultores?

6. But if the infernal ones are none, it is necessary that the gods of the Manes likewise be none. For how can it come to pass that, when there are no places, there should be maintained to be any worshippers of things which are not?

20.1. Sed adsentiamur, ut vultis, et esse inferos et esse Manes et habitare nescio quos in his deos ominibus minus faustos et tristioribus praepositos rebus. Et quae causa, quae ratio est, ut atrae his hostiae nigerrimique admoveantur coloris? 2. "Quia nigra nigris conveniunt et tristia consimilibus grata sunt". - Quid ergo?

20.1. But let us assent, as you wish, that the infernal realms exist and that the Manes exist, and that I-know-not-what gods dwell among them, set over omens less auspicious and matters more gloomy. And what cause, what rationale is there, that black victims, of the blackest color, are brought near to these? 2. "Because black things suit black things, and gloomy things are pleasing to their similars." - What then?

non videtis, ut vobiscum et nos stolide similiter que ludamus, albas esse hostiarum carnes ossa dentes pinguitias omenta cum cerebris mollesque in ossilaus medullas? 3. "Sed vellera nigra sunt nigraeque animantium saetae". - Solas ergo immolate diis lanas vulsasque ex hostiis saetulas, relinquite infelicissimas pecudes spoliatas licet ac tonsas caeli animam ducere et pastibus innocentissimas incubare. 4. Quodsi grata numinibus inferis ea quae sunt nigra furvique existimatis coloris, cur non omnia cetera, quae illorum inferre sacrificiis moris est, sint nigra et fumigata taetreque ut colorata curatis?

do you not see, so that we too may play foolishly in like manner along with you, that the flesh of the victims is white, the bones, the teeth, the fatnesses, the cauls with the brains, and the soft marrows in the ossicles? 3. "But the fleeces are black and the bristles of living creatures are black." - Then sacrifice to the gods only the wools and the little bristles plucked from the victims; leave the most unfortunate flocks, though despoiled and shorn, to draw the breath of heaven and to lie upon the most innocent pastures. 4. But if you reckon as pleasing to the infernal numina those things which are black and of a swart color, why are not all the other things which it is the custom to bring into their sacrifices black and smoked, and why do you not take care that they be hideously, as it were, colored?

5. Inficite thura, si dantur, salsas fruges atque universa libamina; lacti oleo sanguini, hic ponat ut purpureum colorem, illa ab ut sint lurida, fuliginem infundite cum favillis. | f. 144b | Quod si vobis religio nulla est alba quaedam inferre et suos retinentia candores, ipsi vestras religiones rationesque dissolvitis, cum sacrorum in opere nihil unum perpetuumque servatis.

5. Stain the incense, if they are offered, the salted grains and all the libations; into the milk, the oil, the blood—pour in soot with cinders, let this set a purple color, let those be lurid. | f. 144b | But if for you there is no religious scruple to bring in certain white things, retaining their own candors, you yourselves dissolve your religions and rationales, since in the work of the sacred rites you observe nothing uniform and perpetual.

21.1. Sed et illud hoc loco consentaneum est ex vobis addiscere. Si caper caedatur Iovi, quem patri sollemne est Libero Mercurioque mactari, aut bos si sterilis Vnxiae, quam Proserpinae tribui Tusco ritu atque observatione praecipitur, quid facinoris in hoc erit, quid malorum scelerisve contractum, cum nihil intersit obsequii, cuius animalis e capite honorarium istud debitum compleatur? 2. "Confundi haec, inquit, fas non est nec piaculi parvi est officia rituum procurationemque miscere". - Causam, oro, edissere.

21.1. But this too it is consistent in this place to learn from you. If a he-goat be slain to Jupiter, which it is customary to immolate to Father Liber and to Mercury, or if a sterile cow be offered to Unxia, which by Tuscan rite and observance is prescribed to be assigned to Proserpina, what crime will there be in this, what of evils or wickedness will have been contracted, since in the service it makes no difference from the head of which animal that due honor-offering be completed? 2. "That these be confounded, he says, is not lawful, nor is it a fault of small expiation to mix the offices of rites and the procuration." - Set forth the cause, I pray.

3. "Quia generis certi hostias certis ius est consecrare numinibus certaque et supplicamenta praestari". - Et quae iterum causa est, ut generis certi hostias certis ius sit consecrare numinibus certaque et supplicamenta praestari? Et hoc enim ius ipsum debet habere suam causam certisque ab rationibus exoriri, duci. 4. Antiquitatem consuetudinemque dicturus es? - Hominum mihi scita pronuntias et caeci animalis inventa: ego autem, cum postulo causam mihi depromi, audire desidero aut caelo aliquid lapsum aut quod magis res poscit, quid adplicitum Iuppiter ad tauri habeat sanguinem, ut ei debeat immolari, non debeat Mercurio, Libero?

3. "Because it is the ius that victims of a certain kind be consecrated to certain numina, and that certain supplications likewise be rendered." - And what again is the cause, that it should be the ius that victims of a certain kind be consecrated to certain numina and that certain supplications likewise be rendered? For this very ius itself ought to have its own cause and to arise and be derived from certain reasons. 4. Will you say antiquity and custom? - You are pronouncing to me the ordinances of men and the inventions of a blind animal: but I, when I demand that a cause be drawn out for me, desire to hear either something fallen from heaven or, as the matter more requires, what attachment Jupiter has to the blood of the bull, such that it ought to be immolated to him, and ought not to Mercury, to Liber?

5. Aut natura quae capri est, ut his rursus adcommoda, Iovialibus conveniens sacrificiis non sit? 6. Animalium facta est inter deos divisio? transactionis alicuius pactione convenit, ut ille contineret | f. 145 | ab huius se hostia, hic ut usurpare desineret alieni sanguinis iura?

5. Or what is the goat’s nature, that, though in turn adapted to these, it should not be convenient to Jovial sacrifices? 6. Has there been made among the gods a division of animals? Was it agreed by the pact of some transaction, that that one should restrain himself | f. 145 | from this one’s victim, and that this one should cease to usurp the rights of another’s blood?

7. An ut zelotypi pusiones communicare gustatum suarum pecudum nolunt, aut ut gentibus fieri moris diversissimi fama est, quae habentur his esui, aliarum eadem reiciuntur a victibus?

7. Or is it as jealous little boys are unwilling to share the tasting of their flocks, or, as the report goes, among peoples of the most diverse custom, the things which by these are held for eating, the same are rejected from the victuals of others?

22.1. Ergo si haec cassa sunt nec rationis alicuius habentia firmitatem, sacrificiorum et ipsa inanis est ratio. Etenim qui potis est habere idoneam id quod sequitur causam, cum ipsum illud primum, a quo defluit secundum, inanissimum esse repperiatur et vacuum et nulla soliditate firmatum? 2. "Telluri, inquiunt, matri scrofa inciens immolatur et feta, at Minervae virgini virgo caeditur vitula, nullis umquam stimulis nullius operis excitata conatus". - Atquin nos arbitramur nec virginem virgini oportuisse mactari, ne virginitas violaretur in pecude, qua dea plurimum pollet, nec Telluri gravidas atque fetas obhonorem fecunditatis ipsius, quam cuncti expetimus et optamus inextinguibili semper fecunditate procedere.

22.1. Therefore, if these things are void and having no firmness of any reason, the rationale of sacrifices itself also is empty. For how can that which follows have a suitable cause, when that very first thing, from which the second flows down, is found to be most empty and void and established by no solidity? 2. “To Tellus, they say, the mother, a sow in labor and with young is immolated; but to Minerva the virgin, a virgin heifer is cut down, never by any goads roused to the endeavors of any work.” - And yet we judge that neither ought a virgin to have been slaughtered to a virgin, lest virginity be violated in the beast, in which the goddess most greatly prevails, nor to Tellus should the pregnant and those with young be slain on account of the honor of fecundity itself, which we all seek and desire to proceed always with inextinguishable fecundity.

3. Nam si, quia virgo Tritonia est, idcirco ei convenit virgines hostias immolari, et quod Tellus est mater, consimiliter gravidis accipienda est scrofis, ergo et musicis Apollo, quod musicus, et quod medicus Aesculapius, medicis, et quod faber Vulcanus est, fabris, et quod Mercurius eloquens, eloquentibus debet disertissimisque mactari. 4. Quodsi dicere istud insanum est aut ut mediocriter pronuntiem brutum, multo illud maioris amentiae est, fetas iugulare Telluri, quod sit fetibus gravior, Minervae castas et virgines, quia ¡D sit | f. 145b | pura, virginitatis intactae.

3. For if, because Tritonia is a virgin, therefore it is fitting that virgin victims be immolated to her, and because Tellus is a mother, similarly she must be propitiated with pregnant sows; then, likewise, Apollo, because he is musical, must be sacrificed to by musicians, and Aesculapius, because he is a physician, by physicians, and Vulcan, because he is a smith, by smiths, and Mercury, because he is eloquent, ought to be sacrificed to by the eloquent and the most articulate. 4. But if to say this is insane, or, to pronounce more moderately, brutish, by much it is a matter of greater madness to butcher the pregnant for Tellus, because she is the more burdened with offspring, and to Minerva chaste maidens and virgins, because ¡D is | f. 145b | pure, of untouched virginity.

23.1. Nam quod dici a vobis accipimus, esse quosdam ex diis bonos, alios autem malos et ad nocendi libidinem promptiores, illisque ut prosint, his vero ne noceant sacrorum sollemnia ministrari, quanam istud ratione dicatur, intellegere confitemur nos non posse. 2. Nam deos benignissimos dicere lenesque habere naturas, et sanctum et religiosum et verum est, malos autem et laevos, nequaquam sumendum est auribus, ideo quoniam divina illa vis ab nocendi procul est dimota et disiuncta natura. 3. Quicquid autem potis est causam calamitatis inferre, quid sit primum videndum est et ab dei nomine longissima debet differitate seponi.

23.1. For as to what we receive as said by you, that there are certain among the gods good, but others evil and more prompt to the libido of harming, and that to those the solemnities of sacrifices are ministered that they may benefit, but to these lest they harm—by what reason that is said, we confess that we are not able to understand. 2. For to say that the gods most benign and gentle have natures is holy and religious and true; but that they are evil and ill-omened is by no means to be admitted to the ears, for that divine force is by nature far removed and sundered from harming. 3. Whatever, however, is able to bring in a cause of calamity, it must first be seen what it is, and it ought to be set apart from the name of a god by the farthest difference.

4. Itaque ut vobis commodemus adsensum, destrarum sinistrarumque rerum deos esse fautores, ulla nec sic ratio est, cur alios alliciatis ad prospera, alios vero ne noceant sacrificiis conmulceatis et praemiis: primum quod di boni male non queunt facere, etiam si nullo fuerint honore mactati; quicquid enim mite est placidumque natura, ab nocendi procul est usu et cogitatione discretum: malus vero conprimere suam ferociam nescit, quamvis gregibus mille et mille alliciatur altaribus. 5. Neque enim in dulcedinem vertere amaritudo se potest aut ariditas in umorem, calor ignis in frigora aut quod rei cuicumque contrarium est id quod sibi contrarium est in suam sumere atque inmutare naturam. 6. Ut si manu viperam mulceas, venenato blandiaris aut scorpio, petat illa te morsu, hiccontractus aculeum figat, nihilque illa prosit adlusio, | f. 146 | cum ad nocendum res ambae non stimulis exagitentur irarum sed quadam proprietate naturae: ita nihil prodest promereri velle per hostias deos laevos, cum sive illud feceris sive contra non feceris agant <secundum> suam naturam et ad ea quae factitant ingenitis legibus et quadam necessitate ducantur.

4. And so, that we may accommodate you with assent, that there are gods as favorers of right-hand and left-hand matters, not even so is there any reason why you allure some toward prosperities, but others you soothe with sacrifices and rewards lest they harm: first, because good gods cannot do evil, even if they have been accorded no honor of sacrifice; for whatever is mild and placid by nature is far removed from the use and the thought of harming; but an evil one does not know how to compress his ferocity, although he be enticed by herds by the thousand and the thousand to the altars. 5. For bitterness cannot turn itself into sweetness, nor dryness into moisture, the heat of fire into cold, nor can that which is contrary to any thing take up and change into its own nature that which is contrary to itself. 6. As, if with your hand you stroke a viper, or you try to coax the venomous scorpion, that one will assail you with a bite, this one,contracted, will plant its sting, and that dalliance will profit nothing, | f. 146 | since for harming both creatures are driven not by the goads of angers but by a certain property of nature: thus it avails nothing to wish to win over by victims the sinister gods, since whether you do that or, on the contrary, do not do it, they act <secundum> their nature and are led to the things which they practice by inborn laws and by a certain necessity.

7. Quid quod isto modo utrique dii desinunt esse suis in viribus et suis in qualitatibus permanere. 8. Nam si bonis ut prosint res divina conficitur, malis autem ne noceant isdem rationibus supplicatur, sequitur ut intellegi debeat, nihil dexteros profuturos nulla si acceperint munera fierique ex hoc malos, malos autem si acceperint nocendi posituros mentem fierique ea hoc bonos: atque ita perducitur res eo ut neque hi deateri neque illi sint ]aevi aut, quod fieri non potest, utrique ipsi sint deateri et utrique iterum laevi.

7. What of the fact that in this way both kinds of gods cease to remain in their own powers and to abide in their own qualities. 8. For if, in order that the good may be of benefit, the divine rite is accomplished, and, in order that the bad may not harm, by the same methods supplication is offered, it follows that it ought to be understood that the right-handed will profit nothing if they have received no gifts and from this become bad, but that the bad, if they have received them, will set aside the intention of harming and from this become good: and so the matter is brought to this point, that neither these be right-handed nor those be ]left-handed, or—what cannot come to pass—both parties themselves be right-handed and both again left-handed.

24.1. Esto, concedatur infelicissimas pecudes non sine aliquo religionis officio divorum apud templa mactari et quod ex usu consuetudinis factum est rationis alicuius causam aliquam continere: sed si magnificum videtur atque amplum iugulare diis tauros, si inlibata, si solida concremari animantium viscera, quid sibi reliqua haec volunt magorum cohaerentia disciplinis quae in sacrorum reconditis legibus pontificalia restituere mysteria et rebus inseruere divinis? 2. Quid, inquam, sibi haec volunt: 'apexaones', 'hirciae', 'silicernia', 'longavi'? Quae sunt nomina et farciminum genera, hirquino alia sanguine, comminutis alia inculcata pulmonibus. | f. 146b | Quid 'taedae', quid 'neniae', quid 'offae' non vulgi set quibus est nomen appellatioque 'penitae'? 3. Ex quibus quod primum est, in exiguas arvina est miculas catillaminum insecta de more, quod in secundo situm est, intestini est perrectio, per quam proluvies editur sucis pereasiccata vitalibus.

24.1. So be it, let it be conceded that most ill‑fated beasts are slaughtered to the gods at temples not without some office of religion, and that what has been done by the usage of custom contains some cause of reason: but if it seems magnificent and ample to slaughter bulls to the gods, if the entrails of living creatures, unlibated and entire, are burned to ashes, what do these remaining things mean, adhering to the disciplines of magi, which in the recondite laws of sacred rites have restored pontifical mysteries and have inserted them into divine matters? 2. What, I say, do these mean: “apexaones,” “hirciae,” “silicernia,” “longavi”? which are names and kinds of sausages, some with hircine blood, others, after lungs have been crumbled, stuffed. | f. 146b | What are “taedae,” what “neniae,” what “offae,” not of the common crowd but those which have the name and appellation “penitae”? 3. Of which, that which is first is suet cut according to custom into tiny morsels of dainties; that which is set second is the straightening of an intestine, through which the outflow is expelled, thoroughly dried of vital juices.

'Offa' autem 'penita' est cum particula visceris cauda pecoris amputata. Quid 'polimina', quid 'omenta', quid 'palasea' sive ut quidam cognominant 'plasea'? 4. Ex quibus est nomen 'omenti' pars quaedam, quo receptacula ventrium circumretita finiuntur, bovis cauda est 'plasea' siligine et sanguine delibuta, 'polimina' porro sunt ea quae nos proles verecundius dicimus, a volgaribus autem adsolent cognomine testium nuncupari. 5. Quid 'fitilla', quid 'frumen', quid 'africia', quid 'gratilla', 'catumeum', 'cumspolium', 'cubula'? Ex quibus duo, quae prima, sunt pultium nomina sed genere et qualitate diversa, series vero quae sequitur liborum significantias continet; et ipsis enim non est una eademque formatio.

'Offa' however 'penita' is when, with a small particle of entrail, the tail of the herd-animal is cut off. What are 'polimina', what 'omenta', what 'palasea', or, as some surname it, 'plasea'? 4. Of which, the name of 'omentum' is a certain part by which the receptacles of the bellies, reticulated around, are bounded; the ox’s tail is the 'plasea', smeared with fine wheat flour and blood; 'polimina', moreover, are those which we more modestly call the progeny, but by the vulgar are wont to be named by the cognomen of the testes. 5. What is 'fitilla', what 'frumen', what 'africia', what 'gratilla', 'catumeum', 'cumspolium', 'cubula'? Of which the two that are first are names of pottages, but different in genus and in quality; the series which follows contains the significations of liba; for not even for them is there one and the same formation.

6. Non enim placet 'carnem strebulam' nominare, quae taurorum ex coaendicibus demitur, pulpamenta non assa, quae in veribus exta sunt animata prius et torrefacta carbonibus, non salsamina denique, sunt una commiatio quadrinis copulata de frugibus; non similiter 'fendicas', quae et ipsae sunt hirae, quas plebis oratio illas solet cum eloquitur nuncupare, non ratione eadem et 'rumas', quae sunt prima in gurgulionibus capita, qua et deicere cibos et referre natura est ruminatoribus | f. 147 | saeculis; non 'magmenta', non 'augmina', non mille species vel sanguinaminum vel fitillarum, quibus nomina indidistis obscura vulgoque ut essent augustiora fecistis.

6. For it does not please to name “stringy flesh” (‘carnem strebulam’), which is taken off from the adjoining joints of bulls, nor unroasted relishes (‘pulpamenta non assa’), which on spits are entrails once animated and roasted by coals, nor, finally, salsaments (‘salsamina’) are a single commixture coupled from four grains; nor likewise “fendicae,” which themselves also are “hirae,” which the speech of the common folk is wont, when it speaks, to call those; nor on the same rationale the “rumas,” which are the foremost openings in the gullets (‘gurguliones’), by which it is nature for ruminant kinds to cast down food and to bring it back | f. 147 |; nor “magmenta,” nor “augmina,” nor a thousand species either of blood-dishes (‘sanguinamina’) or of fitillae, to which you have given obscure names and have made them seem more august to the crowd.

25.1. Si enim quaecumque ab hominibus fiunt maximeque in re sacra debent habere suas causas nec sine ratione est quicquam in negotiis omnibus atque in omni administratione faciendum: edissertate nobis et dicite, quae sit causa, quae ratio, ut haec etiam diis dentur sacrisque adoleantur altaribus. 2. In hoc enim diutius loco huic causae vel maxime necessario inmoramur insistimus inhaeremus, cupientes addiscere, quid cum pultibus deo sit, quid cum libis, quid diversis cum fartibus, confectionis iure ex multiplici atque inpensarum varietate conditis. 3. Opiparis numina cenis adficiuntur aut prandiis, ut numeras conveniat excogitare his dapes?

25.1. For if whatever things are done by human beings, and most of all in a sacred matter, ought to have their own causes, and nothing at all is to be done without reason in all affairs and in every administration: expound to us and tell what the cause is, what the rationale, that these things too may be given to the gods and be kindled upon sacred altars. 2. For on this point we linger longer; we stand firm, we cleave to this question as most necessary, desiring to learn in addition what concern there is with porridge for the god, what with cakes, what with diverse forcemeats, fashioned by the law of confection out of manifold ingredients and the variety of outlays. 3. Are the numina to be treated with sumptuous dinners or luncheons, so that it is fitting to devise countless banquets for them?

aversionibus stomachorum laborant et ad expellenda fastidia saporum varietas quaeritur, ut modo his assa, modo cruda ponantur, semicocta et modo semicruda?. 4. Quod si omnes has partes quas 'praesicias' dicitis accipere dii amant suntque illis gratae vel voluptatis alicuius vel dulcedinis sensu, quid intercedit, quid prohibet, ut non semel haec omnia totis cum animantibus inferatis? 5. Quae causa, quae ratio est, ut 'caro strebula' separatim, ruma, cauda, et 'plasea' separatim, hirae solae omentumque solum 'augmentorum' adiciantur in causama Pulmentorum varietatibus adficiuntur dii caelites, ut fieri mos est post cenarum ditium et locupletium saginas, frustilla haec parvula pro suavibus mateolis | f. 147b | sumunt, non quibus famem sedent sed ut palati admoneant otium seque ipsos pleni <ad> adpetitum voracitatis instigent? 6. O deorum magnitudo mirabilis, o nullis hominum comprehensa, nullis intellecta naturis, siquidem ut prosint testiculis pecudum redimuntur et rumis neque prius iras atque animos ponunt nisi sibi adoleri paratas conspexerint 'nenias offasque' reddi 'penitas'.

they labor under aversions of the stomachs, and to drive out disgusts a variety of flavors is sought, so that now these be set out roasted, now raw, half-cooked and now half-raw?. 4. But if the gods love to receive all these parts which you call 'praesicias' and they are pleasing to them by a sense of some pleasure or sweetness, what comes between, what forbids, that you should not at once bring in all these things together with the animals whole? 5. What cause, what rationale is there, that 'caro strebula' separately, the ruma, the tail, and 'plasea' separately, the hirae alone and the omentum alone be added as of the 'augmenta' into the cause of the Relishes—are the heavenly gods affected by varieties of relishes, as it is the custom to be done after the stuffings of the dinners of the rich and wealthy, that they take these tiny little fragments as sweet titbits, | f. 147b | not by which they settle hunger but so that they may remind the palate’s idleness and, though full, spur themselves on to an appetite of voracity? 6. O wondrous greatness of the gods, O comprehended by no natures of men, understood by none, since indeed they are propitiated by the testicles of cattle and by rumae, nor do they lay aside angers and tempers before they have seen ‘nenias offasque’ prepared to be burned for them, ‘penitas’ to be given back.

26.1. Sequitur, ut de thure deque mero aliquid sine ulla nimietate dicamus. Copulata enim et mixta sunt caerimoniarum et haec genera cultumque adhibentur in plurimum. 2. Ac primum illud a vobis isto ipso quaerimus percontamurque de thure, unde aut quo tempore nosse illud aut scire potueritis, ut merito existimetis aut esse diis dandum aut eorum acceptissimum voluntati.

26.1. It follows that we say something about frankincense and about unmixed wine, without any excess. For these kinds too are coupled and mixed with ceremonies and are applied to cult for the most part. 2. And first we ask this from you yourselves and inquire about frankincense: whence, or at what time, you could have come to know it or to understand it, so that you rightly deem it either to be given to the gods or to be most acceptable to their will.

3. Novella enim propemodum res est neque annorum inexplicabilis series, ex quo eius notitia profluait in has partes et delubris meruit interesse divinis. 4. Nam neque temporibus, quemadmodum creditur et perhibetur, heroicis quidnam esset thus scitum est, scriptoribus ut comprobatur a priscis, quorum in libris posita nulla eius mentio repperitur, neque genetrix et mater superstitionis Etruria opinionem eius novit aut famam, sacellorum ut indicant ritus, neque quadringentis annis quibus Albana res viguit in usum cuiquam venit, sacra cum res fieret, neque ipse Romulus aut religionibus artifex in comminiscendis Numa aut esse scivit aut nasci, ut pium far monstrat, quo peragi mos fuit sacrificiorum sollemnium munia. 5. Unde igitur coepta est usur| f. 148|patio eius adsumi, aut in antiquam et veterem consuetudinem quaenam inruit novitas, ut quod tempestatibus tantis necessarium non fuit locum sumeret in caerimoniis primum?

3. For it is well-nigh a novel thing, nor is there an inexplicable series of years since the knowledge of it flowed forth into these parts and it deserved to take part in divine shrines. 4. For neither in the heroic times, as it is believed and reported, was it known what frankincense was, as is attested by ancient writers, in whose books, when examined, no mention of it is found; nor did Etruria, the begetress and mother of superstition, know either an opinion or a rumor of it, as the rites of her small chapels indicate; nor in the four hundred years during which the Alban commonwealth flourished did it come into anyone’s use when a sacred thing was being done; nor did Romulus himself, nor Numa, the craftsman in contriving religions, know it to exist or to be born, as the pious far (spelt) shows, by which it was the custom for the duties of solemn sacrifices to be carried through. 5. Whence, then, did the usur| f. 148|patio of it begin to be adopted, or what novelty burst into ancient and time-honored custom, that what had not been necessary for so many ages should take a place in ceremonies for the first time?

6. Nam sine thure religionis officium claudicat necessariaque vis eius est quae propitios faciat mitesque hominibus caelites, peccatum est ab antiquis, quinimmo piaculis plena vita omnis illorum fuit, qui quod maxime conveniens deorum fuerat voluptati per incuriam neclexere libare. 7. Sin autem temporibus priscis neque homines neque dii huius thuris expetivere materiam, conprobatur et hodie frustra illud inaniterque praestari, quod neque antiquitas necessarium credidit et sine ullis novitas rationibus appetivit.

6. For if without incense the office of religion limps, and its necessary force is that which makes the celestials propitious and mild to men, a sin was committed by the ancients; nay rather, the whole life of those men was full of expiations, who through negligence failed to pour as a libation that which had been most fitting to the pleasure of the gods. 7. But if, however, in earlier times neither men nor gods sought the material of this incense, it is proved that even today it is offered in vain and emptily, that which antiquity believed not necessary and novelty has craved without any reasons.

27.1. Denique ut illam semper regulam definitionemque tenebamus, qua demonstratum et fixum est, quicquid fiat ab homine, habere oportere suas causas, et in ista quoque retinebimus parte, ut requiramus ex vobis quae sit causa, quae ratio, ut ante ipsa numinum signa thura iniciantur altaribus et ea eorum incendio familiaria fieri existimentur et mitia. 2. Quid ex huiusmodi facto adquiritur his rei aut eorum ad animos quid accedit, ut merito iudicemus recte ista dependi et non frustra atque inaniter concremari? 3. Ut enim vos debetis ostendere, cur thura diis detis, sic et deos sequitur ut debeatis expromere habere aliquam causam, cur ea non respuant, quinimmo cur ea tam familiariter concupiscant.

27.1. Finally, since we always held to that rule and definition, by which it is demonstrated and fixed that whatever is done by a human ought to have its causes, we will retain it in this part as well, so as to inquire of you what is the cause, what the rationale, that before the very statues of the numina incense is cast upon the altars, and that by their blaze these things are thought to become familiar to them and mild. 2. What is acquired for this matter by such an act, or what is added to their spirits, so that we may with merit judge that these things are rightly expended and not burned to no purpose and vainly? 3. For as you ought to show why you give incense to the gods, so it follows that you ought to set forth that the gods have some cause why they do not reject these things—nay rather, why they so familiarly desire them.

4. "Honoramus, inquiet aliquis fortasse, his deos". - Sed nos non vestrum, sed numinum requirimus sensum, nec quid fiat a vobis, sed pendatur | f. 148b | ab his quanti quod in praemium datur favoris interrogamus. 5. Sed tamen, o pietas! Quantus iste est honor aut qualis, qui ea ligni sudore conficitur et resina ea arboris conparatur?

4. "We honor, someone perhaps says, the gods by these." — But we seek not your judgment, but the sense of the divinities, and not what is done by you, but we ask that it be weighed | f. 148b | by them at what price that which is given as a premium of favor is valued. 5. But yet, O piety! How great is that honor, or of what sort, which is made up by the sweat of wood and is procured by the resin of that tree?

Nam ne forte ignoretis, quid aut unde sit thus istud: viscum est ea corticibus profluens ita ut ea amygdalo, ceraso, lacrimabili destillatione coalescens. 6. Hocine ergo superas honorat et auctificat dignitates, aut, offensa si aliquando contracta est, thuris vapore dissolvitur et temperata indignatione sopitur? Quid ergo cessatis cuiuslibet arboris viscum sine ulla passim differitate comburere?

Lest perchance you be ignorant what this incense is, or whence it comes: it is a viscous gum flowing from barks, coalescing by a lachrymal distillation, like that which, in the almond and the cherry, congeals. 6. Does this, then, honor and augment the supernal dignities, or, if an offense has at some time been contracted, is it dissolved by the vapor of frankincense and, the indignation tempered, lulled to sleep? Why then do you delay to burn, indiscriminately and without any difference, the viscous gum of any tree whatsoever?

Nam si honorantur hoc numina nec indigne sustinent Panchaicas sibi ardere resinulas, quid interest unde fumus altaribus conficiatur in sanctis vel ea visci quo genere nubes suffitionis exaestuent?

For if the numina are honored by this and do not take it amiss that Panchaean little resins burn for them, what difference does it make from what the smoke is produced upon the holy altars, or from what kind of viscum the clouds of suffition seethe up?

28.1. "An numquid aliquis dicet idcirco superis thus dari, quod odoratus habeat suaves et narium commulceat sensum, reliqua vero sint aspera et ob causam offensionis exclusa?". 2. - Habent enim dii nares, quibus ducant aerios spiritus, accipiunt auras et remittunt, ut penetrare illos possint nidorum differentium qualitates. 3. Quod si damus ut fiat, mortalitatis eos adiungimus legi et excludimus divinitatis a finibus. Quicquid enim spirat et reciprocos halitus auris commeabilibus ducit, id necesse est esse mortale, quia caeli sustineatur e pastu.

28.1. "Or will someone perhaps say that therefore incense is given to the gods above, because it has a suave odor and soothes the sense of the nostrils, whereas the remaining things are harsh and, on account of the cause of offense, excluded?" 2. - For the gods have nostrils, by which they draw airy breaths, they receive airs and send them back, so that the differing qualities of reeks may be able to penetrate them. 3. But if we grant that it is so, we join them to the law of mortality and exclude them from the confines of divinity. For whatever breathes and draws reciprocal breaths by the permeable airs as thoroughfares must be mortal, because it is sustained by the pasture of the sky.

Quicquid autem caeli sustinetur e pastu, si recursus abstuleris quibus alternatio redditur abstrahiturque vitalis, | f. 149 | oblidi eius necesse est animam et rationem subrui atque interire vivendi. 4. Ergo si et dii spirant odoremque ad se adtrahunt auris comitantibus involutum, non est ab re dicere et alienis eos suffectionibus vivere et interclusis posse spiraminibus interire. 5. Et unde novissime scitis, an si odorum suavitate capiuntur, eadem sint eis iucunda quae vobis et parili sensu vestras mulceant adficiantque naturas?

Whatever, moreover, is sustained by nourishment from the sky, if you take away the returns by which the alternation of the vital is rendered and withdrawn, | f. 149 | it must needs be that its soul be clogged and that reason be overthrown and the act of living perish. 4. Therefore, if even the gods breathe and draw odor to themselves, wrapped with accompanying airs, it is not out of place to say that they live by others’ suffumigations and that, with the breathing-passages shut off, they can perish. 5. And whence at last do you know whether, if they are captured by the sweetness of odors, the same things are pleasant to them as to you, and with an equal sense soothe and affect your natures?

Nonne fieri potis est, ut quae vobis adferunt voluptatem contra illis aspera videantur et tristi? 6. Cum enim deorum sint sententiae dispares substantiaeque non unae, quibus effici rationibus potest, ut quod qualitate diversum est unum sentiat accipiatque contactum? 7. An non cottidie cernimus et inter animantia terris orta esse aliis eadem vel amara vel dulcia, mortifera.

Is it not possible that the things which bring you pleasure, on the contrary, seem to them harsh and gloomy? 6. For since the gods’ judgments are disparate and their substances not one, by what reasonings can it be brought about that what is diverse in quality should sense one and receive the same contact? 7. Or do we not behold every day that even among living beings sprung from the earth the same things are to some either bitter or sweet, mortiferous?

his esse quae illis nata in perniciem non sunt, ut quae illos mulceant odoribus laetis eadem pestiferos halitus aliorum corporibus spirent? 8. Sed hoc ut fiat et accidat non in rebus est causa, quae simul esse mortiferae, simul salutares, simul dulces nequeunt simulque amarae consistere, sed ut quisque est factus, ad extrinsecus rei venientis attactum ita afficitur, qualitatem non accipit ea rerum inpulsionibus natam sed ex sui sensus contagiique natura. 9. Verum omnis haec ratio longe est ab diis sita nec exigui limitis interiectione discreta.

that there should be for these things which for those are not born into perdition, so that the same things which soothe them with gladsome odors breathe pestiferous exhalations into the bodies of others? 8. But that this should come to pass and happen, the cause is not in the things, which are not able at once to be mortal and at once health-giving, at once sweet and at once to consist as bitter; rather, as each one is fashioned, to the touch of a thing coming from without he is affected accordingly: he does not receive the quality born from the impulses of the things, but from the nature of his own sense and of contagion. 9. But all this reasoning is situated far from the gods, nor separated by the interposition of a narrow boundary.

Nam si verum est, ut ab sapientibus creditur, incorporales hos esse nec validitatis alicuius eminentia sublevari, inanis apud hos odor est nec sensibiliter commovere aura eos potis est nidoris alicuius, non si mille tu pondera | f. 149b | masculi thuris incendas caelumque hoc totum redundantium vaporum nebulositate cludatur. 10. Quod enim non habet robur et substantiam corporalem, contrectari ab substantia non potest corporali: odor autem corpus est, tactis sicut naribus indicatur: ab deo ergo sentiri ratione non potest ulla, qui caret re corporis atque omni sensu et contagione privatus est.

For if it is true, as is believed by the wise, that these beings are incorporeal and are not upborne by any eminence of strength, scent is empty among them, nor is a breeze of some nidor able sensibly to move them—not even if you ignite a thousand weights of male frankincense, | f. 149b | and this whole sky be shut by the cloudiness of overflowing vapors. 10. For that which does not have vigor and a bodily substance cannot be handled by a corporeal substance; but odor is a body, as is indicated when the nostrils are touched: therefore it cannot in any way be sensed by God, who lacks the thing of body and is deprived of every sense and contact.

29.1. Merum thuris est socium, quod explanari consimiliter poscimus cur ei superfundatur incenso. Nisi enim ratio cur fiat ostenditur nec habebit expositam sui causam, non iam istud errori obiciendum est ludicro sed ut dicatur expressius insaniae dementiae caecitati. 2. Ut enim iam saepius dictum est, debet omne quod geritur causam sui habere perspicuam nec caliginis alicuius obscuritate contectam.

29.1. Undiluted wine is a companion of frankincense, which we likewise demand to have explained—why it is poured over it when the incense is burning. For unless the reason why it is done is shown and the cause of it set forth, this is no longer to be charged to ludicrous error but, to speak more expressly, to insanity, dementia, blindness. 2. For, as has already been said rather often, everything that is carried out ought to have a perspicuous cause of itself and not be covered by the obscurity of some murk.

Si ergo fiditis facto, aperite, monstrate, liquor iste cur detur, id est vinum superfundatur altaribus. 3. Numquid enim numinum corpora sitim sentiunt aridam et eorum necesse est siccitates umore aliquo temperaria numquid nobis ut mortalibus moris est cenis intermiscere potiones, pari etiam more post solidos victus liborum et pultium hostiarum que caesarum, quo putrefiat facilius ac percoquatur cibus, frequentissimo inrigant accipiuntque se vino? 4. Date quaeso immortalibus diis bibant scyphos, brias, pateras simpuviaque depromite, et quoniam tauris pinguibusque se dapibus atque opimis inferciunt escis, ne quod in stomachi tramite male transvoratum substiterit viscus, succurrite, properate; Iovi optimo maximo merum ne praefocetur date, cupit eructare nec potis est, ac ni illa labatur et dissolvatur obstructio, | f. 149bis | periculum maximum est ne oblisus interrumpatur spiritus et viduatum remaneat sine suis administratoribus caelum.

If therefore you trust in the deed, open up, show why this liquid is given, that is, why wine is poured upon the altars. 3. Do the bodies of the numina feel a parched thirst, and is it necessary that their drynesses be tempered by some moisture? Is it our custom, as for mortals, to intermix potions with dinners? Likewise, after solid foods—of cakes and porridges and of victims that have been hewn—so that the food may more easily putrefy and be thoroughly cooked, do they, most frequently, irrigate and take wine into themselves? 4. Give, I pray, to the immortal gods to drink: hand them goblets, brias, paterae, and draw out simpuvia; and since they stuff themselves with bulls and with banquets and with rich, fat meats, lest some piece of flesh, badly gulped, has stuck in the passage of the stomach, help, make haste; give neat wine to Jupiter Best and Greatest lest he be choked—he longs to belch and is not able—and unless that obstruction should slip down and be dissolved, | f. 149bis | there is the greatest danger lest, being clogged, his breath be interrupted and heaven remain widowed without its administrators.

30.1. "Sed frustra, inquit, inequitas nobis: non enim nos superis ob eas profundimus merum causas, tamquam illos existimemus aut sitire aut bibere aut suavitatis eius adfectione laetari. Honoris eis ergo datur; quo fiat illorum elatior, amplior augustiorque sublimitas, altaria super ipsa libamus et venerabiles muscos carbonibus excitamus extinctis". 2. - Et quae gravior infligi contumelia dis potest, quam si eos credas accepto mero propitios fieri, aut honorem existimes habitum his magnum, si modo vini exigui rores super vividam ieceris atque instillaveris prunam? 3. Non nobis est sermo cum hominibus rationis expertibus neque quibus non sit communis intellegentiae veritas: inest et vobis sapientia, inest sensus, verumque nos dicere apud vos ipsi interiore iudicio scitis.

30.1. "But 'in vain,' he says, 'is there unfairness to us: for we do not pour merum to the Supernal Ones for those reasons, as though we supposed that they either thirst or drink or rejoice by an affection for its suavity. It is therefore given to them as honor; whereby their sublimity becomes more elated, more ample, and more august; upon the altars themselves we pour libations, and we rouse the venerable musks with coals, once extinguished'." 2. - And what graver contumely can be inflicted upon the gods than if you believe that they become propitious upon receiving merum, or think that a great honor has been rendered to them, if only you have thrown and instilled the dews of a scant wine upon a vivid ember? 3. Our discourse is not with men devoid of reason, nor with those to whom the truth of common understanding is not present: both wisdom is in you, and sensation is in you, and you yourselves by inner judgment know that we speak the truth among you.

Sed quid facere possumus considerare nolentibus penitus res ipsas secumque ipsos loqui? 4. Facitis enim quod fieri cernitis, non quod fieri oportere confiditis: primum quia apud vos valet nullam habens consuetudo rationem quam rerum inspecta natura veritatis examinatione ponderata. 5. Quid est enim deo cum vino, aut in huius materia vis qualis aut quanta est, quod cum effusum fuerit, sublimitas eius augescat et honorata existimetur auctoritas?

Sed what can we do for those unwilling to consider thoroughly the things themselves and to speak with themselves? 4. For you do what you see being done, not what you are confident ought to be done: first, because among you custom, having no reason, prevails rather than the nature of things examined and weighed by an examination of truth. 5. For what has God to do with wine, or what is the force in this matter—of what quality or of what magnitude—that, when it has been poured out, his sublimity should increase and his authority be thought honored?

6. Quid, inquam, deo cum vino est, Veneriis re proxima, nervos omnium debilitante virtutum, | f. 149bis b | verecundiae, pudoris et castitatis inimica, quod in insanias et furores mentes saepius praecipitavit excitas ipsosque illos deos maledictis conpulit exauctorare dementibus? 7. Itane istud non nefas et plenum sacrilegii crimen est, honoris hoc dare, quod si tu id avidius sumpseris, quid facias nescias, quid loquaris ignores, ad extremum temulenti, luxuriosi et perditi convicium infamiamque merearis?

6. What, I say, has God to do with wine, the thing next to Venereal matters, which debilitates the sinews of all virtues, | f. 149bis b | an enemy to modesty, shame, and chastity, which has more often hurled aroused minds into insanities and frenzies and has driven, with mad curses, men to cashier those very gods? 7. Is not that impious and a crime full of sacrilege, to give this as an honor, a thing which, if you should take it too eagerly, you know not what you do, you are ignorant what you say, and in the end you deserve the reviling and infamy of a drunkard, a voluptuary, and a ruined man?

31.1. Operae pretium est etiam verba ipsa depromere, quibus cum vinum datur uti ac supplicare consuetudo est: "Mactus hoc vino inferio esto". "Inferio, inquit Trebatius, verbum ea causa est additum eaque ratione profertur, ne vinum omne omnino quod in cellis atque apothecis est conditum, ex quibus illud quod effunditur promptum est, esse sacrum incipiat et ex usibus eripiatur humanis. Addito ergo hoc verbo solum erit quod inferetur sacrum nec religione obligabitur ceterum". 2. - Qualis ergo hic honor est, in quoimponitur quagi lea deo, ne plus quaerat quam datum est? Aut cuius ipse est aviditatis deus, qui nisi verbi fuerit praescriptione summotus, cupiditatem suam protendat ulterius et apothecis suis supplicem privet?

31.1. It is worth the effort also to draw out the very words with which, when wine is given for use and for supplicating, the custom is: "Mactus hoc vino inferio esto". "Inferio," says Trebatius, "is a word added for this cause and is put forth for this reason, lest all the wine whatsoever that is stored in the cellars and store-rooms, from which that which is poured out is fetched ready, begin to be sacred and be snatched from human uses. With this word therefore added, only that which will be brought as an offering will be sacred, and the rest will not be bound by religion". 2. - What sort of honor, then, is this, in which as it were a law is imposed upon the god, that he not seek more than has been given? Or of what greed is the god himself, who, unless he be removed by the prescription of a word, stretches his desire further and deprives the suppliant of his cellars?

3. "Mactus hoc vino inferio esto": iniuria est ista, non honor. Quid enim, si divus amplius hoc volet neque erit contentus inlato? Nonne insigniter dicendus est laedi qui honorem accipere cum condicione cogetur?

3. "Be magnified by this inferial wine": that is an injury, not an honor. For what, if the divinity will want more than this and will not be content with what has been brought in? Is he not to be said to be notably harmed who will be compelled to receive an honor with a condition?

Nam si exceptione non addita sacrum necesse est fieri omne omnino quod in cellis est vinum, manifestum est et deo contumeliam fieri, cui modus constituatur invito, | f. 150 | et vos ipsos in re sacra caerimoniarum officia violare, qui non tantum tribuitis vini quantum deum videtis sibi velle praestari. 4. "Mactus hoc vino inferio esto": - quid est aliud quam dicere: "Tantum esto mactus quantum volo, tantum amplificatus quantum iubeo, tantum honoris adsumito quantum te habere decerno et verborum circumscriptione definio?". 5. - O deorum sublimitas praepotens, quam venerari, quam colere officiis omnibus caerimonialibus debeas, cui legem venerator inponit, quam cum pactionibus adorat et formulis, quae per unius formidinem verbi ab inmodicis vini cupiditatibus arceatur.

For if, with no exception added, it is necessary that absolutely all the wine which is in the cellars become sacred, it is manifest also that contumely is done to the god, for whom a limit is set though unwilling, | f. 150 | and that you yourselves, in a sacred matter, violate the duties of the ceremonies, in that you do not bestow so much wine as you see the god wishes to have rendered to himself. 4. "Mactus hoc vino inferio esto": - what is this other than to say: "Be so much mactated as I will, so much amplified as I order, assume so much honor as I decree you to have and define by the circumscription of words?". 5. - O over-mighty sublimity of the gods, whom you ought to venerate, whom you ought to worship with all ceremonial offices, upon whom the adorer imposes a law, whom he adores with pactions and formulas, who is warded off, through the dread of a single word, from immoderate cupidities for wine.

32.1. Sed sit ut vultis honor in vino, sit in thure, immolatione et caedibus hostiarum irae numinum offensionesque placentur. Etiamne di sertis, coronis adficiuntur et floribusa etiamne aeris tinnitibus et quassationibus cymbailoruma etiamne tympanis? etiamne symphoniis?

32.1. But let there be, as you wish, honor in wine, let there be in incense, let the wraths of the numina and the offenses be placated by immolation and the slaughters of victims. Are even the gods affected by garlands, by crowns, and by flowers even by the ringings of bronze and the shakings of cymbals even by tympana? even by symphonies?

Quid? efficiunt crepitus scabillorum ut, cum eos audierint numina, honorifice secum existiment actum et ferventes animos irarum oblivione deponant? 2. an numquid ut parvuli pusiones ab ineptis vagitibus crepitaculis exterrentur auditis, eadem ratione et omnipotentia numina tibiarum stridore mulcentur et ad numerum cymbalorum mollita indignatione flaccescunt?

What? Do the cracklings of the scabilla bring it about that, when the numina have heard them, they suppose that the matter has been conducted honorifically toward themselves and lay down their burning spirits of wrath in oblivion? 2. Or is it somehow, as little tiny boys are scared off from foolish wailings by rattles when heard, that by the same reasoning even the omnipotent numina are soothed by the hissing of the tibiae (pipes), and, their indignation softened to the measure of the cymbals, they go slack?

3. Quid sibi volunt excitationes illae quas canitis matutini conlatis ad tibiam vocibus? - Obdormiscunt enim superi, remeare ut ad vigilias debeant. 4. Quid dormitiones illae | f. 150b | quibus bene ut valeant auspicabili salutatione mandatis?

3. What do those excitations mean, which you sing in the morning with voices gathered to the tibia (pipe)? - For the supernal ones fall asleep, so that they must return to their vigils. 4. What of those dormitions | f. 150b | by which, with an auspicious salutation, you bid them to be well?

- somni enim quiete solvuntur occuparique ut hoc possint, lenes audiendae sunt neniae. 5. "Lavatio, inquit, deum matris est hodie". - Sordescunt enim divi et ad sordes aluendas laventibus aquis opus atque adiuncta antiqua cineris frictione. 6. "Iovis epulum cras est". - Iuppiter enim cenat magnisque implendus est dapibus, iamdudum inedia gestiens et anniversaria interiectione ieiunus.

- for sleeps are loosened by quiet, and in order that they may be overtaken by this, gentle lullabies must be listened to. 5. "The Washing, he says, of the Mother of the gods is today." - For the divinities grow dirty, and for washing away the filths there is need of waters for washing, with the ancient friction of ash added. 6. "The banquet of Jove is tomorrow." - For Jupiter dines and must be filled up with great banquets, long since craving through want of food and fasting by the annual interposition.

7. +"[Esculapii] geritur celebraturque vindemia". - Colunt enim dii vineas et ad suas usiones contractis exprimunt vindemiatoribus vinum. 8. "Lectisternium Caereris erit Idibus proximis". - Habent enim dii lectos atque ut stratis possint mollioribus incubare, pulvinorum tollitur atque excitatur inpressio. 9. "Telluris natalis est". - Dii enim ex uteris prodeunt et habent dies laetos quibus eis adscriptum est auram usurpare vitalem.

7. +"[of Aesculapius] the vintage is conducted and celebrated". - For the gods tend vineyards and, for their own uses, with vintagers gathered they press out wine. 8. "There will be a lectisternium of Ceres on the next Ides". - For the gods have couches, and so that they may be able to recline upon softer bedspreads, the indentation of the bolsters is lifted up and roused. 9. "It is Earth’s birthday". - For the gods come forth from wombs and have joyful days on which it has been assigned to them to use the vital air.

33.1. Ludi vero, quos facitis, quibus Floralibus et Megalensiis nomen est ceterique omnes alii quos esse sacros voluistis et religionum inter officia deputari quam rationem habent, quam causam? ut institui condique debuerint et ex numinum appellatione signari? 2. "Honorantur, inquit, his dii et si quas ab hominibus continent offensionum memorias inlatarum, abiciunt, excludunt redduntque se nobis redintegrata familiaritate fautores". - Et quae causa est rursus, ut tranquilli, placidi efficiantur et mites, ineptae si res fiant et ab hominibus otiosis multitudine | f. 151 | spectante ludatur?

33.1. But the games, indeed, which you put on, which go by the names Floralia and Megalensia, and all the rest of the others which you have wished to be sacred and to be assigned among the offices of religions—what rationale have they, what cause? that they ought to have been instituted and founded, and to be marked by the appellation of the divinities? 2. "The gods," he says, "are honored by these, and if they retain any remembrances of offenses inflicted by men, they cast them away, exclude them, and render themselves our favorers with familiarity made whole again." — And what cause is there, again, that they be made tranquil, placid, and mild, if inept things are done and play is carried on with a crowd of idle men | f. 151 | looking on?

3. Ponit animos Iuppiter si Amphitryon fuerit actus pronuntiatus que Plautinus, aut si Europa, si Leda, Glanymedes fuerit saltatus aut Danae, motum conpescit irarum? tranquillior, lenior Mater Magna efficitur si Attidis conspexerit priscam refricari ab histrionibus fabulam? Obliterabit offensam Venus si Adonis in habitu gestum agere viderit saltatoriis in motibus pantomimos?

3. Does Jupiter set aside his passions if Amphitryon has been staged and declaimed in Plautine fashion, or if Europa, if Leda, if Ganymede or Danae has been danced—does he quell the stirrings of his wrath? Does the Great Mother become more tranquil, gentler, if she has seen the ancient tale of Attis rubbed up anew by the actors? Will Venus obliterate her offense if she sees the pantomimes, in dancing motions, acting the role in the costume of Adonis?

Indignatio relanguescit Alcidae, si tragoedia Sophoclia cui Trachiniae nomen est, Euripidis aut Hercules actitatur? Existimatve tractari se honorifice Flora, si suis in ludis flagitiosas conspexerit res agi et migratum ab lupanaribus in theatra? 4. Itane istud non est deorum inminuere dignitatem, dicare et consecrare turpissimas res eis, quas censor animus respuat et quarum actores inhonestos esse ius vestrum et inter capita conputari iudicavit infamia?

Does Alcides’s indignation grow slack if the Sophoclean tragedy which has the name Trachiniae, or Euripides’s Hercules, is performed? Or does Flora think herself treated honorifically, if in her own games she has seen flagitious things acted and material migrated from the brothels into the theaters? 4. Is that not, then, to diminish the dignity of the gods, to dedicate and consecrate to them the most shameful things, which the censorial spirit spits out, and whose actors your law has judged to be dishonorable and, under infamy, to be computed among the roll?

5. - Mimis nimirum dii gaudent, et illa vis praestans neque ullis hominum comprehensa naturis libentissime commodat audiendis his auris, quorum symplegmatibus plurimis intermiatos se esse derisionis in materiam norunt: delectantur, ut res est, stupidorum capitibus rasis, salapittarum sonitu atque plausu, factis et dictis turpibus, fascinorum ingentium rubore. 6. Iam vero si viderint in femineas mollitudines enervantes se viros, vociferari hos frustra, sine causa, alios cursitare, amicitiarum fide salva contundere se alios et crudis mutilare de caestibus, certare hos spiritu, buccas vento distenderevotisque inmanibus concrepare: manus ad caelum | f. 151b | tollunt, rebus admirabilibus moti prosiliunt, exclamant, in gratiam cum hominibus redeunt. 7. Haec si dis immortalibus oblivionem adferunt simultatum, si ea comoediis, Atellanis, mimis ducunt laetissimas voluptates, quid moramini, quid cessatis, quin et ipsos dicatis deos ludere lascivire saltare, obscenas conpingere cantiones et clunibus fluctuare crispatis?

5. - Surely the gods take delight in mimes, and that outstanding force, not comprehended by any natures of men, most gladly lends its ears to hearing those who know themselves, by their many intertwinings, to be intermingled as material for derision: they are delighted, as the matter stands, by the shaven heads of dullards, by the sound and applause of slapsticks, by shameful deeds and words, by the blush of huge crimes. 6. And indeed, if they should see men unstringing themselves into feminine softnesses, these bellowing in vain, without cause, others running about, others—with the good faith of friendships intact—pummeling one another and mutilating with raw cestuses, these contending in breath, distending their cheeks with wind, and withmonstrous vows rattling off their noise: they lift their hands to heaven | f. 151b |, moved by marvelous things they spring up, they cry out, they return into favor with men. 7. If these things bring to the immortal gods forgetfulness of quarrels, if by comedies, Atellans, mimes they are led into the happiest pleasures, why do you delay, why do you cease, why not also declare that the gods themselves play, frolic wantonly, dance, compose obscene songs, and billow their crimped buttocks?

8. Quid enim differt aut interest, faciantne haec ipsi an ab aliis fieri in amoribus atque in deliciis ducant?

8. For what does it differ or matter, whether they themselves do these things or have them done by others, and reckon them among amours and delights?

34.1. "Unde igitur fluxit vel ex quibus enata est causis opinionum haec pravitas?". - Ex eo scilicet maxime, quod nequeuntes homines quidnam sit deus scire, quidnam ait vis eius, natura substantia qualitas, utrumne habeat formam an nulla sit corporis circumscriptione finitus, agat aliquid an non agat, vigiletne perpetuo an aliquando solvatur in somnos, currat sedeat ambulet an ab huiusmodi motibus et cessatione sit liber, haec omnia ut dixi nequeuntes scire neque ratione aliqua pervidere in eas sunt opinationes lapsi, ut deos ex se fingerent et qualis sibi natura est et illis talem darent actionum,rerum voluntatumque naturam. 2. Quodsi animal cernerent nullius esse se pretii nec inter formiculam plurimum seseque esse discriminis, profecto desinerent arbitrari quicquam se habere commune cum superis et intra suos fines humilitatis suae modestiam continerent. 3. Nunc vero quia cernunt ora oculos capita buccas | f. 152 | auriculas nasos ceterasque se alias membrorum gerere ac viscerum portiones, et deos existimant eadem ratione formatoa habitumque illos suum compagine in corporea continere; 4. et quia gaudere laeta re maestosque se fieri tristioribus conspiciunt causis, arbitrantur et numina ex rebus hilarioribus gaudere et ex minus laetis animorum contractione conduci; 5. adfici se ludis, putant et caelitum mentes ludorum delectatione mulceri; et quia illis se volup [sic!] est lavacrorum refovere caldoribus, et superis ducunt lavationum esse munditias gratas; 6. vindemiamus nos homines, - et deos rentur et credunt suas ducere atque agitare vindemias; 7. dies nobis natalicii sunt, et potentias caelites dies autumant habere natales.

34.1. "Whence therefore flowed, or from what causes was born, this pravity of opinions?" - From this chiefly, namely, that human beings, being unable to know what the god is, what his power is, his nature, substance, quality, whether he has a form or is bounded by no circumscription of body, whether he does anything or does not do anything, whether he keeps vigil perpetually or is at some time dissolved into sleeps, whether he runs, sits, walks, or is free from motions and cessations of this sort—being, as I said, unable to know all these things nor to see them through by any reasoning, they have fallen into opinions, so as to fashion the gods from themselves and to give them such a nature of actions, ofthings and of wills as their own nature is. 2. But if they perceived themselves as living creatures to be of no worth, and that there is not very much difference between themselves and a little ant, assuredly they would cease to think that they have anything in common with the supernal beings, and within their own bounds they would contain the modesty of their lowliness. 3. Now in truth, because they see that they themselves bear mouths, eyes, heads, cheeks | f. 152 | little ears, noses, and other portions of members and of entrails, they also think that the gods, formed by the same reasoning, hold their own appearance within a corporeal framework; 4. and because they perceive that they rejoice at a glad thing and become downcast by sadder causes, they suppose that the numina too rejoice at cheerfuller matters and are led together by a contraction of their spirits from less happy things; 5. they are affected by games, and they think that the minds of the heaven-dwellers are soothed by the delectation of games; and because to them it is volup [sic!] to refresh themselves by the heats of bathings, they deem the cleansings of washings to be pleasing to the supernal ones; 6. we humans gather the vintage—and they suppose and believe that the gods too conduct and drive their own vintages; 7. we have natal days, and they aver that the celestial powers have natal days.

8. Quodsi possent adscribere valetudines a aegritudines et corporales diis morbos, non dubitarent eos lienososi, lippulosi atque enterocelicos dicere, eo quod ipsi et lienosi et lippi fiunt saepe et ingentium gricenearum magnitudine ponderosi.

8. But if they were able to ascribe illnesses and ailments and corporal diseases to the gods, they would not hesitate to call them spleen-sick, blear-eyed, and enterocelic, for the reason that they themselves too often become both spleen-sick and blear-eyed, and are weighted down by the magnitude of huge pot-bellies.

35 [or 49].1. Age nunc summatim, quoniam sermo prolatus est et perductus in haec loca, singularum partium oppositionibus comparemus, utrumne vos melius rebus de superis sentiatis an potius nos multo et honoratius opinemur et rectius quodque rei divinae suam praestet atque attribuat dignitatem. 2. Ac primum vos deos, quos in rerum natura vel arbitramini esse vel creditis quorumque in templis omnibus simulacra constituistis et formas, profitemini esse natos et ea masculorum feminarumque seminibus conventionum progenitos lege. 3. At vero nos contra, si modo dii certi sunt | f. 152b | habent que huius nominis auctoritatem potentiam dignitatem, aut ingenitos esse censemus - hoc enim religiosum est credere - aut si habent nativitatis exordium, dei summi est scire, quibus eos rationibus fecerit aut saecula quanta sint, ex quo eis adtribuit perpetuitatem sui numinis inchoare.

35 [or 49].1. Come now, summarily, since the discourse has been set forth and brought to these points, let us compare, by the oppositions of the several parts, whether you judge better concerning matters of the supernal beings, or rather whether we much more honorably opine and more rightly, so that each point may render and attribute to the divine thing its due dignity. 2. And first, you profess that the gods—whom in the nature of things you either suppose to exist or believe, and whose effigies and forms you have set up in all temples—are born, and are progenerated by the law of unions from the seeds of males and females. 3. But we, on the contrary, if indeed they are definite gods | f. 152b | and have the authority, power, and dignity of this name, judge them either to be unbegotten—this, indeed, it is religious to believe—or, if they have a beginning of nativity, it belongs to the highest God to know by what reasons he made them, or how great the ages are from which he assigned to them to begin the perpetuity of his numen.

4. Vos habere sexus deos aliosque ex his marefi, feminini generis alios esse censetis: nos potentias caelites discretas esse sexibus abnegamus, quoniam discrimen huiusmodi terrenis animantibus datum est, quas coire, quas generare auctor voluit rerum substituendis per libidinem prolibus. 5. Vos hominum similitudinem gerere et mortalium vultibus existimatis esse formatos: nos effigies remur submotas esse ab his longe, quoniam forma mortalis est corporis, et si forte est ulla, comprehendere neminem posse indubitabili adseveratione iuramus. 6. A vobis artificia singuli opificum more habere perhibentur: ridemus, cum audimus nos ista, quoniam diis artes necessarias ducimus arbitramurque non esse et eas constat et liquidum est paupertatis ad subsidium conparatas.

4. You hold that gods have sexes and that some of these are of the masculine, others of the feminine gender: we deny that the celestial powers are discrete by sexes, since a discrimination of this sort has been given to earthly living beings, whom the Author of things willed to mate, to beget, for supplying replacements by progeny through libido. 5. You think that they bear the likeness of humans and are formed with the faces of mortals: we reckon their effigies to be far removed from these, since the mortal form is of body; and if perchance there is any, we swear that no one can comprehend it with indubitable asseveration. 6. By you they are alleged each to have artifices after the manner of workmen: we laugh when we hear these things, since we deem arts to be unnecessary for the gods and judge that they are not [for them]; and it is agreed and clear that they have been contrived as a subsidy for poverty.

36 [or 50].1. Discordias alios ex his vos, alios dicitis qui pestilentias inrogent, alios qui amores, qui furias, alios vero qui praesint bellis et sanguinis effusione laetentur: - at vero nos contra ab ingeniis numinum <istius modi res> iudicamus esse disiunctas, aut si sunt qui haec mala miserrimis inferant fiubiciantque mortalibufi, ab deorum contendimus procul esse natura nec sub huius nominis praedicatione ponendos. 2. Irasci et perturbari vos numina ceterisque animorum adfectibus | f. 153 | mancipata esse atque obnoxia. iudicatis: nos huiusmodi motus alienos existimamus ab hic esse; sunt enim ferocium generum et mortalitatis obeuntium functiones.

36 [or 50].1. You say that some among these bring discords, others who impose pestilences, others who [bring] loves, who furies, others indeed who preside over wars and rejoice in the effusion of blood: - but we, on the contrary, judge <things of this sort> to be disjoined from the dispositions of the divinities, or, if there are any who bring these evils upon and subject them to most miserable mortals, we contend that they are far from the nature of the gods and are not to be placed under the predication of this name. 2. You judge that the divinities grow angry and are disturbed and are enslaved and subject to the other affections of minds | f. 153 |: we reckon motions of this kind to be alien from them; for they are functions of savage kinds and of those undergoing mortality.

3. Vos pecorum sanguinea vos caedibus et mactationibus hostiarum gaudere, laetari et in gratiam cum hominibus remini offensionibus redire sopitis: nos amorem sanguinis nullum esse in caelitibus ducimus nec esse tam duros, ut miserorum animantium caede saturatas abiciant iras. 4. Vos mero, vos thure honorem arbitramini diis addi et eorum augescere dignitates: nos monstrum et prodigium iudicamus, quod quisquam hominum credit aut augustiorem fieri deum fumo aut ea roribus exiguis vini ipsum sibi ab hominibus ducere satis sancte atque honorifice supplicatum. 5. Vos aeris tinnitibus et tibiarum sonis, vos equorum curriculis et theatralibus ludis persuasum habetis deos et delectari et adfici iras que aliquando conceptas eorum satisfactione molliri: 6. nos inconveniens ducimus, quinimmo incredibile iudicamus, eos qui gradibus mille genus omne virtutum perfectionis transierint summitate in voluptatibus habere atque in deliciis [esse] res eas quas homo sapiens rideat et quae non aliis videantur continere aliquid gratiae quam infantibus parvulis et trivialiter et populariter institutis.

3. You think that you—by the blood of herd-animals, by the slaughters and immolations of victims—make joy, rejoice, and return into favor with men, the offenses having been lulled to sleep: we deem there is no love of blood in the celestials, nor that they are so hard as to discard their angers only when they have been sated by the slaughter of wretched living beings. 4. You judge that by pure wine, by incense, honor is added to the gods and that their dignities grow: we judge it a monster and a prodigy that any human believes either that a god becomes more august by smoke, or that with the scant dews of wine he counts it for himself that men have offered supplication to him sufficiently holily and honorably. 5. By the ringings of brass and the sounds of tibiae, by the horse-races and theatrical games, you hold it as a persuasion that the gods both are delighted and are affected, and that angers once conceived are softened by their satisfaction: 6. we deem it unfitting—nay rather, we judge it incredible—that those who by a thousand steps have passed beyond every kind of perfection of virtues should have at the summit their pleasures and delights in those things which a wise man laughs at, and which seem to contain any grace for none other than tiny infants and those trained trivially and popularly.

37 [or 51].1. Haec cum ita se habeant cumque sit opinionum tanta nostrarum vestrarumque diversitas, ubi aut nos impii aut vos pii, cum ex partium sensibus pietatis debeat atque inpietatis | f. 153b | ratio ponderari? Non enim simulacrum qui sibi aliquod conficit quod pro deo veneretur aut qui pecus trucidat innoxium sacrisque incendit altaribus, is habendus est rebus deditus esse divinis. 2. Opinio religionem facit et recta de diis mens, ut nihil eos existimes contra decus propriae sublimitatis appetere.

37 [or 51].1. Since these things stand thus, and since there is so great a diversity of our opinions and yours, where, pray, are we impious or you pious, when the reckoning of piety and of impiety ought to be weighed from the sentiments of the parties? | f. 153b | For he who fashions for himself some simulacrum to venerate in place of a god, or who slaughters an innocent beast and sets it ablaze upon sacred altars, is not to be held as devoted to divine things. 2. Opinion makes religion and a mind right about the gods, so that you suppose them to desire nothing contrary to the honor of their own sublimity.

Cum enim cuncta quae his dantur sub oculis hic nostris videamus absumi, quid ad eos aliud ab nobis dicendum est pervenire nisi opiniones diis dignas et eorum convenientissimas nomini? 3. Haec sunt dona certissima, sacrificia haec vera; nam pulticulae, thura cum carnibus rapacium alimenta sunt ignium et parentalibus coniunctissima mortuorum.

For since we see that all the things which are given to these beings here under our eyes are consumed, what else are we to say reaches them from us except opinions worthy of the gods and most fitting to their name? 3. These are the most certain gifts, these the true sacrifices; for porridges, incense with meats, are the aliment of rapacious fires and are most closely conjoined with the Parentalia of the dead.

38 [or 35].1. "Sed si dii immortales nequeunt, inquit, irasci neque ullis animorum adfectibus eorum quatitur concutiturque natura, quid historiae sibi volunt, quid annales, quorum in conscriptionibus legimus nonnullis offensionibus deos motos pestilentias, sterilitates ac frugum inopias aliaque intulisse civitatibus nationibusque discrimina eosque rursus sacrorum satisfactione placatos indignationum posuisse fervores et in habitum laetiorem statum caeli tempestatumque mutasse? 2. Quid terrarum fremitus, quid motus, quos esse accepimus factos, quod essent acti per indiligentiam ludi nec ad suam formam condicionemque curati, instauratis his tamen et curiosa observatione repetitis superorum conquievisse terrores et ad hominum curam familiaritatemque revocatos? 3. Quotiens, vatum iussia haruspicumque responsis postquam divina res facta est et ex gentibus | f. 154 | transmarinis acciti dii quidam delubraque his facta et in altioribus columnis signa quaedam et simulacra sunt constituta, et inminentium aversi sunt periculorum metus et gravissimi hostes pulsi et amplificata res publica est et victoriarum frequentibus gaudiis et provinciarum possessione conplurium?

38 [or 35].1. "But if the immortal gods cannot, he says, be angry, nor is their nature shaken and convulsed by any affections of spirit, what do the histories want for themselves, what the annals, in the compilations of which we read that, upon certain offenses, the gods, having been moved, brought pestilences, sterilities and scarcities of crops and other crises upon cities and nations, and that they, appeased in turn by the satisfaction of rites, laid aside the heats of their indignations and changed into a more cheerful habit the state of the sky and of the weather? 2. What of the rumblings of the lands, what of the shocks, which we have received to have happened because the games were conducted with negligence and not cared for according to their proper form and condition—yet, when these were restored and repeated with curious observance, the terrors of the supernal powers subsided and they were recalled to care and familiarity toward men? 3. How often, after the divine matter was done at the orders of seers and by the responses of the haruspices, and certain gods were summoned from transmarine nations, | f. 154 | and shrines were made for these, and certain statues and images were set upon higher columns, have the fears of impending dangers been turned away, and most grievous enemies routed, and the commonwealth amplified, with the frequent joys of victories and the possession of several provinces?

4. Quod utique non fieret, si sacrificia, si ludos ceterosque aspernarentur dii cultus neque se honorari eorum procurationibus ducerent. Si ergo his datis calor omnis numinum indignatioque frigescunt vertunturque in prospera ea quae videbantur adferre terrores: manifestum est haec omnia non sine caelitum fieri voluntate, et quod ea tribuantur a nobis, inaniter et cum tota inperitia reprehendi".

4. Which certainly would not happen, if the gods were to spurn sacrifices, games, and the other cults, and did not consider themselves honored by their procurations. If therefore, when these are given, all the heat and indignation of the divinities grow cold and those things which seemed to bring terrors are turned into prosperities: it is manifest that all these things are not done without the will of the celestials, and that their being bestowed by us is censured vainly and with total inexperience".

39 [or 36].1. Ventum est ergo, dum loquimur, ad ipsum articulum causae, ventum rei ad cardinem, ventum veram atque ad iunctissimam quaestionem, in quam convenit ut debeamus inspicere formidine superstitionis amota et gratificatione deposita, utrumne hi dii sint quos saevire adseveratis offensos reddique sacrificiis mites an sint longe aliud et ab huius vi debeant et nominis et potentiae segregari. 2. Non enim imus infitias, in annalium scriptis contineri haec omnia quae sunt a vobis in oppositione prolata: nam et ipsi pro modulo ingeniique pro captu et legimus et esse positum scimus, ludis quondam ipsis circensibus, qui Iovi maximo fierent, patremfamilias quendam, antequam inciperent res agi, servum pessime meritum per circi aream mediam transduxisse caesum virgis | f. 154b | et ea more multasse post patibuli poena. 3. Ludis dein [dein] terminatis profligatisque curriculis non multi post temporis spatium civitatem occepisse pestilentia vastari, cumque dies adderet malum malo gravius, catervatim et populus interiret, rusticulo cuidam sorte humilitatis obscuro Iovem per insomnium dixisse, uti ad consules vaderet, praesulem sibi displicuisse monstraret, posse melius fieri civitati, si ludis sua religio redderetur et ea integro rursus curiosa observatione procederent.

39 [or 36].1. We have come, then, as we speak, to the very joint of the cause, come to the hinge of the matter, come to the true and most closely linked question, into which it is fitting that we should look, the fear of superstition removed and flattery laid aside: whether these are gods whom you aver grow savage when offended and are rendered mild by sacrifices, or whether they are something far different and ought to be segregated from the force both of this name and of this power. 2. For we do not deny that in the writings of the annals all these things are contained which have been brought forward by you in objection: for we ourselves too, according to the small measure of our wit and capacity, have both read and know it to have been set down, that once at the very circus games which were being held for Jupiter Best and Greatest, a certain paterfamilias, before the proceedings began, led a slave who had deserved most ill through the middle area of the Circus, beaten with rods, | f. 154b | and, in accordance with custom, thereafter punished him with the penalty of the gibbet. 3. Then, the games being finished and the courses run through, not long after, the city began to be laid waste by a pestilence; and as each day added a worse evil to a bad one, and the people were perishing in troops, Jupiter said through a dream to a certain rustic, obscure by the lot of lowliness, that he should go to the consuls, show that the presiding official had displeased him, and that it could go better for the city if his religio were restored to the games and they should proceed again intact with scrupulous observance.

4. Quod cum ille facere minime curasset, vel quod esse vanum suspicaretur insomnium nullamque habiturum apud audituros fidem vel quod ingenitae humilitatis memorpotestatis tantae fugeret et formidaret accessum, cunctatori redditum inimicum Iovem filiorum obitum inrogavisse pro poena. 5. Mox cum et ipsi proprium minaretur interitum, ni praesulis pergeret nuntius inprobati, obeundi formidine territatum, cum iam et ipse contactus pestilentiae flagraret incendio, de sententia propinquorum perlatum ad curiam patrum insomnique exposita visione flammas evolavisse contagii: ludorum deinde instauratione decreta et spectaculis adhibitam gravem curam et priorem populo redditam sanitatem.

4. When he was by no means minded to do this, either because he suspected the dream to be vain and to have no credence with the hearers, or because, mindful of his inborn humility, he shunned and feared access to so great a power, Jupiter, turned hostile to the delayer, was said to have imposed as a penalty the death of his sons. 5. Soon, when destruction for himself too was being threatened, unless he should proceed as messenger of the disapproved presider, terrified by the fear of going, while he himself already, touched by the pestilence, was blazing with the fire, by the counsel of his kin he was borne to the Curia of the Fathers, and, the vision of the dream set forth, the flames of the contagion flew away: then the instauration of the games was decreed, and grave care was applied to the spectacles, and the former health was restored to the people.

40 [or 37].1. Sed neque illud aeque nos negabimus scire, temporibus quondam civitatis et reipublicae duris, vel quae lues infesta faciebat continua populum contage conficiens, vel quae hostes validi et ad periculum libertatis aufcrendae proeliorum prosperitate iam proximi, iussis et monitis | f. 155 | vatum transmarinis ea gentibus quosdam deos accitos magnificisque honoratos templis et luis sedasse flagrantiam et viribus hostium fractis frequentissime triumphatum et auctos imperii fines innumerasque provincias sub leges vestri cecidisse dominatus. 2. Sed neque hoc nostram conscientiam fugit lectum et positum, ictum cum esset Capitolium fulmine multaque in hoc alia, Iovis etiam simulacrum, sublimi quod in culmine stabat, suis esse ab sedibus provolutum. Responsum deinde ab haruspicibus editum, res scaevas tristissimas que portendi ab incendiis, caedibus, ab legum interitu et ab iuris occasu, maxime tamen ab domesticis hostibus atque ab impia coniuratorum manu.

40 [or 37].1. But neither will we equally deny that we know this: that in former harsh times of the city and of the commonwealth—whether those which a pestilence made deadly, destroying the people with continuous contagion, or those when powerful enemies, by the prosperity of battles and already near to the danger of taking away liberty—by the orders and monitions of seers beyond the sea, certain gods were summoned from those peoples, and, honored with magnificent temples, they both stilled the blaze of the plague, and, the forces of the enemies broken, there were most frequent triumphs, and the borders of the empire were increased, and innumerable provinces fell under the laws of your dominion. 2. Nor has it escaped our awareness that it has been read and recorded, that when the Capitol was struck by lightning, and many other things along with this, even the simulacrum of Jupiter, which stood on the lofty summit, was hurled down from its own seat. An answer then was published by the haruspices, that very ill-omened and most grievous affairs were portended—from fires, from slaughters, from the destruction of laws and the downfall of right—most of all, however, from domestic enemies and from the impious hand of conspirators. | f. 155 |

3. Sed flecti haec posse, immo aliter publicari scelerata non posse consilia, nisi Ippiter rursus altiore in culmine figeretur orientalem conversus ad cardinem radiisque oppositus solis. Adfuisse dicto fidem: nam subrecto culmine cónversoque ad solem signo patuisse res abditas et reserata in maleficia vindicatum.

3. But that these things could be averted, nay rather that criminal counsels could not otherwise be published, unless Jupiter were again fixed on a loftier summit, turned toward the eastern cardinal point and set opposite to the rays of the sun. Credence attended the saying: for, the summit having been raised and the sign turned toward the sun, hidden matters stood open, and, the bolts unbarred, punishment was taken against the malefactions.

41 [or 38].1. Habent quidem miraculi speciem - quinimmo habere creduntur - cuncta ista quae dicta sunt, si ita ut sunt prompta humanum veniant ad auditum, nec diffitemur inesse his quiddam, quod in prima positum quemadmodum dicitur fronte perstringere aures possit et veritatis similitudine circumvenire. Ceterum si penitus intueri res factas, personas et personarum volueris voluntates, nihil esse repperies diis dignum et, quod saepe iam dictum est, quod ad huius nominis speciem dignitatemque referatur. 2. Quis est enim primum qui deum illum fuisse credat, qui currentibus frustra delectaretur | f. 155b | eculeis avocarique se genere hoc ludicri iucundissimum duceret?

41 [or 38].1. They do indeed have the semblance of a miracle—nay rather they are believed to have it—all those things that have been said, if, just as they are put forth, they come to human hearing; nor do we deny that there is in them a certain something which, placed, as it is said, at first blush, can graze the ears and, by a similitude of truth, circumvent. But if you should wish to look deeply into the deeds done, the persons, and the wills of the persons, you will find nothing worthy of the gods and—what has already been said often—nothing that can be referred to the appearance and dignity of this name. 2. For who, to begin with, is there who would believe that to have been a god, who took delight in little horses running in vain | f. 155b | and deemed it most pleasant to be called away by this kind of ludic entertainment?

Immo illum fuisse quis est qui adsentiatur Iovem, quem deum principem dicitis et rerum quaecumque sunt conditorem, qui spectatum proficisceretur e caelo cantherios de velocitate certantes, replicantes gyros septem, et quos dissimiles ipse corporum esse in mobilitate voluisset, eos tamen gauderet transire, transiri, pronos et cernuos ruere, cum curribus resupinos verti, trahi alios cruribus et claudicare praefractis, et ineptias nugis et crudelitatibus mixtas summis in voluptatibus habuisset quas homo quivis lautus nec ad studium plenae gravitatis ac ponderis eruditus puerilia duceret atque aspernaretur ut ludicra? 3. Quis est, inquam, qui credat, repetamus ut adsidue hanc vocem, generis eum fuisse divini, qui, quoniam ludis actus per circi est spatium meritorum poenas et supplicia redditurus, ira exacerbatus ardesceret seseque ad vices adcingeret ultionis? 4. Si enim nocens servus atque illa fuerat animadversione puniendus: qui debuit Iuppiter indignatione aliqua commoveri, cum ageretur iniuste nihil, immo cum nocens caput poenis convenientibus plecteretur?

Rather, who is there who would assent that that was Jupiter, whom you call the principal god and the founder of whatever things exist, who would set out from heaven to watch nags competing in speed, repeating seven gyres, and though he himself had wished them to be dissimilar in the mobility of their bodies, would nevertheless rejoice that they pass and are passed, that they fall headlong face-first, are overturned on their backs with their chariots, that others are dragged by their legs and limp with broken limbs, and would have inanities mixed with trifles and cruelties among his highest delights—things which any refined man, even if not trained to the pursuit of full seriousness and weight, would deem childish and spurn as mere play? 3. Who, I say, would believe—let us repeat this phrase continually—that he was of divine stock, who, because in the games someone has been driven through the space of the circus to render the penalties and punishments of his deserts, would blaze up, exacerbated with wrath, and gird himself for turns of vengeance? 4. For if the slave was guilty and was to be punished by that censure, why ought Jupiter to have been moved by any indignation, since nothing unjust was being done, nay rather since the guilty head was being chastised with fitting punishments?

5. Sin autem inmunis ab scelere neque ulli obnoaius crimini: vitiosi praesulis ipse fuit in causa, cui cum subvenire potuisset, non fecit, immo ipse quaesivit et pati quod inprobabat et ab aliis poenas suae permissionis exigere. 6. Et cur laesum deinde illo se questus est et pronuntiavit in praesule, quia crucis | f. 156 | ad poenas per circi actus est medium virgis dilaceratus et flagris?

5. But if, however, he was immune from wickedness and obnoxious to no charge: he himself was the cause of the faulty praesul, whom, although he could have come to the aid, he did not; nay rather he himself contrived both to suffer what he disapproved and to exact from others the penalties of his own permission. 6. And why then did he complain that he had been injured by that man and pronounce judgment against the praesul, because to the punishments of the cross he was driven through the middle of the circus, torn with rods and scourges?

42 [or 39].1. Et quid ea hoc facto labis potuit et foeditatis ecfluere, quod aut circum faceret minus purum aut Iovem contaminatum, cum per exigua momenta, per puncta tot in orbe conspiceret milia mortis in generibus variis et cruciatibus interire diversis? 2. "Ante, inquit, est actus, ludi quam inciperent confici". - Si sacrilego pectore religionisque contemptu, est ut ignoscere debeamus Iovi indignanti se spretum nec circensibus propriis sollicitiorem adhibitam curam. Sin autem errore vel casu latens illud non est animadversum et cognitum vitium, nonne fuerat rectum Iovique conveniens, ut humanis ignosceret lapsibus et inprudentiae caecitatem veniali concessione donaret?

42 [or 39].1. And what stain and foulness could have flowed out from this deed of hers, such as would make either the circus less pure or Jove contaminated, when in tiny moments, in instants, he beheld throughout the world so many thousands perishing to death in various kinds and diverse torments? 2. "Beforehand," he says, "it was done, before the games began to be brought to completion." - If with a sacrilegious breast and with contempt of religion, then we ought to pardon Jove for being indignant that he was scorned and that no more solicitous care was applied to his own circensian shows. But if by error or by chance that hidden fault was not observed and recognized, would it not have been right and fitting for Jove to forgive human lapses and to grant the blindness of imprudence a venial concession?

3. "Sed vindicanda res fuit". - Et post haec aliquis fuisse illum deum credet, qui puerilis incuriam ludicri civitatis ultus est et persecutus interitu, gravitatis ac ponderis aut ullius habuisse constantiae firmitatem, qui ut sibi ex integro voluptatis in gaudia curreretur, venenatam in perniciem aeris haustus vertit et pestilentiae morbo stragem mortalitatis indixit? 4. Si ludorum exhibitor magistratus minus curavit ediscere quisnam esset illo die circi actus per medium, contractaque est ea hoc culpa, quid infelix commeruerat populus ut aliena delicta capitis sui dissolveret poenispestilentibusque contagiis crudeliter expelleretur e vita? 5. Immo quid feminarum genus, quas ab negotiis publicis | f. 156b | condicio fragilitatis excepit, quid adultae ab virgines, quid puerculi fecere pusiones, quid denique adhuc parvi nutricum sub alimonia constituti, ut in eos inmitteretur par et una saevitia priusque acerbitatem mortis quam dulcedinem aliquam perciperent luminis?

3. “But the matter had to be avenged.” — And after this will anyone believe that he was a god, who avenged the childish negligence of a city’s ludic spectacle and pursued it with destruction, to have had any gravity and weight or firmness of constancy, he who, so that the course into the joys of pleasure might be run afresh for himself, turned the draughts of the air into venomous destruction and by the disease of pestilence proclaimed a slaughter of mortality? 4. If the magistrate, exhibitor of the games, took too little care to learn who on that day was driven through the middle of the circus, and this was incurred by this fault, what had the unhappy people deserved, that it should pay off others’ crimes with the penalties of its own head and be cruelly driven out of life by pestilential contagions? 5. Nay rather, what of the race of women, whom the condition of fragility has exempted from public business, | f. 156b | what of grown women and virgins, what did little boys do, little lads, and finally those still small set under the nourishment of nurses, that upon them an equal and single savagery should be sent, and that they should taste the bitterness of death before any sweetness of light?

43 [or 40].1. <Si> sibi Iuppiter ludos scrupulosius fieri restituique quaerebat, si fideliter reddere suam populo sanitatem nec malum quod fecerat prorogari ulterius et augeri, nonne rectius fuerat, consulem ut ad ipsum veniret, sacerdotum ad aliquem publicorum, pontificem maximum aut ad flaminem suum Dialem eique per somnium et praesulis vitium et funesti causam temporis indicaret? 2. Quae fuerat ratio, ut ruri hominem suetum, obscuritate incognitum nominis, urbanarum inscium rerum, quid sit praesul fortasse nescientem, voluntatis suae deligeret nuntium et expetitae satisfactionis auctorem? 3. Quem si utique sciebat, divinus modo si fuerat, tergiversatorem in obsequio futurum, nonne fuerat pronius et deo conveniens, mentem hominis vertere et parendi subicere voluntatem quam vias adgredi saeviores et latrocinii ritu sine ulla passim ratione saevire?

43 [or 40].1. <If> Jupiter was seeking that the games be held more scrupulously and restored, if he was seeking faithfully to give back to the people their own health, and that the evil which he had done not be prolonged further and increased, would it not have been more correct that the consul should come to him, or to some one of the public priests—to the Pontifex Maximus or to his own Flamen Dialis—and that to him in a dream he should indicate both the prelate’s fault and the cause of the baleful season? 2. What reason was there that he should choose as the messenger of his will and the agent of the sought-for satisfaction a man accustomed to the countryside, unknown through obscurity of name, ignorant of urban affairs, perhaps not even knowing what a prelate is? 3. If, in any case, he knew—if he was divine—that the man would prove a tergiversator in obedience, would it not have been easier and more befitting a god to turn the man’s mind and subject his will to obey, rather than to take harsher courses and, after the fashion of banditry, to rage everywhere without any rationale?

4. Si enim rusticus senior inexpeditus in rebus obeundis cunctabatur in re iussa causis superioribus retardatus, quid infelices eius commeruerant liberi, ut in eos ira et indignatio verteretur offensasque alterius luminis sui spoliatione pensarent? 5. Et quisquam est hominum qui fuisse illum deum credat tam iniustum, tam impium nec mortalium saltem constituta servantem, | f. 157 | apud quos nefas haberetur magnum, alterum pro altero plecti et aliena delicta aliorum cervicibus vindicare? 6. "Sed et ipsum fecit pestilitatis saevitia comprehendi". - Nonne ergo praestantius, quinimmo aequius fuerat, si hoc esse videbatur faciendum, ut ab ipso patre terror cohercitionis inciperet, apud quem causa tanti fuerat motus et inoboeda cessatio?

4. For if the rustic elder, unready in carrying out affairs, was hesitating in the commanded matter, delayed by the preceding causes, what had his unhappy children deserved, that against them wrath and indignation should be turned, and that they should pay for the offenses of another by the stripping of their own light? 5. And is there anyone among men who would believe that god to have been so unjust, so impious, not even observing at least the ordinances of mortals, | f. 157 | among whom it would be held a great impiety that one be punished for another, and that others’ necks be made to pay for others’ crimes? 6. "But he even caused him himself to be seized by the savagery of pestilence." - Was it not therefore more excellent, nay rather, more equitable, if this seemed to be the thing to be done, that from the father himself the terror of coercion should begin, with whom had been the cause of so great a commotion and the inobedient delay?

quam in eius dolorem vim liberis facere et innoxias urere atque abolere personas? 7. Quaenam illa saevitia, crudelitas fuit quae tanta, ut extincta subole intestinis periculis post territaret patrem? Quod iamdudum si facere, id est loco priore, voluisset, nec germanitas conficeretur innoxia et voluntas numinis cognosceretur offensa.

than to, to his grief, do violence upon his children and to burn and abolish innocent persons? 7. What savagery, what cruelty was that, so great that, the offspring extinguished, it afterwards would terrify the father with intestine perils? Which, if he had long since wished to do, that is, in the prior place, neither would the kindred have been destroyed though innocent, and the will of the numen would have been recognized as offended.

8. "At enim conpleto adnuntiationis officio statim morbus evanuit et sanitati homo est continuo restitutus". - Et quid habet admirationis res ista, si malum quod inspiraverat rettudit seseque in alia ostentatione iactavit? Quodsi penitus res pendas, magis illa crudelitas quam beneficium salutis fuit, siquidem hominem miserum et interire post filios cupientem non gaudia servavit ad vitae sed ut suam solitudinem disceret et orbitatis cruciamenta sentiret.

8. "But indeed, with the office of the annunciation completed, at once the disease vanished and the man was forthwith restored to health." - And what has this matter for admiration, if the evil which he had inspired he drove back and vaunted himself in another ostentation? But if you weigh the matter thoroughly, that was more a cruelty than a benefit of health, since indeed he preserved the wretched man, who desired to perish after his sons, not for the joys of life but that he might learn his solitude and feel the torments of bereavement.

44 [or 41].1. Consimili ratione per alias ire licebit historias et ostendere in his quoque longe aliud quam esse dii debeant de his ipsis dici et earum in expositionibus indicari, velut in hac ipsa quam deinceps ponam, una ei duabusve coniunctis, fastidium ne inmoderatione pariatur.

44 [or 41].1. By a similar method it will be allowable to go through other histories and to demonstrate that in these too there is said about these very ones something far other than what gods ought to be, and that this is indicated in their expositions, as in this very one which I shall set forth next, with one or two conjoined to it, lest distaste be produced by immoderation.

2. [a. Non imus infitias in annalium scriptis contineri haec | f. 157b | omnia quae sunt a vobis in oppositione prolata. b. Nam et ipsi pro modulo ingeniique pro captu et legimus haec eadem et esse posita scimus, sed quae stionis in hoc summa est, utruane hi dii sint, quos saevire adseveratis offensos reddique ludis et sacrificiis mites, an sint longe aliud et ab huius vi debeant et nominis et potentiae segregari. c. Quis est enim primum qui eos deos existimet aut esse qui credat, qui motibus et saltationibus scaenicis, qui cantheriis frustra currentibus voluptatum solvuntur in gaudia, ineptas et frigidas actiones spectatum proficiscuntur e caelo offendique se doleant et suis honoribus derogatum, si paulisper constiterit ludius aut tibicen modice interquieverit fessus, qui praesulem sibi displicuisse pronuntient, si per circi medium pergat nocens aliquis meritorum poenas et supplicia redditurus?

2. [a. We do not go into denial that in the writings of the annals there are contained all those things which have been brought forward by you in opposition. b. For we ourselves also, according to the measure (modulus) of our genius and capacity, have read these same things and know that they have been set down; but the sum of the question in this matter is whether these are gods, whom you aver to rage when offended and to be rendered mild by games and sacrifices, or whether they are something far different and ought to be segregated from the force of this thing, both of the name and of the potency. c. For who, first, is there who would deem them gods or believe them to exist, who, by movements and scenic saltations, who, with hacks running to no purpose, are melted into the joys of voluptuousness, set out from heaven to see inept and frigid performances as a spectacle, and complain that they are offended and that derogation has been made from their honors, if the player has stood still for a little while or the piper, weary, has moderately paused; who proclaim that their presiding leader has been displeased with them, if some guilty person, about to render the penalties and punishments of his deserts, goes through the middle of the circus?

d. Quae si penitus cuncta et sine ulla gratificatione cernantur, non tantum ab diis esse repperientur aliena, verum ab homine quovis lauto nec ad summos apices gravitatis ac ponderis instituto. e. Quis est enim primum deos illos qui existimet aut esse qui credat, qui nocendi habeant saeviendique naturas easque abiciant rursus cyatho uno sanguinis et thuris suffitione molliti, qui motibus scaenicis et saltationibus histrionum festos dies ducant et hilaritatis plenissimas voluptates, qui cantherios frustra et sine ulla ratione currentes spectatum proficiscantur e caelo gaudeantque ea his alios transire, transiri, pronos et cernuos ruere, cum curribus resupinos verti, trahi alios debiles | f. 158 | et cruribus claudicare praefractis, qui praesulem sibi displicuisse pronuntient si per circi medium pergat nocens aliquis meritorum poenas et supplicia redditurus, qui offensos se doleant et suis honoribus derogatum, si paulisper constiterit ludius, interquieverit tibicen fessus, puer ille matrimus decidat fortuito alicuius instabilitate prolapsus? f. Quae si penitus cuncta et sine ulla partium gratificatione pendantur, non tantum longe longeque ab diis esse repperiuntur aliena, verum quovis homine sentiente communia nec ad studium veri rationum cognitionibus erudito].

d. Which things, if all are viewed thoroughly and without any gratification of partisanship, will be found not only alien to gods, but to any polished man, nor instituted for the highest summits of gravity and weight. e. For who, to begin with, is there who would think those beings to be gods or believe them to exist as such—who have natures for harming and raging, and yet lay them aside again, softened by a single cupful of blood and a suffition of incense; who spend festal days and pleasures most full of hilarity at scenic motions and the saltations of histrions; who set out from heaven to watch nags running in vain and without any reason, and rejoice at these things—that others pass them, be passed, fall headlong and face-first, be overturned on their backs with their chariots, others be dragged crippled | f. 158 | and limp with legs broken; who proclaim that the presiding official has displeased them if some guilty man goes through the middle of the circus to render the penalties and punishments of his deserts; who complain that they are offended and that derogation has been done to their honors, if the player should stand still for a little, the piper, weary, should take a brief rest, that marriageable boy should happen to fall down by chance, having slipped by someone’s instability? f. Which things, if all are weighed thoroughly and without any party gratification, are found not only far, far removed from gods, but common to any feeling human being, and not to one educated for the study of truth by cognitions of reasons].

3. "Post advectos, inquitis, transmarinis ea gentibus deos quosdam postque condita his templa, post cumulatas sacrificiis aras male habens sese recreatus convaluit populus et pestilentes morbi inductasinceritate fugerunt" [Liv. X,47]. - "Qui, effamini, dii quaeso?". 4. "Aesculapius, inquitis, Epidauro, bonis deus valetudinibus praesidens et Tiberina in insula constitutus". - Si esset nobis animus scrupulosius ista tractare, vobis ipsis obtineremus auctoribus, minime illum fuisse divum, qui conceptus et natus muliebri alvo esset, qui annorum gradibus ad eum finem ascendisset aetatis in quo illum vis fulminis, vestris quomadmodum litteris continetur, et vita expulisset et lumine. 5. Sed quaestione ab ista discedimus, Coronidis filius sit, ut vultis, ex immortalium numero et perpetua praeditus sublimitate caelesti.

3. "After, you say, certain gods had been brought in from those transmarine peoples, and after temples had been established for them, after altars heaped up with sacrifices, the people, being ill at ease, recovered and grew strong again, and the pestilential diseases fled withsincerity inducted" [Livy 10, 47]. - "Which, speak out, gods, I pray?" 4. "Aesculapius, you say, from Epidaurus, a god presiding over good health, and constituted on the Tiber island." - If we had a more scrupulous mind to handle these matters, we would, with you yourselves as authorities, establish that he was by no means a divinity, who was conceived and born in a womanly womb, who by the steps of years had ascended to that end of age at which the force of the thunderbolt, as is contained in your own writings, had driven him forth both from life and from light. 5. But we depart from that question; let him be, as you wish, the son of Coronis, of the number of the immortals and endowed with perpetual celestial sublimity.

- Ex Epidauro tamen quid est aliud adlatum nisi magni agminis coluber? fidem si annalium sequimur et exploratam eis adtribuimus veritatem: nihil, ut conscriptum est, aliud. | f. 158 b | 6. Quid ergo dicemus?

- From Epidaurus, however, what else was brought in except a serpent of a great agmen? if we follow the credit of the annals and attribute to them a truth that has been explored: nothing else, as it is consigned to record. | f. 158 b | 6. What then shall we say?

Aesculapius iste quem praedicatis, deus praestans, sanctus deus, salutis dator, vale tudinum pessimarum propulsator, prohibitor et eatinctor, serpentis est forma et circumscriptione finitus, per terram conreptans, caeno natis ut vermiculis mos est, solum mento radit et pectore, tortuosis voluminibus se trahens, atque ut pergere prorsus possit, partem sui postremam conatibus prioris adducit.

Aesculapius, this one whom you proclaim, an excellent god, a holy god, a giver of health, a repeller of the worst ailments, a prohibitor and extinguisher, is in the form of a serpent and limited by its circumscription, creeping along the earth, as is the custom for little worms born from mud; he grazes the ground with his chin and chest, dragging himself by tortuous convolutions, and, so that he may be able to go forward at all, he draws his hindmost part by the endeavors of the part in front.

45 [or 42].1. Et quoniam legitur usus cibis etiam, quibus vita in corporibus inmoratur, habet patulas fauces, quibus cibos transvoret oris hiatibus adpetitos, habet receptaculum ventris [ut] ubi mansa et vorata decoquat viscera, sanguis detur ut corpori et viribus redintegratio subrogetur, habet et eatremos tramites, per quos inmunda faea eat aversabili corpora foeditate deonerans. 2. Si quando mutat loca et ab aliis transgredi in alias regiones parat, non ut deus obscure per caeli evolat sidera punctoque in temporis ubi causa postulaverit sistitur, sed velut animal brutum vehiculum quo sustineatur petit, undas pelagi vitat atque ut tutus possit incolumisque praestari, cum hominibus navem ascendit et ille publicae sanitatis deus fragili se ligno et tabularum compagibus credit. 3. Non arbitramur evincere atque obtinere vos posse, Aesculapium illum fuisse serpentem, nisi hunc colorem volueritis inducere, ut in anguem dicatis convertisse se deum, quo mentiri se posse<t nec possent> quisnam esset aut qualis homines intueri.

45 [or 42].1. And since he is read to make use even of foods by which life lingers in bodies, he has gaping jaws, with which he gulps down foods sought by the yawning gaps of the mouth; he has a receptacle of the belly [so that] there he may stew the chewed and swallowed viands, that blood may be given to the body and a reintegration of the strengths be subrogated; and he has terminal passages as well, through which the filthy dregs may go out, relieving bodies with an abominable foulness. 2. If ever he changes places and prepares to cross from some regions into others, not as a god does he fly obscurely through the constellations of heaven and in a point of time is set wherever the occasion has demanded, but like a brute animal he seeks a vehicle by which he may be sustained; he avoids the waves of the sea, and, in order that he may be able to be presented safe and unharmed, he boards a ship with men, and that god of public health entrusts himself to frail timber and the fastenings of planks. 3. We do not think that you can demonstrate and make good that that Aesculapius was a serpent, unless you should wish to introduce this pretext, namely to say that the god converted himself into a snake, so that he could dissemble, and that men <and that they could not> look upon who he was or of what sort.

4. Quod si fuerit a vobis dictum, quam infirmiter invalideque dicatur ipsa rerum inaequalitas indicabit. Si enim | f. 159 | se deus videri ab hominibus evitabat, nec in forma serpentis velle debuit conspici, cum in qualibet forma non ab ipso se alius, sed ipse esset futurus. 5. Sin autem intenderat cernendum se dare, non [debuit] oculorum negare conspectui,cur non talem videri se praebuit, qualem sciebat se esse qualemque se noverat sui numinis in potentia contineri?6. Erat enim hoc potius multoque praestantius augustaeque conveniens dignitati quam fieri beluam horrentisque animalis in similitudinem verti et dare ambiguis contradictionibus locum, essetne verus deus an nescio quid aliud longeque ab supera sublimitate seiunctum.

4. But if this shall have been said by you, how weakly and feebly it is said the very inequality of the matter will indicate. For if | f. 159 | the god was avoiding being seen by human beings, neither ought he to have wished to be beheld in the form of a serpent, since in whatever form it would not be someone other than himself, but he himself, who would be present. 5. But if, however, he had intended to grant himself to be discerned, he ought not to have denied himself to the sight of eyes,why did he not offer himself to be seen such as he knew himself to be, and such as he knew himself to be contained in the potency of his own numen?6. For this was rather, and much more excellent and befitting to august dignity, than to become a beast and be turned into the likeness of a shudder-inducing animal, and to give place to ambiguous contradictions: whether he was the true god, or I know not what else far separated from supernal sublimity.

46 [or 43].1. "Sed si deus, inquit, non erat, cur e navi postquam extulit sese <et> Tiberinam ad insulam repsit, nusquam statim conparuit et viderier ut ante desiit?. - Possumus enim scire, utrumne aliquod obstaculum fuerit, cuius sese obiectu atque oppositione protexerit, an hiatus aliquis?". 2. - Vos pronuntiate, vos dicite, quidnam illud fuerit aut cuinam rerum generi debuerit applicari, si personarum officia sunt certa certarum. Vestra cum res ista sit deque vestro numine vestraque et religione tractetur, vestrum est potius edocere vestrumque monstrare, quid illa res fuerit, nostras velle quam exaudire sententias nostraque easpectare decreta. 3. Nam nos quidem quid aliud possumus dicere, nisi quod fuit et visum est, quod historiae prodidere omnes et ocularum sensibus est conprehensum?

46 [or 43].1. "But if he was not a god, he says, why, after he lifted himself out of the ship and crept to the Tiberine island, did he nowhere at once appear and cease to be seen as before?. - For can we know whether there was some obstacle, by the interposition and opposition of which he protected himself, or some gaping opening?". 2. - You pronounce, you say, what that was, or to what kind of class of things it ought to have been applied, if the offices of persons are fixed for fixed persons. Since this matter is yours and is handled concerning your numen and your religion, it is yours rather to educate and yours to demonstrate what that thing was, than to wish to hear our opinions and to await our decrees. 3. For indeed what else can we say, except what it was and as it was seen, what all histories have handed down and what has been comprehended by the senses of the eyes?

Hanc tamen scilicet colubram validissimi corporis et prolixitatis inmensae aut, si nomen hoc sordidum est, anguem dicimus, serpentem nominitamus, aut si quod aliud nobis usus vocamen | f. 159b | obtulerit aut ampliatio sermonis ecfinxerit. 4. Si enim repsit ut coluber non pedibus se ferens neque suas subexplicans itiones sed ventre nisus ac pectore, si ex materia formatus carnis longitudinem porrigebatur in lubricam, caput si habuit atque caudam, si obsita squamis terga, si macularum <corium> suffectionibus varium, si os dentibus horridum et ad infligendos instructum morsus: quid aliud possumus quam generis eum dicere fuisse terreni, quamvis fuerit inmanis et nimius, quamvis illum ab Regulo exercitus vi caesum longitudine corporis et robore anteiret? 5. "Sed aliud nos remur et labefactamus et destruimui veritatem". - Ergo vestrum est explicare quidnam ille fuerit vel cuius generis, nominis et qualitatis cuius.

Nevertheless this snake of most powerful body and of immense prolongation—or, if this name is sordid, we say “anguis,” we name it a serpent, or whatever other appellation usage has offered us | f. 159b | or an amplification of discourse has fashioned. 4. For if it crept as a coluber, not bearing itself on feet nor unfolding any steps of its own, but pressing forward with belly and breast; if, formed from the matter of flesh, its length was stretched out into a slippery thing; if it had a head and a tail; if its back was clothed with scales; if its was variegated with suffusions of spots; if its mouth was bristling with teeth and equipped for inflicting bites: what else can we say but that it was of an earthly kind, although it was monstrous and excessive, although it outstripped that one cut down by the force of an army under Regulus in length of body and in strength? 5. "But we suppose something else, and we shake and we destroy the truth."—Therefore it is yours to explain what in the world that was, or of what kind, of what name and of what quality.

Nam deus esse qui potuit, cum haberet ea quae diximus, quae dii habere non debent, si cogitant dii esse et vocaminis huius eminentiam possidere? 6. "Tiberinam postquam ad insulam repsit, nusquam continuo apparuit: qua ea re numen fuisse monstratur". - Possumus enim scire, utrumne istic aliquod rei fuerit alicuius obstaculum, cuius sese obiectu atque oppositione protexerit, an hiatus aliquis aut ea molibus inaequaliter aggeratis successus quidam et fornices, in quos intulit se raptim circumscripto tuentium visus? Quid enim, si flumen transilivit?

For how could he have been a god, since he had those things which we have said, which gods ought not to have, if gods think themselves to be and to possess the eminence of this appellation? 6. "After he crawled to the Tiber Island, he nowhere immediately appeared: by which fact it is shown that he was a numen." - We can indeed know whether there was there some obstacle of some thing, by the object and opposition of which he protected himself, or some hiatus, or certain recesses and vaults formed by masses unevenly heaped into embankments, into which he swiftly conveyed himself, the sight of the onlookers being circumscribed. What, indeed, if he leaped across the river?

quid, si transnatavits quid, si silvarum densitatibus se dedit? Argumentatio flaccida est, ea re suspicari deum illum fuisse serpentem, quod ab oculis sese properata omni festinatione subtrait, eam deum non fuisse eadem rursus possit argumentatione monstrari.

what, if it swam across? what, if it gave itself to the densities of the woods? It is flaccid argumentation, to suspect for this reason that that serpent was a god, because it withdrew itself from the eyes with all hastening and festination; that it was not a god can in turn be shown by the same argumentation.

47 [or 44].1. "Sed si deus praesens anguis ille non fuit, cur post illius adventum pestilentiae vis fracta est | f. 160 | et populo salus est reddita Romano?". - 2. Referimus et nos contra: si ex libris fatalibus vatumque responsis invitari ad urbem deus Aesculapius iussus est, ut ab luis contagio morbisque pestilentibus tutam eam incolumem que praestaret, et venit non aspernatus, ut dicitis, colubrarum in formam conversus: cur totiens Romana civitas mali huius afflicta est cladibus, totiens aliis aliisque temporibus dilacerata, vexata est et innumeris stragibus civium minor facta est milibus? 3. Cum enim deus adcitus in hoc esse dicatur, ut omnino omnes causas quibus pestilentia conflabatur averteret, sequebatur ut civitas intacta esse deberet flatuque a noxio inmunis semper innocuaque praestari. 4. Atquin videmus, ut superius dictum est, saepenumero his morbis cursus eam vitae habuisse funestos nec dispendiis levibus esse populi fractas debilitatasque virtutes.

47 [or 44].1. "But if that snake was not a present god, why after his arrival was the force of the pestilence broken | f. 160 | and health restored to the Roman people?" - 2. We too reply in turn: if from the Fated Books and the responses of the vates the god Aesculapius was ordered to be invited to the city, so that he might render it safe and unharmed from the taint of plague and pestilent diseases, and he came not spurning, as you say, converted into the form of colubers, why has the Roman civic community so often been afflicted by disasters of this evil, so often at one time and another torn to pieces and vexed, and been made smaller by thousands through the innumerable slaughters of citizens? 3. For since the god is said to have been summoned for this, that he might avert absolutely all the causes by which pestilence was being kindled, it followed that the city ought to be untouched and always to be presented immune from noxious breath and innocuous. 4. But indeed we see, as was said above, that right often it has had courses of life deadly with these diseases, nor with light losses have the strengths of the people been broken and debilitated.

5. Ubi ergo Aesculapius fuit, ubi ille promissus oraculis venerabilibus? Cur templa post condita sibique exaedificata delubra diutius + habere perpessus est bene meritae civitatis luem, cum in id esset adcitus, ut et malis mederetur instantibus nec sineret in futurum tale aliquid quod metueretur inrepere?

5. Where then was Aesculapius, where was he who had been promised by venerable oracles? Why, after temples had been founded and shrines erected for himself, did he suffer the well-deserving city to have the plague for a longer time, since he had been called in for this: both to remedy the pressing evils and not to permit in the future that anything of the sort, a thing to be feared, should creep in?

48 [or 45].1. Nisi forte aliquis dicet "minoribus et consequentibus saeculis idcirco dei talis defuisse custodiam, quod impiis iam moribus et inprobabilibus viveretur, opem autem contulisse maioribus, quod innoxii fuerint et ab omni scelerum contagione dimoti". 2. - Quod ratione cum aliqua et audiri forsitam potuisset et dici, si aut in temporibus | f. 160b | priscis omnes essent usque ad unum boni aut sequentia tempora malos omnes generarent et nulla diversitate discretos. 3. Cum vero res ita sit, ut in magnis populis, nationibus, quinimmo et in civitatibus cunctis mixtum sit humanum genus naturis voluntatibus moribus tamque potuerint in prioribus saeculis quam in novellis aetatibus boni simul malique existere, stultum satis est dicere, propter malitias posteros auxilia numinum non meruisse mortales.

48 [or 45].1. Unless perhaps someone will say, "For the lesser and subsequent ages the guardianship of such a god was therefore lacking, because by then men were living with impious and disreputable morals; but he did bestow help upon the ancients, because they were innocent and removed from every contagion of crimes." 2. - Which, with some reason, perhaps could both have been listened to and said, if either in the | f. 160b | ancient times all, to a man, had been good, or if the following times generated all as bad and distinguished by no diversity. 3. But since the case is such that, in great peoples, in nations, nay rather even in all cities, the human race is mixed in natures, wills, and morals, and as much in the earlier ages as in the newer periods the good together with the bad could exist, it is quite foolish to say that, on account of the wickednesses of posterity, mortals did not merit the aids of the numina.

4. Si enim propter malos sequentium saeculorum boni non sunt protecti temporum novellorum, et propter antiquos malos boni aeque maiores non debuerant mereri benivolentiam numinum: sin propter bonos priscos mali etiam conservati sunt prisci, et propter bonos minores aetas debuit sequens, quamvis esset inprobabilis, protegi. 5. Aut ergo iam fracta atque inminuta vi morbi anguis ille perlatus famam conservatoris adsumpsit, cum nihil omnino commoditatis attulisset, aut fatalia dicenda sunt carmina multum veris aberravisse praesagiis, cum remedium ab his datum non deinceps cunctis sed auailio fuisse uni tantum repperiatur aetati.

4. For if, on account of the wicked of the succeeding ages, the good were not protected in the newer times, then on account of the ancient wicked the good likewise among the elders ought not to have deserved the benevolence of the numina; but if on account of the good of old the wicked also of old were preserved, then on account of the later good the following age, although it was reprobate, ought to have been protected. 5. Either, therefore, with the force of the disease now broken and diminished, that serpent, once conveyed, assumed the repute of a preserver, when it had brought absolutely no advantage; or one must say that the fatal songs have strayed far from true presages, since the remedy given by them is found thereafter not to have been for all, but to have been a help to one age only.

49 [or 46].1. "Sed et Magna, inquit, Mater accita ea Phrygio Pessinunte iussis consimiliter vatum salutaris populo et magnarum causa laetitiarum fuit. 2. - Nam et diu potens hostis ab Italiae possessione detrusus est et gloriosis inlustribusque victoriis decus urbis restitutum est pristinum et imperii fines longe lateque porrecti et innumeris gentibus civitatibus populis libertatis ius raptum est et iugum | f. 161 | servitutis inpositum, multaeque res aliae foris domique perfectae ineluctabili firmitate gentis nomen maiestatemque fundarunt". 3. - Si verum locuntur historiae neque ullas inserunt rerum conscriptionibus falsitates, adlatum ex Phrygia nihil quid aliud scribitur missum rege ab Attalo, nisi lapis quidam non magnus, ferri manu hominis sine ulla inpressione qui posset, coloris furvi atque atri, angellis prominentibus inaequalis, et quem omnes hodie ipso illo videmus in signo oris loco positum, indolatum et asperum et simulacro faciem minus expressam simulatione praebentem.

49 [or 46].1. "But also the Great Mother, he says, having been summoned from Phrygian Pessinus by the like commands of the seers, was salutary to the people and a cause of great rejoicings. 2. - For both a long-powerful enemy was thrust from possession of Italy, and by glorious and illustrious victories the city’s pristine honor was restored, and the bounds of the empire were extended far and wide, and from innumerable nations, cities, peoples the right of liberty was snatched and the yoke | f. 161 | of servitude imposed, and many other things accomplished abroad and at home, with ineluctable firmness, founded the nation’s name and majesty." 3. - If histories speak true and insert no falsities into the consignments of events, nothing else is written to have been brought from Phrygia, sent by King Attalus, except a certain not-large stone, which could be carried by a man’s hand without any strain, of dusky and black color, uneven with little projecting angles, and which we all today see set in that very image in the place of the mouth, unpolished and rough, and to the statue presenting a face less expressed by imitation.

50 [or 47].1. Quid ergo dicemus? Hannibalem illum Poenum, hostem potentem ac validum, sub quo anceps et dubia res Romana contremuit et magnitudo trepidavit, lapis ea Italia depulit, lapis fregit, lapis fugacem ac timidum suique esse dissimilem fecit? 2. Et quod rursus exsilivit ad imperii columen et regium principatum, nihil consiliis actum est, nihil hominum viribus, nec ad reditum sublimitatis antiquae tot tantisque ab ducibus quicquam est scientia militari aut rerum experientia conlatum?

50 [or 47].1. What then shall we say? That that Carthaginian Hannibal, a powerful and stalwart enemy, under whom the Roman state, ambivalent and doubtful, trembled and the magnitude grew alarmed, a stone drove him from Italy, a stone broke him, a stone made him a fugitive and timid and unlike himself? 2. And that, when it again sprang up to the pinnacle of imperium and a royal principate, nothing was accomplished by counsels, nothing by the forces of men, nor, for the return of ancient sublimity, was anything contributed by military science or experience of affairs by so many and so great leaders?

3. Lapis aliis vires, aliis roboris infirmitatem dedit, hos secundis praecipitavit ab rebus, aliorum extulit stratas desperatione fortunas? Et quis hominum credet terra sumptum lapidem, sensu agitabilem nullo,fuliginei coloris atque atri, <parvi> corporis, deum fuisse matrema aut qui rursus accipiat - hoc enim solum restat - numinis alicuius habitasse | f. 161b | vim silicis fragmentis <ignis> more subiectam venisque in eius abstrusam? 4. "Et unde parta victoria est, si Pessinuntio lapidi nullum inerat numen?". - "Sedulitate possumus dicere ac virtute pugnantium, usu tempore consilio ratione, fato etiam possumus et reciproca varietate fortunae". 5. Sed si auxilio lapidis res facta est melior et felix reciperata victoria est, ubinam Mater Phrygia tempore illo fuit, cum tot tantis que exercitibus caesis inclinata est res summa et ad ultimae labis periculum venit?

3. Did the stone give to some men strength, to others a weakness of robustness, did it hurl these headlong from prosperous circumstances, did it raise up the fortunes of others laid low by desperation? And who among men will believe that a stone taken from the earth, movable by no sense,of sooty and black color, of <small> body, was a mother-god; or who in turn will accept — for this alone remains — that the power of some numen dwelt in it, | f. 161b | laid beneath in fragments of flint after the manner of <fire> and hidden in its veins? 4. “And whence was the victory procured, if no numen was inherent in the Pessinuntian stone?” — “By sedulity, we can say, and by the virtue of the combatants, by use, timing, counsel, reason; by fate also we can say, and by the reciprocal variety (vicissitude) of fortune.” 5. But if by the aid of the stone the situation was made better and the victory recovered was felicitous, where then was the Phrygian Mother at that time, when, with so many and so great armies cut down, the highest interest of the state was bowed and came to the peril of ultimate ruin?

Cur non minaci forti se obtulit? cur impetus tantos belli non prius fregit ac reppulit quam immanes ac * inciderent plagae, quibus omnis effunderetur sanguis et exhaustis rueret vita ipsa paene vitalibus? 6. "Advecta enim nondum nec favorem fuerat ut comrmodaret rogata". - Esto: sed bonus auxiliator numquam rogari se poscit spontanea semper opitulatione subveniens.

Why did she not present herself with minatory strength? why did she not first shatter and repel such great impetuses of war before the immense and * blows should fall, by which all blood would be poured out and, the vitals exhausted, life itself would almost collapse? 6. "For she had not yet been brought in, nor, when asked, was she in a position to bestow favor". - Be it so: but a good auxiliator never demands to be asked, ever coming with spontaneous opitulation to help.

"Hostem pellere ac fugare non potuit multo adhuc mari terrisque ab Italia discreta". - Sed deo, si deus est, longum nihil omnino est, cui punctum terra est et sub nutu omnia constituta.

"She could not drive away and rout the enemy, still separated from Italy by much sea and lands". - But for a god, if it is a god, nothing at all is long, for whom the earth is a point and all things are set under a nod.

51 [or 48].1. Sed fuerit praesens, ut exposcitis credi, illo ipso numen in lapide: - et mortalium quisquam est, quamvis ille sit credulus et facillimas aures quibuslibet fictionibus praebeat, qui eam iudicet fuisse aut tempore illo deam aut hodie dici appellarique debere, quae modo haec appetat, modo illa deposcat, suos deserat fastidiatque | f. 162 | cultores, provinciis ab humilioribus migret, potentioribus populis ditioribusque se iungat? 2. Verum bellicas res amet interque esse desideret pugnis caedibus mortalitatibus et cruori. Si deorum est proprium, si modo sunt veri et quos deceat nuncupari vi vocis istius et potentia nominis, nihil facere malitiose, nihil iniuste hominibusque se cunctis una et parili gratia sine ulla inclinatione praebere, generis eam fuisse divini quisquamne hominum <credat> aut habuisse aequitatem diis dignam, quae humanis sese discordiis inserens maiorum opes fregit, aliis se praebuit exhibuitque fautricem, libertatem his abstulit, alios ad columen dominationis erexit, quae ut una civitas emineret in humani generis perniciem nata, orbem subiugavit innoxium?

51 [or 48].1. But let it have been present, as you demand it to be believed, that very numen in the stone: - and is there any mortal, however credulous he be and however readily he lends the easiest ears to any fabrications, who would judge that she either was at that time a goddess, or today ought to be said and called such, who at one time craves these things, at another demands those, deserts and loathes her worshipers, migrates from humbler provinces, and joins herself to more powerful and richer peoples? 2. Indeed, let her love warlike affairs and desire to be among fights, slaughters, mortalities, and gore. If it is proper to gods—if only they are true and such as it befits to be named by the force of that voice and the potency of the name—to do nothing maliciously, nothing unjustly, and to present themselves to all human beings with one and equal favor without any partiality, will any man believe that she was of divine stock or possessed equity worthy of gods, she who, inserting herself into human discords, shattered the resources of some greater ones, to others offered and exhibited herself as a patroness, from these took away liberty, others raised to the summit of domination, she who, in order that one city might stand out, born for the destruction of the human race, has subjugated the harmless world? | f. 162 |