[36]
Upon my
word, no old woman is credulous enough now to
believe such stuff! Do you believe that the same
bullock, if chosen by one man, will have a liver
without a head, and if chosen by another will have
a liver with a head? And is it possible that this
sudden going or coming of the liver's head occurs
[p. 411]
so that the entrails may adapt themselves to the situation of the person who offers the sacrifice? Do you
Stoics fail to see in choosing the victim it is almost
like a throw of the dice, especially as facts prove it?
For when the entrails of the first victim have been
without a head, which is the most fatal of all signs,
it often happens that the sacrifice of the next victim
is altogether favourable. Pray what became of the
warnings of the first set of entrails? And how was
the favour of the gods so completely and so suddenly
gained?
16. "But, you say, 'Once, when Caesar was
offering a sacrifice, there was no heart in the entrails
of the sacrificial bull;1 and, since it would have
been impossible for the victim to live without a
heart, the heart must have disappeared at the
moment of immolation.'
1 Cf. i. 52. 119.
Cicero: De Senectute De Amicitia De Divinatione. With An English Translation. William Armistead Falconer. Cambridge. Harvard University Press; Cambridge, Mass., London, England. 1923.
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