[54]
25. "You have cited many instances of portents from the verses which I wrote during my consulship1 ; you adduced many others which occurred
prior to the Marsian War2 and which are included in
Sisenna's compilation, and you mentioned a great
number which are recorded by Callisthenes and
which preceded the unfortunate battle of the
[p. 433]
Spartans at Leuctra.3 I shall, of course, speak of
each of these instances separately, in so far as they
require notice; but I must first discuss portents
generally. Now, what is the nature of these intimations, or of this advance-information, as it were,
sent out by the gods to apprise us of coming disasters?
In the first place, why do immortal gods see fit to
give us warnings which we can't understand without
the aid of interpreters? In the next place, why do
they warn us of things which we cannot avoid? Why,
even a mortal, if he has a proper sense of duty, does
not warn his friends of imminent disasters which
can in no way be escaped. Physicians, for example,
although they know many times that their patients
are going to die of a present disease, yet never tell
them so; for a forewarning of an evil is justified
only when to the warning is joined a means of escape.
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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