[53]
Ye gods, how many times they were mistaken in
the late civil war! What oracular messages the
soothsayers sent from Rome to our Pompeian party
then in Greece! What assurances they gave to
Pompey! For he placed great reliance in divination
by means of entrails and portents. I have no wish to call
these instances to mind, and indeed it is unnecessary
—especially to you, since you had personal knowledge
of them. Still, you are aware that the result was
nearly always contrary to the prophecy. But enough
on this point: let us now come to portents.
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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