[40]
"And they can laugh with the better grace
because Epicurus, to make the gods ridiculous, represents them as transparent, with the winds blowing
through them, and living between two worlds1 (as
if between our two groves2 ) from fear of the downfall. He further says that the gods have limbs
just as we have, but make no use of them. Hence,
while he takes a roundabout way to destroy the
gods, he does not hesitate to take a short road to
destroy divination. At any rate Epicurus is consistent, but the Stoics are not; for his god, who has
no concern for himself or for anybody else, cannot
impart divination to men. And neither can your
Stoic god impart divination, although he rules the
world and plans for the good of mankind.
1 i.e. in the intermundia, μετακόσμια, where they were safe when a world fell to pieces.
2 The depression between the two peaks of the Capitoline Hill was called Asylum or Inter Duos Lucos. According to tradition it was there that Romulus established his asylum or place of refuge for criminals. The groves were originally on the summits. See Platner, Topography and Monuments of Ancient Rome, p. 305.
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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