[49]
Therefore, it is possible that some such
figure as Carneades described did spontaneously
appear in the Chian quarries. On the other hand,
the story may be untrue. Again, you have often
[p. 427]
noticed clouds take the form of a lion or a hippocentaur. Therefore it is possible for chance to
imitate reality, and this you just now denied.1
22. "But since entrails and lightnings have
been sufficiently discussed it remains for us to
examine portents, if we are to treat soothsaying in
its entirety. You spoke of a mule bearing a colt.2
Such an event excites wonder because it seldom
occurs; but if it had been impossible it would not
have occurred. And it may be urged with effect
against all portents that the impossible never has
happened and that the possible need not excite any
wonder. Now, in case of some new occurrence,
ignorance of its cause is what excites our wonder;
whereas, the same ignorance as to things of frequent
occurrence does not. For the man who marvels that
a mule has foaled does not understand how a mare
foals and is ignorant of animal parturition in general.
What he sees frequently causes him no astonishment
even though he does not know how it happened. If
something happens which he never saw before he
considers it a portent. Then, which is the portent—
the mule's conception or its parturition?
Cicero: De Senectute De Amicitia De Divinatione. With An English Translation. William Armistead Falconer. Cambridge. Harvard University Press; Cambridge, Mass., London, England. 1923.
The Annenberg CPB/Project provided support for entering this text.
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.
An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.