[4]
And since they thought that the human mind,
when in an irrational and unconscious state, and
moving by its own free and untrammelled impulse,
was inspired in two ways, the one by frenzy and the
other by dreams, and since they believed that the
divination of frenzy was contained chiefly in the
Sibylline verses, they decreed that ten1 men should
be chosen from the State to interpret those verses. In
this same category also were the frenzied prophecies
of soothsayers and seers, which our ancestors frequently thought worthy of belief—like the prophecies
of Cornelius Culleolus, during the Octavian War.2
Nor, indeed, were the more significant dreams,
if they seemed to concern the administration of
public affairs, disregarded by our Supreme Council.
Why, even within my own memory, Lucius Julius,
who was consul with Publius Rutilius, by a vote of
the Senate rebuilt the temple of Juno, the Saviour,3
in accordance with a dream of Caecilia, daughter
of Balearicus.4
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