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17. "Again, when sacrifices are offered to
more than one god at the same time, how does it
happen that the auspices are favourable in one case
and unfavourable in another? Is it not strange
fickleness in the gods to threaten disaster in the
first set of entrails and to promise a blessing in the
next? Or is there such discord among the gods—
often even among those who are nearest of kin—
that the entrails of the sacrifice you offer to Apollo,
for example, are favourable and of those you offer
at the same time to Diana are unfavourable? When
victims for the sacrifice are brought up at haphazard
it is perfectly clear that the character of entrails
that you will receive will depend on the victim
chance may bring. Oh! but someone will say,
'The choice itself is a matter of divine guidance,
just as in the case of lots the drawing is directed by
the gods!' I shall speak of lots presently; although
you really do not strengthen the cause of sacrifices
by comparing them to lots; but you do weaken
the cause of lots by comparing them with sacrifices.
[p. 415]
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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