69. But our name is new,
we are told, and the religion which we follow arose but a few
days ago. Granting for the present that what you urge against us
is not untrue, what is there, I would ask, among the affairs of
men that is either done by bodily exertion and manual labour, or
attained by the mind’s learning and knowledge, which did not
begin at some time, and pass into general use and practice since
then? Medicine,3877
| 3877
The ms. reads edi in
filosophia; the first four edd., Philos.; Elmenh. and
Orelli, Etenim phil.—“For were phil.;”
LB., Ede an phil.—“say whether phil.,” which
is, however faulty in construction, as the indicative follows.
Rigaltius, followed by Oehler, emended as above, Medicina
phil. |
philosophy,
music, and all the
other arts by which social
life has been built up and
refined,—were these
born with men, and did they not rather begin
to be pursued, understood, and
practised lately, nay, rather, but a
short time since? Before the Etruscan Tages saw the
3878
| 3878 Lit., “reached the coasts
of.” |
light,
did any one know or
trouble himself to know and learn what meaning
there was in the fall of thunderbolts, or in the veins of the victims
sacrificed?
3879
| 3879
Lit., “of the intestines”—extorum. |
When
did the motion of the stars or the art of calculating nativities begin
to be known? Was it not after Theutis
3880
| 3880
In both Roman edd., Theutatem, i.e., Theutas. Cf.
Plato, Phædrus, st. p. 274. |
the Egyptian; or after Atlas, as some
say, the bearer, supporter, stay,
and prop of the
skies?
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