43.4978
| 4978
40 in Orelli. The ms., 1st edd.,
and Ursinus want si. |
If
Jupiter sought to have his
games celebrated, and that afresh,
4979
| 4979
Lit., “and restored.” [Conf. Pont. Max.
here named, with vol. iv. p. 74.] |
with greater care; if he honestly
sought to restore
4980
| 4980
The ms. and Ursinus read
reddere-t—“if he was to restore;” corrected,
as above, by omission of t. |
the people to
health, and that the
evil which he had caused should go no further and not be increased,
would it not have been better that he should come to the consul
himself, to some one of the
public priests, the
pontifex
maximus, or to his own
flamen Dialis, and in a vision
reveal
to him the defect
in the games occasioned by the dancer, and the
cause of the
sadness of the times? What reason had there been
that he should choose to
announce his wishes and procure the
satisfaction desired, a man accustomed to
live in the
country,
unknown from the obscurity of his name, not acquainted with city
matters, and perhaps not knowing what a dancer is? And if he
indeed knew,
as he must have known if he was a diviner,
4981
| 4981
i.e., if he is a god. Cf. iii. 20; [specially, note 3, p.
469]. |
that this
fellow would refuse to obey, would it not have been more
natural and
befitting a
god, to change the man’s
mind, and
constrain him to
be willing to obey, than to try more cruel methods, and vent his
rage
indiscriminately, without any reason, as robbers do? For if the
old rustic, not being
quick in entering upon anything, delayed in
doing what was commanded, being kept back by stronger motives,
of what had his unhappy
children been
guilty, that
Jupiter’s anger and indignation should be turned upon
them, and that they should pay for another’s offences by being
robbed of their lives? And can any man believe that he
is
a
god who is so
unjust, so impious, and who does not observe
even the
laws of men, among whom it would be held a great
crime to
punish one for another, and to
avenge one man’s offences upon
others?
4982
| 4982
Lit., “the necks of.” |
But,
I am told, he caused the man himself to be
seized by the cruel
pestilence. Would it not then have been better, nay rather,
juster, if it seemed that this should be done, that dread of
punishment
should be first excited by the
father, who
4983
| 4983
Lit., “the terror of coercion should begin from the father with
whom.” |
had been the cause of such passion
by
4984
his
disobedient delay, than to do
violence to the
children, and to consume
and
destroy innocent persons to make him sorrowful?
4985
| 4985
Lit., “to his grief.” |
What,
pray, was
the meaning
of this fierceness, this
cruelty, which
was so great that,
his
offspring being dead, it afterwards
terrified the
father by his own
danger! But if he had chosen to do this long before, that is, in
the first place, not only would not the
innocent brothers have been
cut
off, but the indignant purpose of the
deity also would have been
known. But certainly,
it will be said, when he had done
his
duty by announcing the vision, the
disease immediately left him,
and the man was forthwith restored to
health. And what is there
to admire in this if he removed
4986
| 4986
The ms. reads rett-ulit,
emended ret-—“gave back,” i.e., got rid of, by
1st ed. and Ursinus; and rep-, as above, by Gelenius and
others. |
the
evil which he had himself
breathed
into the man, and vaunted himself with false
pretence? But if you weigh the circumstances thoroughly, there
was greater
cruelty than
kindness in his deliverance, for
Jupiter did not
preserve him to the joys of
life who was
miserable and wishing to perish after his children, but to learn his
solitariness and the agonies of bereavement.
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