1 Earliest Rome

13- P E R S P E C T I V E S
13.2a Arguments for divination
The speaker in this extract is Quintus, Cicero's brother. The idea he expresses
of a divine force suffused through the world is a characteristically Stoic philo­
sophical position.
Cicero, On Divination 1.118-19
Assuming this proposition be granted, that there is a divine force embracing human life —
then it is not difficult to infer how it is that those things, 1
which we certainly observe
happening, do in fact happen. For it may be that an intelligent force, which is diffused
through the whole world, controls the choice of a sacrificial victim; and it could also be
that at the very moment when you choose to make the sacrifice a change in the entrails
takes place — so that something is added or something taken away. The clearest proof of
this fact — such that it is impossible to have any doubt on the matter — is provided by the
events that took place just before the murder of Caesar. It was the day when for the first
time Caesar sat on a golden throne and appeared in a purple robe; 2
and when he was
sacrificing there was no heart in the entrails of the sacrificial victim. Surely you do not
imagine that any animal that has blood can exist without a heart? Caesar was unmoved
by this extraordinary discovery, even though Spurinna 3
advised him to beware lest he lose
all reason and life; for both those things come from the heart. On the next day there was
no lobe on the liver. 4
These omens were sent to him by the immortal gods so that he
should have foreknowledge of his murder, not that he should avoid it. When, therefore,
those parts of the entrails are found to be absent, without which the victim could not
have lived, it must be understood that the missing parts disappeared at the very moment
of sacrifice.
^ 1. That is, signs giving warning of future events.
2. Ostentatious symbols of monarchy.
3. The haruspex.
4. See also 7.4c; 6.6a.
13.2b Arguments against divination
Cicero, On Divination n.36-7
Later, in the second book of the dialogue, the character of Marcus Cicero him­
self takes up the arguments made by Quintus.
But your argument was that when Caesar was sacrificing there was no heart in the entrails
of the sacrificial bull; and, as it could not possibly be that the victim had no heart when it
was alive, then the heart must be deemed to have disappeared at the moment of sacrifice.
How does it come about that you understand one principle — that a bull could not have
lived without a heart - and that you do not see the other — that a heart could not
suddenly have flown off somewhere? As for me, possibly I do not understand the vital
function of the heart; but I can guess that the bull's heart had been afflicted by some
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