ἤδη δὲ προϊόντες ἦμεν κατὰ τὸν Ἱέρωνος ἀνδριάντα τοῦ τυράννου· καὶ τῶν μὲν ἄλλων ὁ ξένος εἰδὼς ἅπαντα παρεῖχεν ὅμως ὑπʼ εὐκολίας ἀκροατὴν αὑτόν· ἀκούσας δʼ ὅτι κίων τις ἑστὼς ἄνω χαλκοῦς Ἱέρωνος ἔπεσεν, αὐτομάτως τῆς ἡμέρας ἐκείνης, τὸν Ἱέρωνα συνέβαινεν ἐν Συρακούσαις τελευτᾶν, ἐθαύμασε. κἀγὼ τῶν ὁμοίων ἅμα συνανεμίμνησκον, οἷα δὴ τοῦ Ἱέρωνος μὲν τοῦ Σπαρτιάτου, ὅτι πρὸ τῆς ἐν Λεύκτροις αὐτῷ γενομένης τελευτῆς ἐξέπεσον οἱ ὀφθαλμοὶ τοῦ ἀνδριάντος, οἱ δʼ ἀστέρες ἠφανίσθησαν οὓς Λύσανδρος ἀνέθηκεν ἀπὸ τῆς ἐν Αἰγὸς ποταμοῖς ναυμαχίας. ὁ δʼ αὐτοῦ τοῦ Λυσάνδρου λίθινος ἀνδριὰς ἐξήνθησεν ἀγρίαν λόχμην καὶ πόαν τοσαύτην τὸ πλῆθος, ὥστε κατακρύψαι τὸ πρόσωπον. ἐν δὲ τοῖς Σικελικοῖς τῶν Ἀθηναίων ἀτυχήμασιν αἵ τε χρυσαῖ τοῦ φοίνικος ἀπέρρεον βάλανοι, καὶ τὴν ἀσπίδα τοῦ Παλλαδίου κόρακες περιέκοπτον. ὁ δὲ Κνιδίων στέφανος, ὃν Φαρσαλίᾳ τῇ ὀρχηστρίδι Φιλόμηλος ὁ Φωκέων τύραννος ἐδωρήσατο, μεταστᾶσαν αὐτὴν ἐκ τῆς Ἑλλάδος εἰς τὴν Ἰταλίαν, ἀπώλεσεν ἐν Μεταποντίῳ παίζουσαν περὶ τὸν νεὼν τοῦ Ἀπόλλωνος· ὁρμήσαντες γὰρ ἐπὶ τὸν στέφανον οἱ νεανίσκοι καὶ μαχόμενοι περὶ τοῦ χρυσίου πρὸς ἀλλήλους διέσπασαν τὴν ἄνθρωπον. Ἀριστοτέλης μὲν οὖν μόνον Ὅμηρον ἔλεγε κινούμενα ποιεῖν ὀνόματα διὰ τὴν ἐνέργειαν ἐγὼ δὲ φαίην ἂν καὶ τῶν ἀναθημάτων τὰ ἐνταυθοῖ μάλιστα συγκινεῖσθαι καὶ συνεπισημαίνειν τῇ τοῦ θεοῦ προνοίᾳ· καὶ τούτων μέρος μηδὲν εἶναι κενὸν μηδʼ ἀναίσθητον, ἀλλὰ πεπλῆσθαι πάντα θειότητος;. καὶ ὁ Βόηθος ναί εἶπεν· οὐ γὰρ ἀρκεῖ τὸν θεὸν εἰς σῶμα καθειργνύναι θνητὸν ἅπαξ ἑκάστου μηνός, ἀλλὰ καὶ λίθῳ παντὶ καὶ χαλκῷ συμφυράσομεν αὐτόν, ὥσπερ οὐκ ἔχοντες ἀξιόχρεων τῶν τοιούτων συμπτωμάτων τὴν τύχην δημιουργὸν καὶ ταὐτόματον. εἶτʼ ἔφην ἐγώ τύχῃ σοι δοκεῖ καὶ αὐτόματον τῶν τοιούτων ἕκαστον ἐοικέναι, καὶ πιθανόν ἐστι τὰς ἀτόμους ἐξολισθεῖν καὶ διαλυθῆναι καὶ παρεγκλῖναι μήτε πρότερον μήθʼ ὕστερον, ἀλλὰ κατʼ ἐκεῖνον τὸν χρόνον, ἐν ᾧ τῶν ἀναθέντων ἕκαστος; ἢ χεῖρον ἔμελλε πράξειν ἢ βέλτιον; καὶ σὲ μὲν Ἐπίκουρος ὠφελεῖ νῦν ὡς ἔοικεν ἀφʼ ὧν εἶπεν ἢ ἔγραψε πρὸ ἐτῶν τριακοσίων· ὁ θεὸς δʼ, εἰ μὴ συνείρξειε φέρων ἑαυτὸν εἰς ἅπαντα μηδʼ ἀνακερασθείη πᾶσιν, οὐκ ἄν σοι δοκοίη κινήσεως ἀρχὴν καὶ πάθους αἰτίαν παρασχεῖν οὐδενὶ τῶν ὄντων;ʼ
Thus walking along, we were by this time got as far as the statue of Hiero the tyrant, while the stranger, although a most learned historian, yet out of his complaisant and affable disposition, attentively leaned to the present relations. But then, among other things, hearing how that one of the brazen pillars that supported the said statue of Hiero fell of itself the same day that the tyrant died at Syracuse, he began to admire the accident. Thereupon at the same time I called to mind several other examples of the like nature: as that of Hiero the Spartan, the eyes of whose statue fell out of its head just before he was slain at the battle of Leuctra;—how the two stars vanished which Lysander offered and consecrated to the Gods after the naval engagement near Aegos Potami, and how there sprung of a sudden from his statue of stone such a multitude of thorny bushes and weeds as covered all his face;—how, when those calamities and misfortunes befell the Athenians in Sicily, the golden dates dropped from the palm-tree, and the ravens with their beaks pecked holes in the shield of Pallas;—how the crown of the Cnidians which Philomelus, the tyrant of the Phocians, gave Pharsalia, a female dancer, was the occasion of her death; for, passing out of Greece into Italy, one day as she was playing and dancing in the temple of Apollo in the city of Metapontum, having that crown upon her head, the young men of the place falling upon her, and fighting one among another for lucre of the gold, tore the damsel in pieces. Now, though Aristotle was wont to say that only Homer composed names and terms that had motion, by reason of the vigor and vivacity of his expressions, for my part I am apt to believe that the offerings made in this city of statues and consecrated presents sympathize with Divine Providence, and move themselves jointly therewith to foretell and signify future events; and that no part of all those sacred donatives is void of sense, but that every part is full of the Deity.
It is very probable, answered Boethus; for, to tell you truth, we do not think it sufficient to enclose the Divinity every month in a mortal body, unless we incorporate him with every stone and lump of brass; as if Fortune and Chance were not sufficient artists to bring about such accidents and events. Say ye so then? said I. Seems it to you that these things happen accidentally and by hap-hazard; and is it likely that your atoms never separate, never move or incline this or that way either before or after, but just in that nick of time when some one of those who have made these offerings is to fare either better or worse? Shall Epicurus avail thee by his writings and his sayings, which he wrote and uttered above three hundred years ago, and shall the Deity, unless he crowd himself into all substances and blend himself with all things, not be allowed to be a competent author of the principles of motion and affection?
τοιαῦτα μὲν ἐγὼ πρὸς τὸν Βόηθον ἀπεκρινάμην, ὅμοια δὲ περὶ τῶν Σιβυλλείων. ἐπειδὴ γὰρ ἔστημεν κατὰ τὴν πέτραν γενόμενοι τὴν κατὰ τὸ βουλευτήριον, ἐφʼ ἧς λέγεται καθίζεσθαι τὴν πρώτην Σίβυλλαν ἐκ τοῦ Ἑλικῶνος παραγενομένην ὑπὸ τῶν Μουσῶν τραφεῖσαν (ἔνιοι δέ φασιν ἐκ Μαλιέων ἀφικέσθαι Λαμίας οὖσαν θυγατέρα τῆς Ποσειδῶνος), ὁ μὲν Σαραπίων ἐμνήσθη τῶν ἐπῶν, ἐν οἷς ὕμνησεν ἑαυτήν, ὡς οὐδʼ ἀποθανοῦσα λήξει μαντικῆς· ἀλλʼ αὐτὴ μὲν ἐν τῇ σελήνῃ περίεισι τὸ καλούμενον φαινόμενον γενομένη πρόσωπον, τῷ δʼ ἀέρι τὸ πνεῦμα συγκραθὲν ἐν φήμαις ἀεὶ φορήσεται καὶ κληδόσιν· ἐκ δὲ τοῦ σώματος μεταβαλόντος ἐν τῇ γῇ πόας; καὶ ὕλης ἀναφυομένης, βοσκήσεται ταύτην ἱερὰ θρέμματα, χρόας τε παντοδαπὰς ἴσχοντα καὶ μορφὰς καὶ ποιότητας ἐπὶ τῶν σπλάγχνων ἀφʼ ὧν αἱ προδηλώσεις ἀνθρώποις τοῦ μέλλοντος. ὁ δὲ Βόηθος ἔτι μᾶλλον ἦν φανερὸς καταγελῶν τοῦ δὲ ξένου εἰπόντος, ὡς, εἰ καὶ ταῦτα μύθοις ἔοικεν, ἀλλὰ ταῖς γε μαντείαις ἐπιμαρτυροῦσι πολλαὶ μὲν ἀναστάσεις καὶ μετοικισμοὶ πόλεων Ἑλληνίδων, πολλαὶ δὲ βαρβαρικῶν στρατιῶν ἐπιφάνειαι καὶ ἀναιρέσεις ἡγεμονιῶν· ταυτὶ δὲ τὰ πρόσφατα καὶ νέα πάθη περί τε Κύμην καὶ Δικαιάρχειαν οὐχ ὑμνούμενα πάλαι καὶ ᾀδόμενα διὰ τῶν Σιβυλλείων ὁ χρόνος ὥσπερ ὀφείλων ἀποδέδωκεν, ἐκρήξεις πυρὸς ὀρείου καὶ ζέσεις θαλασσίας, καὶ πετρῶν καὶ φλεγμονῶν ὑπὸ πνεύματος ἀναρρίψεις, καὶ φθορὰς πολεων ἅμα τοσούτων καὶ τηλικούτων, ὡς μεθʼ ἡμέραν ἐπελθοῦσιν ἄγνοιαν εἶναι καὶ ἀσάφειαν ὅπου κατῴκηντο τῆς χώρας συγκεχυμένης; ταῦτα γὰρ εἰ γέγονε πιστεῦσαι χαλεπόν ἐστι, μὴ τί γε προειπεῖν ἄνευ θειότητος
This was the reply I made Boethus, and the same answer I gave him touching the Sibyl’s verses; for when we drew near that part of the rock which joins to the senate-house, which by common fame was the seat of the first Sibyl that came to Delphi from Helicon, where she was bred by the Muses (though others affirm that she fixed herself at Maleo, and that she was the daughter of Lamia, the daughter of Neptune), Serapio made mention of certain verses of hers, wherein she had extolled herself as one that should never cease to prophesy even after her death; for that after her decease she should make her abode in the orb of the moon, being metamorphosed into the face of that planet; that her voice and prognostications should be always heard in the air, intermixed with the winds and by them driven about from place to place; and that from her body should spring various plants, herbs, and fruits to feed the sacred victims, which should have sundry forms and qualities in their entrails, whereby men would be able to foretell all manner of events to come. At this Boethus laughed outright; but the stranger replied that, though the Sibyl’s vain-glory seemed altogether fabulous, yet the subversions of several Grecian cities, transmigrations of the inhabitants, several invasions of barbarian armies, the destructions of kingdoms and principalities, testified the truth of ancient prophecies and predictions. And were not those accidents that fell out not many years ago in our memories at Cumae and Puteoli, said he, long before that time the predictions and promises of the Sibyl, which Time, as a debtor, afterwards discharged and paid? Such were the breaking forth of kindled fire from the sulphuric wombs of mountains, boiling of the sea, cities so swallowed up as not to leave behind the least footsteps of the ruins where they stood; things hard to be believed, much harder to be foretold, unless by Divine foresight.
καὶ ὁ Βόηθος ποῖον γάρ εἶπεν ὦ δαιμόνιε, τῇ φύσει πάθος ὁ χρόνος οὐκ ὀφείλει; τί δʼ ἔστι τῶν ἀτόπων καὶ ἀπροσδοκήτων περὶ γῆν ἢ θάλατταν ἢ πόλεις ἢ ἄνδρας, ὅ τις ἂν προειπὼν οὐ τύχοι γενομένου; καίτοι τοῦτό γε σχεδὸν οὐδὲ προειπεῖν ἔστιν ἀλλʼ εἰπεῖν, μᾶλλον δὲ ῥῖψαι καὶ διασπεῖραι λόγους οὐκ ἔχοντας ἀρχὴν εἰς τὸ ἄπειρον· οἷς πλανωμένοις ἀπήντησε πολλάκις ἡ τύχη καὶ συνέπεσεν αὐτομάτως. διαφέρει γὰρ οἶμαι γενέσθαι τὸ ῥηθὲν ἢ ῥηθῆναι τὸ γενησόμενον. ὁ γὰρ εἰπὼν τὰ μὴ ὑπάρχοντα λόγος ἐν ἑαυτῷ τὸ ἡμαρτημένον ἔχων οὐ δικαίως ἀναμένει τὴν ἐκ ταὐτομάτου πίστιν οὐδʼ ἀληθεῖ τεκμηρίῳ χρῆται τοῦ προειπεῖν ἐπιστάμενος τῷ μετὰ τὸ εἰπεῖν γενομένῳ, πάντα τῆς ἀπειρίας φερούσης· μᾶλλον δʼ δʼ μὲν εἰκάζων καλῶς, ὃν ἄριστον μάντιν ἀνηγόρευκεν ἡ παροιμία, ἰχνοσκοποῦντι καὶ στιβεύοντι διὰ τῶν εὐλόγων τὸ μέλλον ὅμοιός ἐστι. Σίβυλλαι δʼ αὗται καὶ Βάκιδες ὥσπερ εἰς πόντον ἀτεκμάρτως τὸν χρόνον κατέβαλον καὶ διέσπειραν ὡς ἔτυχε παντοδαπῶν ὀνόματα καὶ ῥήματα παθῶν καὶ συμπτωμάτων· οἷς, γιγνομένων ἐνίων ἀπὸ τύχης, ὁμοίως ψεῦδός ἐστι τὸ νῦν λεγόμενον, κἂν ὕστερον ἀληθές, εἰ τύχοι, γένηται.
Then Boethus said: I would fain know what accidents fall out which time does not owe at length to Nature. What so prodigious or unlooked for, either by land or sea, either in respect of cities or men, which, if it be foretold, may not naturally come to pass at one season or other, in process of time? So that such a prophecy, to speak properly, cannot be called a prediction, but a bare speech or report, or rather a scattering or sowing of words in boundless infinity that have no probability or foundation; which, as they rove and wander in the air, Fortune accidentally meets, and musters together by chance, to correspond and agree with some event. For, in my opinion, there is a great difference between the coming to pass of what has been said and the saying of what shall happen. For the discourse of things that are not, being already in itself erroneous and faulty, cannot, in justice, claim the honor of after-credit from a fortuitous accident. Nor is it a true sign that the prophet foretells of his certain knowledge, because what he spoke happened to come to pass; in regard there are an infinite number of accidents, that fall in the course of nature, suitable to all events. He therefore that conjectures best, and whom the common proverb avers to be the exactest diviner, is he who finds out what shall happen hereafter, by tracing the footsteps of future probabilities. Whereas these Sibyls and enthusiastic wizards have only thrown into the capacious abyss of time, as into a vast and boundless ocean, whole heaps of words and sentences, comprehending all sorts of accidents and events, which, though some perchance may come to pass, were yet false when uttered, though afterwards by chance they may happen to be true.
τοιαῦτα τοῦ Βοήθου διελθόντος, ὁ Σαραπίων δίκαιον ἔφη τὸ ἀξίωμα περὶ τῶν οὕτως, ὡς λέγει Βόηθος, ἀορίστως καὶ ἀνυποθέτως λεγομένων· εἰ νίκη στρατηγῷ προείρηται, νενίκηκεν· εἰ πόλεως ἀναίρεσις, ἀπόλωλεν ὅπου δʼ οὐ μόνον λέγεται τὸ γενησόμενον, ἀλλὰ καὶ πῶς καὶ πότε καὶ μετὰ τί καὶ μετά τίνος, οὐκ ἔστιν εἰκασμὸς τῶν τάχα γενησομένων ἀλλὰ τῶν πάντως ἐσομένων προδήλωσις. καὶ ταῦτʼ ἔστιν εἰς τὴν Ἀγησιλάου χωλότητα· φράζεο δή, Σπάρτη, καίπερ μεγάλαυχος ἐοῦσα, / μὴ σέθεν ἀρτίποδος βλάψῃ χωλὴ βασιλεία. / δηρὸν γὰρ μόχθοι σε κατασχήσουσιν ἄελπτοι, / φθισίβροτὸν τʼ ἐπὶ κῦμα κυλινδομένου πολέμοιο / καὶ τὰ περὶ τῆς νήσου πάλιν, ἣν ἀνῆκεν ἡ πρὸ Θήρας καὶ Θηρασίας; θάλασσα· καὶ περὶ τὸν Φιλίππου καὶ Ῥωμαίων πόλεμον· ἀλλʼ ὁπότε Τρώων γενεὰ καθύπερθε γένηται / Φοινίκων ἐν ἀγῶνι, τότʼ ἔσσεται ἔργα ἄπιστα· / πόντος μὲν λάμψει πῦρ ἄσπετον, ἐκ δὲ κεραυνῶν / πρηστῆρες μὲν ἄνω διὰ κύματος ἀίξουσιν / ἄμμιγα σὺν πέτρᾳ, ἡ δὲ στηρίξεται αὐτοῦ / οὐ φατὸς ἀνθρώποις νῆσος καὶ χείρονες ἄνδρες / χερσὶ βιησάμενοι τὸν κρείσσονα νικήσουσι. / τὸ γὰρ ἐν ὀλίγῳ χρόνῳ Ῥωμαίους τε Καρχηδονίων περιγενέσθαι καταπολεμήσαντας Ἀννίβαν, καὶ Φίλιππον Αἰτωλοῖς συμβαλόντα καὶ Ῥωμαίοις μάχῃ κρατηθῆναι, καὶ τέλος ἐκ βυθοῦ νῆσον ἀναδῦναι μετὰ πυρὸς πολλοῦ καὶ κλύδωνος ἐπιζέσαντος, οὐκ ἂν εἴποι τις ὡς ἀπήντησεν ἅμα πάντα καὶ συνέπεσε κατὰ τύχην καὶ αὐτομάτως, ἀλλʼ ἡ τάξις ἐμφαίνει τὴν πρόγνωσιν καὶ τὸ Ῥωμαίοις πρὸ ἐτῶν ὁμοῦ τι πεντακοσίων προειπεῖν τὸν χρόνον, ἐν ᾧ πρὸς ἅπαντα τὰ ἔθνη πολεμήσοιεν ἅμα· τοῦτο δʼ ἦν τὸ πολεμῆσαι τοῖς οἰκέταις ἀποστᾶσιν. ἐν τούτοις γὰρ οὐδὲν ἀτέκμαρτον οὐδὲ τυφλὸν ἀμφί τε τύχην ζητεῖν ἐν ἀπειρίᾳ ὁ λόγος ἀλλὰ πολλὰ τῆς πείρας ἐνέχυρα δίδωσι καὶ δείκνυσι τὴν ὁδόν, βαδίζει τὸ πεπρωμένον. οὐ γὰρ οἶμαὶ τινʼ ἐρεῖν, ὅτι μετὰ τούτων ὡς προερρήθη συνέπεσε κατὰ τύχην ἐπεὶ τί κωλύει λέγειν ἕτερον, ὡς προερρήθη οὐκ ἔγραψε τὰς *kuri/as ὑμῖν Ἐπίκουρος, ὦ Βόηθε, δόξας, ἀλλʼ ἀπὸ τύχης καὶ αὐτομάτως οὕτω πρὸς ἄλληλα τῶν γραμμάτων συνεμπεσόντων, ἀπετελέσθη τὸ βιβλίον;ʼ
Boethus having thus discoursed, Serapio replied, that Boethus had rightly and judiciously argued in reference to cursory predictions uttered not determinately and without good ground. One fairly guessed that such a captain should get the victory, and he won the field; another cried that such things portended the subversion of such a city, and it was laid in ashes. But when the person does not only foretell the event, but how and when, by what means, and by whom it shall come to pass, this is no hazardous conjecture, but an absolute demonstration, and pre-inspired discovery of what shall come to pass hereafter, and that too by the determined decree of fate, long before it comes to pass. For example, to instance the halting of Agesilaus, Sparta, beware, though thou art fierce and proud, / Lest a lame king thy ancient glories cloud; / For then ’twill be thy fate to undergo / Tedious turmoils of war, and sudden woe; / together with what was prophesied concerning the island which the sea threw up right against Thera and Therasia; as also the prediction of the war between King Philip and the Romans, When Trojan race shall tame Phoenicians bold, / Prodigious wonders shall the world behold; / From burning seas shall flames immense ascend; / Lightning and whirlwinds hideous rocks shall rend / From their foundations, and an island rear, / Dreadful to sight and terrible to hear. / In vain shall greater strength and valor then / Withstand the contemned force of weaker men. / Soon after this island shot up out of the ocean, surrounded with flames and boiling surges; and then it was that Hannibal was overthrown, and the Carthaginians were subdued by the distressed and almost ruined Romans, and that the Aetolians, assisted by the Romans, vanquished Philip King of Macedon. So that it is never to be imagined that these things were the effects of negligent and careless chance; besides, the series and train of events ensuing the prodigy clearly demonstrate the foreknowledge of a prophetic spirit. The same may be said of the prophecy made five hundred years beforehand to the Romans of the time when they should be engaged in war with all the world at once; which happened when their own slaves made war upon their masters. In all this there was nothing of conjecture, nothing of blind uncertainty, nor is there any occasion to grope into the vast obscurity of chance for the reason of these events; but we have many pledges of experience, that plainly demonstrate the beaten path by which destiny proceeds. For certainly there is no man who will believe that ever those events answered accidentally the several circumstances of the prediction; otherwise we may as well say that Epicurus himself never wrote his book of dogmatic precepts, but that the work was perfected by the accidental meeting and interchange of the letters, one among another.
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