[136]
"You, too, have drawn on history for dreams, a
number of which you told. You spoke, for example,
of the dreams of the mother of Phalaris, 1 of Cyrus the
Elder,2 of the mother of Dionysius,3 of the Carthaginians Hamilcar4 and Hannibal,5 and of Publius
Decius.6 You mentioned that much-spoken-of dream
about the slave who opened the votive games,7 also
the dream of Gaius Gracchus8 and the recent one of
Caecilia,9 the daughter of Balearicus. But these are
other people's dreams10 and hence we know nothing
about them and some of them are fabrications
perhaps. For who stands sponsor for them? And
what have we to say of our own dreams? Of your
dream of me and of my horse emerging from the
river and appearing on the bank?11 and of my dream
of Marius, attended by his laurelled fasces, ordering
me to be conducted to his monument?12
67. "All dreams, my dear Quintus, have one
explanation and, in heaven's name, let us see that it
[p. 525]
is not set at naught by superstition and perversity.
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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