That which has been decreed by Fate to beThe whole idea of Fate in every detail is justly, as I think, the subject of derision even in Atellan farces,3 but in a discussion as serious as ours joking is out of place. So then let us sum up our argument: If it is impossible to foresee things that happen by chance because they are uncertain, there is no such thing as divination; if, on the contrary, they can be foreseen because they are preordained by Fate, still there is no such thing as divination, which, by your definition, deals with 'things that happen by chance.'
Almighty Jove himself cannot prevent.
[25]
10. "To the last point the Stoics make the rejoinder that 'every evil which is going to befall us
is made lighter by means of religious rites.' But
if nothing happens except in accordance with Fate,
no evil can be made lighter by means of religious
rites. Homer shows his appreciation of this fact
when he represents Jupiter as complaining because
he could not snatch his son Sarpedon from death1
when Fate forbade. The same thought is expressed
in the following verses translated from a Greek
poet2 :
[p. 399]
1 Il. xvi. 433.
2 It is not known from whom this line is taken. The same thought is often found. Cf. Aesch. Prom. 527; Herod. i. 91; Plato, De leg. v. 10.
3 The Fabulae Atellanae originated in Atella, a town between Capua and Naples. They are often called Osci Ludi. Cf. Livy vii.3 , x. 208; Cic. Adfam. ix. 16. 7.
4 Cf.i. 6. 12; i. 18.34.
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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