[56]
"You believe that the Boeotian bards at Lebadia
foretold victory for the Thebans from the crowing of
cocks; for cocks, you say, are wont to be silent when
defeated and to crow when victorious.1 Do you
really believe that Jupiter would have employed
chickens to convey such a message to so great a
state? And is it true that these fowls are not accustomed to crow except when they are victorious
But at that time they did crow and they had not
been victorious. ' Oh! that was a “portent,” 'you
say. A fine portent indeed! you talk as if a fish
and not a cock had done the crowing! But come;
is there any time, day or night, when they are not
liable to crow? And if the pleasant sensation—or
'joy' if you will—which comes from victory causes
them to crow, then, possibly, joy springing from some
other source may have the same effect.
1 i. 34. 74.
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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