ider, likewise, that the Gods go by what names we give them. Now,
in the first place, they have as many names as men have languages; for
Vulcan is not called Vulcan in Italy, Africa, or Spain, as you are
called Velleius in all countries. Besides, the Gods are innumerable,
though the list of their names is of no great length even in the
records of our priests. Have they no names? You must necessarily
confess, indeed, they have none; for what occasion is there for
different names if their persons are alike?

How much more laudable would it be, Velleius, to acknowledge that you
do not know what you do not know than to follow a man whom you must
despise! Do you think the Deity is like either me or you? You do not
really think he is like either of us. What is to be done, then? Shall I
call the sun, the moon, or the sky a Deity? If so, they are
consequently happy. But what pleasures can they enjoy? And they are
wise too. But how can wisdom reside in such shapes? These are your own
principles. Therefore, if they are not of human form, as I have proved,
and if you cannot persuade yourself that they are of any other, why are
you cautious of denying absolutely the being of any Gods? You dare not
deny it--which is very prudent in you, though here you are not afraid
of the people, but of the Gods themselves. I have known Epicureans who
reverence[92] even the least images of the Gods, though I perceive it
to be the opinion of some that Epicurus, through fear of offending
against the Athenian laws, has allowed a Deity in words and destroyed
him in fact; so in those his select and short sentences, which are
called by you [Greek: kyriai doxai],[93] this, I think, is the first:
"That being which is happy and immortal is not burdened with any labor,
and does not impose any on any one else."

XXXI. In his statement of this sentence, some think that he avoided
speaking clearly on purpose, though it was manifestly without design.
But they judge ill of a man who had not the least art. It is doubtful
whether he means that there is any being happy and immortal, or that if
there is any being happy, he must likewise be immortal. They do not
consider that he speaks here, indeed, ambiguously; but in many other
places both he and Metrodorus explain themselves as clearly as you have
done. But he believed there are Gods; nor have I ever seen any one who
was more exceedingly afraid of what he declared ought to be no objects
of fear, namely, death and