east to west; and if they regard those who
inhabit this kind of great island, which we call the globe of the
earth, they have the like regard for those who possess the parts of
this island--Europe, Asia, and Africa; and therefore they favor the
parts of these parts, as Rome, Athens, Sparta, and Rhodes; and
particular men of these cities, separate from the whole; as Curius,
Fabricius, Coruncanius, in the war with Pyrrhus; in the first Punic
war, Calatinus, Duillius, Metellus, Lutatius; in the second, Maximus,
Marcellus, Africanus; after these, Paullus, Gracchus, Cato; and in our
fathers' times, Scipio, Laelius. Rome also and Greece have produced many
illustrious men, who we cannot believe were so without the assistance
of the Deity; which is the reason that the poets, Homer in particular,
joined their chief heroes--Ulysses, Agamemnon, Diomedes, Achilles--to
certain Deities, as companions in their adventures and dangers.
Besides, the frequent appearances of the Gods, as I have before
mentioned, demonstrate their regard for cities and particular men. This
is also apparent indeed from the foreknowledge of events, which we
receive either sleeping or waking. We are likewise forewarned of many
things by the entrails of victims, by presages, and many other means,
which have been long observed with such exactness as to produce an art
of divination.

There never, therefore, was a great man without divine inspiration. If
a storm should damage the corn or vineyard of a person, or any accident
should deprive him of some conveniences of life, we should not judge
from thence that the Deity hates or neglects him. The Gods take care of
great things, and disregard the small. But to truly great men all
things ever happen prosperously; as has been sufficiently asserted and
proved by us Stoics, as well as by Socrates, the prince of
philosophers, in his discourses on the infinite advantages arising from
virtue.

LXVII. This is almost the whole that hath occurred to my mind on the
nature of the Gods, and what I thought proper to advance. Do you,
Cotta, if I may advise, defend the same cause. Remember that in Rome
you keep the first rank; remember that you are Pontifex; and as your
school is at liberty to argue on which side you please[241], do you
rather take mine, and reason on it with that eloquence which you
acquired by your rhetorical exercises, and which the Academy improved;
for it is a pernicious and impious custom to argue against