Page:The Natural History of Pliny.djvu/56

 22 pliny's natural HISTOET. [Book II. ■from them, that some of them should be old and always grey- headed and others young and like children, some of a dark complexion, winged, lame, produced from eggs, living and dying on alternate days, is sufficiently puerile and foolish. But it is the height of impudence to imagine, that adultery takes place between them, that they have contests and quarrels, and that there are Grods of theft and of various crimes To assist man is to be a Grod; this is the path to eternal glory. This is the path which the Roman nobles formerly pursued, and this is the path which is now pursued by the greatest ruler of our age, Vespasian Augustus, he who has come to the relief of an exhausted empire, as well as by his sons. This was the ancient mode of remunerating those who deserved it, to regard them as Grods^. For the names of all the Gods, as well as of the stars that I have mentioned above^, have been derived from their services to mankind. And with respect to Jupiter and Mercury, and the rest of the celestial nomenclature, who does not admit that they have reference to certain natural phsenomena'* ? But it is ridiculous to suppose, that the great head of all things, whatever it be, pays any regard to human affairs^. remarks of Pliny. 2 Tliis sentiment is elegantly expressed by Cicero, De Nat. Deor. ii. 62, and by Horace, Od. iii. 3. 9 et seq. It does not appear, however, that any of the Eomans, except Komulus,were deified, previous to the adulatory period of the Empire. 3 " Planetarum nempe, qui omnes nomina mutuantur a diis.' ' Alexandre in Lematre, i. 234. •* This remark may be illustrated by the following passage from Cicero, io^ the fh'st book of his treatise De Nat. Deor. Speaking of the doctrine of Zeno, he says, "neque enim Jovem, neque Junonem, neque Vestam, neque quemquam, qui ita appeUetur, in deorvan habet numero : sed rebus manimis, atque mutis, per quandam significationem, heec docet tributa nomina." " Idemque (Cluysippus) disputat, sethera esse cum, quern homines Jovem appellant : quique aer per maria manaret, eum esse Nep- tunmn : terramque earn esse, quae Ceres diceretiu- : simihque ratione persequitur vocabula reli quorum deorum." 5 The following remarks of Lucretius and of Cicero may serve to illus- trate the opinion here expressed by our author : — " Omnis enim per se Divum natura necesse est Immortah sevo summa cmn pace fruatiu* Somota ab nostris rebus, sejunctaque longe; " Lucretius, i. 57-59. " Quod sDtcrnum bcatumque sit, id nee habere ipsum negotii qviid-
 * See Cicero, De ISTat. Deor. i. 42 et alibi, for an illustration of these