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^. 



* See Cicero, De ISTat. Deor. i. 42 et alibi, for an illustration of these 

 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- 



