Chap. 34.] THE MOST EXCELLENT MA^. 1/9 



joy, on hearing that his son had been victorious in the Olympic 

 games, and all Greece assisted at his funeral rites. 



CHAP, 33. (33.) DIYINATION. 



A spirit of divination, and a certain communion with the 

 gods, of the most exalted nature, was manifested among 

 women, in the Sibyl, and among men, in Melampodes, 24 the 

 Greek, and in Marcius, 25 the Boman. 



CHAP. 34. (34.) THE MAN WHO WAS PRONOUNCED TO BE THE 



MOST EXCELLENT. 



Scipio Nasica is the only individual who, since the com- 

 mencement of the Roman era, has been declared, by a vote of 

 the senate, confirmed by oath, to be the most excellent of 

 men. 26 And yet, the same person, when he was a candidate 

 for office, was twice stigmatized by a repulse of the Roman 

 people. He was not allowed, in fine, to die in his native 

 country, 27 no, by Hercules ! no more than Socrates, who 

 was declared by Apollo to be the wisest of men, was per- 

 mitted to die outside of a prison. 



34 We have an account of Melampus, probably the same as the person 

 here styled Melampodes, in Herodotus, B. ii. c. 49, and B. ix. c. 34 ; Ajas- 

 son, in Lemaire, vol. iii. p. 135, has given a list of writers who have re- 

 ferred to him as an eminent soothsayer. Pliny mentions him in a subse- 

 quent passage, B. xxv. c. 21, as celebrated for his skill in the art of divi- 

 nation. B. 



25 Marcius is said by Cicero, De Divin. B. i. c. 50, to have given his pre- 

 dictions in verses. B. 



26 We have an account of this in Livy, B. xxix. c, 14, and B. xxxvi. c. 

 40 ; it is also referred to by Valerius Maximus, B. viii. c. 15. B. 



27 In consequence of the number of eminent men who bore the name 

 of Scipio, it is not easy, in all cases, to decide to which of them certain 

 transactions ought to be referred. In this instance, it has been doubted, 

 whether it was the same Scipio who was twice an unsuccessful candidate for 

 the consulship, and who died in a foreign country. Livy, B. xxxv. c. 24, 

 remarks, "P. Corn. Cn. F. Scipio" had been an unsuccessful candidate 

 for the consulship ; and afterwards, B. xxxix. c. 40, that " P. and L. Sci- 

 pio" were unsuccessful candidates for the office of censor. Val. Maximus 

 expressly states, B. v. c. 3, that it was Scipio Nasica, who, in consequence 

 of the little estimation in which he was held by his fellow-citizens, went 

 to Pergaraus, and "lived there the remainder of his life, without feeling 

 any regrets for his ungrateful country." B. 



