XLIV JOVE S BOLTS 9* 



XLIV 



NOR, again, were the ancient sages so stupid as to i 

 suppose that Jupiter changed his missiles. It is 

 only the licence of poetry that can with decency 

 say : 



There is another and lighter bolt to which the Cyclopes hands 

 Have added less of harshness and of flame, less, too, of wrath. 

 The dwellers above call them missiles of peace. 



Those men of exalted wisdom were undoubtedly 2 

 not possessed with the delusion that Jupiter some 

 times employs lighter bolts, weapons of the 

 practising school, so to speak. Their object was 

 to warn those who have to direct their bolts against 

 the sins of men, that all offences are not to be 

 visited after the same fashion : some offenders must 

 be crushed, some censured and lightly punished, 

 some l dismissed with an admonition. 



XLV 



NOR yet did these ancient sages believe that the 

 Jupiter we worship in the Capitol and the rest of the 

 temples ever really hurled thunderbolts from his 

 hand. They recognised the same Jupiter as we do, 

 the guardian and ruler of the universe, its soul and 

 breath, the maker and lord of this earthly frame of 

 things, to whom every name of power is appro 

 priate. If you prefer to call him fate, you will not 

 be wrong. He it is on whom depend all things, 



1 Admoneri to be admonished, seems necessary, instead of the 

 authorised admoveri^ to which it is impossible to attach any satisfactory 

 meaning in this connection. The word means to be moved towards ; 

 amoveri = to be removed, would make sense. 



