Chap. 34.] 
THE MOST EXCELLENT MAIS'. 
179 
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,^^ the 
Greek, and in Marcius,^^ the Eoman, 
CHAP. 34. (34.) THE MAN WHO WAS PEONOTOCED TO BE THE 
MOST EXCELLENT. 
Scipio ISTasica is the only individual who, since the com- 
mencement of the Eoman era, has been declared, by a vote of 
the senate, confirmed by oath, to be the most excellent of 
men.^^ And yet, the same person, when he was a candidate 
for office, was twice stigmatized by a repulse of the Eoman 
people. He was not allowed, in fine, to die in his native 
country, — 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. 
2^ "We have an account of Melampus, probably the same as the per,son 
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 v/ho 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. 
2^ 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. 
2''' 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. Yal. 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 Pergamus, and ''lived there the remainder of his life, without feeling 
any regrets for his ungrateful country." — B. 
