pliis^t's katueal histoey. 
[Book II, 
from them, that some of them should he 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 he a Grod; this is the path to 
eternal glory. This is the path which the Boman nobles 
formerly pursued, and this is the path which is now piu-sued 
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 Grods, 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 JSTat. Deor. i. 42 et alibi, for an illustration of these 
remarks of Pliny. 
2 This 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 Eomnlus,were deified, previous to the adulatory 
period of the Empire. 
2 " Planetarum nempe, qui omnes nomina mutuantur a dhs." Alexandre 
in Lemaire, i. 234. 
^ This remark may be illustrated by the following passage from Cicero, 
in the first book of his treatise De Nat. Deor. Speaking of the doctrine 
of Zeno, he says, " neque enim Jovem, neque Junonem, neque Yestam, 
neqiio quemquam, qui ita appeUetur, in deorum habet numero : sed rebus 
manimis, atque mutis, per quandam significationem, hsec docet tributa 
nomina." " Idemque (Cln-ysippus) disputat, sethera esse eum, quern 
homines J ovem appellant : quique aer per maria manaret, eum esse JSTep- 
tunum: terramque eam esse, quse Ceres diceretur : simihque ratione 
persequitur vocabula reliquorum 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 sbvo summa cum pace fi-uatur, 
Semota ab nostris rebus, sejmictaque longe; " Lucretius, i. 57-59. 
Quod seternum beatumque sit, id nec habere ipsum negotii quid- 
