Book 2, Chapter 56
Original Latin
115 Sed iam ad te venio,
O/ sancte Apollo, qui úmbilicum cértum terrarum óbsides,U/nde superstitiósa primum saéva evasit vóx fera.
Tuis enim oraculis Chrysippus totum volumen inplevit partim falsis, ut ego opinor, partim casu veris, ut fit in omni oratione saepissime, partim flexiloquis et obscuris, ut interpres egeat interprete et sors ipsa ad sortes referenda sit, partim ambiguis, et quae ad dialecticum deferendae sint. Nam cum illa sors edita est opulentissumo regi Asiae:
Croesus Halyn penetrans magnam pervertet opum vim,
hostium vim se perversurum putavit, pervertit autem suam.
116 Utrum igitur eorum accidisset, verum oraclum fuisset. Cur autem hoc credam umquam editum Croeso? aut Herodotum cur veraciorem ducam Ennio? Num minus ille potuit de Croeso quam de Pyrrho fingere Ennius? Quis enim est, qui credat Apollinis ex oraculo Pyrrho esse responsum:
Aio te, Aeacida, Romanos vincere posse?
Primum Latine Apollo numquam locutus est; deinde ista sors inaudita Graecis est; praeterea Pyrrhi temporibus iam Apollo versus facere desierat; postremo, quamquam semper fuit, ut apud Ennium est,
stolidum genus Aeacidarum,Bellipotentes sunt magis quam sapientipotentes,
tamen hanc amphiboliam versus intellegere potuisset, ‘vincere te Romanos’ nihilo magis in se quam in Romanos valere; nam illa amphibolia, quae Croesum decepit, vel Chrysippum potuisset fallere, haec vero ne Epicurum quidem.
Musean translation
Complete machine-assisted Musean translation, made directly from the Latin in separate source-only tasks and reviewed throughout against it. Both books, all 130 chapters and 282 numbered sections; no historical English translation used. Latin transcription credited to the Perseus Project under CC BY-SA 4.0, Müller’s 1915 Teubner edition.
115 “But now I come to you,
“‘Holy Apollo, who hold the earth’s true navel,From which first burst the savage, monstrous voice of superstition.’
“For Chrysippus filled an entire volume with your oracles. Some, I think, are false; some came true by chance, as happens constantly in speech of every kind; some are so devious and obscure that the interpreter needs an interpreter, and the oracle itself must be referred to an oracle; some are ambiguous and need to be submitted to a dialectician. When this oracle was delivered to the wealthiest king in Asia,
“‘Croesus, crossing the Halys, will overthrow a mighty power,’
“he thought he would overthrow his enemies’ power, but overthrew his own.
116 “So whichever outcome occurred, the oracle would have been true. But why believe that it was ever delivered to Croesus? Why consider Herodotus more truthful than Ennius? Could he not have invented a story about Croesus just as Ennius did about Pyrrhus? Who believes that Apollo’s oracle gave Pyrrhus this answer:
“‘I say, descendant of Aeacus: you and the Romans—one can defeat the other’?
“First, Apollo never spoke Latin. Second, the Greeks have never heard of that oracle. Besides, by Pyrrhus’s time Apollo had already stopped composing verses. Finally, although it has always been as Ennius says,
“‘The witless breed of Aeacus’s descendants—Mighty in war rather than mighty in wisdom,’
“Pyrrhus could still have grasped the verse’s ambiguity: ‘you’ and ‘the Romans’ could make it point to his own victory no more than to a Roman one. The ambiguity that deceived Croesus could have deceived even Chrysippus; this one would not have deceived even Epicurus.
Plain English translation
Complete machine-assisted Plain English translation, made independently and directly from the Latin, never from the Musean edition. Both books and every numbered section; a separate Latin-source model review covered the entire text. No human specialist review is claimed.
115 “But now I turn to you,
“‘Holy Apollo, who occupy the earth's true navel,From where a savage, wild voice first emerged, spreading superstition.’
“Chrysippus filled a whole volume with your oracles. Some, I think, are false. Some are true by chance, as happens very often in any kind of talk. Some speak in obscure, roundabout ways: you need a second interpreter to explain the first, and other oracles to explain the oracle itself. Others are ambiguous and should be taken to a logician. For when this oracle was given to the richest king in Asia:
“‘Croesus, crossing the Halys, will destroy a great power,’
“he thought he would destroy his enemies' power. Instead he destroyed his own.
116 “So whichever outcome had occurred, the oracle would have been true. But why should I believe this was ever given to Croesus? Why should I consider Herodotus more truthful than Ennius? Wasn't Herodotus just as capable of making up the Croesus story as Ennius was of inventing the one about Pyrrhus? Who could believe that Apollo's oracle gave Pyrrhus this answer:
“‘I say, heir of Aeacus, you can defeat the Romans—or the Romans you’?
“For a start, Latin was never a language Apollo spoke. Then there is the fact that this oracle is unknown to the Greeks. Besides, by Pyrrhus' time Apollo had stopped composing verses. Finally, though the family was always, as Ennius says,
“‘The stupid race of Aeacus:Stronger in war than in wisdom,’
“Pyrrhus could still have understood the verse's ambiguity: the words about defeating the Romans applied no more to him than to the Romans. The ambiguity that deceived Croesus could have fooled even Chrysippus. This one could not have fooled even Epicurus.
About this section
Book 2, Chapter 56 is part of On Divination by Marcus Tullius Cicero. This page sets the Latin original beside 2 direct-source translations, so any line can be checked against the source. It is chapter 114 of 130 in the work, which is kept in the Roman tradition.
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