Book 2, Chapter 16

36 “Believe me, not even little old women believe this anymore. Do you think that if one man chooses a particular calf he will find a liver without a head-lobe, but if another chooses it, the head-lobe will be there? Can this lobe suddenly disappear or appear so that the entrails adapt themselves to the sacrificer's fortune? Do you not see that choosing victims is a kind of gamble, especially when experience itself proves it? For after entrails have been found without a head-lobe—the most dreadful sign imaginable—the very next victim often yields the most splendidly favorable sacrifice. Where, then, are the threats of the earlier entrails? How were the gods so thoroughly appeased so suddenly?

“But you report that when Caesar sacrificed a fattened bull, no heart was found among its entrails. Since the victim could not have lived without a heart, you conclude that the heart perished at the moment of sacrifice.

37 “How is it that you understand one thing—that an ox could not have lived without a heart—but fail to see the other—that its heart could not suddenly have flown off somewhere? I might either be ignorant of the heart's importance to life, or suspect that some disease had shrunk the ox's heart, leaving it thin, tiny, withered, and unlike a heart. But what ground have you for thinking that, if a heart had been present in the fattened bull a moment before, it suddenly vanished in the very act of sacrifice? Did the bull lose its heart because it caught sight of the witless Caesar in his purple robes? Believe me, you betray the city of philosophy while defending its outposts. In insisting on the truth of haruspicy you overthrow the whole science of nature. There is a head-lobe in the liver, a heart among the entrails: the instant you sprinkle the sacrificial meal and wine, it will disappear. A god will snatch it away; some force will destroy or devour it. Nature, then, will not govern the birth and death of everything; something will arise from nothing or suddenly perish into nothing. What natural philosopher ever said that? The haruspices say it. Do you therefore think them more worthy of belief than natural philosophers?

36 “Believe me, not even old women think that. Do you think that if one person chooses a particular calf, he will find its liver without a head, but if someone else chooses the very same calf, he will find it with a head? Can the head vanish or appear in an instant, so that the organs adjust to the fortunes of the person making the sacrifice? Can’t you see that choosing sacrificial animals is a kind of gamble, especially when the facts themselves show it? When the dreadful organs have no head, which is thought the worst possible sign, the very next victim often gives wonderfully favorable signs. Where, then, are the threats from the first set of organs? What has suddenly made the gods so thoroughly pleased?

“But you say that when Caesar sacrificed a fat bull, there was no heart among its organs. You reason that the heart must have disappeared during the killing, because the animal being sacrificed could not have stayed alive without one.

37 “How can you understand one point, that an ox could not live without a heart, and fail to see the other, that its heart could not suddenly fly off somewhere? I may not know how important the heart is to life. Or perhaps disease had so shrunk the ox’s heart that it was thin, very small, and withered, no longer looking like a heart at all. But what grounds do you have for thinking that if the fat bull had a heart a little earlier, it suddenly vanished during the sacrifice itself? Or did it lose its heart because it saw that brainless Caesar in purple robes, a man with no heart himself? Believe me, you are betraying the city of philosophy while defending its outlying forts. In trying to prove the practice of haruspices true, you turn the whole study of nature upside down. There is a head on the liver, a heart among the organs. Now it will disappear as soon as you sprinkle on the sacrificial meal and wine. Who will make it disappear? A god, by pulling it out; or some force, by destroying or eating it. So nature will not govern the birth and death of everything. Something will either come from nothing or suddenly vanish into nothing. What student of nature ever said that? Haruspices say it. Do you think we should believe them rather than students of nature?