Book 2, Chapter 28
Original Latin
60 An vero illa nos terrent, si quando aliqua portentosa aut ex pecude aut ex homine nata dicuntur? quorum omnium, ne sim longior, una ratio est. Quicquid enim oritur, qualecumque est, causam habeat a natura necesse est, ut, etiamsi praeter consuetudinem extiterit, praeter naturam tamen non possit existere. Causam igitur investigato in re nova atque admirabili, si poteris; si nullam reperies, illud tamen exploratum habeto, nihil fieri potuisse sine causa, eumque terrorem, quem tibi rei novitas attulerit, naturae ratione depellito. Ita te nec terrae fremitus nec caeli discessus nec lapideus aut sanguineus imber nec traiectio stellae nec faces visae terrebunt.
61 Quorum omnium causas si a Chrysippo quaeram, ipse ille divinationis auctor numquam illa dicet facta fortuito naturalemque rationem omnium reddet; nihil enim fieri sine causa potest; nec quicquam fit, quod fieri non potest; nec, si id factum est, quod potuit fieri, portentum debet videri; nulla igitur portenta sunt. Nam si, quod raro fit, id portentum putandum est, sapientem esse portentum est; saepius enim mulam peperisse arbitror quam sapientem fuisse. Illa igitur ratio concluditur: nec id, quod non potuerit fieri, factum umquam esse, nec, quod potuerit, id portentum esse; ita omnino nullum esse portentum.
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.
60 “Should we really be frightened when some monstrous birth is reported among animals or human beings? To avoid going on too long, one explanation covers them all. Whatever comes into being, whatever its form, must have a natural cause. Even if it arises outside the customary course, it cannot arise outside nature. Seek the cause, then, of an unfamiliar and astonishing event, if you can. If you find none, still hold this for certain: nothing could have happened without a cause. Use reasoned understanding of nature to dispel the terror that the event's strangeness has brought you. Then neither the earth's rumbling nor the splitting of the sky, neither a rain of stones or blood, nor a shooting star or torchlike lights in the sky, will frighten you.
61 “If I ask Chrysippus the causes of all these things, that very champion of divination will never say they happened by accident; he will give a natural explanation of them all. Nothing can happen without a cause; nothing happens that cannot happen; and if something has happened that could happen, it ought not to be considered a portent. There are therefore no portents. If what happens rarely is to count as a portent, a wise man is a portent: I believe a mule has given birth more often than a wise man has existed. The argument therefore reaches this conclusion: nothing that could not happen has ever happened, and nothing that could happen is a portent. Thus there is no portent at all.
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.
60 “Should we really be frightened when we hear that some monstrous creature has been born to an animal or a human being? To avoid going on too long, there is one explanation for all such cases. Whatever comes into being, of whatever kind, must have a natural cause. So even if it is unusual, it cannot come into being outside nature. When you meet something new and amazing, investigate its cause if you can. If you find none, still be sure of this: it could not have happened without a cause. Use an understanding of nature to drive away the fear its strangeness has caused you. Then no rumbling of the earth, no splitting of the sky, no rain of stones or blood, no shooting star or sight of torchlike lights will frighten you.
61 “Suppose I ask what causes these events. Even Chrysippus, divination’s champion, will never answer that chance produced them. He will give a natural explanation for all of them. Nothing can happen without a cause. Nothing happens that cannot happen. And if something that could happen has happened, it should not be regarded as a portent. So there are no portents. If a rare event must be thought a portent, a wise man is a portent. I suspect there have been more births to mules than there have been wise men. So the argument ends like this: no event has ever occurred unless it was possible, and being possible rules it out as a portent. Therefore there is no such thing as a portent.
About this section
Book 2, Chapter 28 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 86 of 130 in the work, which is kept in the Roman tradition.
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