On Divination Passage 51

Num ergo opus est ad haec refellenda Carneade? num Epicuro? estne quisquam ita desipiens, qui credat exaratum esse, deum dicam an hominem? Si deum, cur se contra naturam in terram abdiderat, ut patefactus aratro lucem aspiceret? quid? idem nonne poterat deus hominibus disciplinam superiore e loco tradere? Si autem homo ille Tages fuit, quonam modo potuit terra oppressus vivere? unde porro illa potuit, quae docebat alios, ipse didicisse? Sed ego insipientior quam illi ipsi, qui ista credunt, qui quidem contra eos tam diu disputem. Vetus autem illud Catonis admodum scitum est, qui mirari se aiebat, quod non rideret haruspex, haruspicem cum vidisset.

Do we need Carneades to refute this? Do we need Epicurus? Is anyone so foolish as to believe that a being was ploughed out of the earth, whether I should call him a god or a man? If a god, why had he buried himself in the earth contrary to nature, so that he might see the light only when uncovered by a plough? Could that same god not have delivered his teaching to mankind from a higher place? If Tages was a man, how could he have lived while buried beneath the earth? And from whom could he himself have learned the things he taught to others? But I am more foolish than the very men who believe such things, since I argue against them for so long. That old saying of Cato's is extremely witty: he used to say that he wondered why one haruspex did not laugh whenever he saw another.

Faut-il donc Carnéade pour réfuter cela? Faut-il Épicure? Existe-t-il quelqu’un d’assez insensé pour croire que la charrue fit surgir, dirai-je un dieu ou un homme? Si c’était un dieu, pourquoi s’était-il enfoui sous terre contre la nature, afin de voir la lumière après avoir été découvert par une charrue? Quoi? Ce même dieu ne pouvait-il transmettre sa doctrine aux hommes depuis un lieu plus élevé? Mais si ce Tagès était un homme, comment avait-il pu vivre enseveli sous terre? Et où avait-il lui-même appris ce qu’il enseignait aux autres? Mais je suis plus déraisonnable encore que ceux qui croient à ces histoires, puisque je discute si longtemps contre eux. On connaît le mot ancien et fort spirituel de Caton: il disait s’étonner qu’un haruspice ne rît pas en voyant un autre haruspice.