XVI.—Of the Gods and Goddesses.

Ye say that they are gods who are plainly cruel, and ye say that genesis assigns the fates to you.  Now, then, say to whom first of all sacred rites are paid.  Between the ways on either side immature death is straying.  If the fates give the generations, why do you pray to the god?  Thou art vainly deceived who art seeking to beseech the manes, and thou namest them to be lords over thee who are fabricated.  Or, moreover, I know not what women you pray to as goddesses—Bellona and Nemesis the goddesses, together with the celestial Fury, the Virgins and Venus, for whom your wives are weak in the loins.  Besides, there are in the lanes other demons which are not as yet numbered, and are worn on the neck, so that they themselves cannot give to themselves an account.  Plagues ought rather to be exported to the ends of the earth.

XVI.---DE DIS DEABUSQUE.

Dicitis esse deos, qui sunt manifeste cruenti: Et dicitis fata genesis adscribere vobis. 0213A Dicite nunc ergo quibus primum sacra ferantur. Inter utrinque vias, mors immatura vagatur, Si tribuunt fata genesis, cur deum oratis. Deciperis vane, qui manes quaeris orare, Et qui fabricantur dominos tibi nuncupas esse. Aut feminas quoque nescio quas deas oratis, Bellonam et Nemesim deas, Fariam una coelestem, Vrgines, et Venerem, cui conjuges vestrae delumbant. Sunt alia praeterea daemonia fanis, Quae nec numerantur adhuc, et in collo feruntur, Ut nec ipsi sibi, possint rationem reddere. Pestes Exportari magis in ultimas terras deberent.