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by intelligence postponing the present death, prepared for himself not the security of life, but a prolongation of death. For this reason he lasted into old age, contriving by a long death not to die. Therefore, not even according to this argument is fate found by you to be unbreakable, if indeed some art is found that dissolves necessity. But, he says, such an argument in no way weakens the proof concerning fate that comes from predictions. For it would be possible for this also to be foretold by one who has precisely examined the motion of the heavenly bodies, so that for one person death is foretold as fixed, but for another as doubtful. But I said, "Not so does the argument of necessity maintain; for the argument for what is contingent, whichever of two things might happen, is one thing, and the argument for what is unchangeable is another, which it is not possible to apply to contingent things; but either this will happen absolutely, or the other. But to be swayed by hopes toward both outcomes is far from the arguments of necessity. Nevertheless, I say to him, from where does he think the prediction of things that will happen has its credibility? And he says, "Having often heard me go through it, do you still even now ask about the same things? That there are certain peculiar powers of the stars; and the perpetual motion of their course produces countless differences of powers from their various conjunctions. He, therefore, who has been brought into 51 life through birth, having been imprinted according to the portion of time that has befallen him, a portion formed in such a way by the stars, whatever the power of that hour is found to possess, these things he will necessarily have in his life, and it is not otherwise. What then, I said, of the disasters in war, and the earthquakes, and the fall of cities, and the shipwrecks of large merchant vessels with all hands, floods and conflagrations and chasms and whatever such forms of utter destruction there are, how will these things preserve the argument of prediction? How many sufferings life has shown in former times, and how many also in our own! The flood in the time of Noah and the conflagration of Sodom, or the Egyptian army being submerged in the Red Sea, or the subsequent slaughters of foreigners, those countless manslaughters, or the sudden death in a short time of the Israelite people, crushed in many thousands, or the one hundred and eighty-five thousand Assyrians made dead in a single moment of time, and the histories of the evils that followed, which happened in both Median and Greek disasters, in great naval and land battles, and all such things, the memory of which becomes a teacher to those who come after. And even if we should pass over all these things, what the life of our 52 own time has recorded would be sufficient for the testimony of what is being said. For who does not know the great metropolis of Bithynia, numbered among the preeminent cities? Who is ignorant of wide and spacious Thrace? how war destroyed the one, and earthquake with fire destroyed the other, utterly, in an instant of time. How many children were there, how many infants, those of middle age, the elderly, both free and slave, rulers and subjects, rich, poor, healthy, sick—all were destroyed in a single moment of time. The fire spread over all equally; for all, their houses became their tombs. Where were those conjunctions of the stars that determine the differences of lives for men? Surely for all of them one conjunction of the stars did not deliver the pangs of birth, and for all of them Cancer, as the ascendant, did not impose their fate? And yet the countless differences of ages and ranks testify that not all coincided with each other at the same time in birth. If, therefore, the time of birth for each was different, but the sameness of their disasters admitted no variation from the cause according to their birth, then through these things also the theory about prediction is refuted as inconsistent and unfounded. But there is, he says, a fate also of a ship, and of a city, and of a whole nation, which according to its first foundation spins out what follows, and the things contained are necessarily disposed along with that which contains them. Who then is the Eileithyia of the shipbuilding?

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παρόντα τὸν θάνατον δι' ἐπινοίας ὑπερτιθέμενος, οὐχὶ ζωῆς ἀσφάλειαν, ἀλλὰ θανάτου παράτασιν ἑαυτῷ παρεσκεύαζεν. ὅθεν καὶ εἰς γῆρας διήρκεσε μακρῷ θανάτῳ τὸ μὴ ἀποθανεῖν σοφισάμενος. οὐκοῦν οὐδὲ κατὰ τοῦτον τὸν λόγον ἀρραγὴς ὑμῖν ἡ εἱμαρμένη καταλαμβάνεται, εἴπερ εὑρίσκεταί τις τέχνη τὴν ἀνάγκην ἐκλύουσα. Ἀλλ' οὐδέν, φησίν, ὁ τοιοῦτος λόγος τὴν ἐκ τῶν προρρήσεων περὶ τῆς εἱμαρμένης ἀπόδειξιν ἀναλύει. δυνατὸν γὰρ ἂν γένοιτο καὶ τοῦτο προμηνυθῆναι παρὰ τοῦ δι' ἀκριβείας ἐπεσκεμμένου τῶν οὐρανίων τὴν κίνησιν, ὥστε τῷ μὲν ἀραρότα τῷ δὲ ἀμφίβολον προμηνυθῆναι τὸν θάνατον. ἐγὼ δέ, Οὐχ οὕτως, εἶπον, ὁ τῆς ἀνάγκης διισχυρίζεται λόγος· ἄλλος γὰρ τοῦ ἐνδεχομένου ὁπότερον ἂν τύχῃ γενέσθαι καὶ ἄλλος τοῦ ἀμεταθέτου ὁ λόγος ὃν οὐκ ἔστιν ἐπὶ τῶν ἐνδεχομένων λαβεῖν· ἀλλ' ἢ τοῦτο πάντως ἢ τὸ ἕτερον· τὸ δὲ πρὸς ἀμφοτέρας τὰς ἐκβάσεις ταῖς ἐλπίσιν ἐπι κραδαίνεσθαι πόρρω τῶν τῆς ἀνάγκης λόγων ἐστίν. Πλὴν τοῦτο, φημὶ πρὸς αὐτόν, πόθεν οἴεται τὸ πιστὸν ἔχειν τῶν ἀποβησομένων τὴν πρόρρησιν; ὁ δέ, Πολλάκις, φησί, διεξιόντος ἀκούσας ἔτι καὶ νῦν περὶ τῶν αὐτῶν ἐρωτᾷς; ὅτι τινές εἰσιν ἰδιάζουσαι δυνάμεις τῶν ἄστρων· τὸ δὲ ἀεικίνητον τῆς φορᾶς μυρίας ἐκ τῆς ποιᾶς αὐτῶν συμπλοκῆς τὰς τῶν δυνάμεων διαφορὰς ἐξεργάζεται. ὁ τοίνυν παραχθεὶς ἐπὶ τὸν 51 βίον διὰ γενέσεως κατὰ τὴν συμπεσοῦσαν αὐτῷ τοῦ χρόνου μοῖραν τὴν ὑπὸ τῶν ἄστρων τοιῶσδε σχηματισθεῖσαν ἐντυ πωθείς, ἅπερ ἂν ἡ δύναμις τῆς ὥρας ἐκείνης ἔχουσα καταληφθῇ, ταῦτα καὶ περὶ τὸν βίον κατ' ἀνάγκην ἕξει καὶ ἄλλως οὐκ ἔχει. Τί οὖν, εἶπον, αἱ κατὰ πόλεμον συμφοραὶ καὶ οἱ σεισμοὶ καὶ τῶν πόλεων αἱ καταπτώσεις καὶ τὰ αὔτ ανδρα τῶν μυριοφόρων ὁλκάδων ναυάγια, ἐπικλύσεις καὶ ἐκπυρώσεις καὶ χάσματα καὶ ὅσα τοιαῦτα πανωλεθρίας εἴδη, πῶς ταῦτα διασώσει τὸν τῆς προρρήσεως λόγον; πόσα ἐν τοῖς προτέροις, πόσα δὲ καὶ ἐν τοῖς καθ' ἡμᾶς χρόνοις ὁ βίος ἔδειξε πάθη· τὸν ἐπὶ Νῶε κατακλυσμὸν καὶ τὴν Σοδόμων ἐκπύρω σιν ἢ τὸν Αἰγύπτιον στρατὸν ὑποβρύχιον ἐν τῇ Ἐρυθρᾷ θαλάσσῃ γενόμενον ἢ τὰς μετὰ ταῦτα τῶν ἀλλοφύλων σφαγάς, τὰς μυρίας ἐκείνας ἀνδροκτασίας ἢ τὸν αὐτόματον ἐν ὀλίγῳ τῷ χρόνῳ θάνατον τοῦ Ἰσραηλίτου λαοῦ ἐν πολλαῖς μυριάσι θραυσθέντος ἢ τὰς ἑκατὸν ὀγδοήκοντα πέντε χιλιάδας τῶν Ἀσσυρίων μιᾷ χρόνου ῥοπῇ νεκρωθείσας, τῶν τε ἐφεξῆς κακῶν τὰς ἱστορίας ἐν Μηδικαῖς τε καὶ Ἑλληνικαῖς συμφοραῖς συμπεσούσας ἐν ναυμαχίαις τε καὶ πεζομαχίαις μεγάλαις, καὶ πάντα ὅσα τοιαῦτα ὧν ἡ μνήμη τοῖς ἐφεξῆς διδάσκαλος γίνεται. κἂν ταῦτα παρέλθωμεν πάντα, ἱκανὰ ἂν γένοιτο πρὸς τὴν τῶν λεγομένων μαρτυρίαν καὶ ὅσα ὁ καθ' 52 ἡμᾶς ἱστόρησε βίος. τίς γὰρ οὐκ οἶδε τὴν μεγάλην Βιθυνίας μητρόπολιν ταῖς ἐξεχούσαις τῶν πόλεων ἐναρίθμιον; τίς ἀγνοεῖ τὴν πλατεῖαν καὶ εὐρύχωρον Θρᾴκην; πῶς τὴν μὲν ὁ πόλεμος τὴν δὲ ὁ σεισμὸς μετὰ τοῦ πυρὸς ἐν ἀκαρεῖ τοῦ χρόνου ἄρδην ἐξέτριψεν. πόσοι παῖδες ἐκεῖ, πόσα νήπια, οἱ μέσως ἔχοντες, οἱ παρήλικες, ἐλεύθεροί τε καὶ δοῦλοι, κρα τοῦντες καὶ ὑποχείριοι, πλούσιοι, πένητες, ἐρρωμένοι, νοσηλευόμενοι, πάντες ἐν μιᾷ καιροῦ ῥοπῇ κατεφθάρησαν. πάντας ἐπίσης τὸ πῦρ ἐπενεμήθη· πᾶσιν οἱ οἶκοι τάφοι ἐγένον το. ποῦ αἱ τῶν ἄστρων ἐκείνων διαπλοκαὶ αἱ τὰς διαφορὰς τῶν βίων τοῖς ἀνθρώποις ὁρίζουσαι; ἆρα πᾶσιν ἐκείνοις μία τῶν ἄστρων σύνοδος τὰς ὠδῖνας τῶν γενέσεων ἔλυσε καὶ πᾶσιν ὁ Καρκίνος ὡροσκοπῶν τὴν μοῖραν ἐπέβαλε; καὶ μὴν αἱ μυρίαι τῶν ἡλικιῶν τε καὶ ἀξιωμάτων διαφοραὶ τὸ μὴ πάντας ἀλλήλοις κατὰ ταὐτὸν τῇ γενέσει συνενεχθῆναι διαμαρτύρον ται. εἰ οὖν ὁ μὲν τῆς γενέσεως χρόνος ἑκάστῳ διάφορος, ἡ δὲ τῶν συμφορῶν ταυτότης οὐδεμίαν παραλλαγὴν ἐκ τῆς κατὰ τὴν γένεσιν αἰτίας ἐδέξατο, ἄρα καὶ διὰ τούτων τὸ περὶ τὴν πρόρρησιν ἀπαγὲς καὶ ἀσύστατον διελέγχεται. Ἀλλ' ἔστι, φησί, καὶ νεὼς καὶ πόλεως καὶ ἔθνους παντὸς εἱμαρμένη κατὰ τὴν πρώτην θέσιν τὸ ἐφεξῆς ἐπικλώθουσα, καὶ τῷ περιέχοντι τὰ ἐμπεριειλημμένα κατ' ἀνάγκην συνδιατίθεται. Τίς οὖν ἡ τῆς ναυπηγίας Εἰλείθυια;