44. Wherefore, if you are assured that in the lofty palaces of heaven there dwells, there is, that multitude of deities whom you specify, you should make your stand on one proposition,839    Lit., “it is fitting that you stand in the limits of,” etc. and not, divided by different and inconsistent opinions, destroy belief in the very things which you seek to establish. If there is a Janus, let Janus be; if a Bacchus, let Bacchus be; if a Summanus,840    i.e., Summus Manium, Pluto. let Summanus be: for this is to confide, this to hold, to be settled in the knowledge of something ascertained, not to say after the manner of the blind and erring, The Novensiles are the Muses, in truth they are the Trebian gods, nay, their number is nine, or rather, they are the protectors of cities which have been overthrown; and bring so important matters into this danger, that while you remove some, and put others in their place, it may well be doubted of them all if they anywhere exist.

XLIV. Quare si vobis liquet, in sublimibus palatiis coeli habitare, consistere multitudinem istam, quam enumeratis deorum, in unius proloquii finibus convenit vos stare: nec per varias distractos repugnantesque sententias fidem ipsis rebus, quas struitis, derogare. 1002B Si Janus est, Janus sit; si Liber est, Liber 1003A sit; si Summanus, Summanus sit; hoc est enim confidere, hoc tenere, exploratae in rei cognitione defigi, non more caecorum atque errantium dicere: Novensiles Musae sunt, Trebiani quinimmo dii sunt, 1004A immo novenarius numerus, subversarum potius vel urbium praesides, et in id periculum ducere res tantas, ut dum alios tollitis et reponitis alios, possit jure de cunctis, an sint ulla in parte, dubitari.