3. With regard, indeed, to your bringing forward to us other bands of unknown851    Plato, Tim., st. p. 22.    The ms. and both Roman edd. read signatorum—“sealed;” the others, except Hild., ignotorum, as above. gods, we cannot determine whether you do that seriously, and from a belief in its certainty; or, merely playing with empty fictions, abandon yourselves to an unbridled imagination. The goddess Luperca, you tell us on the authority of Varro, was named because the fierce wolf spared the exposed children. Was that goddess, then, disclosed, not by her own power, but by the course of events? and was it only after the wild beast restrained its cruel teeth, that she both began to be herself and was marked by852    Lit., “drew the meaning of her name.” her name? or if she was already a goddess long before the birth of Romulus and his brother, show us what was her name and title. Præstana was named, according to you, because, in throwing the javelin, Quirinus excelled all in strength;853    Lit., “excelled the might of all.” and the goddess Panda, or Pantica, was named because Titus Tatius was allowed to open up and make passable a road, that he might take the Capitoline. Before these events, then, had the deities never existed? and if Romulus had not held the first place in casting the javelin, and if the Sabine king had been unable to take the Tarpeian rock, would there be no Pantica, no Præstana? And if you say that they854    ms., “that these, too,” i.e., as well as Luperca. existed before that which gave rise to their name, a question which has been discussed in a preceding section,855    No such discussion occurs in the preceding part of the work, but the subject is brought forward in the end of chap. 8, p. 478, infra. tell us also what they were called.

III. Nam quod nobis catervas ignotorum alias inducitis deorum, existimare non possumus, utrumne istud serio, atque ex rei compertae faciatis fide: an fictionibus ludentes cassis ingeniorum lasciviatis luxu. Quod abjectis infantibus pepercit lupa non mitis, Luperca, inquit, dea est auctore appellata Varrone. Ex rerum ergo proventu, non ex vi naturae dea ista est prodita? et postquam feros morsus immanis prohibuit bellua, et ipsa esse occoepit, et ipsius nominis significantiam traxit? aut si fuit jamdudum dea, priusquam Romulus nasceretur et frater: cujus fuerit nominis atque appellationis expromite. Praestana est, ut perhibetis, dicta, quod Quirinus in jaculi missione 1009B cunctorum praestiterit viribus; et quod Tito Tatio, 1010A Capitolinum ut capiat collem, viam pandere atque aperire permissum est: dea Panda est appellata, vel Pantica. Ante facta haec ergo numquam fuerant numina: et nisi Romulus tenuisset teli trajectione palatium, nique Tarpeiam rupem rex Sabinus potuisset accipere, nulla esset Pantica, nulla Praestana? Et si has dicitis ante sui causam fuisse cognominis, quod in priore quaesitum est capite, cujus et hae fuerint vocaminis indicate.