The Testimony of Cicero 55
proper place; for example, earth occupies the lowest place, water floods
the earth, air is above it, and the highest reaches [of the cosmos] are set
aside for the fires of the heavens. Some animals are terrestrial, some
aquatic, some are 'double', as it were, living in both environments; there
are even some which are thought to be born in fire and which often
appear flying about in blazing furnaces! 104. So I ask, first, where does
this god of yours live? next, what cause motivates him to move spatially-
if, that is, he ever does move? then, since it is characteristic of animals
that they pursue what is adapted to their nature, what does god pursue?
to what, pray tell, does he apply his mind and reason? finally, how is he
happy, how is he eternal?
Whichever of these issues you touch on, it is a weak spot. A theory
with such a bad foundation cannot come to a successful conclusion. 105.
You claimed that the appearance of god is perceived by thought, not the
senses; that it has no solidity and is not numerically identical over time;
that the visual image of it is such that it is discerned by similarity and
transference; that there is an unfailing supply of similar [images] from
the infinite atoms; and that this is why our mind, when directed at these
things, believes that their nature is blessed and eternal. Now, in the name
of the very gods we are talking about, what sort of a claim is this? For
if they are only valid for thought and have no solidity or depth, then
what difference does it make whether we think about a centaur or a god?
The rest of the philosophers call that sort of mental condition an 'empty
motion [of the mind]', but you claim that it is the approach and entry
of images into the mind. 106. So when I seem to see Tiberius Gracchus
making a speech on the Capitol and bringing out the voting-urn for the
verdict on Marcus Octavius, I say that is an empty motion of the mind;
but you say that the images of Gracchus and Octavius, which arrived at
the Capitol and came to my mind, persist^25 -and that the same thing
happens in the case of god (by whose image our minds are frequently
struck) and that this is why the gods are thought of as blessed and eternal.
- Suppose that there are images which strike our minds; it is still
only a certain appearance put before us and not also a reason for it to
be happy and eternal. What are these images of yours, and where do they
come from? Of course, this free-wheeling idea came from Democritus. But - Many translators and editors emend the text of this very difficult sentence. Cicero's
hasty composition makes certainty impossible, but the sense seems to be this: images of
Gracchus and Octavius travel to the Capitol hill, where their famous confrontation took
place in 133 B. c.-almost sixty years before the dramatic date of the dialogue! These images
meet at the Capitol and then travel on to Cotta's mind, where together they present him
with a visual impression of the event as occurring at the Capitol. The absurdity of such
a theory, which Cotta claims the Epicureans are committed to, is evident.