aderam | I love the Romans

"Each person has his own custom, his own practice; the Divine Mind has distributed various guardians to the various cities; as particular souls are given to mortals at birth, so, too, are heavenly geniuses divided among peoples. Utility, which is the clearest proof of the existence of the gods to mortals, adds to this argument. For as all human reason moves about in the dark, whence can knowledge of the gods come better than from the memory and documents of favours done in the past? If the long passage of time lends authority to religion, faith must be kept with so many centuties, and out parents must be followed by us, as they so fortunately followed theirs. ... What does it matter by what rational system the truth is sought? It is not possible to come by one path to so great a truth." (On the Altar of Victory 3.8-9)
- Senator Symmachus in AD 384 writing to ask that Augustus' Altar of Victory (Actium) not be removed.