But, O judges, the fortune of the Roman people, and your felicity, and the immortal gods, all think that they are entitled to your grateful or this service which has been thus done to you. Nor, indeed, can any one think otherwise except it be a man who thinks that there is no such thing at all as any divine power or authority—a man who is neither moved by the vastness of your empire, nor by that sun above us, nor by the motions of heaven and of the stars, nor by the vicissitudes and regular order of things, nor (and that is the greatest thing of all) by the wisdom of our ancestors; who both themselves cultivated with the most holy reverence the sacred rites and religions ceremonies and auspices, and also handed them down to us their posterity to be so cultivated by us. [cap.31] [84]