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⁷ And therefore now that, as is the custom of other 7 augurs and astrologers, I too, as a political augur, have by my previous prognostications established in your eyes the credibility of my powers of augury and divination, my system of prediction is one in which you will be bound to believe. Well, then, the augury I give you is not based on the flight of a fowl of the air, nor on the omen-cry of a song-bird on the left, as in our system of augury, nor on the healthy eagerness^[1] of feeding fowls, or the rattle of their food on the ground; no, I have other signs for my observation, and if not more infallible than those others, they are at any rate clearer and less likely to mislead.

⁸ Now in noting these signs for the purposes of my prognostications, I follow a sort of double system, the source of half of which is Caesar himself; of the other half, a studied survey of the present political situation. What I find in Caesar is this—a mild and merciful nature, such as you have so strikingly portrayed in your brilliant work, the Remonstrances.^[2] There is also the fact that outstanding ability, such as yours, has a wonderful charm for him. Moreover, he is inclined to defer to the wishes of your many friends, reasonable as those wishes are, being inspired by an ardent devotion, and untainted by either insincerity or self-seeking. And in this regard he will be profoundly impressed by the unanimous feeling of Etruria.^[3]

⁹ Why then have these considerations so far had little or no effect? Well, because he believes that if he once makes a concession to you, with whom it would seem that he can give better reasons for being angry, he could not resist the appeals of many others. "What then can I hope for," you will ask,