To the Nations 2.15

It would take long to review also those whom you have buried among the stars and boldly assign as ministers to the gods. So, I suppose, the Castors, Perseus, and Erigone are worthy of heaven, just as Jupiter's catamite is. But why wonder? You have even transferred dogs and scorpions and crabs to heaven. I put off those whom you worship in oracles; that something divine is at work there is attested. What? You even want gods to be the arbiters of sorrow: Viduus, who widows the body of its soul, whom you condemned by not allowing him within the walls; likewise Caeculus, who deprives the eyes of sight; likewise Orbana, who extinguishes the seed in childlessness; and there is a goddess of death herself. To fly past the rest, you also regard as gods the spirits of places and of the city's districts: Father Janus (and there is a goddess Jana, of the arches), and Septimontius, of the seven hills. People make offerings to the same Genii who have altars or shrines in those same places, and besides to others who live in someone else's place or for rent. I say nothing of Ascensus, from climbing, and Clivicola, from slopes; I say nothing of the gods Forculus, from doors, and Cardea, from hinges, and Limentinus, of thresholds, or whatever other door-keeping deities are adored among you by the neighbors. For what great thing is that, when they have their own deities even in brothels, in kitchens, and even in prison? So heaven is filled with countless particular gods, these and other gods of the Romans, among whom the duties of all life are divided, in such a way that there is no need of the other gods. Indeed, since those we have noted above are reckoned as peculiar to the Romans and are not readily known abroad, how do all the things over which they have set them to preside come about throughout the human race and in every nation, where their guarantors lack not only honor but even recognition?