The topos of Divine Testimony in Luke-Acts. James R. McConnell

See Brunt, Roman Imperial Themes, 297: “The frequency of [Cicero’s] public appeals to religion is surely proof that belief was still widespread.”

198. Beard, “Cicero and Divination,” 33–46, esp. 33.

199. At the beginning of the treatise, Cicero has Quintus state: “My own opinion is that, if the kinds of divination which we have inherited from our forefathers and now practice are trustworthy, then there are gods and, conversely, if there are gods then there are men who have the power of divination” (Div. 1.5.9).

200. Beard emphasizes the polemical tone of the second half of the treatise when she states that Cicero “ridicules” his brother’s positions. Beard attributes Marcus’s position on divination to his rationalism; see Beard, “Cicero and Divination,” 33.