XLIV
1
Nor, again, were the ancient sages so stupid as to suppose that Jupiter changed his missiles. It is only the licence of poetry that can with decency say:
There is another and lighter bolt to which the Cyclopes’ hands
Have added less of harshness and of flame, less, too, of wrath.
The dwellers above call them missiles of peace.
2
Those men of exalted wisdom were undoubtedly not possessed with the delusion that Jupiter sometimes employs lighter bolts, weapons of the practising school, so to speak. Their object was to warn those who have to direct their bolts against the sins of men, that all offences are not to be visited after the same fashion: some offenders must be crushed, some censured and lightly punished, some49 dismissed with an admonition.