Dream of Scipio and Stoic Paradoxes

in a bright and famous location, to which you are now coming almost as a common soldier to attack. In these two years you will overturn it. This surname, which you have inherited from us, will be won for you by yourself. When you have destroyed Carthage, celebrated a triumph, been censor, and traveled as an ambassador to Egypt, Syria, Asia, and Greece, you will be elected consul a second time in your absence and will finish a great war, razing Numantia. But when you are carried in your chariot into the Capitol, you will find the republic troubled by the schemes of my grandson. Here, Africanus, you must show your country the light of your mind, your character, and your wisdom. But I see the path of fate at that time wavering. For when your life has completed seven times eight solar revolutions, and these two numbers, both of which are considered complete for different reasons, have finished your fatal sum in their natural circuit, your entire city will turn toward you alone and your name. The senate, all virtuous men, your allies, and the Latins will look to you. You will be the one on whom the safety of the whole city depends. And, to say much in a few words, you must act as dictator to restore the republic, if you escape the impious hands of your relatives. Here, when Laelius exclaimed and the others groaned more vehemently, Scipio smiled slightly and said, "I beg you, do not wake me from my sleep. Listen to the rest." But Africanus, so that you may be more eager to protect the republic, know this: for all who have preserved, aided, or increased their country, there is a certain place defined in heaven where they enjoy a blessed and eternal life. For there is nothing more acceptable to that supreme God who rules the entire universe, regarding what happens on earth, than the councils and assemblies of men united by law, which are called states. The rulers and preservers of these depart from here and return here. Here I, although I was terrified, not so much by the fear of death as by the fear of treachery, asked if he himself, my father Paulus, and the others whom we considered to be dead were alive. "Indeed," he said, "they are alive who have fled from the shackles of their bodies as if from