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since it was quite inevitable that that
assertion should be made, considering the
ways of thinking of ancient writers. For Numa, they
would say, must have been aided by some
great political genius. For unless he was himself a
great political sage he could not otherwise
have made his laws; and if he was such a sage
he certainly would have sought all the counsel
he could get. Now no such adviser of Numa is
mentioned. He must have been famous. But
the only famous political genius of those
days except Numa himself was Pythagoras.
That is the way some writer of Livy's time would
inevitably reason; for that is the very style
of their thought. So the assertion was