I will assert, however, in conclusion, that I do not recognize fortune-tellers, or those who prophesy for money, or necromancers, or mediums, whom your friend Appius [Claudius, colleague of Cicero in the augural college] makes it a practice to consult.
In fine, I say, I do not care a fig
For Marsian augurs, village mountebanks
Astrologers who haunt the circus grounds,
Or Isis-seers, or dream interpreters:
--for they are not diviners either by knowledge or skill,--
But superstitious bards, soothsaying quacks,
Averse to work, or mad, or ruled by want,
Directing others how to go, and yet
What road to take they do not know themselves;
From those to whom they promise wealth they beg
A coin. From what they promised let them take
Their coin as toll and pass the balance on.
Such are the words of Ennius....(Loeb trans.)