Miscellanies 5.14.121

Again Diphilus the comic poet discusses the judgment in terms like these: “Do you think, Niceratus, that the dead, who have partaken of every luxury in life, have escaped the divine as though unnoticed? There is an eye of Justice, which sees all things. For in Hades too we think there are two paths, one the way of the righteous, the other the way of the ungodly.” And: “If the earth will cover both for all time, go off, snatch, steal, rob, make trouble. Do not be deceived; there is judgment in Hades too, which God, the master of all, will execute, whose name is fearful, and I would not name him; who grants to sinners a long life. But if any mortal thinks that, doing some evil day by day, he escapes the notice of the gods, he thinks wickedly, and in thinking so he is caught, when Justice happens to have leisure. Look, you who think there is no God. For there is, there is. And if anyone who is by nature bad fares well, let him make the most of the time; for in time he will pay the penalty later.” And tragedy agrees with these in these words: “For there shall come, there shall come that season of time, when the golden-faced ether shall let loose its treasure full of fire, and the flame, fed full, shall rage and burn all things on earth and on high.”