No less arrogant were his public utterances, which Titus Ampius records: that the state was nothing, a mere name without body or form; that Sulla did not know his A. B. C. when he laid down his dictatorship; that men ought now to be more circumspect in addressing him, and to regard his word as law. So far did he go in his presumption, that when a soothsayer once reported direful inwards without a heart, he said: They will be more favourable when I wish it; it should not be regarded as a portent, if a beast has no heart.1
Nec minoris inpotentiae voces propalam edebat, ut Titus AmpiusAmpius, Pulmann, Torrentius; Amprius, Ω (Amplius, QT). scribit: nihil esse rem publicam, appellationem modo sine corpore ac specie. Sullam nescisse litteras, qui dictaturam deposuerit. Debere homines consideratius iam loqui secum ac pro legibus habere quae dicat. Eoque arrogantiae progressus est, ut haruspice tristia et sine corde exta quondam nuntiante, futura diceret laetiora, cum vellet; nec pro ostento ducendum, si pecudi cor defuisset.