Against Julian 4.12.58

Balbus, in Cicero, discussed the matter truthfully and carefully with Cotta.

[I quote] a few things to increase his shame: under the teaching of the sacred law he has failed to understand things that pagans could grasp through reason alone.

[Balbus] touches on the working of the sexes under the subject of animals because, for the sake of propriety, he passed over it in describing human beings.

[He] portrays the human being in words: the stomach lies below the gullet as a receptacle for food and drink; the lungs and heart draw breath from outside; many things in the stomach are wonderfully fashioned from sinews; its many folds and windings hold and contain what it receives, whether dry or liquid.

[The remaining food is expelled] as the intestines alternately contract and relax.