 In response, he says that upon the verdict reached about the nature of the gods will depend our assessment of the whole moral and material apparatus of religion, including by implication traditional Roman religion – indeed the examples he lists suggest that this is primarily what he has in mind (1.14). When he speaks, at the very start of the work, of its subject being one that was vital ‘for the regulation of religion’ (1.1), one might easily read that conservatively: we investigate the gods in order better to maintain the religious status quo. Now, however, it seems that our investigation is to be open, our sense of what (if any) is the correct religion awaiting the outcome of enquiry into the nature of the gods.