 The Stoic theology expounded next by Balbus seems less immediately vulnerable to these practical concerns; here there is a parallel with the respective treatments of the schools’ ethical theories in On Ends. Indeed, while Velleius relied on a relatively technical and abstract approach in his exposition of the Epicurean view, Balbus offers in Stoicism a theology that seems targeted rather specifically at a Roman audience, and this in two distinct ways. First, the less technical presentation encourages readers who are unwilling or unable to enter the more tangled thickets of philosophical theory to engage with the basic ideas. Second, it promises to appeal to a Roman sense of specialness and pride in their nation by portraying the gods themselves as certifying that attitude through the interest they take in the wellbeing of Rome.