the work is based on stoic sources. varro refutes the poetic or "mythical theology" as popular superstition, complaining that the pure veneration of the divine had been spoiled by the influence of the poets, but he considers valuable the philosophical debate on the nature of the gods. varro presents the roman king numa pompilius as a paragon of ancient piety. numa was associated with pythagoreanism, even though varro granted that numa could not have been a pythagorean since he lived before pythagoras himself.