CS pliny's natural histoby. [Book XI. 



to considerable variations. No liver 80 at all was found in a 

 victim which was sacrificed by M. Marcellus, about the period 

 when he was killed in battle against Hannibal ; while m a 

 victim which was slain on the following day, a double liver 

 was found. It was wanting, also, in a victim sacrificed by C. 

 Marius, at Utica, and in one which was offered by the Emperor 

 Caius 81 upon the calends of January, 81 * on the occasion of his en- 

 tering the year of the consulship in which he wasslam: the 

 same°thing happened, also, to his successor, Claudius, in the 

 month in which he was cut off 82 by poison. When the late 

 Emperor Augustus was sacrificing at Spoletum, upon the first 

 day of his entering on the imperial dignity, in six different 

 victims the liver was found rolled over within itself, from the 

 very lowest lobe ; and the answer that was given by the diviners 

 was to the effect that, in the course of the year, he would gam 

 a twofold sway. It is of evil omen to find an incision m the 

 head of the entrails, except on occasions of disquietude and 

 alarm ; for then it is significant of cutting all cares, and so 

 putting an end to them. The hares that are found in the 

 vicinity of Briletum 83 and Tharne, and in the Chersonnesus 

 on the Propontis, have a double liver; but, what is very 

 singular, if they are removed to another place, they will lose 

 one of them. 



CHAP. 74. THE GALL ; WHERE SITUATE, AND IN WHAT ANIMALS 



IT IS DOUBLE. ANIMALS WHICH HAVE NO GALL, AND OTHERS 

 IN WHICH IT IS NOT SITUATE IN THE LITER. 



In the liver is the gall, which, however, does not exist in 

 every animal. At Chalcis, in Euboea, none of the cattle have 

 it while in the cattle of the Isle of Naxos, it is of extraordi- 

 nary size, and double, so that to a stranger either of these facts 

 would appear as good as a prodigy. The horse, the mule, the 

 ass, the stag, the roe-buck, the wild boar, the camel, and the 

 dolphin have no gall, but some kinds of rats and mice have it. 



so Plutarch says that it was the "caput," or "head" of the liver that 

 was wanting. M . Marcellus was slain while reconnoitring the Carthaginian 

 camp by night. 



si Caligula. 81 1st of January. 



« By his niece and wife, Agrippina, the mother of Nero. 



sa See B. iv. c. 11. Tharne does not seem to be known. Of course, 

 this story about the hares is fabulous. 



