Chap. 4.] PRODIGIES AND PORTENTS. 281 



attached to such a presage as this, attempted, by putting a 

 question to them, to transfer the benefit of it to his own 

 nation. First describing, on the ground before him, the outline 

 of a temple with his staff "Is it so, Romans, as you say ?" 

 said he ; "here then must be the temple 29 of Jupiter, all good 

 and all powerful ; it is here that we have found the head" 

 and the constant asseveration of the Annals is, that the destiny 

 of the Roman empire would have been assuredly transferred to 

 Etruria, had not the deputies, forewarned by the son of the 

 diviner, made answer " No, not here exactly, but at Rome, 

 we say, the head was found/* 



It is related also that the same was the case when a certain 

 four-horse chariot, made of clay, and intended for the roof of 

 the same temple, had considerably increased while in the 

 furnace ; 30 and that on this occasion, in a similar manner, the 

 destinies of Rome were saved. Let these instances suffice 

 then to show, that the virtues of presages lie in our own hands, 

 and that they are valuable in each instance according as they 

 are received. 31 At all events, it is a principle in the doctrine 

 of the augurs, that neither imprecations nor auspices of any 

 kind have any effect upon those who, when entering upon an 

 undertaking, declare that they will pay no attention whatever 

 to them ; a greater instance than which, of the indulgent dis- 

 position of the gods towards us, cannot be found. 



And then besides, in the laws themselves of the Twelve 

 Tables, do we not read the following words "Whosoever shall 

 have enchanted the harvest," 32 and in another place, " Whoso- 

 ever shall have used pernicious incantations"? 33 VerriusFlac- 

 cus cites authors whom he deems worthy of credit, to show 

 that on the occasion of a siege, it was the usage, the first thing of 

 all, for the Roman priests to summon forth the tutelary divinity 

 of that particular town, and to promise him the same rites, or 

 even a more extended worship, at Rome ; and at the present day 

 even, this ritual still forms part of the discipline of our pontiffs. 



29 Ajasson thinks that there is an equivoque here upon the word '* tern- 

 plum," which signified not only a building, but certain parts of the heavens, 

 and corresponding lines traced on the earth by the augur's staff. 



30 This story is mentioned by Plutarch, in the Life of Publicola. 



31 In which case it was considered necessary to repeat the words, " Ac- 

 cipio omen," " I accept the omen." 



a3 "Qui fruges excantassit." 



33 " Q,ui nialum carmen incantassit." 



