6S 
plikt's katural history. [Book XI. 
to considerable variations. 'Ho liver 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 in 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^^ upon the calends of January,^^* on the occasion of his en- 
tering the year of the consulship in which he was slain : the 
same thing happened, also, to his successor, Claudius, in the 
month in which he was cut off by poison. When the late 
Emperor Augustus was sacrificing at Spoletum, upon the first 
day of his entering on the imperial dignity, in six difi'erent 
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 efiect that, in the course of the year, he would gain 
a twofold sway. It is of evil omen to find an incision in 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 and Tharne, and in the Chersonnesus 
on the Propontis, have a double liver; but, what is yery 
singular, if they are removed to another place, they will lose 
one of them. 
CHIP. 74. THE GALL ; WHEEE SITUATE, A^D IN WHAT ANIMALS 
IT IS DOUBLE. ANIMALS WHICH HAVE NO GALL, AND OTHERS 
IN WHICH IT IS NOT SITUATE IN THE LIVEE. 
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. 
^ Plufarch says that it was the "caput," or "head" of the liver that' 
was wanting. M. Marcellus was slain while reconnoitring the Carthaginian 
camp hy night. 
Caligula. 1st of January. 
^2 By his niece and wife, Agrippina, the mother of Nero. 
See B. iv. c. 11. Tharne does not seem to he known. Of course, 
this story about the hares is fahulous. 
