Chap. 4.] 
PllODIGIES AND POllTENTS. 
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, Eomans, as you say ?" 
said he ; **here then must be the temple^^ 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 Eoman empire would have been assuredly transferred to 
Etruria, had not the deputies, forewarned by the son of the 
diviner, made answer — ^o, not here exactly, but at Eome, 
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 and that on this occasion, in a similar manner, the 
destinies of Eome 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.^^ 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, and in another place, " Whoso- 
ever shall have used pernicious incantations"?^^ YerriusFlac- 
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 Eoman 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 Eome ; and at the present day 
even, this ritual still forms part of the discipline of our pontiffs. 
Ajasson thinks that there is an equivoque here upon the word ^Hem- 
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. 
20 This story is mentioned by Plutarch, in the Life of Publicola. 
2^ In which case it was considered necessary to repeat the words, *^ Ac- 
cipio omen,*' " I accept the omen." 
^- Qui fruges excantassit." 
'^'^ " Qui malum carmen incantassit.'* 
