BOOK XXVIII. IV. 15

...being changed. When those digging the foundations for a shrine on the Tarpeian Hill discovered a human head, envoys were sent to Olenus of Cales, the most famous seer in Etruria, to interpret the sign. Recognizing the omen as a sign of glory and success, Olenus tried to claim the blessing for his own people. He first traced the outline of a temple on the ground before him with his staff and asked, "Is this, then, what you say, Romans? Here is the temple of Jupiter the Best and Greatest to be, and here is the head we found?" The Annals consistently maintain that the destiny of Rome would have passed to Etruria had the Roman envoys, forewarned by the seer's son, not replied, "We do not say it was found here, but in Rome." They say this happened a second time when the clay four-horse chariot prepared for the roof of the same temple grew in the furnace, and again, the omen was retained in a similar way. Let these examples suffice to show that the power of omens is under our own control and depends on how they are received. In the discipline of the augurs, it is a firm principle that neither evil omens nor any auspices affect those who, when beginning any task, declare that they take no notice of them; no greater gift of divine indulgence than this exists. What then? Does the Law of the Twelve Tables not contain these words: "Whoever shall have bewitched the crops," and elsewhere: "whoever shall have sung an evil spell"? Verrius Flaccus cites authorities who believe that during sieges...

a. Perhaps "obviously."

b. See Remains of Old Latin (Loeb) vol. III, pp. 474, 475 and 478, 479.

c. A distinguished writer of the latter part of the first century B.C. He wrote on history and antiquities, dying in the reign of Tiberius.