BOOK XXVIII. IV. 15—18

...mighty events are changed. During the digging of foundations for a shrine on the Tarpeian Hill there was discovered a human head. For an interpretation envoys were sent to Olenus of Cales, the most distinguished seer of Etruria. Perceiving that the sign portended glory and success, Olenus tried by questioning to divert the blessing to his own people. He first traced with his staff the outline of a temple on the ground in front of him, and then asked: "Is this then, Romans, what you say? 'Here will be the temple of Jupiter, All-good and Almighty; here we found the head?'" The Annals most firmly insists that the destiny of Rome would have passed to Etruria, had not the Roman envoys, forewarned by the seer's son, replied: "Not exactly here, but it was in Rome that we say the head was found." It is said that the same thing happened again when a clay four-horse chariot, designed for the roof of the same shrine, grew larger in the furnace, and once more in a similar way was the happy augury retained. Let these instances suffice to show that the power of omens is really in our own control, and that their influence is conditional upon the way we receive each. At any rate, in the teaching of the augurs it is a fundamental principle that neither evil omens nor any auspices affect those who at the outset of any undertaking declare that they take no notice of them; no greater instance of the divine mercy could be found than this boon. Again, in the actual laws of the Twelve Tables we find also these words: "Whoever shall have bewitched the crops," and in another place: "whoever shall have cast an evil spell." Verrius Flaccus cites trustworthy authorities to show that it was the custom, at the...