ve oil spouting beside the Tiber), and many, also, precisely
then. The tent of Romulus was burned as a result of some ritual which the
pontifices were performing in it; a statue of Virtus, standing before
some of the gates, fell upon its face; and certain persons rendered
inspired by the Mother of the Gods declared that the goddess was angry
with them. On this point the Sibylline books were consulted. They made
the same statements and prescribed that the statue be taken down to
the sea and purified with water from it. In obedience to the order the
goddess went very far indeed out into the surges, where she remained an
extremely long time and returned only quite late,--her action causing the
Romans no little fear, so that they did not recover courage until four
palm trees grew up round about her temple and in the Forum.

[-44-] Besides these occurrences at the time Caesar married Livia. She was
the daughter of Livius Drusus, who had been among those proscribed by the
tablet and had committed suicide after the defeat in Macedonia, and
the wife of Nero, whom she had accompanied in his flight, as has been
related. She was also in the sixth month with child from him. When Caesar
accordingly hesitated and enquired of the pontifices whether it was
permissible to wed her while pregnant, they answered that if the origin
of the foetus were doubtful, the marriage should be put off, but if it
were definitely admitted, nothing prevented an immediate consummation.
Perhaps they really found this among the ordinances of the forefathers,
but certainly they would have said so even had they not found it. The
woman was given in marriage by her husband himself, as some father might
do. And the following incident occurred at the marriage feast. One of the
prattling boys, such as women frequently keep about them naked to play
with,[48] on seeing Livia reclining in one place with Caesar and Nero in
another with some man, went up to her and said: "What are you doing here,
mistress? For your husband," pointing him out, "is reclining over there."
After these events, when the woman went to live with Caesar, she gave
birth to Claudius Drusus Nero. Caesar took him and sent him to his father,
making this entry in the records, that Caesar returned to its father Nero
the child borne by Livia, his own wife. Nero died not long after and left
Caesar himself as guardian to this boy and to Tiberius: the populace had a
good deal to say about this, among other