them. The Romans
derived the practice of augury chiefly from the Tuscans; and anciently
their youth used to be instructed as carefully in this art, as afterwards
they were in the Greek literature. For this purpose, by a decree of the
senate, a certain number of the sons of the leading men at Rome was sent
to the twelve states of Etruria for instruction.]

[Footnote 677: See before, note, c. i. The Principia was a broad open
space, which separated the lower part of the Roman camp from the upper,
and extended the whole breadth of the camp. In this place was erected the
tribunal of the general, when he either administered justice or harangued
the army. Here likewise the tribunes held their courts, and punishments
were inflicted. The principal standards of the army, as it has been
already mentioned, were deposited in the Principia; and in it also stood
the altars of the gods, and the images of the Emperors, by which the
soldiers swore.]

[Footnote 678: See NERO, c. xxxi. The sum estimated as requisite for its
completion amounted to 2,187,500 pounds of our money.]

[Footnote 679: The two last words, literally translated, mean "long
trumpets;" such as were used at sacrifices. The sense is, therefore,
"What have I to do, my hands stained with blood, with performing religious
ceremonies!"]

[Footnote 680: The Ancile was a round shield, said to have fallen from
heaven in the reign of Numa, and supposed to be the shield of Mars. It
was kept with great care in the sanctuary of his temple, as a symbol of
the perpetuity of the Roman empire; and that it might not be stolen,
eleven others were made exactly similar to it.]

[Footnote 681: This ideal personage, who has been mentioned before,
AUGUSTUS, c. lxviii., was the goddess Cybele, the wife of Saturn, called
also Rhea, Ops, Vesta, Magna, Mater, etc. She was painted as a matron,
crowned with towers, sitting in a chariot drawn by lions. A statue of
her, brought from Pessinus in Phrygia to Rome, in the time of the second
Punic war, was much honoured there. Her priests, called the Galli and
Corybantes, were castrated; and worshipped her with the sound of drums,
tabors, pipes, and cymbals. The rites of this goddess were disgraced by
great indecencies.]

[Footnote 682: Otherwise called Orcus, Pluto, Jupiter Infernus, and
Stygnis. He was the brother of Jupiter, and king of the infernal regions.
His wife was Proserpine, the daughter of Ceres, whom he carried off as