called out "Io triumphe" in the herb market: that in the cattle market
an ox had of his own accord ascended to the third story, and that
thence, being frightened by the noise of the inhabitants, had flung
himself down; that the appearance of ships had been brightly visible
in the sky, and that the temple of Hope in the herb market had been
struck by lightning; that the spear at Lanuvium had shaken itself;
that a crow had flown down into the temple of Juno and alighted on the
very couch; that in the territory of Amiternum figures resembling men
dressed in white raiment had been seen in several places at a
distance, but had not come close to any one; that in Picenum it had
rained stones; that at Caere the tablets for divination had been
lessened in size; and that in Gaul a wolf had snatched out the sword
from the scabbard of a soldier on guard, and carried it off. On
account of the other prodigies the decemvirs were ordered to consult
the books; but on account of its having rained stones in Picenum the
festival of nine days was proclaimed, and almost all the state was
occupied in expiating the rest, from time to time. First of all the
city was purified, and victims of the greater kind were sacrificed to
those gods to whom they were directed to be offered; and a gift of
forty pounds' weight of gold was carried to the temple of Juno at
Lanuvium; and the matrons dedicated a brazen statue to Juno on the
Aventine; and a lectisternium was ordered at Caere, where the tablets
for divination had diminished; and a supplication to Fortune at
Algidum; at Rome also a lectisternium was ordered to Youth, and a
supplication at the temple of Hercules, first by individuals named and
afterwards by the whole people at all the shrines; five greater
victims were offered to Genius; and Caius Atilius Serranus the praetor
was ordered to make certain vows if the republic should remain in the
same state for ten years. These things, thus expiated and vowed
according to the Sibylline books, relieved, in a great degree, the
public mind from superstitious fears.

63. Flaminius, one of the consuls elect, to whom the legions which
were wintering at Placentia had fallen by lot, sent an edict and
letter to the consul, desiring that those forces should be ready in
camp at Ariminum on the ides of March. He had a design to enter on the
consulship in his province, recollecting his old contests with the
fathers, which he had waged with them when tribune of th