population
was busy with the work. A _lectisternium_ was ordered for Iuventas,[666]
the deity of the young recruits, a _supplicatio_ for Hercules at
one of his temples, and five special victims were ordered for
_Genius_--directions which have been variously interpreted. I am
disposed to think of them as referring to the capacity of the State to
increase its male population in the face of military peril. That the
authorities were looking ahead is clear from the fact next stated, that
one of the praetors had to undertake a special vow if the State should
survive for ten years. These measures, ordered by the books, "magna ex
parte levaverant religione animos." Unfortunately, the wayward consul
Flaminius spoilt their endeavours by wilfully neglecting his religious
duties at the Capitol, and also at the Alban mount, where he should have
presided at the Latin festival, and hurrying secretly to the seat of
war, lest his command should be interfered with by the aristocrats.

Spring came on, and with the immediate prospect of a crisis the
_religio_ broke out afresh.[667] Marvels were reported from Sicily and
Sardinia, as well as Italy and Rome. We need not trouble ourselves with
them, except so far as to note that one, at least, was pure invention;
at Falerii, where there was an oracle by lots,[668] one tablet fell out
of the bundle with the words written on it, _Mavors telum suum
concutit_. The mental explanation of all this is lost to us;[669] it
would be interesting to know how the reports really originated and were
conveyed to Rome. That a widely spread _religio_ is really indicated we
can hardly doubt. The steps taken to soothe it, the religious
prescriptions, are of more value to us. The Senate received the reports,
and the consul then introduced the question of procuration. Besides
decreeing, no doubt with the sanction of the pontifices, certain
ordinary measures, the Senate referred the matter to the decemviri and
the Sibylline books. A _fulmen_, weighing fifty pounds, was awarded to
Jupiter, and gifts of silver to his consorts in the Capitoline temple.
Then follow directions which show that the _religio_ of women was to be
particularly cared for. Juno Regina of the Aventine was to have a
tribute collected by matrons, and she and the famous Juno Sospita of
Lanuvium were to have special sacrifices; and it is probable that
another Juno Regina, she of Ardea, was the object of a sacrifice, which
the decemviri themselves und