may be only equal to them, and in
other respects even inferior to them.

Ought we to contemn Attius Navius's staff, with which he divided the
regions of the vine to find his sow?[112] I should despise it, if I
were not aware that King Hostilius had carried on most important wars
in deference to his auguries; but by the negligence of our nobility the
discipline of the augury is now omitted, the truth of the auspices
despised, and only a mere form observed; so that the most important
affairs of the commonwealth, even the wars, on which the public safety
depends, are conducted without any auspices; the Peremnia[113] are
discussed; no part of the Acumina[114] performed; no select men are
called to witness to the military testaments;[115] our generals now
begin their wars as soon as they have arranged the Auspicia. The force
of religion was so great among our ancestors that some of their
commanders have, with their faces veiled, and with the solemn, formal
expressions of religion, sacrificed themselves to the immortal Gods to
save their country.[116] I could mention many of the Sibylline
prophecies, and many answers of the haruspices, to confirm those
things, which ought not to be doubted.

IV. For example: our augurs and the Etrurian haruspices saw the truth
of their art established when P. Scipio and C. Figulus were consuls;
for as Tiberius Gracchus, who was a second time consul, wished to
proceed to a fresh election, the first Rogator,[117] as he was
collecting the suffrages, fell down dead on the spot. Gracchus
nevertheless went on with the assembly, but perceiving that this
accident had a religious influence on the people, he brought the affair
before the senate. The senate thought fit to refer it to those who
usually took cognizance of such things. The haruspices were called, and
declared that the man who had acted as Rogator of the assembly had no
right to do so; to which, as I have heard my father say, he replied
with great warmth, Have I no right, who am consul, and augur, and
favored by the Auspicia? And shall you, who are Tuscans and Barbarians,
pretend that you have authority over the Roman Auspicia, and a right to
give judgment in matters respecting the formality of our assemblies?
Therefore, he then commanded them to withdraw; but not long afterward
he wrote from his province[118] to the college of augurs, acknowledging
that in reading the books[119] he remembered that he had illegally
chosen a place for his