unprecedented and unreasonable, and they therefore
voted, that "whatever games he had vowed, on his own single judgment,
without consulting the senate, he should celebrate out of the
spoils, if he had reserved any for the purpose; otherwise, at his own
expense." Accordingly, Publius Cornelius exhibited those games through
the space of ten days. About this time the temple of the great Idaean
Mother was dedicated; which deity, on her being brought from Asia,
in the consulate of Publius Cornelius Scipio, afterwards surnamed
Africanus, and Publius Lucinius, the above-mentioned Publius Cornelius
had conducted from the sea-side to the Palatine. In pursuance of a
decree of the senate, Marcus Livius and Caius Claudius, censors,
in the consulate of Marcus Cornelius and Publius Sempronius, had
contracted for the erection of the goddess's temple; and thirteen
years after it had been so contracted for, it was dedicated by
Marcus Junius Brutus, and games were celebrated on occasion of its
dedication: in which, according to the account of Valerius Antias,
dramatic entertainments were, for the first time, introduced into the
Megalesian games. Likewise, Caius Licinius Lucullus, being appointed
duumvir, dedicated the temple of Youth in the great circus. This
temple had been vowed sixteen years before by Marcus Livius, consul,
on the day wherein he cut off Hasdrubal and his army; and the same
person, when censor, in the consulate of Marcus Cornelius and Publius
Sempronius, had contracted for the building of it. Games were also
exhibited on occasion of this consecration, and every thing was
performed with the greater degree of religious zeal, on account of the
impending war with Antiochus.

37. At the beginning of the year in which those transactions passed,
after Manius Acilius had gone to open the campaign, and while the
other consul, Publius Cornelius, yet remained in Rome, two tame oxen,
it is said, climbed up by ladders on the tiles of a house in the
Carina. The aruspices ordered them to be burned alive, and their ashes
to be thrown into the Tiber. It was reported, that several showers of
stones had fallen at Tarracina and Amiternum; that, at Minturnae,
the temple of Jupiter, and the shops round the forum, were struck by
lightning; that, at Vulturnum, in the mouth of the river, two ships
were struck by lightning, and burnt to ashes. On occasion of these
prodigies, the decemvirs, being ordered by a decree of the senate
to consult the