erceiving that he fought, victory was
certain, and consequently being eager to engage, desired the omens to be
taken. The fowls refused to peck; but the chief soothsayer observing the
eagerness of the soldiers to fight and the confidence felt both by them
and by their captain, not to deprive the army of such an opportunity
of glory, reported to the consul that the auspices were favourable.
Whereupon Papirius began to array his army for battle. But some among
the soothsayers having divulged to certain of the soldiers that the
fowls had not pecked, this was told to Spurius Papirius, the nephew of
the consul, who reporting it to his uncle, the latter straightway bade
him mind his own business, for that so far as he himself and the army
were concerned, the auspices were fair; and if the soothsayer had lied,
the consequences were on his head. And that the event might accord with
the prognostics, he commanded his officers to place the soothsayers in
front of the battle. It so chanced that as they advanced against the
enemy, the chief soothsayer was killed by a spear thrown by a Roman
soldier; which, the consul hearing of, said, "_All goes well, and as the
Gods would have it, for by the death of this liar the army is purged of
blame and absolved from whatever displeasure these may have conceived
against it_." And contriving, in this way to make his designs tally
with the auspices, he joined battle, without the army knowing that the
ordinances of religion had in any degree been disregarded.

But an opposite course was taken by Appius Pulcher, in Sicily, in
the first Carthaginian war. For desiring to join battle, he bade the
soothsayers take the auspices, and on their announcing that the fowls
refused to feed, he answered, "_Let us see, then, whether they will
drink,_" and, so saying, caused them to be thrown into the sea. After
which he fought and was defeated. For this he was condemned at Rome,
while Papirius was honoured; not so much because the one had gained
while the other had lost a battle, as because in their treatment of the
auspices the one had behaved discreetly, the other with rashness. And,
in truth, the sole object of this system of taking the auspices was to
insure the army joining battle with that confidence of success which
constantly leads to victory; a device followed not by the Romans only,
but by foreign nations as well; of which I shall give an example in the
following Chapter.

CHAPTER XV.--_How the S