Ab urbe condita

This young man, born in an age when men were not yet taught to despise the gods, inquired into the matter in order to make quite sure that what he was reporting was true and then laid it before the consul.

He thanked him for the trouble be had taken and bade him have no fears. “But,” he continued, “if the man who is watching the omens makes a false report, he brings down the divine wrath on his own head.

As far as I am concerned, I have received the formal intimation that the chickens ate eagerly, there could be no more favourable omen for the Roman people and army.” He then issued instructions to the centurions to place the pullarius in front of the fighting line.