Ab urbe condita

Titus Livius (Livy)

Livy. History of Rome, Volumes 1-2. Roberts, Canon, Rev, translator. London, New York: J. M. Dent and Sons; E. P. Dutton and Co., 1912.

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.