Ab urbe condita

forward. With this they advanced by cross marches through the territory of Caere and surprised the Tarquinians as they were returning heavily laden with

booty. They slew great numbers, stripped the whole force of their baggage, and returned with the recovered possessions from their farms to Rome. Two days were allowed for the owners to identify their

property; what was unclaimed on the third day, most of it belonging to the enemy, was sold “under the spear,” [*](See note in chap. xxix, Book IV.) and the proceeds distributed amongst the

soldiers. The issues of the other wars, especially of that against Veii, were still undecided, and the Romans were already despairing of success through their own efforts, and were looking to the Fates and the gods, when the embassy returned from Delphi with the sentence of the

oracle. It was in accord with the answer given by the Veientine soothsayer, and ran as follows: — “See to it, Roman, that the rising flood At Alba flow not o'er its banks and shape Its channel

seawards. Harmless through thy fields Shalt thou disperse it, scattered into rills. Then fiercely press upon thy foeman's walls, For now the Fates have given thee victory. That city which long years thou hast besieged Shall now be

thine. And when the war hath end, Do thou, the victor, bear an ample gift Into my temple, and the ancestral rites Now in disuse, see that thou celebrate Anew with all their wonted pomp.”

From that time the captive prophet began to be held in very high esteem, and the consular tribunes, Cornelius and Postumius, began to make use of him for the expiation of the Alban portent and the proper method of appeasing the gods.

At length it was discovered why the gods were visiting men for neglected ceremonies and religious duties unperformed.

It was in fact due to nothing else but the fact that there was a flaw in the election of the magistrates, and consequently they had not proclaimed the Festival of the Latin League and the sacrifice on the Alban Mount with the due formalities.