Res Gestae

Accordingly, before dawn the Etruscan soothsayers were hastily summoned, and asked what this unusual kind of star portended. Their reply was, that any undertaking at that time must be most carefully avoided, pointing out that in the Tarquitian books,[*](So-called from their author Tarquitius, whom some identify with Tages; cf. xvii. 10, 2; xxi. 1, 10.) under the rubric On signs from heaven it was written, that when a meteor was seen in the sky, battle ought not to be joined, or anything similar attempted.

When the emperor scorned this also, as well as many other signs, the soothsayers begged that at least he would put off his departure for some hours; but even this they could not gain, since the emperor was opposed to the whole science of divination,[*](I.e. when it opposed his plans. As Montaigne (Book II, ch. 19) rightly says, he was besotted with the art of divination cf. xxii. 1, 1; xxiii. 3, 3; xxv. 4, 17.) but since day had now dawned, camp was broken.