22.1
Spring was now
coming on; Hannibal accordingly moved out of his winter quarters. His
previous attempt to cross the Apennines had been frustrated by the
insupportable cold; to remain where he was would have been to court
danger. The Gauls had rallied to him through the prospect of booty and
spoil, but when they found that instead of plundering other people's territory
their own had become the seat of war and had to bear the burden of
furnishing winter quarters for both sides, they diverted their hatred from the
Romans to Hannibal. Plots against his life were frequently hatched by their
chiefs, and he owed his safety to their mutual faithlessness, for they betrayed
the plots to him in the same spirit of fickleness in which they had formed
them. He guarded himself from their attempts by assuming different
disguises, at one time wearing a different dress, at another putting on false
hair. But these constant alarms were an additional motive for his early
departure from his winter quarters. About the same time Cn. Servilius
entered upon his consulship at Rome, on the 15th of March. When he had
laid before the senate the policy which he proposed to carry out, the
indignation against C. Flaminius broke out afresh. "Two consuls had been
elected, but as a matter of fact they only had one. What legitimate authority
did this man possess? What religious sanctions? Magistrates only take these
sanctions with them from home, from the altars of the State, and from their
private altars at home after they have celebrated the Latin Festival, offered
the sacrifice on the Alban Mount, and duly recited the vows in the Capitol.
These sanctions do not follow a private citizen, nor if he has departed
without them can he obtain them afresh in all their fulness on a foreign soil."
To add to the general feeling of apprehension, information was
received of portents having occurred simultaneously in several places. In
Sicily several of the soldiers' darts were covered with flames; in Sardinia the
same thing happened to the staff in the hand of an officer who was going his
rounds to inspect the sentinels on the wall; the shores had been lit up by
numerous fires; a couple of shields had sweated blood; some soldiers had
been struck by lightning; an eclipse of the sun had been observed; at
Praeneste there had been a shower of red-hot stones; at Arpi shields had
been seen in the sky and the sun had appeared to be fighting with the moon;
at Capena two moons were visible in the daytime; at Caere the waters ran
mingled with blood, and even the spring of Hercules had bubbled up with
drops of blood on the water; at Antium the ears of corn which fell into the
reapers' basket were blood-stained; at Falerii the sky seemed to be cleft
asunder as with an enormous rift and all over the opening there was a blazing
light; the oracular tablets shrank and shrivelled without being touched and
one had fallen out with this inscription, "MARS IS SHAKING HIS
SPEAR"; and at the same time the statue of Mars on the Appian Way and
the images of the Wolves sweated blood. Finally, at Capua the sight was
seen of the sky on fire and the moon falling in the midst of a shower of rain.
Then credence was given to comparatively trifling portents, such as that
certain people's goats were suddenly clothed with wool, a hen turned into a
cock, and a cock into a hen. After giving the details exactly as they were
reported to him and bringing his informants before the senate, the consul
consulted the House as to what religious observances ought to be
proclaimed. A decree was passed that to avert the evils which these portents
foreboded, sacrifices should be offered, the victims to be both full-grown
animals and sucklings, and also that special intercessions should be made at
all the shrines for three days. What other ceremonial was necessary was to
be carried out in accordance with the instructions of the decemvirs after they
had inspected the Sacred Books and ascertained the will of the gods. On
their advice it was decreed that the first votive offering should be made to
Jupiter in the shape of a golden thunderbolt weighing fifty pounds, gifts of
silver to Juno and Minerva, and sacrifices of full-grown victims to Queen
Juno on the Aventine and Juno Sospita at Lanuvium, whilst the matrons
were to contribute according to their means and bear their gift to Queen
Juno on the Aventine. A lectisternium was to be held, and even the
freedwomen were to contribute what they could for a gift to the temple of
Feronia. When these instructions had been carried out the decemvirs
sacrificed full-grown victims in the forum at Ardea, and finally in the middle
of December there was a sacrifice at the Temple of Saturn, a lectisternium
was ordered (the senators prepared the couch), and a public banquet. For a
day and a night the cry of the Saturnalia resounded through the City, and the
people were ordered to make that day a festival and observe it as such for
ever.