5.15
During this period many
portents were announced, but as they rested on the
testimony of single individuals, and there were no
soothsayers to consult as to how to expiate them,
owing to the hostile attitude of the Etruscans,
these reports were generally disbelieved and
disregarded. One incident, however, caused universal
anxiety. The Alban Lake rose to an unusual height,
without any rainfall or other cause which could
prevent the phenomenon from appearing supernatural.
Envoys were sent to the oracle of Delphi to
ascertain why the gods sent the portent. But an
explanation was afforded nearer at hand. An aged
Veientine was impelled by destiny to announce,
amidst the jeers of the Roman and Etruscan outposts,
in prophetic strain, that the Romans would never get
possession of Veii until the water had been drawn
off from the Alban Lake. This was at first treated
as a wild utterance, but afterwards it began to be
talked about. Owing to the length of the war, there
were frequent conversations between the troops on
both sides, and a Roman on outpost duty asked one of
the townsmen who was nearest to him who the man was
who was throwing out such dark hints about the Alban
Lake. When he heard that he was a soothsayer, being
himself a man not devoid of religious fears, he
invited the prophet to an interview on the pretext
of wishing to consult him, if he had time, about a
portent which demanded his own personal expiation.
When the two had gone some distance from their
respective lines, unarmed, apprehending no danger,
the Roman, a young man of immense strength, seized
the feeble old man in the sight of all, and in spite
of the outcry of the Etruscans, carried him off to
his own side. He was brought before the
commander-in-chief and then sent to the senate in
Rome. In reply to inquiries as to what he wanted
people to understand by his remark about the Alban
Lake, he said that the gods must certainly have been
wroth with the people of Veii on the day when they
inspired him with the resolve to disclose the ruin
which the Fates had prepared for his native city.
What he had then predicted under divine inspiration
he could not now recall or unsay, and perhaps he
would incur as much guilt by keeping silence about
things which it was the will of heaven should be
revealed as by uttering what ought to be concealed.
It stood recorded in the Books of Fate, and had been
handed down by the occult science of the Etruscans,
that whenever the water of the Alban Lake overflowed
and the Romans drew it off in the appointed way, the
victory over the Veientines would be granted them;
until that happened the gods would not desert the
walls of Veii. Then he explained the prescribed mode
of drawing off the water. The senate, however, did
not regard their informant as sufficiently
trustworthy in a matter of such importance, and
determined to wait for the return of their embassy
with the oracular reply of the Pythian god.