1.36
He was also making
preparations for surrounding the City with a stone
wall when his designs were interrupted by a war with
the Sabines. So sudden was the outbreak that the
enemy were crossing the Anio before a Roman army
could meet and stop them. There was great alarm in
Rome. The first battle was indecisive, and there was
great slaughter on both sides. The enemies' return
to their camp allowed time for the Romans to make
preparations for a fresh campaign. Tarquin thought
his army was weakest in cavalry and decided to
double the centuries, which Romulus had formed, of
the Ramnes, Titienses, and Luceres, and to
distinguish them by his own name. Now as Romulus had
acted under the sanction of the auspices, Attus
Navius, a celebrated augur at that time, insisted
that no change could be made, nothing new
introduced, unless the birds gave a favourable omen.
The king's anger was roused, and in mockery of the
augur's skill he is reported to have said, "Come,
you diviner, find out by your augury whether what I
am now contemplating can be done." Attus, after
consulting the omens, declared that it could.
"Well," the king replied, "I had it in my mind that
you should cut a whetstone with a razor. Take these,
and perform the feat which your birds portend can be
done." It is said that without the slightest
hesitation he cut it through. There used to be a
statue of Attus, representing him with his head
covered, in the Comitium, on the steps to the left
of the senate-house, where the incident occurred.
The whetstone also, it is recorded, was placed there
to be a memorial of the marvel for future
generations. At all events, auguries and the college
of augurs were held in such honour that nothing was
undertaken in peace or war without their sanction;
the assembly of the curies, the assembly of the
centuries, matters of the highest importance, were
suspended or broken up if the omen of the birds was
unfavourable. Even on that occasion Tarquin was
deterred from making changes in the names or numbers
of the centuries of knights; he merely doubled the
number of men in each, so that the three centuries
contained eighteen hundred men. Those who were added
to the centuries bore the same designation, only
they were called the "Second" knights, and the
centuries being thus doubled are now called the "Six
Centuries."