27.23
The
praetors left for their provinces, but the consuls were detained by religious
matters; several portents had been announced, and the omens drawn from
the sacrificial victims were mostly unfavourable. News came from Campania
that two temples in Capua -those of Fortune and Mars -as well as several
sepulchral monuments had been struck by lightning. To such an extent does
a depraved superstition see the work of the gods in the most insignificant
trifles, that it was seriously reported that rats had gnawed the gold in the
temple of Jupiter in Cumae. At Casinum a swarm of bees had settled in the
forum; at Ostia a gate and part of the wall had been struck by lightning; at
Caere a vulture had flown into the temple of Jupiter, and at Vulsinii the
waters of the lake had run with blood. In consequence of these portents a
day of special intercession was ordered. For several days full-grown victims
had been sacrificed without giving any propitious indications, and it was long
before the "peace of the gods" could be secured. It was on the heads of the
consuls that the direful mischance prognosticated by these portents fell, the
State remained unharmed. The Games of Apollo had been celebrated for the
first time in the consulship of Q. Fulvius and Appius Claudius under the
superintendence of the City praetor, P. Cornelius Sulla. Subsequently all the
City praetors celebrated them in turn, but they used to vow them for one
year only, and there was no fixed day for their celebration. This year a
serious epidemic attacked both the City and the country districts, but it
resulted more frequently in protracted than in fatal illness. In consequence of
this epidemic special intercessions were appointed at all the chapels
throughout the City, and P. Licinius Varus, the City praetor, was instructed
to propose a measure to the people providing that the Games of Apollo
should always be celebrated on the same day. He was the first to celebrate
them under this rule, and the day fixed for their celebration was July 5th,
which was henceforth observed as the day.
