occasion; and made a prudent show of observing the Rites of Religion
even when forced to disregard them; and any who rashly slighted
Religion they punished._
Auguries were not only, as we have shown above, a main foundation of
the old religion of the Gentiles, but were also the cause of the
prosperity of the Roman commonwealth. Accordingly, the Romans gave more
heed to these than to any other of their observances; resorting to them
in their consular comitia; in undertaking new enterprises; in calling
out their armies; in going into battle; and, in short, in every
business of importance, whether civil or military. Nor would they ever
set forth on any warlike expedition, until they had satisfied their
soldiers that the gods had promised them victory.
Among other means of declaring the auguries, they had in their armies a
class of soothsayers, named by them _pullarii_, whom, when they desired
to give battle, they would ask to take the auspices, which they did by
observing the behaviour of fowls. If the fowls pecked, the engagement
was begun with a favourable omen. If they refused, battle was declined.
Nevertheless, when it was plain on the face of it that a certain course
had to be taken, they would take it at all hazards, even though the
auspices were adverse; contriving, however, to manage matters so
adroitly as not to appear to throw any slight on religion; as was done
by the consul Papirius in the great battle he fought with the Samnites
wherein that nation was finally broken and overthrown. For Papirius
being encamped over against the Samnites, and perceiving that if he
fought, victory was certain, and consequently being eager to engage,
desired the omens to be taken. The fowls refused to peck; but the chief
soothsayer observing the eagerness of the soldiers to fight and the
confidence felt both by them and by their captain, not to deprive the
army of such an opportunity of glory, reported to the consul that the
auspices were favourable. Whereupon Papirius began to array his army
for battle. But some among the soothsayers having divulged to certain
of the soldiers that the fowls had not pecked, this was told to Spurius
Papirius, the nephew of the consul, who reporting it to his uncle, the
latter straightway bade him mind his own business, for that so far as
he himself and the army were concerned, the auspices were fair; and if
the soothsayer had lied, the consequences were on his head. And that
the event might accord with the prognostics, he commanded his officers
to place the soothsayers in front of the battle. It so chanced that as
they advanced against the enemy, the chief soothsayer was killed by a
spear thrown by a Roman soldier; which, the consul hearing of, said,
“_All goes well, and as the Gods would have it, for by the death of
this liar the army is purged of blame and absolved from whatever
displeasure these may have conceived against it_.” And contriving, in
this way to make his designs tally with the auspices, he joined battle,
without the army knowing that the ordinances of religion had in any
degree been disregarded.
But an opposite course was taken by Appius Pulcher, in Sicily, in the
first Carthaginian war. For desiring to join battle, he bade the
soothsayers take the auspices, and on their announcing that the fowls
refused to feed, he answered, “_Let us see, then, whether they will
drink,_” and, so saying, caused them to be thrown into the sea. After
which he fought and was defeated. For this he was condemned at Rome,
while Papirius was honoured; not so much because the one had gained
while the other had lost a battle, as because in their treatment of the
auspices the one had behaved discreetly, the other with rashness. And,
in truth, the sole object of this system of taking the auspices was to
insure the army joining battle with that confidence of success which
constantly leads to victory; a device followed not by the Romans only,
but by foreign nations as well; of which I shall give an example in the
following Chapter.