1At Rome or around the city many prodigies occurred that winter, or, as usually happens once men's minds have been stirred to religious fear, many were reported and rashly believed; among them, that a freeborn infant of six months had shouted 'Triumph!' in the vegetable market; that in the cattle market an ox had of its own accord climbed to the third storey and then, frightened by the uproar of the residents, had thrown itself down; that the likeness of ships had shone in the sky; that the temple of Hope, which is in the vegetable market, had been struck by lightning; that at Lanuvium a spear had moved of itself and a raven had flown down into the temple of Juno and settled on the very couch of the goddess; that in the territory of Amiternum in many places figures like men in white clothing had been seen at a distance, but had met with no one; that in Picenum it had rained stones; that at Caere the oracular lots had shrunk; and that in Gaul a wolf had snatched a sentry's sword from its sheath and carried it off.
6For the other prodigies the decemvirs were ordered to consult the Books; 6but because it had rained stones in Picenum, a nine-day festival was proclaimed, and thereafter almost the whole citizen body was busy expiating the other portents. 7First of all the city was purified, and full-grown victims were sacrificed to the gods prescribed, and a gift of forty pounds of gold was carried to Juno at Lanuvium, and the matrons dedicated a bronze statue to Juno on the Aventine, and a lectisternium was ordered at Caere, where the lots had shrunk, and a supplication to Fortune on Algidus; 9at Rome too a lectisternium was proclaimed to Youth and a supplication at the temple of Hercules by name, and then for the whole people at all the couches of the gods, and five full-grown victims were sacrificed to the Genius, and Gaius Atilius Serranus the praetor was ordered to undertake vows, should the commonwealth remain in the same condition for ten years.
11These expiations and vows, made in accordance with the Sibylline Books, had in great part relieved men's minds of religious fear.