1Besides, portents reported by various sources caused terror: in the forecourt of the Capitol the reins of the chariot on which Victory stood had dropped from her hands; a form larger than human had burst out of the shrine of Juno; a statue of the deified Julius on the island in the Tiber had turned from west to east on a calm and windless day; an ox had spoken in Etruria; animals had given birth to strange offspring; and many other things observed in rude ages even in peacetime, which now are heard of only in time of fear. 1But the chief terror, bringing both present destruction and fear for the future, came from a sudden flood of the Tiber, which, swelling enormously, broke down the Sublician bridge, and, driven back by the wreckage of the obstructing mass, filled not only the low-lying and level parts of the city but those safe from such disasters: many were swept away in the streets, still more were caught in shops and in their beds.
1Famine fell on the common people through lack of earnings and shortage of food. 1The foundations of apartment blocks were weakened by the standing water, and then collapsed when the river went down. 1And as soon as men's minds were free of danger, the very fact that the Campus Martius and the Flaminian Way, Otho's route to the war, had been blocked just as he was preparing his expedition, was turned from chance or natural causes into a portent and omen of impending disasters.