Titus Livius (Livy), The History of Rome, Book 28
Frank Gardener Moore, Professor Emeritus in Columbia University, Ed.

11. In the state perturbed by so critical a moment in the war, since men attributed to the gods the causes of everything fortunate and unfortunate, [p. 47]many portents were reported: that at Tarracina the¹ temple of Jupiter, at Satricum that of Mater Matuta, had been struck by lightning. [2] The people of Satricum were no less alarmed by two serpents that glided into the temple of Jupiter, actually through the doorway. From Antium it was reported that ears of grain appeared to the reapers to be blood-stained.² [3] At Caere a pig had been born with two heads and a lamb that was at the same time male and female; and at Alba they said that two suns were seen, and at Fregellae that light had appeared in the night;³ [4] and an ox was said to have spoken in the country about Rome, and the altar of Neptune in the Flaminian Circus to have been dripping with sweat; [5] and the temples of Ceres and Salus and Quirinus to have been struck by lightning. The consuls were bidden to expiate the prodigies with full-grown victims and to have a single day of prayer observed. [6] Both orders were carried out in accordance with the decree of the senate. More terrifying to men than all the prodigies, whether reported from outside or seen in the city, was the extinction of the fire in the Temple of Vesta; and the Vestal who had been on duty that night was scourged by order of Publius Licinius, the pontifex.⁴ [7] Although the thing had happened without a portent from the gods but by a mortal's negligence, it was nevertheless decided that it should be expiated by full-grown victims and that a day of prayer at the Temple of Vesta should be observed.

[8] Before the consuls should leave for the field they were reminded by the senate that they should take care to restore the common people to their farms. By the favour of the gods the war had been removed, they said, from the city of Rome and from Latium, [p. 49]and it was possible to live on the farms without fear;⁵ it was illogical to give more attention to the cultivation of Sicily than of Italy. [9] But it was no easy matter for the people, since free farmers had been wiped out by the war, and there was a scarcity of slaves, while cattle had been stolen and farm-houses demolished or burned. [10] A large proportion of the rustics, however, were constrained by the authority of the consuls to move back to their farms. The occasion for bringing up the matter had been the complaints of representatives of Placentia and Cremona that their territory was being raided and laid waste by neighbouring Gauls, and that a large part of their colonists had scattered, and that now they had sparsely peopled cities and land desolated and deserted. [11] Mamilius, the praetor, was ordered to protect the colonies from the enemy. The consuls in accordance with a decree of the senate proclaimed that all citizens of Cremona and Placentia should return to their colonies before a fixed date. [12] Then at the beginning of spring they also set out for the field.

Quintus Caecilius, the consul, received his army from Gaius Nero; Lucius Veturius took his from Quintus Claudius, the propraetor, and recruited it with fresh soldiers whom he had himself enrolled. [13] The consuls led their army into the territory of Consentia and ravaged it far and wide. When the column was now laden with booty, they were so harried by Bruttians and Numidian spearmen in a narrow pass that not only the booty but also the troops were in danger. [14] However, there was more commotion than battle; and sending the booty in advance the legions without loss made their way out into arable country. [15] Thence the consuls set out [p. 51]for Lucania. That entire nation returned without a⁶ struggle to its allegiance to the Roman people.