[B.C. 43 (a u. 711)]

[-17-] In the consulship of Aldus Hirtius (who was now appointed consul in spite of the fact that his father’s name had been posted on the tablets of Sulla), with his colleague Gaius Vibius, a meeting of the senate was held and votes were taken for three successive days, including the first of the month itself.  As a result of the war which was upon them and the portents, very numerous and extremely unfavorable, which took place, they were so excited that they failed to pass over these dies nefasti on which they ought not to deliberate on any matter touching their interests.  Ominous had been the falling of great numbers of thunderbolts, some of which descended on the shrine sacred to Capitoline Jupiter, that stood in the temple of Victory.  Also a great wind arose which snapped and scattered the columns erected about the temple of Saturn and the shrine of Fides, and likewise knocked down and shattered the statue of Minerva the Protectress, which Cicero had set up on the Capitol before his exile.  This portended, of course, the death of Cicero himself.  Another thing that frightened the rest of the population was a great earthquake which occurred, and the fact that a bull which was sacrificed on account of it in the temple of Vesta leaped up after the ceremony.  In addition to these clear indications of danger a flash darted across from the place of the rising sun to the place of its setting and a new star was seen for several days.  Then the light of the sun seemed to be diminished and even extinguished, and at times to appear in three circles, one of which was surmounted by a fiery crown of sheaves.  This, if anything, proved as clear a sign as possible to them.  For three men were in power,—­I mean Caesar and Lepidus and Antony,—­and of them Caesar subsequently secured the victory.  At the same time that these things occurred all sorts of oracles tending to the downfall of the democracy were recited.  Crows, moreover, flew into the temple of the Dioscuri and pecked out the names of the consuls and of Antony and of Dolabella, which were inscribed there somewhere on a tablet.  And by night dogs in large numbers gathered throughout the city and especially near the house of the high priest, Lepidus, and set up howls.  Again, the Po, which had flooded a large portion of the surrounding territory, suddenly receded and left behind on the dry land a vast number of snakes.  Countless fish were cast up from the sea on the shore near the mouth of the Tiber.  Succeeding these terrors a plague spread over nearly the whole of Italy in a malignant form, and in view of this the senate voted that the Curia Hostilia[7] should be rebuilt and the spot where the naval battle had taken place be filled up.  However, the curse did not appear disposed to rest even at this point, especially when during Vibius’s conduct of the initial sacrifices on the first of the month one of his lictors suddenly fell down and died.  Because of these events many