asunder this whetstone with a razor.  Take it, then, and perform what thy birds portend can be done.”  Thereupon they say that he immediately cut the whetstone in two.  A statue of Attus, with his head veiled, was erected in the comitium, close to the steps on the left of the senate-house, on the spot where the event occurred.  They say also that the whetstone was deposited in the same place that it might remain as a record of that miracle to posterity.  Without doubt so much honour accrued to auguries and the college of augurs, that nothing was subsequently undertaken either in peace or war without taking the auspices, and assemblies of the people, the summoning of armies, and the most important affairs of state were put off, whenever the birds did not prove propitious.  Nor did Tarquin then make any other alteration in the centuries of horse, except that he doubled the number of men in each of these divisions, so that the three centuries consisted of one thousand eight hundred knights; only, those that were added were called “the younger,” but by the same names as the earlier, which, because they have been doubled, they now call the six centuries.

This part of his forces being augmented, a second engagement took place with the Sabines.  But, besides that the strength of the Roman army had been thus augmented, a stratagem also was secretly resorted to, persons being sent to throw into the river a great quantity of timber that lay on the banks of the Anio, after it had been first set on fire; and the wood, being further kindled by the help of the wind, and the greater part of it, that was placed on rafts, being driven against and sticking in the piles, fired the bridge.  This accident also struck terror into the Sabines during the battle, and, after they were routed, also impeded their flight.  Many, after they had escaped the enemy, perished in the river:  their arms floating down the Tiber to the city, and being recognised, made the victory known almost before any announcement of it could be made.  In that action the chief credit rested with the cavalry:  they say that, being posted on the two wings, when the centre of their own infantry was now being driven back, they charged so briskly in flank, that they not only checked the Sabine legions who pressed hard on those who were retreating, but suddenly put them to flight.  The Sabines made for the mountains in disordered flight, but only a few reached them; for, as has been said before, most of them were driven by the cavalry into the river.  Tarquin, thinking it advisable to press the enemy hard while in a state of panic, having sent the booty and the prisoners to Rome, and piled in a large heap and burned the enemy’s spoils, vowed as an offering to Vulcan, proceeded to lead his army onward into the Sabine territory.  And though the operation had been unsuccessfully carried out, and they could not hope for better success; yet, because the state of affairs did not allow time for deliberation, the Sabines came out to meet him with