dismissed or retained, to be addressed by the consuls. Such a tacit
reproof appears most consistent with the dignity of the Roman people.
While the consuls were getting in readiness all the other things which
were necessary for the war, it was resolved that the vicesimary gold,
which was preserved in the most sacred part of the treasury as a
resource in cases of extreme exigencies should be drawn out. There
were drawn out as many as four thousand pounds of gold, from which
five hundred pounds each were given to the consuls, to Marcus
Marcellus and Publius Sulpicius, proconsuls, and Lucius Veturius,
the praetor, who had by lot obtained Gaul as his province; and in
addition, one hundred pounds of gold were given to the consul Fabius,
as an extraordinary grant to be carried into the citadel of Tarentum.
The rest they employed in contracts, for ready money, for clothing
for the army which was carrying on the war in Spain, to their own and
their general glory.

11. It was resolved also, that the prodigies should be expiated before
the consuls set out from the city. In the Alban mount, the statue of
Jupiter and a tree near the temple were struck by lightning; at Ostia,
a grove; at Capua, a wall and the temple of Fortune; at Sinuessa, a
wall and a gate. Some also asserted, that water at Alba had flowed
tinged with blood. That at Rome, within the cell of Fors Fortuna, an
image, which was in the crown of the goddess, had fallen spontaneously
from her head into her hands. At Privernum, it was satisfactorily
established that an ox spoke, and that a vulture flew down into
a shop, while the forum was crowded. And that a child was born at
Sinuessa, of ambiguous sex, between a male and female, such as are
commonly called Androgynes, a term derived from the Greek language,
which is better adapted, as for most other purposes, so for the
composition of words; also that it rained milk, and that a boy was