now began to wonder at her obstinacy, and thinking
there might be something more than ordinary
in the business, sent for the augars (soothsayers)
to consult what was to be done. They, when their
divinations were performed, soon acquainted him
what a piece of impiety he had been guilty of, by
refusing a treasure sent to him from heaven, and
commanded him to give whatever she demanded for
the books that remained. The woman received her
money, and delivered the writings; and only, charging
them by all means to keep them sacred, immediately
vanished. Two of the nobility were presently
after chosen to be the keepers of these oracles,
which were laid up with all imaginable care in the
Capitol, in a chest under ground. They could not
be consulted without a special order of the Senate,
which was never granted, unless upon the receiving
of some notable defeat; upon the rising of any
considerable mutiny, or sedition in the State; or
upon some other extraordinary occasion; several of
which we meet with in Livy."

Some of the ancient historians even sought to be
misleading respecting the events not only of their own
times, but of epochs which preceded them. Richardson,
in his "Dissertation on Ancient History and Mythology,"
published in 1778, remarks:

"The information received hitherto has been almost
entirely derived through the medium of the