first sacrifice turned out unpropitious, they tried another, and continued the process until they found what they wanted. They starved the sacred chickens to make sure of their feeding, and then gave them porridge to eat, so that some of the food should drop from their beaks, which was esteemed a particularly happy augury. An omen again was held to be significant, not as it occurred in nature, but as it caught the attention of the person concerned, and this doctrine admitted of many developments. If anything happened which it was inconvenient for the magistrate to see, he might refuse to notice it; much as Nelson put the telescope to his blind eye to look for the signal ordering him to retreat. The Marcellus of the Second Punic War, an excellent augur, as Cicero tells us,[1] always went in a closed litter when he meant to give battle, and so escaped the chance of seeing anything unlucky. Again, if an attendant falsely reported an omen to the magistrate, the magistrate might accept it as reported. The attendant indeed took the curse of the falsehood on his own head[2]; but it was not difficult to find persons willing thus to purchase to themselves damnation in the way of their calling.
Now the Roman magistrate, entering on any official business, was accustomed to consecrate that business by the previous consultation of the auspices. The omen which was most desired was a flash of lightning on the left hand, and this was at once ob-
