Not a lip twitches in all that sedate audience as two attendants appear upon the platform setting down a small coop containing a few barnyard fowls. The consul rises and stands beside them; next to him takes station an elderly senator also wearing the prætexta and holding a staff with a peculiarly shaped spiral head, a _lituus_--the badge of office of an _augur_, lawfully entitled to proclaim the will of the gods. In a dead hush the servitors pass a small dish of grain to the consul who carefully scatters the grain within easy reach of the chickens. The latter, carefully starved since yesterday, snap up the grains eagerly. They even devour so fast that the wheat drops from their bills, a most excellent sign. The augur bends forward intently, watching their action, then motions with his staff: “_There is no evil sight nor sound!_” he announces in solemn formula. [Illustration: COOP OF SACRED CHICKENS USED IN DIVINATION.] A mutter of relaxation passes around the Senate. The servitors carry out the chicken coop. The consul shakes his great draperies around him with studied dignity and turns to the waiting assembly. “Affairs divine” have been attended to; “affairs human” can now begin. =290. Presentation of Routine Business: Taking a Formal Vote.=--Even under the Empire it is a glorious thing to be consul, with the twelve lictors, the temporary colleagueship with the Emperor, and the right to preside over the most magnificent council in the world. Varus carries himself with the dignity of a nobleman who has enjoyed a long career in the Senate and now is at the summit of his aspirations. Every tradition of the ancient body has been cherished; and the solemn forms still differ little from those in the great conclave that piloted the overthrow of Carthage. The chief business of the day is the trial of Pedius, but a certain lesser matter demands prior disposition. The consul has received a dispatch from the proprætor of Sicily (a “senatorial” province) asking if he can be empowered to remit the taxes of certain peasants near Agrigentum, whose crops have suffered from the blight. Varus begins with the time-honored formula, “That it may be well and fortunate to the Roman people, the Quirites, we refer this thing to you, _patres conscripti_.” Then in well-chosen words he gives the substance of the governor’s request, and reads certain correspondence explaining the plight of the peasants; having thus finished his _relatio_--the “presentation of the problem”--he ends with another formula, “What is it your pleasure to do concerning this matter?” If the business be contentious, now might begin a vigorous debate; but the governor’s request, based on wise policy, is not worth questioning and almost everybody wants to proceed to the trial. The consul, therefore, after a pause, demands, “Is it your will to grant this thing? Let then all the Conscript Fathers favoring pass to the right!”