(XXVIII.) If our ancestors vowed temples to “Home-bringing Fortune” in honour of the return of their generals, never would this goddess more worthily claim for her services a noble temple than when their proper majesty is restored alike to the consulship and to Rome. The annual election in the Campus Martius is not the accustomed farce, nor see we a consul of other race than his electors nor a foreigner claiming pretended rights.[22] The palace now our own wears a native dress, and while Quirinus associates the people with the armies of Italy, Mars gives back to his own Field its imperial suffrage. What will the year be like for mortals that is ushered in by omens on the Palatine Hill so favourable to true sons of Rome and inaugurated on the banks of the Tiber? ’Tis true that years marked by thy name have ever been rich in omens of success and that victory has always accompanied thy consulship, yet by its wondrous dawn is this year set before all years, blessed by the twofold deity of Rome and of her Emperor. For as Babylonian lore gives assurance that propitious stars do then promise the best fortune to mortals when they hold the summit of the sky and their course is at the zenith, not dimming their [22] Claudian means that this year there is a real election (_cf._ Lucan, v. 392 for a similar passage) and that the new consul is a true Roman. * * * * * Page 76 cardine nec radios humili statione recondunt: haud aliter Latiae sublimis Signifer aulae, imperii sidus propria cum sede locavit, auget spes Italas; et certius omina surgunt victrici concepta solo. Cum pulcher Apollo 25 lustrat Hyperboreas Delphis cessantibus aras, nil tum Castaliae rivis communibus undae dissimiles, vili nec discrepat arbore laurus, antraque maesta silent inconsultique recessus. at si Phoebus adest et frenis grypha iugalem 30 Riphaeo tripodas repetens detorsit ab axe, tunc silvae, tunc antra loqui, tunc vivere fontes, tunc sacer horror aquis adytisque effunditur Echo clarior et doctae spirant praesagia rupes. ecce Palatino crevit reverentia monti 35 exultatque habitante deo potioraque Delphis supplicibus late populis oracula pandit atque suas ad signa iubet revirescere laurus. Non alium certe decuit rectoribus orbis esse larem, nulloque magis se colle potestas 40 aestimat et summi sentit fastigia iuris; attollens apicem subiectis regia rostris tot circum delubra videt tantisque deorum cingitur excubiis! iuvat infra tecta Tonantis cernere Tarpeia pendentes rupe Gigantas 45 caelatasque fores mediisque volantia signa nubibus et densum stipantibus aethera templis aeraque vestitis numerosa puppe columnis