decree that no one,--either an ex-praetor or an ex-consul,--should assume foreign office until five years should have elapsed: this they did to see if people when it was no longer in any one's power to be immediately elected would cease their craze for office. For no moderation was being shown and there was no purity in their methods, but they vied with one another in expending great sums and fighting more than ever, so that once the consul Calvinus was wounded. Hence no consul nor praetor nor prefect of the city had any successor, but at the beginning of the year the Romans were absolutely without a government in these branches. [B.C. 52 (_a.u._ 702)] [-47-] Nothing good resulted from this, and among other things the market recurring every ninth day was held on the very first of January. This seemed to the Romans to have taken place not by accident, and being considered in the light of a portent it caused trepidation. The same feeling was increased when an owl was both seen and caught in the city, a statue exuded perspiration for three days, a flash darted from the south to the east, and many thunderbolts, many clods, stones, tiles and blood descended through the air. It seems to me that that decree passed the previous year, near the close, with regard to Serapis and Isis, was a portent equal to any: the senate decided to tear down their temples, which some private individuals had built. For they did not reverence these gods any long time and even when it became the fashion to render public devotion to them, they settled them outside the pomerium.