Praedictiones vero et praesensiones rerum futurarum quid aliud declarant nisi hominibus ea ostendi, monstrari, portendi, praedici? Ex quo illa ostenta, monstra, portenta, prodigia dicuntur. Quod si ea ficta credimus licentia fabularum, Mopsum, Tiresiam, {5} Amphiaraum, Calchantem, Helenum, quos tamen augures ne ipsae quidem fabulae adscivissent, si res omnino repudiaret, ne domesticis quidem exemplis docti numen deorum conprobabimus? Nihil nos P. Claudi bello Punico primo temeritas movebit, qui {10} etiam per iocum deos irridens, cum cavea literati pulli non pascerentur, mergi eos in aquam iussit, ut biberent, quoniam esse nollent? Qui risus, classe devicta, multas ipsi lacrimas, magnam populo Romano cladem attulit. Quid? Collega eius Iunius {15} eodem bello nonne tempestate classem amisit, cum auspiciis non paruisset? Itaque Claudius a populo condemnatus est, Iunius necem sibi ipse conscivit. CICERO, _De Nat. Deorum_, II. 3. 7-8. [Linenotes: 3. +ostenta ... dicuntur+ = _are called in Latin_ ‘_ostenta_,’ ‘_monstra_,’ etc. --Walford. 4. +prodigium+ for _prodicium_ = _pro_ + √_dic-_ δεικ- = _point out_. 5. +Mopsum+, etc. = _all those stories about Mopsus_, _etc._, in apposition to +ea+: poetical construction. +Mopsum+, the prophet who accompanied the Argonauts. +Tiresiam+, the blind prophet of Thebes. 6. +Amphiaraum+, the seer of Argos. One of the Seven against Thebes. +Helenus+, son of Priam. A seer of the _Iliad_ and the _Aeneid_. 10. +P. Claudi temeritas.+ P. Cl. Pulcher (son of Appius Claudius, the blind Censor) defeated by Adherbal off Drepana (N.W. corner of Sicily, between Eryx and Lilybaeum). 15. +Iunius.+ L. J. Pullus, consul 249 B.C. His fleet was destroyed by a storm off Pachynus (C. Passaro) the same year.] +Parallel Passage.+ Florus ii. 2 says that ‘Claudius was overthrown, not by the enemy, but by the gods themselves, whose auspices he had despised.’ +The Defeat off Drepana.+ ‘The reason of the defeat lay in the superiority of the Carthaginian admiral and seamen, and the inexperience of Claudius and of his crews, consisting mainly of landsmen who knew nothing of the sea. This disaster and the destruction of the fleet of Junius crowned the series of misfortunes which befell the Romans in the year 249 B.C., the most dismal time of the whole war.’ --Ihne. C7 FIRST PUNIC WAR, 264-241 B.C. _Victory of Lutatius off the Aegates Insulae, 241 B.C._ _Peace with Carthage._ A. Interim Carthaginienses classe apud insulas Aegates a C. Lutatio, consule Romanorum, superati statuerunt belli facere finem, eamque rem arbitrio permiserunt Hamilcaris. Ille, etsi flagrabat bellandi cupiditate, tamen paci serviendum putavit, quod {5} patriam, exhaustam sumptibus, diutius calamitates belli ferre non posse intellegebat, sed ita, ut statim mente agitaret, si paulum modo res essent refectae, bellum renovare Romanosque armis persequi, donicum aut virtute vicissent aut victi manus dedissent. {10}