should proceed to the camp to the dictator for the plunder of Veii. [Footnote 162: According to Niebuhr, (vol. ii. p. 233,) this fear put into the mouth of Claudius, is attributable to ignorance or forgetfulness on the part of Livy, of the early usage in the dividing of spoils, which had ceased to be observed in the time of Augustus. According to former Roman usage, half of the conquering army was employed, under the sanction of a solemn oath, to subtract nothing, in collecting the spoil, which was then partly divided by lot, partly sold, and the proceeds, if promised to the soldiers, disbursed to them man by man, if otherwise, it was brought into the treasury. Both schemes mentioned here by Livy, it will be observed, contemplated compensation to the people for the war-tax which they had so long paid; but that of Licinius was more favourable, especially to the poor, as the ordinary citizens would receive equal shares, and the compensation would be direct and immediate.--_Gunne._] 21. The vast multitude who went filled the camp. Then the dictator, going forth after taking the auspices, having issued orders that the soldiers should take arms, says, "Under thy guidance, O Pythian Apollo, and inspired by thy divinity, I proceed to destroy the city of Veii, and I vow to thee the tenth part of the spoil.[163] Thee also, queen Juno, who inhabitest Veii, I beseech, that thou wilt accompany us, when victors, into our city, soon to be thine, where a temple worthy of thy majesty shall receive thee."[164] Having offered up these prayers, there being more than a sufficient number of men, he assaults the city on every quarter, in order that the perception of the danger threatening them from the mine might be diminished. The Veientians, ignorant that they had already been doomed by their own prophets, already by foreign oracles, that the gods had been already invited to a share in their plunder, that some, called out by vows from their city, were looking towards the temple of the enemy and new habitations, and that they were spending that the last day [of their existence], fearing nothing less than that, their walls being undermined, the citadel was now filled with enemies, briskly run to the walls in arms, wondering what could be the reason that, when no one had stirred from the Roman posts for so many days, then, as if struck with sudden fury, they should run heedlessly to the walls. A fabulous narrative is introduced here, that, when the king of the Veientians was offering sacrifice, the voice of the aruspex, declaring that the victory was given to him who should cut up the entrails of that victim, having been heard in the mine, incited the Roman soldiers to burst open the mine, carry off the entrails, and bring them to the dictator. But in matters of such remote antiquity, I should deem it sufficient, if matters bearing a resemblance to truth be admitted as true. Such stories as this, more suited to display on the