2. The spring of this year was remarkable for storms. On the day before the feast of Pales, a tremendous hurricane arose about mid-day, and made havoc in many places, both sacred and common. It threw down the brazen statues in the Capitol; tore away a gate from the temple of Luna, which is on the Aventine, and fastened it to the back parts of the temple of Ceres; overturned other statues in the Circus Maximus, together with the pillars on which they stood; tore off several cupolas from the roofs of temples, and scattered them in an unseemly manner. This storm was converted into a prodigy, and the aruspices ordered it to be attended to. At the same time expiation was made, because it had been reported that a three-footed mule was born at Reate, and that the temple of Apollo, at Formiæ and at Caieta, was struck with lightning. On account of these prodigies, a sacrifice of twenty larger victims was offered, and there was a supplication of one day’s continuance. About the same time information was obtained from a letter of Aulus Terentius, the proprætor, that Publius Sempronius, after being sick for more than a year, had died in the Farther province: on this account the prætors were ordered to set out sooner for Spain. The foreign embassies were then brought before the senate; and first, those of the kings Eumenes and Pharnaces, and of the Rhodians, complaining of the sufferings of the inhabitants of Sinope. There came also, about the same time, the ambassadors of Philip, the Achæans, and Lacedæmonians. Answers were given to these, after Marcius, who had been sent to inspect the affairs of Greece and Macedonia, had first received an audience. To the Asiatic kings and the Rhodians, they answered, that the senate would send ambassadors to examine into those matters.