If the person who reported the evil omen was not an augur but a magistrate, the president was equally bound to heed it and to dismiss the assembly;[681] and the force of the obnuntiatio was not in any way affected by the relative official rank of the two persons concerned. When accordingly a higher magistrate had set a day for an assembly, he forbade all inferior magistrates not only to take the auspicia impetrativa,[682] but also to watch the sky—de caelo servare—for any purpose on that day, for fear that some omen unfavorable to the comitia might be seen.[683] A consul for instance could prevent a quaestor from scanning the heavens on any particular day; and the senate on the rare occasions when it felt itself sufficiently strong, suspended for a particular act of the assembly the right of all magistrates to receive and to announce unfavorable omens.[684] In the absence of senatorial interference it remained possible for any higher magistrate to scan the heavens—de caelo servare—on an assembly day appointed by another, and to vitiate the comitia by reporting an unfavorable omen. We find accordingly a consul obnuntiating against a colleague[685] and against the pontifex maximus,[686] a praetor against a tribune of the plebs,[687] and a tribune against a consul[688] or a censor,[689] as well as against a colleague.[690] So certain was it that a magistrate who looked for a bad omen would see one that the expression “to watch the sky” became equivalent to discovering an unpropitious sign. The rule was therefore formulated that “religion forbade the transaction of any business with the people when it was known that the sky was watched.”[691] If accordingly a magistrate announced that he intended to scan the heavens on the day appointed for an assembly, this declaration was in itself sufficient in the ordinary course of events to compel a postponement. In the year 57 Milo, a tribune of the plebs, pushed the custom to extremes by declaring his intention to observe the sky on all comitial days.[692] Strictly the observation had to be made and reported before the assembly met. “Can any one divine beforehand,” Cicero[693] asks, “what defect there will be in the auspices, except the man who has already determined to watch the heavens? This in the first place the law forbids to be done in the time of an assembly; and if any one has been observing the sky, he is bound to give notice of it, not after the comitia are assembled, but before they meet.” In the case belonging to the year 57 referred to above, Milo, the tribune, came into the Campus Martius before midnight in order to anticipate the arrival of the consul Metellus, who wished to hold the elections. The assembly ordinarily met at sunrise, and could not convene after midday. Milo accordingly remained on that day till noon, without seeing the consul. Then Metellus demanded that for the future the obnuntiatio should be served on him in the Forum; it was unnecessary,