Note 225 — Chapter XX · THE ROMAN RELIGION: THE PRIESTHOODS, THE VESTAL VIRGINS

A general in the field had to “take the auspices” to get good omens for his army, but of course he could not always have an augur present. Once in the first Punic War, Publius Claudius, a consul about to engage in a naval battle, was disgusted to be told, “The chickens will not eat.” “Very well then,” he retorted, “let them drink!” and flung them into the sea. To his own ruin and to the vindication of the official religion he was thereupon completely defeated by the Carthaginians!