Reader

Bad omens from Jupiter were observed after the capture of Veii. The soothsayers said that some religious duty had

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been neglected, and Camillus remembered that it had been

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forgotten to appropriate a tenth of the plunder to the god that had given the oracle concerning the lake. Accordingly the Senate decreed that those who had taken anything from Veii should make an estimate, each one for himself, and bring in a tenth of it under oath. Their religious feeling was such that they did not hesitate to add to the votive offering a tenth of the produce of the land that had already been sold, as well as of the spoils. With the money thus obtained they sent to the temple of Delphi a golden cup which stood on a pedestal of brass in the treasury of Rome and Massiliat

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until Onomarchus melted the cup during the Phocaean war. The pedestal is still standing.

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Camillus was afterwards accused before the people of

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being himself the author of those bad omens and portents. The people, who had been for some time set against him, fined him heavily, having no pity for him although he had recently lost a son. His friends contributed the money in order that the person of Camillus might not be disgraced. In deep grief he went into exile in the city of Ardea, praying the prayer of Achilles that the time might come when the Romans would long for Camillus. And in fact this came

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to pass very soon, for when the Gauls captured the city, the

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people fled for succor to Camillus and again chose him Dictator, as has been told in my Gallic history.

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