The History of Rome, Books 27 to 36 - Livy

Before the consuls set out, the nine days' sacred rite was performed, as a shower of stones had fallen from the sky at Veii. After the mention of one prodigy, others also were reported, as usual. At Minturnae, that the temple of Jupiter and the grove of Marica, and at Atella also that a wall and gate, had been struck by lightning. The people of Minturnae added what was more alarming, that a stream of blood had flowed at their gate. At Capua, a wolf, which had entered at the gate by night, had torn a watchman. These prodigies were expiated with victims of the larger kind, and a supplication for one day was made, according to a decree of the pontiffs. The nine days' sacred rite was then performed again, because a shower of stones had been seen to fall in the armilustrum. After the people's minds had been freed from superstitious fears, they were again disturbed by intelligence that an infant had been born at Frusino as large as a child of four years old, and not so much an object of wonder from its size, as that it was born without any certain mark of distinction whether it was male or female, which was the case two years before at Sinuessa. Aruspices, called in from Etruria, declared this to be indeed a foul and ill-omened prodigy, which ought to be removed out of the Roman territory, and, being kept far from coming in contact with the earth, to be plunged into the deep. They shut it up alive in a chest, and carrying it away, threw it into the sea. The pontiffs also decreed, that thrice nine virgins should go through the city singing a hymn. While in the temple of Jupiter Stator they were learning this hymn, which was composed by the poet Livius, the temple of Juno Regina, on the Aventine, was struck by lightning; and the aruspices, on being consulted, having replied that that prodigy appertained to the matrons, and that the goddess must be appeased by a present, such of the matrons as dwelt within the city and within the tenth milestone from it, were summoned to the Capitol by an edict of the curule aediles; when they themselves chose twenty-five out of their own body, to whom they paid a contribution out of their dowries, from which a golden basin was made, as a present, and carried to the Aventine, where a sacrifice was performed by the matrons in a pure and chaste manner. Immediately a day was given out by the decemviri for another sacrifice to the same goddess, which was performed in the following order: two white heifers were led from the temple of Apollo into the city through the Carmental gate; after these, two cypress images of Juno Regina were carried; after these went seven and twenty virgins, arrayed in white vestments, and singing in honour of Juno Regina a hymn, which to the uncultivated minds of that time might appear to have merit, but if repeated now would seem inelegant and uncouth. The train of virgins was followed by the decemvirs, crowned with laurel, and in purple-bordered robes. From the gate they proceeded by the Jugarian street into the forum: in the forum the procession stopped, and the virgins, linked together by a cord passed through their hands, moved on, beating time with their feet to the music of their voices. They then proceeded by the Tuscan street and the Velabrum, through the cattle market, up the Publician hill, and to the temple of Juno Regina; where two victims were immolated by the decemviri, and the cypress images carried into the temple.

After the deities were appeased in due form, the consuls made the levy with greater diligence and strictness than any one remembered it to have been made in former years; for the war was now doubly formidable, in consequence of the advance of a new enemy into Italy, while the number of the youth from which they could enlist soldiers was diminished. They therefore resolved to compel the settlers upon the sea-coast, who were said to possess an exemption from service solemnly granted, to furnish soldiers; and on their refusing to do so, appointed that they should severally lay before the senate, on a certain day, the grounds on which they claimed exemption. On the appointed day the following people came to the senate: the people of Ostia, Alsia, Antium, Anxur, Minturnae, and Sinuessa, and, on the upper sea, Sena. After each people had stated their grounds of exemption, the exemption of none was allowed, as the enemy was in Italy, except those of Antium and Ostia, and of these colonies the young men were bound by oath that they would not lodge without the walls of their colony, while the enemy was in Italy, more than thirty days. Although it was the opinion of all that the consuls ought to proceed to the war as soon as possible, (for Hasdrubal ought to be met on his descent from the Alps, lest he might seduce the Cisalpine Gauls and Etruria, which was anxiously looking forward to a revolution; while it was necessary to occupy Hannibal with a war in his own quarters, lest he should emerge from Bruttium, and advance to meet his brother;) yet Livius delayed, not having sufficient confidence in the armies destined for his provinces. He said his colleague had his option to take which he pleased out of two excellent consular armies, and a third which Quintus Claudius commanded at Tarentum. He also made mention of recalling the volunteer slaves to their standards. The senate gave the consuls unrestricted liberty of filling up their numbers from what source they pleased, of selecting out of all the armies such as they liked, and of exchanging and removing from one province to another, as they thought conducive to the good of the state. In all these affairs the consuls acted with the most perfect harmony. The volunteer slaves were enlisted into the nineteenth and twentieth legions. Some authors state that very efficient auxiliaries were sent out of Spain also to Marcus Livius by Publius Scipio; namely, eight thousand Spaniards and Gauls, two thousand legionary soldiers, a thousand horse of Numidians and Spaniards together. That Marcus Lucretius brought these forces in ships, and that Caius Mamilius sent as many as four thousand bowmen and slingers out of Sicily.

A letter which was brought out of Gaul from Lucius Porcius, the praetor, increased the alarm at Rome. It stated that Hasdrubal had quitted his winter quarters, and was now crossing the Alps; that eight thousand Ligurians had been enlisted and armed, which would join him when he had crossed over into Italy, unless some general were sent into Liguria to engage them with a war. That he would himself advance as far as he thought it safe with his small forces. This letter obliged the consuls hastily to conclude the levy, and go earlier than they had determined into their provinces, with the intention that each should keep his enemy in his own province, and not allow them to form a junction or concentrate their forces. This object was much aided by an opinion possessed by Hannibal; for although he felt assured that his brother would cross over into Italy that summer, yet when he recollected what difficulties he had himself experienced through a period of five months, first in crossing the Rhone, then the Alps, contending against men, and the nature of the ground, he was far from expecting that his transit would be so easy and expeditious, and this was the cause of his moving more slowly from his winter quarters. But all things were done by Hasdrubal with less delay and trouble than he himself or any others expected. For the Arverni, and after them the other Gallic and Alpine nations in succession, not only gave him a friendly reception, but followed him to the war; and not only had roads been formed during the passage of his brother in most of the countries through which he marched, and which were before impassable, but also as the Alps had been passable for a period of twelve years, he marched through tribes of less ferocious dispositions. For before that time, being never visited by foreigners, nor accustomed, themselves, to see a stranger in their country, they were unsociable to the whole human race. And at first, not knowing whither the Carthaginian was going, they had imagined that their own rocks and forts, and the plunder of their cattle and people, were his objects; but afterwards, the report of the Punic war with which Italy was being desolated for now ten years, had convinced them that the Alps were only a passage, and that two very powerful nations, separated from each other by a vast tract of sea and land, were contending for empire and power. These were the causes which opened the Alps to Hasdrubal. But the advantage which he gained by the celerity of his march he lost by his delay at Placentia, while he carried on a fruitless siege, rather than an assault. He had supposed that it would be easy to take by storm a town situated on a plain; and the celebrity of the colony induced him to believe that by destroying it he should strike great terror into the rest. This siege not only impeded his own progress, but had the effect of restraining Hannibal, who was just on the point of quitting his winter quarters, after hearing of his passage, which was so much quicker than he expected; for he not only revolved in his mind how tedious was the siege of towns, but also how ineffectual was his attempt upon that same colony, when returning victorious from the Trebia.