36.
What is the cause, that they name one gate of the citie Fenestra, which is as much to say, as window; neere unto which adjoineth the bed-chamber of Fortune?
Is it for that king Servius a most fortunate prince, was thought & named to lie with Fortune, who was woont to come unto him by the window? or is this but a devised tale? But in trueth, after that king Tarquinius Priscus was deceased, his wife Tanaquillis being a wise ladie, and endued with a roiall mind, putting forth her head, and bending forward her bodie out of her chamber window, made a speech unto the people, perswading them to elect Servius for their king. And this is the reason that afterwards the place reteined this name, Fenestra.
37.
What is the reason, that of all those things which be dedicated and consecrated to the gods, the custome is at Rome, that onely the spoiles of enemies conquered in the warres, are neglected and suffered to run to decay in processe of time: neither is there any reverence done unto them, nor repaired be they at any time, when they wax olde?
Whether is it, because they (supposing their glory to fade and passe away together with these first spoiles) seeke evermore new meanes to winne some fresh marks and monuments of their vertue, and to leave them same behinde them.
Or rather, for that seeing time doth waste and consume these signs and tokens of the enmity which they had with their enemies, it were an odious thing for them, and very invidious, if they should refresh and renew the remembrance thereof: for even those among the Greeks, who first erected their trophes or pillars of brasse and stone, were not commended for so doing.
38.
What is the reason that Quintus Metellus the high priest, and reputed besides a wise man and a politike, forbad to observe auspices, or to take presages by flight of birds, after the moneth Sextilis, now called August.
Is it for that, as we are woont to attend upon such observations about noone or in the beginning of the day, at the entrance also and toward the middle of the moneth: but we take heed and beware of the daies declination, as inauspicate and unmeet for such purposes; even so Metellus supposed, that the time after eight moneths was (as it were) the evening of the yeere, and the latter end of it, declining now and wearing toward an end.