wreck, saved their
lives and nothing else, they might not, in addition to this misfortune,
be compelled to put together the ruins of a city which had been utterly
destroyed, while another was standing ready to receive them.

XXXII. Under these circumstances, Camillus determined to debate the
question publicly. He himself made a long appeal on behalf of his native
place, and many other speeches were delivered. Finally he rose, and bade
Lucius Lucretius, whose privilege it was, to vote first, and then after
him the rest in order. Silence was enforced, and Lucretius was just on
the point of voting when a centurion in command of a detachment of the
guard of the day marched by, and in a loud voice called to the
standard-bearer: "Pitch the standard here: here it is best for us to
stay." When these words were heard so opportunely in the midst of their
deliberations about the future, Lucretius reverently said that he
accepted the omen, and gave his vote in accordance with it, and his
example was followed by all the rest. The people now showed a strange
revulsion of feeling, for they encouraged one another to begin the work
of rebuilding, not on any regular plan, but just as each man happened to
find a convenient place for his work. Consequently they quickly rebuilt
the city, for within a year it is said that both the city walls and the
private houses were completed; but it was full of intricate, narrow
lanes and inconveniently placed houses.

The priests, who had been ordered by Camillus to mark out the boundaries
where the temples had stood among the general wreck, when in their
circuit of the Palatine Hill they came upon the chapel of Mars, found
it, like every other building, destroyed and levelled to the ground by
the Gauls, but while thoroughly examining the place they found the
augur's staff of Romulus hidden under a deep heap of ashes. This staff
is curved at one end, and is called _lituus_. They use it to divide the
heavens into squares when taking the auspices, just as Romulus himself
did, as he was deeply skilled in divination. When he vanished from among
mankind, the priests kept his staff just like any other sacred object.
That at such a time, when all the other holy things perished, this
should have been preserved, gave them good hopes of Rome, which that
omen seemed to presage would be eternal.

XXXIII. Before they had finished rebuilding the city they became
involved in a war, for the Aequians, Volscians, and L