Book 42
30
On the day they entered office the consuls, in pursuance of the senate's resolution, visited all the shrines in which there was usually a lectisternium for the greater part of the year, offered sacrifices of the larger victims and learned from the omens given by them that their prayers were accepted by the gods. They then reported to the senate that the prayers and sacrifices had been duly offered. The augurs made the announcement that if any fresh enterprise was undertaken it ought to be begun without delay; all the portents pointed to victory, triumph and the widening of frontiers. Good fortune and success being thus promised to Rome, the senate ordered the consuls to summon a meeting of the Assembly in their centuries and submit the following order of the day: "Whereas Perseus, the son of Philip and King of Macedonia, has broken the treaty made with his father and renewed with him, by bearing arms against the allies of Rome, devastating fields and occupying their cities; and whereas he has formed plans for levying war on the people of Rome, and has to this end got together arms, soldiers and ships; be it resolved that war be made upon him unless he gives satisfaction for all these things." This resolution was put to the Assembly.
