In the year 478 from the founding of the City, foul and dreadful portents were either seen at Rome or reported there. The temple of Salus was shattered by a stroke of lightning, and part of the wall below the same place was, as they say, struck from heaven.
1 Anno ab urbe condita CCCCLXXVIII obscena et dira prodigia uel uisa Romae uel nuntiata sunt. aedes Salutis ictu fulminis dissoluta, pars muri sub eodem loco de caelo, ut dicunt, tacta est.
Three wolves entered the City before dawn and brought in a half-eaten corpse; and, frightened by the noise of men, they left it in the Forum, scattered limb by limb.
2 lupi tres ante lucem ingressi urbem, semesum cadauer intulerunt sparsumque membratim in foro ipsi strepitu hominum exterriti reliquerunt.
At Formiae the walls were scorched and shattered on every side by many strokes of lightning.
3 apud Formias multis ictibus fulminum moenia undique ambusta et dissoluta sunt.
In the territory of Cales a flame suddenly burst forth from a gaping cleft in the earth, and, seething terribly for three days and three nights, it burnt five iugera of land to ashes, the sap of their fertility drained to the very depths, so that it is reported to have consumed not only the crops but the trees as well, down to their lowest roots.
4 apud agrum Calenum repente flamma scisso hiatu terrae eructata tribus diebus tribusque noctibus terribiliter exaestuans, quinque agri iugera exhausto penitus suco ubertatis in cinerem exterruit, ita ut non fruges solum sed et arbores cum imis stirpibus absumpsisse referatur.
In the year following, the consul Sempronius led an army against the Picentes. And when the two lines had been drawn up and had halted within a spear’s throw of each other, suddenly the earth shook with so horrifying a crash that both armies, terror-struck, were stupefied with amazement at the wonder.
5 Sequenti abhinc anno Sempronius consul aduersum Picentes duxit exercitum. et cum directae intra iactum teli utraque acies constitissent, repente ita cum horrendo fragore terra tremuit, ut stupore miraculi utrumque pauefactum agmen hebesceret.
For a long time the peoples on both sides stood hesitating, astounded, conscious that their undertaking had been prejudged; at last, rushing forward, they joined battle.
6 diu attoniti utrimque populi haesitauere praeiudicata incepti conscientia; tandem procursu concito iniere certamen.
So grim was that war that it may rightly be said that the earth trembled then with a horrible groan because it was about to receive so much human blood. The Romans, very few of whom escaped from that battle, were victorious.
7 triste adeo id bellum fuit, ut merito dicatur tantum humanum sanguinem susceptura etiam cum gemitu horrisono tunc terra tremuisse. Romani pauci admodum eo proelio qui euasere uicerunt.