a renowned augur in the time of Taiquinius Priscus. In his boyhood he showed his skill in
the art before he had received any instruction; but after he had been taught by the Etruscans,
he excelled all the augurs of his time. The most extraordinary proof of his knowledge of
augury is related in the legend of Tarquinius Priscus. This king proposed to double the number
of the equestrian centuries, and to name the three new ones after himself and two of his
friends, but was opposed by Navius, because Romulus had originally arranged the equites under
the sanction of the auspices, and consequently no alteration could be made in them without the
same sanction. The tale then goes on to say that the king thereupon commanded him to divine
whether what he was thinking of in his mind could be done, and that when Navius, after
consulting the heavens, declared that it could, the king held out a whetstone and a razor to
cut it with. He immediately cut it. A statue of Attus was placed in the comitium, on the steps
of the senate-house, the place where the miracle had been wrought, and beside the statue the
whetstone was preserved. There was a current report, according to Dionysius, that Attus fell a
victim to the anger of Tarquin. Attus Navius seems to be the best orthography, making Attus an
old praenomen, though we frequently find the name written Attius. (de Vir.
Ill. 6; de Div. 1.17, de
Nat. Deor. 2.3, 3.6, de Rep. 2.20; Niebuhr, Hist of
Rome, vol. 1 pp. 360, 361.)