Quaestiones Romanae

Question 89. Why do they call the Quirinalia the Feast of Fools?

Solution. Was it because they set apart that day for those that were unacquainted with their own curiae, as Juba saith? Or was it for them that did not sacrifice with their tribes, as the rest did, in the Fornicalia, by reason of business or long journeys or ignorance, so that it was allowed to them to solemnize that feast upon this day?

Question 90. What is the reason that, when there is a sacrifice to Hercules, they mention no other God and no dog appears within the enclosure, as Varro saith?

Solution. Is the reason of their naming no other God, because they are of opinion that Hercules was but a half God? And, as some say, Evander built an altar to him and brought him a sacrifice, whilst he was yet here among men. And of all creatures he had most enmity to a dog, for this creature always held him hard to it, as (lid Cerberus; and that which most of all prejudiced him was that, when Oeonus, the son of Licymnius, was slain for a dog’s sake by the Hippocoontidae, he was necessitated to take up the cudgels, and lost many of his friends and his brother Iphicles.

Question 91. Why was it unlawful for the patricians to dwell about the Capitol?

Solution. Was it because M. Manlius, whilst he dwelt there, affected arbitrary government; upon whose account the family came under an oath of abjuration that no Manlius should for the future bear the name of Marcus? Or was this an ancient suspicion? For the potent men would never leave calumniating Publicola, a most popular man, nor would the common people leave fearing him till he had plucked down his house, which seemed to hang over the market-place.

Question 92. Why do they put on a garland of oaken leaves on him that saves a citizen in battle?

Solution. Is it because it is easy to find an oak everywhere in the military expeditions? Or is it because a

Question 93. Why do they for the most part use vultures for soothsaying?

Solution. Was this the reason, because twelve vultures appeared to Romulus upon the building of Rome? Or because of all birds this is least frequent and familiar? For it is not easy to meet with young vultures, but they fly to us unexpectedly from some remote parts; therefore the sight of them is portentous. Or haply they learned this from Hercules, if Herodotus speak true that Hercules rejoiced most in the beginning of an enterprise at the sight of a vulture, being of opinion that a vulture was the justest of all birds of prey. For first, he meddles not with any living creature, neither doth he destroy any thing that hath breath in it, as eagles, hawks, and other fowls do that prey by night, but lives only upon dead carcasses; and next, he passeth by all those of his kind, for none ever saw a vulture feeding on a bird, as eagles and hawks do, which for the most part pursue birds like themselves, and slay them, even as Aeschylus hath it,

A bird that preys on birds, how can’t be clean?

And verily this bird is not pernicious to men, for it neither destroys fruits nor plants, nor is hurtful to any tame animal. Moreover if it be (as the Egyptians fabulously pretend) that the whole kind of them is of the female sex, and that they conceive by the reception of the east wind into their bodies, as the trees do by receiving the west wind, it is most probable that very certain and sound prognostics may be made from them; whereas in other birds (there being so many rapines, flights, and pursuits about copulation)