7. But why do I
speak of these trifles? What man is there who is ignorant
that in the Capitol of the imperial people is the sepulchre of
Tolus46084608
Vulcentanus? Who is there, I say, who does not know that from
beneath46094609 its foundations
there was rolled a man’s head, buried for no very long time
before, either by itself without the other parts of the
body,—for some relate this,—or with all its
members? Now, if you require this to be made clear by the
testimonies of authors, Sammonicus, Granius, Valerianus,46104610 and Fabius will
declare to you whose son Aulus46114611 was, of what race and nation,
how46124612 he was bereft
of life and light by the slave of his brother, of what crime he was
guilty against his fellow-citizens, that he was denied burial in his
father46134613 land.
You will learn also—although they pretend to be unwilling to make
this public—what was done with his head when cut off, or in what
place it was shut up, and the whole affair carefully concealed, in
order that the omen which the gods had attested might stand without
interruption,46144614 unalterable,
and sure. Now, while it was proper that this story should
be suppressed, and concealed, and forgotten in the lapse of time, the
composition of the name published it, and, by a testimony which could
not be got rid of, caused it to remain in men’s minds,
together with its causes, so long as it endured itself;46154615 and the state
which is greatest of all, and worships all deities, did
not blush in giving a name to the temple, to name it from the head of
Olus46164616 Capitolium
rather than from the name of Jupiter.