Tradunt vero eiusmodi auspicia tristia fuisse idque exitu probatum. Victum .n. fuisse Hostilium a Numantinis, et castris exutum, moxque cum nulla superesset servandi exercitus spes, pacem cum his fecisse, eamque adeo ignominiosam, ut ratam esse Senatus vetuerit.

They relate that such omens were inauspicious, and this is proved by the result. For Caius Hostilius Mancinus was defeated by Numantines and driven away from his camp, and at once, since no hope of saving his army remained, he made peace with them, so shameful that the Senate forbade that it was ratified.

Contra Themistocli[1] Atheniensium clarissimo duci, quem adolescentiam suam in omni luxus, lasciviaeque genere {peregrisse} <peregisse>, tandem vero cum vir evasisset iuventae suae maculas praeclarissimis gestis delevisse, historia testis est, priusquam in Xerxem, ad quem postmodum ab ingrata patria pulsus confugit, exercitum duceret, pridie auditus Gallorum cantus victoriam promisit. Ex huiusmodi cantu felix augurium cepisse Iustinum Sophiamque Corippus[2] testatur his versibus.

Limen ut augustae sacro pede conti{n}git aulae,

Omnia Gallorum strepuerunt culmina cantu.

Exactam noctem primi sensere volucres,

Et laetum cecinere diem, alarumque dedere

Plausibus assiduis, et acuta voce favorem<.>

On the contrary for Themistocles, very renowned leader of the Athenians, who spent his youth in any sort of lust and lasciviousness, but who finally when became a man wiped out the stains of his youth by his very glorious deeds, the history is witness that before he led the army against Xerxes I, by whom he took refuge since he was banished by his ungrateful fatherland – not, he took refuge by Artaxerses I, the crowing of the roosters he heard the day before forecasted the victory. Corippus testifies in these verses that Justinus II and Sophia took a happy augury from such a crowing:

As soon as with the sacred foot he touched the threshold of the august palace, any top of the buildings rang with the crowing of roosters. The birds were the first ones in sensing that night had passed and heralded with crowing a favorable day, and with an endless flapping of wings and with shrill voice brought the joy.

Insuper Gallos omnes, Paulus Morigia[3], anno millesimo ducentesimo septuagesimo septimo ea nocte, qua Otto Archiepiscopus, et Mediolanensium exercitus praefectus victoria adversus Turrianos potiebatur continuo cecinisse, eademque nocte Galeatium[4] in Vicecomitum item familia eius nominis primum natum esse, et ab eiusmodi felici Gallorum augurio nomen accepisse.

Furthermore Paolo Morigia - tells - that in the year 1277, on that night when Ottone Visconti, archbishop and commander of the army of Milanese, won a victory against Torriani - or Della Torre - all the roosters crowed incessantly, and that likewise on that same night Galeazzo I was the first of such a name to be born within the family of Visconti, and received his name from such favorable augury of the roosters.

Cantum vero avium harum victoriae signum habitum ideo Plinius[5] docet, et Cicero[6] ridet, quod victae silere soleant, canere victrices. Uterque vero celebris illius Boeotiorum contra {Lacedaemones} <Lacedaemonios> victoriae exemplo comprobat. Totis noctibus, inquit ille, canendo Boeotiis nobilem illam adversus Laced<a>emonios praesagivere victoriam, ita coniecta interpretatione, quoniam victa ales illa non caneret. Cicero[7] vero paulo aliter fusiusque, Lacedaemoniis, ait, paulo ante Leu<c>tricam calamitatem quae significata est, cum in Herculis fano arma sonuerunt, Herculisque simulacrum multo sudore manavit{:}<!> At eodem tempore Thebis, ut ait Callisthenes, in templo Herculis valvae clausae repagulis, subito se ipsae aperuerunt armaque quae fixa in parietibus fuerant, ea humi sunt inventa: cumque eodem tempore apud Lebadiam Throphonio res divina fieret Gallos Gallinaceos in eo loco sic assidue canere coepisse, ut nihil intermitterent, tum augures dixisse Boeotios, Thebanorum esse victoriam, propterea quod avis illa victa silere soleret, canere si vicisset.

Pliny tells, and Cicero smiles, that the crowing of these birds has been considered a sign of victory because they are accustomed to be silent when defeated, to crow when victorious. Both are confirming this by the example of that famous victory of Boeotians against Lacedaemonians. The former says: By crowing for entire nights they foretold to Boeotians that famous victory against Lacedaemonians, and the conjectured interpretation is as follows, since that bird if conquered doesn't would crow. But Cicero speaks of this somewhat differently and at greater length: The defeat of Leuktra was foretold to Lacedaemonians a little before, when the weapons in Hercules’ temple rang out, and when the statue of Hercules dripped with much sweat! But at the same time at Thebes, as Callisthenes says, in the temple of Hercules the leaves of the door which were shut with bolts suddenly opened by themselves and the weapons which had been fixed to the walls were found on the earth: and when at the same time near Lebadia a sacred rite was taking place in honor of Trophonios, the roosters in that place began to crow so insistently that they did not stop for a moment, and then Boeotian augurs said the victory was of Thebans because that bird when defeated is accustomed to keep silence, and to crow if has been winning.

Alibi[8] vero ita eiusmodi vanitates ridet. Quas autem res tum natura, tum casus affert, {in quibus} nonnunquam etiam errorem creat similitudo, magna {stulita} <stultitia> est earum rerum Deos facere effectores, causas rerum non quaerere. Tu vates Boeotios credis Lebadiae vidisse ex Gallorum Gallinaceorum cantu victoriam esse Thebanorum, quia Galli victi silere sole<re>nt canere victores. Hoc igitur per Gallinas Iuppiter tantae civitati signum dabat? An illae aves, nisi cum vicerint, canere non solent? At tum canebant, nec vicerant. Id enim <est>, inquies, ostentum, magnum vero, quasi pisces, non Galli cecinerint. Quod autem est tempus, quo illi non cantent, vel nocturnum, vel diurnum? Quod si victores alacritate, et quasi laetitia ad canendum excitantur: potuit accidisse alia quoque laetitia, qua ad cantum moverentur. Democritus quidem optimis verbis causam explicat, cur ante lucem Galli canant: depulso enim de pectore et in omne corpus {diffuso, et modificato} <diviso et mitificato> cibo, cantus edere quiete satiatos: qui quidem silentio noctis, ut ait Ennius[9], favent {faucibus, rursus}[10] <faucibus russis> cantu plausuque premunt alas. Haec omnia Cicero, quibus superstitiosas illas Romanorum augurum vanitates et vera daemonis praestigia apertissime superstitiosus alioqui et ipse, reijcit, et parvi etiam eiusmodi auguria fecisse Publius Claudius videri potest, qui, ut Valerius[11] annotavit, bello Punico primo cum pra<e>lium navale committere vellet, auspiciaque more maiorum petiisset et pullarius vix exire cavea pullos nunciavisset, abijci in mare eos iussit, dicens, si esse nolunt, bibant.

Elsewhere he mocks such lies as follows: For those things which both nature and chance are causing, sometimes the similarity gives rise also to an error, it is a great stupidity to consider the gods as source of such things and not to seek the reason of the events. You believe the Boeotian soothsayers at Lebadia saw by the crowing of roosters that the victory was of Thebans since defeated roosters would be accustomed to keep silent, to crow if are winner. So, did Jupiter give this omen to so great a city by means of hens? Or are those birds not accustomed to crow unless when they won? But then they crowed and had not won: for this is, you will say, a portent. Indeed a great one, as if fishes, not roosters, had crowed! But what is the time at which they do not crow, either night or day? Since if as victors they are excited to crow by eagerness and by a sort of joy, it could have happened also another joy by which they were stirred to crow. Democritus, in fact, explains in the choicest language just why roosters crow before dawn: after they removed from digestive apparatus and divided and made soft throughout the whole body the food, satisfied by rest they begin to crow: and in the silence of the night, as Ennius says, they show agreement in uttering their crow through the red jaws and applaud by flapping wings. All these are the words of Cicero by which he, nevertheless in other respects superstitious, very clearly is rejecting those superstitious falsehoods of Roman augurs and true deceptions of a demon, and we can also realize that Publius Claudius Pulcher took little account of such omens, who in first Punic War, as Valerius Maximus noted down, since was willing to join a naval battle and having asked for omens according to the custom of ancestors and since the chickens’ keeper announced that chickens would not come out willingly of their coop, he bade to throw them into the sea, saying: if they do not want to eat, drink.

Quemadmodum vero vana antiquitas Galli cantum pro bono augurio {habebant} <habebat>, ita contra Gallinarum cantus diri aliquid imminere, aut futurum incommodum ipsis significabat. {Sergio} <Servio> Galbae item auspicanti, teste Tranquillo[12], pullos evolasse futurae eius caedis signum fuit. Antonius ex pugna Gallorum, et {Cornicum;} <Coturnicum,> ut Plutarchus[13] meminit, tale hausit augurium, ut se Caesare inferiorem, ac impotentiorem agnosceret, cum penes Caesarianas aves victoriam esse videret. Inde enim {Ariolo} <Hariolo> Aegyptio eorum uni, qui {natalitias} <natalicias> praedictiones exercent, ei, inquam, qui libere aliquando ei dixerat, fortunam eius splendidissimam alioquin, et maximam a Caesaris fortuna obscurari fidem adhibere coepit, atque ita rebus suis Caesari commissis Italia excessit.

But so as silly ancients considered the crowing of the rooster as a good augury, on the contrary to the same extent the singing of  the hens was heralding them that something evil was approaching or a future misfortune. According to Suetonius Tranquillus, for Servius Galba, who was drawing omens, the chickens which flew away have been the presage of his future assassination. As Plutarch mentions, Marcus Antonius from roosters’ and quails’ fighting drew such an augury that he admitted to be inferior and less powerful than Caesar Augustus, since he was realizing that the victory was up to Caesar’s birds. Then he began to place his trust in an Egyptian soothsayer, one of those who make predictions on nativities, in him who, I go back to repeat, had once frankly told him that his great and shining good fortune would be obscured by the fortune of Caesar Augustus, and that therefore, turned over his affairs to Caesar, he went away from Italy.

Triste sane quoque Vitellio principi Gallinaceus augurium attulit, cui Viennae referente Suetonio[14], pro tribunali iura reddenti supra humerum, ac deinde in capite astitit. Quo ostento significabatur imperium per se retinere non posse, im<m>o vero exitium eius, et clades, quam mox passus est. Gallinaceus enim ille significabat, venturum imperatorem in alicuius Gallicani hominis potestatem, uti res ipsa postmodum suc<c>essit. Nam ab Antonio {primo} <Primo> adversarum partium duce [260] oppressus est, qui T{h}olosae natus cognominatus fuit {Beceus} <Beccus>, quod valet, ut diximus[15], Gallinaceum rostrum.

Really the rooster has been heralding an ill-fated omen also to the emperor Vitellius, as Suetonius tells, which stood erect on his shoulder and then on his head when at Vienne - in Narbonensis Gaul, near Lyon - was doing justice in front of the seat of the magistrate. From this portent it was heralded that he could not preserve for himself the supreme power, but on the contrary his violent death and the defeat which soon after he met with. For that rooster indicated that the emperor would come into the power of some Gallic man, as actually did happen. For he was overwhelmed by Marcus Antonius Primus, leader of the opposing factions, who being born at Toulouse was nicknamed Beccus, which is equivalent, as I said, to the beak of a gallinaceous.