§5.15.1prodigia interim multa nuntiari, quorum pleraque, et quia singuli auctores erant, parum credita spretaque, et quia hostibus Etruscis, per quos ea procurarent, haruspices non erant; §5.15.2in unum omnium curae versae sunt, quod lacus in Albano nemore sine ullis caelestibus aquis causave qua alia, quae rem miraculo eximeret, in altitudinem insolitam crevit.
Meanwhile, many portents were reported, most of which were little believed and disregarded, both because there were only single sponsors for each, and because there were no haruspices among the enemy Etruscans through whom they might procure their expiation; the attention of all was turned to a single event: that the lake in the Alban grove, without any celestial rains or any other cause which might exempt the matter from being a miracle, rose to an unusual height.
§5.15.3quidnam eo di portenderent prodigio, missi sciscitatum oratores ad Delphicum oraculum.
To ask what on earth the gods portended by that prodigy, envoys were sent to the Delphic oracle.
§5.15.4sed propior interpres fatis oblatus senior quidam Veiens, qui inter cavillantes in stationibus ac custodiis milites Romanos Etruscosque uaticinantis in modum cecinit, priusquam ex lacu Albano aqua emissa foret, numquam potiturum Veis Romanum.
But a nearer interpreter was offered by fate, a certain elderly Veientine, who, among the Roman and Etruscan soldiers jesting with one another at the outposts and guards, sang in the manner of a prophet that the Roman would never master Veii before the water had been discharged from the Alban lake.
§5.15.5quod primo velut temere iactum sperni; agitari deinde sermonibus coeptum est, donec unus ex statione Romana percunctatus proximum oppidanorum, iam per longinquitatem belli commercio sermonum facto, §5.15.6quisnam is esset, qui per ambages de lacu Albano iaceret, postquam audivit haruspicem esse, vir haud intacti religione animi, causatus de privati portenti procuratione, si operae illi esset, consulere velle, ad conloquium vatem elicuit.
This, at first dismissed as if thrown out at random, began to be discussed in conversations, until one of the Roman outposts questioned the nearest of the townsfolk, a communication of speech having already been established through the long duration of the war, as to who on earth that man was who threw out dark hints about the Alban lake; and having heard that he was a haruspex, being a man of a mind not untouched by religion, pretending that he wished to consult him about the expiation of a private portent, if it should be convenient to him, he enticed the prophet to a conference.
§5.15.7cumque progressi ambo a suis longius essent inermes sine ullo metu, praevalens iuvenis Romanus senem infirmum in conspectu omnium raptum nequiquam tumultuantibus Etruscis ad suos transtulit.
And when they had both gone some distance from their own men, unarmed and without any fear, the powerful Roman youth, seizing the feeble old man in the sight of all while the Etruscans raised a useless clamor, carried him off to his own people.
§5.15.8qui cum perductus ad imperatorem, inde Romam ad senatum missus esset, sciscitantibus, quidnam id esset, §5.15.9quod de lacu Albano docuisset, respondit profecto iratos deos Veienti populo illo fuisse die, quo sibi eam mentem obiecissent, ut excidium patriae fatale proderet.
When he was brought before the general and then sent to the senate at Rome, as they were inquiring what on earth that was which he had taught concerning the Alban lake, he replied that the gods had surely been angry with the Veientine people on that day on which they had put into his mind the thought to betray the fated destruction of his country.
§5.15.10itaque, quae tum cecinerit divino spiritu instinctus, ea se nec, ut indicta sint, revocare posse et tacendo forsitan, quae di inmortales vulgari velint, haud minus quam celanda effando nefas contrahi.
Therefore, what he had then prophesied, inspired by the divine spirit, he could neither recall so that it should be unsaid, and perhaps by keeping silent about what the immortal gods wished to be made public, no less a sin was contracted than by uttering what ought to be concealed.
§5.15.11sic igitur libris fatalibus, sic disciplina Etrusca traditum esse, quanto aqua Albana abundasset, tum, si eam Romanus rite emisisset, victoriam de Veientibus dari; antequam id fiat, deos moenia Veientium deserturos non esse.
Thus, therefore, it was handed down in the books of fate, thus in the Etruscan discipline, that whenever the Alban water should overflow, then, if the Roman should discharge it in due form, victory over the Veientines would be granted; before that is done, the gods would not desert the walls of Veii.
exsequebatur inde, quae sollemnis derivatio esset.
He then went on to explain what the solemn method of draining was.
§5.15.12sed auctorem levem nec satis fidum super tanta re patres rati decrevere legatos sortesque oraculi Pythici expectandas.
But the senators, thinking him an untrustworthy and insufficiently reliable authority on so great a matter, decreed that the envoys and the responses of the Pythian oracle must be awaited.