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Book 22 opens with the longest list (21) of negative omens in the third decad (Livy,
22.1.8-13). Levene 297 interprets them as presaging Flaminius‟ fate at Trasimene rather
than any association with Cannae. Admittedly the list immediately follows expressions
of anger about Flaminius in the Senate but, for a number of reasons apart from the
length of the list and its location at the opening of Livy 22, it can be argued that the list
is intended to presage Cannae as well as Flaminius‟ fate at Trasimene. Flaminius
himself has already been surrounded by bad omens at the end of the previous Book
(Livy, 21.62.2) and, for the moment, has left the narrative. 298 More striking is the fact
that three of the omens in this first list are repeated in a second, shorter list of five
omens placed in the text shortly after the election of Paulus and Varro (Livy, 22.36.6-9).
The repeated or paralleled omens link the two lists; in the second list, two of the three
repeated omens have a changed location and are situated in Rome. The rain of stones
took place on the Aventine instead of at Paestum; the group of soldiers struck by
lightning were somehow in the arched way (!) to the Campus Martius instead of at an
unspecified location, and the third is an exact repeat: the hot springs at Caere ran red
with blood, which Livy acknowledges as a repeat by commenting on the „frequency‟
with which it was reported (Livy, 22.1.9-10; 22.36.7-9).
Following this shorter list of omens is a positive „long-range forecast‟ for the city of
Rome significantly located in the centre of Livy 22; it is Livy‟s final view of the city
before Cannae. The Senate formally accepts a gold statue of Victory sent by Hiero of
Syracuse; it is placed in the most prestigious temple in the city, the Temple of Jupiter
Optimus Maximus (Livy, 22.37.1). Livy indicates that acceptance of the statue was an
exception rather than the rule because previously the Senate had declined all but the
smallest of a number of gold bowls sent from Neapolis (Livy, 22.32.9), and returned
gold bowls sent from Paestum (Livy, 22.36.9). Levene 299 interprets the gold statue as
negating the two lists of negative omens that precede it in the text, arguing that Livy
plays down the omens in order to reduce the role of the gods and magnify Hannibal‟s
genius as a man at Cannae. In fact, Livy does not describe the placement of the gold
Victory statue in terms of expunging omens and, indeed, both lists of omens are
297 Levene, 1993, 40.
298 Levene, 1993, 42: the expiations carried out by Fabius at Livy, 22.9.7-10, brings to a close the
progression of impiety that reaches its clima.x in the defeat at Trasimene. See Hoffman, 1942, 30-38 for
Fabius and the revival of religion.
299 Levene, 1993, 49.
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