Before anything could happen, it was necessary for Caesar, as the person who had called the meeting, to sacrifice some animals to check that the gods wanted them to hold a Senate meeting at that time. This was traditional. But the sacrifice produced bad news: the gods wanted them to go home. So they killed another animal and looked at its guts. Same answer. Another one was brought out, smashed over the head and slaughtered. None were coming up with the right omens. In Appian’s account, Caesar was worried about pissing off the Senate and decided to ignore the omens. In Nicolaus’ version, Caesar
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