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Is it, as most authorities think and as LivyLivy, v. 37; and vi. 1. 11. records, that on the day after the Ides of Quintilis, which they now call July, the military tribunes led out the army, and were vanquished in battle by the Gauls at the river Allia and lost the City? But when the day after the Ides had come to be regarded as ill-omened, did superstition, as is its wont, extend the custom further, and involve in the same circumspection the day after the Nones and the day after the Kalends?
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Or does this contain many irrational assumptions? For it was on a different day that they were defeated in battle,The traditional date of the battle was July 18, 390 b.c. a day which they call Alliensis from the river, and make a dread day of expiation Cf. Life of Camillus, chap. xix. 8 (138 d).; and although they have many ill-omened days, they do not observe them under the same namesAs the Kalends, the Nones, and the Ides have the same names in every month. in each month, but each in the month in which it occurs: and it is thus quite incredible that the superstition should have attached itself simply to all the days that follow immediately after the Nones or the Kalends.