Livy I 56 p. 69

Livy I 56 p. 69

Quo postquam ventum est, perfectis patris mandatis, cupido incessit animos iuvenum sciscitandi ad quem eorum regnum Romanum esset venturum.

When they arrived there, with the commands of the king having been completed, a desire fell upon the souls of the young men to ask to whom of them the Roman kingdom would go.

Ex infimo specu vocem redditam (esse) ferunt: “Imperium summum Romae habebit qui vestrum primus, o iuvenes, osculum matri tulerit.”

They say that the reply came from the deepest part of the cave: “The one of you who kisses his mother first, young men, will have the greatest power of Rome.”

Tarquinii, [ut Sextus, (qui Romae relictus fuerat,) ignarus responsi expersque imperii esset,] rem summa ope taceri iubent; ipsi inter se, [uter prior, (cum Romam redisset), matri osculum daret,] sorti permittunt.

The Tarquins ordered the matter to be concealed with all possible care so that Sextus, who had been left at Rome, would be unaware of the response and devoid of power; they among themselves entrusted to lot-drawing who of the two would give a kiss to his mother first, once he had returned to Rome.

Brutus alio ratus spectare Pythicam vocem, (velut si prolapsus cecidisset,) terram osculo contigit, scilicet (quod ea communis mater omnium esset). Reditum (est) inde Romam, ubi adversus Rutulos bellum summa vi parabatur.

Thinking that Pythia’s words had another meaning, Brutus pretended to stumble and fall down and touched the earth with a kiss (= kissed the earth), evidently because she is the common mother of everyone. Then they returned to Rome where a war was vigorously being prepared.