ATTUS

NAVIUS  , in Roman legendary history, a famous augur during the reign of Tarquinius Priscus . When the latter desired to double the number of the equestrian centuries, Navius opposed him, declaring that it must not be done unless the omens were propitious, and, as a proof of his powers of divination, cut through a whetstone with a razor . Navius's statue with veiled head was afterwards shown in the comitium; the whet-stone and razor were buried in the same place, and a puteal placed over them . Hard by was a sacred fig-tree, called after him the Navian fig-tree . It was reported that Navius was subsequently put to death by Tarquinius . According to Schwegler, the puteal originally indicated that the place had been struck by lightning, and the story is a reminiscence of the early struggle between the state and ecclesiasticism . See Livy i . 36; Dion . Halic. iii . 70; Aurelius Victor,' De viris illustribus, 6; Schwegler, Romische Geschichte, bk. xv . 16 .