Aemilius performed sacrifices when the moon arose and through most of the next day. Plutarch wrote that this was because, although he was familiar with the phenomenon of the eclipse, he was very devout and he did so for divination, not for expiation. During the eclipse, he sacrificed eleven heifers to the goddess moon. During the day he sacrificed twenty oxen to Hercules without getting favourable omens. With the twenty-first the signs indicated victory if the Romans kept on the defensive. Livy wrote that the officers thought that Aemilius, who had hoisted the battle signal at dawn, was wasting time with these sacrifices. When he finished, Aemilius convened a war council and explained why he was deferring the battle.