based on the 1st C. BC writing of Dionysius of Halikarnassos (Ant.Rom. I. 14, section 5):Again, as one goes from Reate by the road towards the Listine district, there is Batia [Vatia], thirty stades distant; then Tiora, called Matiene, at a distance of 300 stades. In this city, they say there was a very ancient oracle of Mars, the nature of which was similar to that of the oracle which legend says once existed at Dodona, only there a pigeon was said to prophesy, sitting on a sacred oak, whereas amongst the Aborigines [i.e., the local people of Tiora], a heaven-sent bird which they call picus [woodpecker] appearing on a pillar of wood did the same…