their
former names, had ordered one to be called Vespasian, and the other
Domitian. Nevertheless, he suddenly put him to death upon some very
slight suspicion [833], almost before he was well out of his consulship.
By this violent act he very much hastened his own destruction. During
eight months together there was so much lightning at Rome, and such
accounts of the phaenomenon were brought from other parts, that at last
he cried out, "Let him now strike whom he will." The Capitol was struck
by lightning, as well as the temple of the Flavian family, with the
Palatine-house, and his own bed-chamber. The tablet also, inscribed upon
the base of his triumphal statue was carried away by the violence of the
storm, and fell upon a neighbouring (493) monument. The tree which just
before the advancement of Vespasian had been prostrated, and rose again
[834], suddenly fell to the ground. The goddess Fortune of Praeneste, to
whom it was his custom on new year's day to commend the empire for the
ensuing year, and who had always given him a favourable reply, at last
returned him a melancholy answer, not without mention of blood. He
dreamt that Minerva, whom he worshipped even to a superstitious excess,
was withdrawing from her sanctuary, declaring she could protect him no
longer, because she was disarmed by Jupiter. Nothing, however, so much
affected him as an answer given by Ascletario, the astrologer, and his
subsequent fate. This person had been informed against, and did not deny
his having predicted some future events, of which, from the principles of
his art, he confessed he had a foreknowledge. Domitian asked him, what
end he thought he should come to himself? To which replying, "I shall in
a short time be torn to pieces by dogs," he ordered him immediately to be
slain, and, in order to demonstrate the vanity of his art, to be
carefully buried. But during the preparations for executing this order,
it happened that the funeral pile was blown down by a sudden storm, and
the body, half-burnt, was torn to pieces by dogs; which being observed by
Latinus, the comic actor, as he chanced to pass that way, he told it,
amongst the other news of the day, to the emperor at supper.

XVI. The day before his death, he ordered some dates [835], served up at
table, to be kept till the next day, adding, "If I have the luck to use
them." And turning to those who were nearest him, he said, "To-morrow
the moon in Aquarius will be blo