hands that had ten
fingers, and a mule gave birth to a prodigy of two species. The front
part of it resembled a horse, and the rest a mule. The chariot of Minerva
while returning to the Capitol from a horse-race was dashed to pieces,
and the statue of Jupiter at Albanum sent forth blood at the very time
of the Feriae from its right shoulder and right hand. These were advance
indications to them from Heaven, and the rivers also in their land gave
out entirely or began to flow backward. And any chance deeds of men
seemed to point to the same end. During the Feriae the prefect of the city
celebrated the festival of Latiaris,[34] which neither belonged to him
nor was ordinarily observed at that time, and the plebeian aediles
offered to Ceres contests in armor in place of the horse-race. This was
what took place in Rome, where certain oracles also both before the
events and pertaining to them were recited, tending to the downfall
of the democracy. In Macedonia, to which Pangeaum and the territory
surrounding it are regarded as belonging, bees in swarms pervaded the
camp of Cassius, and in the course of its purification some one set the
garland upon his head wrong end foremost, and a boy while carrying
a Victory in some procession, such as the soldiers inaugurate, fell
down.[35] But the thing which most of all portended destruction to them,
so that it became plain even to their enemies, was that many vultures and
many other birds, too, that devour corpses gathered only above the heads
of the conspirators, gazing down upon them and squawking and screeching
with terrible and bloodcurdling notes.

[-41-] To that party these signs brought evil, while the others, so far
as we know, were visited by no omen, but saw some such, visions as the
following in dreams. A Thessalian dreamed that the former Caesar had
bidden him tell Caesar that the battle would occur on the second day
after that one, and that he should resume some of the insignia which his
predecessor wore while dictator: Caesar therefore immediately put his
father's ring on his finger and wore it often afterward. That was the
vision which that man saw, whereas the physician who attended Caesar
thought that Minerva enjoined him to lead his patient, though still in
poor health, from his tent and place him in line of battle: and by this
act he was saved. In most cases safety is the lot of such as remain in
the camp and of those in the fortifications, while danger accompanies