confidence, offering their encouragement and quoting the answers
of soothsayers and the movements of the stars. Nor was Vespasian
uninfluenced by superstition. In later days, when he was master of
the world, he made no secret of keeping a soothsayer called Seleucus
to help him by his advice and prophecy. Early omens began to recur to
his memory. A tall and conspicuous cypress on his estate had once
suddenly collapsed: on the next day it had risen again on the same
spot to grow taller and broader than ever. The soothsayers had agreed
that this was an omen of great success, and augured the height of fame
for the still youthful Vespasian. At first his triumphal honours, his
consulship, and the name he won by his Jewish victory seemed to have
fulfilled the promise of this omen. But having achieved all this, he
began to believe that it portended his rise to the throne.

On the frontier of Judaea and Syria[402] lies a hill called Carmel. A
god of the same name is there worshipped according to ancient ritual.
There is no image or temple: only an altar where they reverently
worship. Once when Vespasian was sacrificing on this altar, brooding
on his secret ambition, the priest, Basilides, after a minute
inspection of the omens said to him: 'Whatever it is which you have in
mind, Vespasian, whether it is to build a house or to enlarge your
estate, or to increase the number of your slaves, there is granted to
you a great habitation, vast acres, and a multitude of men.' Rumour
had immediately seized on this riddle and now began to solve it.
Nothing was more talked of, especially in Vespasian's presence: such
conversation is the food of hope.

Having come to a definite decision they departed, Mucianus to Antioch,
Vespasian to Caesarea. The former is the capital of Syria, the latter
of Judaea.[403]

The first offer of the throne to Vespasian was made at Alexandria, 79
where Tiberius Alexander with great promptitude administered the oath
of allegiance to his troops on the first of July. This was usually
celebrated as his day of accession, although it was not until the
third that the Jewish army took the oath in his presence. So eager was
their enthusiasm that they would not even wait for the arrival of
Titus, who was on his way back from Syria, where he had been
conducting the negotiations between his father and Mucianus.

What happened was all due to the impulse of the soldiers: there was no
set speech, no formal assembly o