a flash of lightning, while travelling in the night, as we
have already mentioned. [241]

XCI. He neither slighted his own dreams nor those of other people
relating to himself. At the battle of Philippi, although he had resolved
not to stir out of his tent, on account of his being indisposed, yet,
being warned by a dream of one of his friends, he changed his mind; and
well it was that he did so, for in the enemy's attack, his couch was
pierced and cut to pieces, on the supposition of his being in it. He had
many frivolous and frightful dreams during the spring; but in the other
parts of the year, they were less frequent and more significative. Upon
his frequently visiting a temple near the Capitol, which he had dedicated
to Jupiter Tonans, he dreamt that Jupiter Capitolinus complained that his
worshippers were taken from him, and that upon this he replied, he had
only given him The Thunderer for his porter [242]. He therefore
immediately suspended little bells round the summit of the temple;
because such commonly hung at the gates of great houses. In consequence
of a dream, too, he always, on a certain day of the year, begged alms of
the people, reaching out his hand to receive the dole which they offered
him.

XCII. Some signs and omens he regarded as infallible. If in the morning
his shoe was put on wrong, the left instead of the right, that boded some
disaster. If when he commenced a long journey, by sea or land, there
happened to fall a mizzling rain, he held it to be a good sign of a
speedy and happy return. He was much affected likewise with any thing
out of the common course of nature. A palm-tree [243] which (137)
chanced to grow up between some stone's in the court of his house, he
transplanted into a court where the images of the Household Gods were
placed, and took all possible care to make it thrive in the island of
Capri, some decayed branches of an old ilex, which hung drooping to the
ground, recovered themselves upon his arrival; at which he was so
delighted, that he made an exchange with the Republic [244] of Naples, of
the island of Oenaria [Ischia], for that of Capri. He likewise observed
certain days; as never to go from home the day after the Nundiae [245],
nor to begin any serious business upon the nones [246]; avoiding nothing
else in it, as he writes to Tiberius, than its unlucky name.

XCIII. With regard to the religious ceremonies of foreign nations, he
was a strict observer of t