e Genius
of the Empire, whom, when he first became emperor, he had seen in Gaul,
sorrowfully departing through the curtains of his tent with the
cornucopia, which he bore in his hand veiled, as well as his head.

4. And although for a moment he stood stupefied, yet being above all
fear, he commended the future to the will of heaven; and leaving his
bed, which was made on the ground, he rose, while it was still but
little past midnight, and supplicating the deities with sacred rites to
avert misfortune, he thought he saw a bright torch, falling, cut a
passage through the air and vanish from his sight; and then he was
horror-stricken, fearing that the star of Mars had appeared openly
threatening him.

5. For this brightness was of the kind which we call [Greek:
diaissonta], not falling down or reaching the ground. Indeed, he who
thinks that solid substances can fall from heaven is rightly accounted
profane and mad. But these occurrences take place in many ways, of which
it will be enough to enumerate a few.

6. Some think that sparks falling off from the ethereal fire, as they
are able to proceed but a short distance, soon become extinguished; or,
perhaps, that rays of fire coming against the dense clouds, sparkle from
the suddenness of the contact; or that some light attaches itself to a
cloud, and taking the form of a star, runs on as long as it is supported
by the power of the fire; but being presently exhausted by the magnitude
of the space which it traverses, it becomes dissolved into air, passing
into that substance from the excessive attrition of which it originally
derived its heat.

7. Therefore, without loss of time, before daybreak, he sent for the
Etruscan soothsayers, and consulted them what this new kind of star
portended; who replied, that he must cautiously avoid attempting any new
enterprise at present, showing that it was laid down in the works of
Tarquitius,[153] "on divine affairs," that when a light of this kind is
seen in heaven, no battle ought to be engaged in, or any similar measure
be undertaken.

8. But as he despised this and many other similar warnings, the diviners
at least entreated him to delay his march for some hours; but they could
not prevail even to this extent, as the emperor was always opposed to
the whole science of divination. So at break of day the camp was struck.

III.

Sec. 1. When we set forward, the Persians, who had learnt by their frequent
defeats to shun pitched