A prophecy of the discovery of America. The daughter of Polycrates[1] dreamed that Jupiter bathed her father, and Apollo anointed him; and it came to pass that he was crucified in an open place, where the sun made his body run with sweat, and the rain washed it. Philip of Macedon dreamed he sealed up his wife's belly; whereby he did expound it, that his wife should be barren; but Aristander[2] the soothsayer told him his wife was with child, because men do not use to seal vessels that are empty.[3] A phantasm that appeared to M. Brutus[4] in his tent, said to him, Philippis iterum me videbis.[5] Tiberius said to Galba, Tu quoque, Galba, degustabis imperium.[6] In Vespasian's time, there went a prophecy in the East, that those that should come forth of Judea should reign over the world: which though it may be was meant of our Saviour, yet Tacitus expounds it of Vespasian.[7] Domitian dreamed, the night before he
- ↑ Polycrates, tyrant of Samos, 536 (or 532) to 522 B.C., when he was put to death. The story of Polycrates is told by Herodotus. III. Thalia. 39 seq. to 124–125, for the daughter's dream and its interpretation.
- ↑ Aristander of Telmessus was a favorite soothsayer of Alexander the Great, who consulted him on all occasions.
- ↑ Plutarch. Life of Alexander.
- ↑ Marcus Junius Brutus, 85 to 42 B.C., Roman politician and scholar.
- ↑ Thou shalt see me again at Philippi, Plutarch twice tells the story of the phantasm that is said to have appeared to Brutus before the battle of Philippi, once, with remarkable details in the Life of Marcus Brutus, and again, more briefly, in the Life of Caesar. It is well told in English, in Plutarch's Lives of Illustrious Men. Translated from the Greek by John Dryden and Others. Marcus Brutus. Vol. III. pp. 411–412.
The story was also told by Appian, a generation after Plutarch. See, The Roman History of Appian of Alexandria. Translated from the Greek by Horace White. (The Civil Wars. IV. xvii. 134.) Vol. II. p. 382. - ↑ Thou too, Galba, shalt taste of empire. Suetonius relates this prophecy as having been said, in Greek, to Augustus. C. Suetoni Tranquilli De XII Caesaribus Liber VII. Serg. Sulpicius Galba. Caput 4.
- ↑ Cornelii Taciti Historiarum Liber V. 13.
