Page:Plutarch's Lives (Clough, v.5, 1865).djvu/499

OTHO. 491 Mucianus and Vespasian, generals of two formidable armies, the one in Syria, the other in Judaea, to assure him of their firmness to his interest : in confidence whereof he was so exalted, that he wrote to Vitellius not to attempt any thing beyond his post; and offered him large sums of money and a city, where he might live his time out in pleasure and ease. These over- tures at first were responded to by Vitellius with equivo- cating civilities ; which soon, however, turned into an interchange of angry words; and letters passed be- tween the two, conveying bitter and shameful terms of reproach, which were not false indeed, for that matter, only it was senseless and ridiculous for each to assail the other with accusations to which both alike must plead guilty. For it were hard to determine which of the two had been most profuse, most effeminate, Avhich was most a novice m military affairs, and most involved in debt through previous want of means. As to the prodigies and apparitions that happened about this time, there were many reported which none could answer fox', or which were told in different ways, but one which everybody actually saw with their eyes was the statue in the capitol, of Victory carried in a chariot, with the reins dropped out of her hands, as if she were grown too weak to hold them any longer ; and a second, that Caius Caesar's * statue in the island of Tiber, without any earthquake or wind to account for it, turned round from west to east ; and this they say, happened about the time when Vespasian and his party first openly began to put themselves forward. Another incident, which the people in general thought an evil sign, was the inundation of the Tiber ; for though it happened at a time when rivers are usually at their fullest, yet such height of water and • Caius Caesar is here the great Caesar, Julius Caesar as we call him ; " divus Julius " in Tacitus.