120. Tacitus reports an analogous fact : -
"During the months passed by Vespasian in Alexandria, awaiting the periodical
return of the summer winds and the season when the sea is smoothest, various prodigies
took place, showing the favour of heaven, and the interest which the gods seemed to
take in that prince.
"These prodigies increased Vespasian's desire to visit the sacred sojourn of the
god, and to consult him concerning the empire. He gave orders that the temple should
be kept closely shut, so that no one but himself might enter it, when, being entirely
absorbed in anticipation of what the oracle was about to utter, he perceived behind him
one of the principal Egyptians, named Basilides, whom he knew to be retained by
illness at some distance from Alexandria. He questioned the priests, as to whether
Basilides had been that day in the temple ; he inquired of the passers-by, whether they
had seen him in the town ; at last he sent horsemen, and acquired through them the
Certainty that, at the moment of the apparition, Basilides was eighty miles away. He
then no longer doubted that the vision was supernatural; and the name of Basilides was
accepted by him in lieu of the oracle." *
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' Tacitus, Histories (Burnouf’s Translation), Book IV., Chaps. 81, 82.
