[68]
32. "I seem to be relying for illustrations
on myths drawn from tragic poets. But you yourself are my authority for an instance of the same
nature, and yet it is not fiction but a real occurrence.
Gaius Coponius, a man of unusual capacity and
learning, came to you at Dyrrachium1 while he,
as praetor, was in command of the Rhodian fleet,
and told you of a prediction made by a certain oarsman from one of the Rhodian quinqueremes. The
prediction was that in less than thirty days Greece
would be bathed in blood; Dyrrachium would be
pillaged; its defenders would flee to their ships and,
as they fled, would see behind them the unhappy
spectacle of a great conflagration; but the Rhodian
2
[p. 301]
fleet would have a quick passage home. This story
gave you some concern, and it caused very great alarm
to those cultured men, Marcus Varro and Marcus
Cato, who were at Dyrrachium at the time. In
fact, a few days later Labienus reached Dyrrachium
in flight from Pharsalus, with the news of the loss
of the army. The rest of the prophecy was soon
fulfilled.
Cicero: De Senectute De Amicitia De Divinatione. With An English Translation. William Armistead Falconer. Cambridge. Harvard University Press; Cambridge, Mass., London, England. 1923.
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