find there only an altar and religious awe."--Hist.
xi. 78, 4. It also appears, from his account, that Vespasian offered
sacrifice on Mount Carmel, where Basilides, mentioned hereafter, c. vii.,
predicted his success from an inspection of the entrails.]

[Footnote 741: Josephus, the celebrated Jewish historian, who was engaged
in these wars, having been taken prisoner, was confined in the dungeon at
Jotapata, the castle referred to in the preceding chapter, before which
Vespasian was wounded.--De Bell. cxi. 14.]

[Footnote 742: The prediction of Josephus was founded on the Jewish
prophecies mentioned in the note to c. iv., which he, like others, applied
to Vespasian.]

[Footnote 743: Julius Caesar is always called by our author after his
apotheosis, Divus Julius.]

[Footnote 744: The battle at Bedriacum secured the Empire for Vitellius.
See OTHO, c. ix; VITELLIUS, c. x.]

[Footnote 745: Alexandria may well be called the key, claustra, of Egypt,
which was the granary of Rome. It was of the first importance that
Vespasian should secure it at this juncture.]

[Footnote 746: Tacitus describes Basilides as a man of rank among the
Egyptians, and he appears also to have been a priest, as we find him
officiating at Mount Carmel, c. v. This is so incompatible with his being
a Roman freedman, that commentators concur in supposing that the word
"libertus." although found in all the copies now extant, has crept into
the text by some inadvertence of an early transcriber. Basilides appears,
like Philo Judaeus, who lived about the same period, to have been
half-Greek, half-Jew, and to have belonged to the celebrated Platonic
school of Alexandria.]

[Footnote 747: Tacitus informs us that Vespasian himself believed
Basilides to have been at this time not only in an infirm state of health,
but at the distance of several days' journey from Alexandria. But (for
his greater satisfaction) he strictly examined the priests whether
Basilides had entered the temple on that day: he made inquiries of all he
met, whether he had been seen in the city; nay, further, he dispatched
messengers on horseback, who ascertained that at the time specified,
Basilides was more than eighty miles from Alexandria. Then Vespasian
comprehended that the appearance of Basilides, and the answer to his
prayers given through him, were by divine interposition. Tacit. Hist. iv.
82. 2.]

[Footnote 748: The account given by Tacitus of the miracles of