for a night in the
sealed scrips which contain the queries he was to have resolved for
those who visited his oracle.[107] During this interval he dexterously
opened the scrips, and sealed them up again; pretending that the
responses which he delivered to the querists in the morning, had been
revealed to him by the deity in a dream.

The priests of Aesculapius possessed a never failing source of
information on the recipes or votive tablets with which these temples
abounded. These were sometimes engraven on pillars, as at Epidaurus; of
which Pausanias says there were six remaining in his time, and besides
these, one in particular removed from the rest, on which it was recorded
that Hippolytus had sacrificed twenty horses, in return for his having
been restored to life by him. Five memorials only of this kind have
reached the present age. One of them is to be found in the beginning of
Galen's fifth book de Compos, medic.: it is taken from the temple of
Phthas, near Memphis, and is the least interesting of the whole. Its
subject is the use of the Diktamnus, borrowed from Heras of Cappadocia,
a medical writer, frequently quoted by Galen. The remaining four are
much more important: they were engraven on a marble slab,[108] of later
date at Rome, and are thought, with much probability, to have belonged
to the Aesculapian temple in the Insula Tiberina. The present
translation, in which some errors either of the artist or copyist are
rectified, is extracted from the first volume of Gruter's Corp.
Inscriptionum. The narrations are perspicuous and laconic.

1. "In these latter days, a certain blind man, by name Caius, had this
oracle vouchsafed to him--'that he should draw near to the altar after
the manner of one who could see; then walk from right to left, lay the
five fingers of his right hand on the altar, then raise up his hand and
place it on his eyes.' And behold! the multitude saw the blind man open
his eyes, and they rejoiced, such splendid miracles should signalize the
reign of our Emperor Antoninus."

2. "To Lucius, who was so wasted away by pains in his side, that all
doubted of his recovery, the god gave this response: 'Approach thou the
altar; take ashes from it, mix them up with wine and then lay thyself on
thy sore side.' And the man recovered, and openly returned thanks to the
god amidst the congratulations of the people."

3. "To Julian who spitted blood, and was given over by every one, the
god granted this