etractors saw that these
preparations were being pressed forward with great speed and energy,
they cried out that it was an unworthy and shameful thing for such
unseasonable troubles to be caused by the change of a single prince, and
laboured with all their zeal to postpone the campaign; and they were in
the habit of saying, in the presence of those whom they thought likely
to report their words to the emperor, that, unless he conducted himself
with moderation during his excess of prosperity, he, like an
over-luxuriant crop, would soon be destroyed by his own fertility.

4. And they were continually propagating sayings of this kind, barking
in vain at the inflexible prince with secret attacks, as the Pygmies or
the clown Thiodamas of Lindus assailed Hercules.

5. But he, as more magnanimous, allowed no delay to take place, nor any
diminution in the magnitude of his expedition, but devoted the most
energetic care to prepare everything suitable for such an enterprise.

6. He offered repeated victims on the altars of the gods; sometimes
sacrificing one hundred bulls, and countless flocks of animals of all
kinds, and white birds, which he sought for everywhere by land, and sea;
so that every day individual soldiers who had stuffed themselves like
boors with too much meat, or who were senseless from the eagerness with
which they had drunk, were placed on the shoulders of passers-by, and
carried to their homes through the streets from the public temples where
they had indulged in feasts which deserved punishment rather than
indulgence. Especially the Petulantes and the Celtic legion, whose
audacity at this time had increased to a marvellous degree.

7. And rites and ceremonies were marvellously multiplied with a vastness
of expense hitherto unprecedented; and, as it was now allowed without
hindrance, every one professed himself skilful in divination, and all,
whether illiterate or learned, without any limit or any prescribed
order, were permitted to consult the oracles, and to inspect the
entrails of victims; and omens from the voice of birds, and every kind
of sign of the future, was sought for with an ostentatious variety of
proceeding.

8. And while this was going on, as if it were a time of profound peace,
Julian, being curious in all such branches of learning, entered on a new
path of divination. He proposed to reopen the prophetic springs of the
fountain of Castalia, which Hadrian was said to have blocked up with a