Again and again, as I said before, he exhibited the
serpent to all who requested it, not in its entirety,
but exposing chiefly the tail and the rest of the body
and keeping the head out of sight under his arm.
But as he wished to astonish the crowd still more,
he promised to produce the god talking—delivering
oracles in person without a prophet. It was no
difficult matter for him to fasten cranes’ windpipes
together and pass them through the head, which he
had so fashioned as to be lifelike. Then he answered
the questions through someone else, who spoke into
the tube from the outside, so that the voice issued
from his canvas Asclepius. S. Hippolytus (l.c., 28) mentions a tube made of windpipes of cranes, storks, or swans, and used in a similar way. Du Soul has a note in the Hemsterhuys-Reitz Lucian (ii, p. 234), telling of a wooden head constructed by Thomas Irson and exhibited to Charles I, which answered questions in any language and produced a great effect until a confederate was detected using a speaking-tube in the next room. Du Soul had the story from Irson himself. 
 
These oracles were called autophones, and were
not given to everybody promiscuously, but only to



 

those who were noble, rich, and free-handed.
 
For
example, the oracle given to Severianus in regard to
his invasion of Armenia was one of the autophones.
Alexander encouraged him to the invasion by saying:



 Under your charging spear shall fall Armenians and Parthi; Then you shall fare to Rome and the glorious waters of Tiber Wearing upon your brow the chaplet studded with sunbeams. The corona radiata, worn by Augustus, Nero, and the emperors after Caracalla. This passage seems to point to its use (in addition to the laurel wreath?) as one of the triumphal insignia. 



Then when that silly Celt, being convinced, made
the invasion and ended by getting himself and his
army cut to bits by Osroes, Alexander expunged
this oracle from his records and inserted another in
its place:


 Better for you that your forces against Armenia march not, Lest some man, like a woman bedight, despatch from his bowstring Grim death, cutting you off from life and enjoyment of sunlight. The Parthians had been interfering with the succession to the throne in Armenia. Severianus, Roman governor of Cappadocia, entered Armenia with a small force in 161, and was disastrously defeated at Elegeia by Chosroes. Accordin to Dio Cassius (71, 2) the entire force was surrounded an wiped out. See also Lucian, de Hist. Conscrib, 21, 24, 25. 
 

That was one of his devices, and a very clever
one—belated oracles to make amends for those in
which he had made bad predictions and missed the
mark. Often he would promise good health to sick



 

men before their demise, and when they died
another oracle would be ready with a recantation:

 Seek no more for assistance against thy bitter
affliction; Death now standeth in view; ’tis beyond thy power
to’scape him. 

 
As he was aware that the priests at Clarus and
Didymi and Mallus were themselves in high repute
for the same sort of divination, he made them his
friends by sending many of his visitors to them,
saying:

 Now unto Clarus begone, to the voice of my
father Apollo. to hearken.” 

and at another time,

 Visit the fane of the Branchids and hear what the
oracle sayeth, 

and again,

 Make thy way unto Mallus and let Amphilochus
answer. 

 
So far, we have been concerned with his doings
near the frontier, extending over Ionia, Cilicia, Paphlagonia, and Galatia. But when the renown of his
prophetic shrine spread to Italy and invaded the city
of Rome, everybody without exception, each on the
other’s heels, made haste, some to go in person,
some to send; this was the case particularly with
those who had the greatest power and the highest
rank in the city. The first and foremost of these
was Rutilianus, P. Mummius Sisenna Rutilianus. What office he then held (see below) is uncertain. He eventually went through the whole cursus honorum, including the consulship (probably suffect) and the governorship of Upper Moesia, and ending, about a.D. 170, with the proconsulship of the province of Asia. who, though a man of birth and




 

breeding, put to the proof in many Roman offices,
nevertheless in all that concerned the gods was very
infirm and held strange beliefs about them. If he
but saw anywhere a stone smeared with holy oil or
adorned with a wreath, For the Greek worship of stones, see Frazer’s Pausanias, vol. iv, 154 sq.; v, 314 sq., 354. In the note last cited he quotes Arnobius adv. Nationes 1, 39: si quando conspexeram lubricatam lapidem et exolivi unguine sordidatam, tamquam inesset vis praesens adulabar adfabar, beneficia poscebam nihil sentiente de trunco. Add Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 7, 4, 26: πᾶν ξύλον καὶ πάντα λίθον τὸ δὴ λεγόμενον λιπαρὸν προσκυνοῦντες. he would fall on his face
forthwith, kiss his hand, and stand beside it for a
long time making vows and craving blessings from it. 
When this man heard the tales about the oracle,
he very nearly abandoned the office which had been
committed to him and took wing to Abonoteichus.
Anyhow, he sent one set of messengers after another,
and his emissaries, mere illiterate serving-people,
were easily deluded, so when they came back, they
told not only what they had seen but what they had
heard as if they had seen it, and threw in something
more for good measure, so as to gain favour with
their master. Consequently, they inflamed the poor
old man and made him absolutely crazy.