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 TiberWearing 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 bowstringGrim 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.