No sooner did Alexander get Italy in hand than
he began to devise projects that were ever greater
and greater, and sent oracle-mongers everywhere in

 

the Roman Empire, warning the cities to be on their
guard against plagues and conflagrations and earthquakes; he promised that he would himself afford
them infallible aid so that none of these calamities
should befall them. There was one oracle, also an
autophone, which he despatched to all the nations
during the pestilence The terrible plague which swept the whole Empire about A.D. 165. ; it was but a single verse:

 Phoebus, the god unshorn, keepeth off plague’s
nebulous onset. 

This verse was to be seen everywhere written
over doorways as a charm against the plague; but
in most cases it had the contrary result. By
some chance it was particularly the houses on which
the verse was inscribed that were depopulated! Do
not suppose me to mean that they were stricken on
account of the verse—by some chance or other it
turned out that way, and perhaps, too, people
neglected precautions because of their confidence in
the line and lived too carelessly, giving the oracle no
assistance against the disease because they were going
to have the syllables to defend them and “unshorn
Phoebus” to drive away the plague with his arrows!