30 ORIGIN AND DECLINE OF THE 



Emperor Augustus was of course consecrated a 

 God, after his death ; and, both before and after, 

 temples were erected in his honour, and sacrifices 

 oiFered to him. The courtiers of Antony, acting up- 

 on the same principles, declared, that he was Osiris 

 redivivus, born again, and that Cleopatra was Isis. 

 Virgil adds, that the renovation of the world, so 

 long foretold, was going to take place, and begin with 

 the golden age as usual : then xho. Argonauts, in due 

 time, with the Argo, would reappear : and that there 

 Av'ould be another Typhis, a Trojan war again, in 

 which Achilles would signalize himself. 



The Hindu traditions, concerning this wonderful 

 child, are collected in a treatise called the Vicrama- 

 charitra, or history of Vicrama'ditya. This I have 

 not been able to procure, though many learned Pan- 

 dits have repeated to me, by heart, whole pages from 

 them. Yet I was unwilling to make use of these 

 traditions, till I found them in the large extracts 

 made by the ingenious and indefatigable Major C. 

 IMackenzie of tlie Madras establishment, and by 

 him conmiunicated to the Asiatick Society. 



When I mQT\\\oned '■the Sibylline verses, I by no 

 means intended the spurious ones, which are deserv- 

 edly rejected by the learned : but the genuine ones, 

 such as they existed in the time of Vircil; whose 

 testimony is unquestionable, and incontrovertible. 

 Whether these prophecies were really written by in- 

 spired women, is not now the question : they were 

 certainly current all over the west, and this is enough 

 for my purpose. There were several of them, and the 

 most ancient were from the east. There was a Per- 

 sian, a Chaldean, an Egyptian, and also, according to 

 Pa USA N IAS and Ei.iAN,3iJudaia, or Jewish i^ihyl from 



