284 The Honey-Makers 



and how they " with one mind and one voice demanded 

 the battle," and then adds : — 



" By no means so great an alacrity prevailed among 

 the Romans, who, in addition to other causes, were also 

 alarmed by recent prodigies; for both a wolf had entered 

 the camp, and having torn those who met him, had 

 escaped unhurt, and a Swarm of bees had settled on a 

 tree overhanging the general's tent." 



In this case the prophecy of defeat was fulfilled, but it 

 did not always happen so ; as Pliny tells us, — 



" Bees settled, too, in the camp of the chieftain Drusus 

 when he gained the brilliant victory of Arbalo ; a proof, 

 indeed, that the conjectures of soothsayers are not by any 

 means infallible, seeing that they are of opinion that this 

 is always of evil augury." 



A swarm of bees did not always portend evil, however, 

 for Cicero in his " Essay on Divination " tells the following 

 of Dionysius, King of Syracuse : — 



" It was by this kind of conjectural divination that 

 the fortune of the tyrant Dionysius was announced a little 

 before the commencement of his reign; for when he was 

 travelling through the territory of Leontini he dismounted 

 and drove his horse into a river ; but the horse was carried 

 away by the current, and Dionysius, not being able with 

 all his efforts to extricate him, departed, as Philistus reports, 

 lamenting his loss. Some time afterwards, as he was journey- 

 ing further down the river, he suddenly heard a neighing, 

 and to his great joy found his horse in very comfortable 

 condition, with a swarm of bees hanging on his mane. 

 And this prodigy intimates the event which took place 

 a few days after this, when Dionysius was called to the 

 throne." 



Bees foretold to King Latinus the coming of ^neas 

 to Italy and his settlement there, as Virgil relates : — 



