Chap. 54.] 
INSTATfCES or SUDDEJT DEATH. 
213 
was found in the place just as he had stated. But throughout 
the whole of our lives we are perpetually hearing of such pre- 
dictions as these; they are not, however, worth collecting, 
seeing that they are almost always false, as we shall illustrate 
by the following remarkable instance. 
In the Sicilian war, Gabienus, the bravest of all Caesar's 
naval commanders, was taken prisoner by Sextus Pompeius, 
who ordered his throat to be cut ; after which, his head almost 
severed from his body, he lay the whole of the day upon the sea- 
shore. Towards evening, with groans and entreaties, he begged 
the crowds of people who had assembled, that they would 
prevail upon Pompeius to come to him, or else send one of his 
most confidential friends, as he had just returned from the 
shades below, and had some important news to communicate. 
Pompeius accordingly sent several of his friends, to whom 
Gabienus stated that the good cause and virtuous partisans of 
Pompeius were well pleasing to the infernal deities, and that 
the event would shortly prove such as he wished : that he had 
been ordered to announce to this effect, and that, as a proof of 
its truthfulness, he himself should expire the very moment 
he had fulfilled his commission ; and his death actually did 
take place. 
"We have instances also of men who have been seen after 
their burial ; but, for the present, we are treating of the opera- 
tions of nature, and not of miracles. 
CHAP. 54. (53.) INSTANCES OE SUDDEN DEATH. 
Among the things that are looked upon as more especially 
singular, though of frequent occurrence, is sudden death, a thing 
that, in fact, is the greatest happiness of life, and, as we will 
shew, only a natural occurrence. Yerrius has given many in- 
stances of it ; we will limit ourselves by only making a selec- 
tion. Besides Chile, who has been already mentioned,^ Sopho- 
cles,^^ and Dionysius,^^ the tyrant of Sicily, both of them, died 
9 In the twenty- third Chapter of the present Book. — B. 
Yal. Maximus, B. ix. c. 12, and Diodorus Siculus, B. xiii. c. 14, gives 
the same account. It has been said, that, when he heard the news, he 
called for a draught of wine, and was choked with a grape-stone ; this in- 
cident forms the subject of an epigram by Simonides, quoted by Hardouin, 
Lemaire, vol. iii. p. 210. — B. 
There is reason to believe, that the prize was given rather to the rank, 
