Book 15
8.16
Gazing long and earnestly on his eyes, at once terrible and full of charm, and on his face attractive in its unusual animation, they divined what manner of man he would be, as if they had perused those ancient books, the reading of which discloses from bodily signs the inward qualities of the soul.Cf. Gellius, i. 9, 2, (Pythagoras) iam a principio adulescentes ἐφυσιογνωμόνει. Id verbum significat, mores . . . de oris et vultus ingenio . . . sciscitari. And that he might be regarded with the greater respect, they neither praised him beyond measure nor less than was fitting, and therefore their words were esteemed as those of censors, not of soldiers.
8.17
Finally, he was taken up to sit with the emperor in his carriage and conducted to the palace, whispering this verse from the Homeric song: Iliad, v. 83; of. § 20; a play on πορφύρεος as the colour of blood and of royalty. By purple death I’m seized and fate supreme. This happened on the sixth of November of the year when Arbetio and Lollianus were consuls.
