Kitap 21
1.13
And because the silly commons oftentimes object, ignorantly muttering such things as these: If there were a science of prophecy, why did one man not know that he would fall in battle, or another that he would suffer this or that: it will be enough to say, that a grammarian has sometimes spoken ungrammatically, a musician sung out of tune, and a physician been ignorant of a remedy, but for all that grammar, music, and the medical art have not come to a stop.
1.14
Wherefore Cicero has this fine saying, among others: The gods, says he, show signs of coming events. With regard to these if one err, it is not the nature of the gods that is at fault, but man’s interpretation.Cic., De Nat. Deorum, ii. 4, 12; De Div. i. 52, 118. Therefore, that my discourse may not run beyond the mark (as the saying is) and weary my future reader, let us return and unfold the events that were foreseen.
2.1
At Paris, when Julian, still a Caesar, was shaking his shield while engaged in various exercises in the field,Practice in manœuvres with the shield was a regular part of military exercises; Vegetius, ii. 14, qui dimicare gladio, et scutum rotare doctissime noverit, qui omnem artem didicerit armaturae. The shield must not fall to the ground; cf. Martial, ix. 38, 1 f.: Summa licet velox, Agathine, pericula ludas, non tamen efficies ut tibi parma cadat. the sections of which the orb of the shield was fashioned fell apart and only the handle remained, which he held in the grasp of a strong hand.
