CHAP. 58. (57.)—RATTLING OF ARMS AND THE SOUND OF TRUMPETS HEARD IN THE SKY.

We have heard, that during the war with the Cimbri, the rattling of arms and the sound of trumpets were heard through the sky, and that the same thing has frequently happened before and since[1]. Also, that in the third consulship of Marius, armies were seen in the heavens by the Amerini and the Tudertes, encountering each other, as if from the east and west, and that those from the east were repelled[2]. It is not at all wonderful for the heavens themselves to be in flames[3], and it has been more frequently observed when the clouds have taken up a great deal of fire.

1. Armorum sonitum toto Germania cœlo Audiit.—Virgil, Geor. i. 474, 475. "....in Jovis Vicilini templo, quod in Compsano agro est, arma concrepuisse." Livy, xxiv. 44.

2. See Plutarch, by Langhorne; Marius, iii. 133.

3. See Livy, iii. 5 & 10, xxxi. 12, xxxii. 9, et alibi.