33. Chap. 33. (33.)-Divination.

CHAP. 33. (33.)—DIVINATION.

A spirit of divination, and a certain communion with the gods, of the most exalted nature, was manifested-among women, in the Sibyl, and among men, in Melampodes,[1] the Greek, and in Marcius,[2] the Roman.

1. We have an account of Melampus, probably the same as the person here styled Melampodes, in Herodotus, B. ii. c. 49, and B. ix. c. 34; Ajasson, in Lemaire, vol. iii. p. 135, has given a list of writers who have referred to him as an eminent soothsayer. Pliny mentions him in a subsequent passage, B. xxv. c. 21, as celebrated for his skill in the art of divination.—B.

2. Marcius is said by Cicero, De Divin. B. i. c. 50, to have given his predictions in verses.—B.