[745] Alexandria may well be called the key, claustra, of Egypt, which
was the granary of Rome. It was of the first importance that Vespasian
should secure it at this juncture.

[746] Tacitus describes Basilides as a man of rank among the Egyptians,
and he appears also to have been a priest, as we find him officiating at
Mount Carmel, c. v. This is so incompatible with his being a Roman
freedman, that commentators concur in supposing that the word "libertus."
although found in all the copies now extant, has crept into the text by
some inadvertence of an early transcriber. Basilides appears, like Philo
Judaeus, who lived about the same period, to have been half-Greek, half-
Jew, and to have belonged to the celebrated Platonic school of
Alexandria.

[747] Tacitus informs us that Vespasian himself believed Basilides to
have been at this time not only in an infirm state of health, but at the
distance of several days' journey from Alexandria. But (for his greater
satisfaction) he strictly examined the priests whether Basilides had
entered the temple on that day: he made inquiries of all he met, whether
he had been seen in the city; nay, further, he dispatched messengers on
horseback, who ascertained that at the time specified, Basilides was more
than eighty miles from Alexandria. Then Vespasian comprehended that the
appearance of Basilides, and the answer to his prayers given through him,
were by divine interposition. Tacit. Hist. iv. 82. 2.

[748] The account given by Tacitus of the miracles of Vespasian is
fuller than that of Suetonius, but does not materially vary in the
details, except that, in his version of the story, he describes the
impotent man to be lame in the hand, instead of the leg or the knee, and