immediately the discipline of the camp, and engaging the enemy once or
twice with such resolution, that, in the attack of a castle [738], he had
his knee hurt by the stroke of a stone, and received several arrows in
his shield.

V. After the deaths of Nero and Galba, whilst Otho and Vitellius were
contending for the sovereignty, he entertained hopes of obtaining the
empire, with the prospect of which he had long before flattered himself,
from the following omens. Upon an estate belonging to the Flavian
family, in the neighbourhood of Rome, there was an old oak, sacred to
Mars, which, at the three several deliveries of Vespasia, put out each
time a new branch; evident intimations of the future fortune of each
child. The first was but a slender one, which quickly withered away; and
accordingly, the girl that was born did not live long. The second became
vigorous, which portended great good fortune; but the third grew like a
tree. His father, Sabinus, encouraged by these omens, which were
confirmed by the augurs, told his mother, "that her grandson would be
emperor of Rome;" at which she laughed heartily, wondering, she said,
"that her son should be in his dotage whilst she continued still in full
possession of her faculties."

Afterwards in his aedileship, when Caius Caesar, being enraged at his not
taking care to have the streets kept clean, ordered the soldiers to fill
the bosom of his gown with dirt, some persons at that time construed it
into a sign that the government, being trampled under foot and deserted
in some civil commotion, would fall under his protection, and as it were
into his lap. Once, while he was at dinner, a strange dog, that wandered
about the streets, brought a man's hand [739], and laid it under the
table. And another time, while he was at supper, a plough-ox throwing
the yoke off his neck, broke into the room, and after he had frightened