which the Cimbrian women performed their divinations is thus related by
Strabo: "The women who follow the Cimbri to war, are accompanied by gray-
haired prophetesses, in white vestments, with canvas mantles fastened by
clasps, a brazen girdle, and naked feet. These go with drawn swords
through the camp, and, striking down those of the prisoners that they
meet, drag them to a brazen kettle, holding about twenty amphorae. This
has a kind of stage above it, ascending on which, the priestess cuts the
throat of the victim, and, from the manner in which the blood flows into
the vessel, judges of the future event. Others tear open the bodies of the
captives thus butchered, and, from inspection of the entrails, presage
victory to their own party."--Lib. vii.

[59] She was afterwards taken prisoner by Rutilius Gallicus. Statius, in
his Sylvae, i. 4, refers to this event. Tacitus has more concerning her in
his History, iv. 61.

[60] Viradesthis was a goddess of the Tungri; Harimella, another
provincial deity; whose names were found by Mr. Pennant inscribed on
altars at the Roman station at Burrens. These were erected by the German
auxiliaries.--Vide Tour in Scotland, 1772, part ii. p. 406.

[61] Ritter considers that here is a reference to the servile flattery of
the senate as exhibited in the time of Nero, by the deification of
Poppaea's infant daughter, and afterwards of herself. (See Ann. xv. 23,
Dion. lxiii, Ann. xiv. 3.) There is no contradiction in the present
passage to that found at Hist. iv. 61, where Tacitus says, "plerasque
feminarum fatidicas et, augescente superstitione, arbitrantur deas;"
_i.e._ they deem (_arbitrantur_) very many of their women possessed of
prophetic powers, and, as their religious feeling increases, they deem
(_arbitrantur_) them goddesses, _i.e._ possessed of a superhuman nature;