Having sent for him and sifted
him upon several subjects, he at last told him in Greek, "and thou, Galba,
shalt hereafter taste of Empire;" signifying his late and short
sovereignty. This he uttered from his skill in astrology, which at Rhodes
he had leisure to learn; and Thrasullus for his teacher, whose capacity he
proved by this following trial.
As often as he consulted this way concerning any affair, he retired to the
roof of the house, attended by one freedman trusted with the secret. This
man strong of body, but destitute of letters, guided along the astrologer,
whose art Tiberius meant to try, over solitary precipices (for upon a rock
the house stood) and, as he returned, if any suspicion arose that his
predictions were vain, or that the author designed fraud, cast him
headlong into the sea, to prevent his making discoveries. Thrasullus being
therefore led over the same rocks, and minutely consulted, his answers
were full, and struck Tiberius; as approaching Empire and many future
revolutions were specifically foretold him. The artist was then
questioned, "whether he had calculated his own nativity, and thence
presaged what was to befall him that same year, nay, that very day?"
Thrasullus surveying the positions of the stars, and calculating their
aspects, began at first to hesitate, then to quake, and the more he
meditated, being more and more dismayed with wonder and dread, he at last
cried out, "that over him just then hung a boding danger and well-nigh
fatal.
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