And at once, lest even an instant should be allowed to interfere with so resolved a purpose, the Petulantes and Celts begged in behalf of certain commissariesOfficers of the army, who received the provisions from the contractors and delivered them to the soilders; and kept the accounts; see also xv. 5, 3, note. that they might be sent as governors to whatever provinces they might choose; and when the request was denied, they withdrew neither offended nor ill-humoured.

But in the night before he was proclaimed Augustus, as the emperor told his nearer and more intimate friends, a vision appeared to him in his sleep, taking the form in which the guardian spirit of the state is usually portrayed, and in a tone of reproach spoke as follows: Long since, Julian, have I been secretly watching the vestibule of your house, desiring to increase your rank, and I have often gone away as though rebuffed. If I am not to be received even now, when the judgements of many men are in agreement, I shall depart downcast and forlorn. But keep this thought in the depths of your heart, that I shall no longer abide with you.