During the months which Vespasian spent at Alexandria waiting for 81 the regular season of the summer winds[449] to ensure a safe voyage, there occurred many miraculous events manifesting the goodwill of Heaven and the special favour of Providence towards him.  At Alexandria a poor workman who was well known to have a disease of the eye, acting on the advice of Serapis, whom this superstitious people worship as their chief god, fell at Vespasian’s feet demanding with sobs a cure for his blindness, and imploring that the emperor would deign to moisten his eyes and eyeballs with the spittle from his mouth.  Another man with a maimed hand, also inspired by Serapis, besought Vespasian to imprint his footmark on it.  At first Vespasian laughed at them and refused.  But they insisted.  Half fearing to be thought a fool, half stirred to hopes by their petition and by the flattery of his courtiers, he eventually told the doctors to form an opinion whether such cases of blindness and deformity could be remedied by human aid.  The doctors talked round the question, saying that in the one case the power of sight was not extinct and would return, if certain impediments were removed; in the other case the limbs were distorted and could be set right again by the application of an effective remedy:  this might be the will of Heaven and the emperor had perhaps been chosen as the divine instrument.  They added that he would gain all the credit, if the cure were successful, while, if it failed, the ridicule would fall on the unfortunate patients.  This convinced Vespasian that there were no limits to his destiny:  nothing now seemed incredible.  To the great excitement of the bystanders, he stepped forward with a smile on his face and did as the men desired him.  Immediately the hand recovered its functions and daylight shone once more in the blind man’s eyes.  Those who were present still attest both miracles to-day,[450] when there is nothing to gain by lying.

This occurrence deepened Vespasian’s desire to visit the 82 holy-place and consult Serapis about the fortunes of the empire.  He gave orders that no one else was to be allowed in the temple, and then went in.  While absorbed in his devotions, he suddenly saw behind him an Egyptian noble, named Basilides, whom he knew to be lying ill several days’ journey from Alexandria.  He inquired of the priests whether Basilides had entered the temple that day.  He inquired of every one he met whether he had been seen in the city.  Eventually he sent some horsemen, who discovered that at the time Basilides was eighty miles away.  Vespasian therefore took what he had seen for a divine apparition, and guessed the meaning of the oracle from the name ’Basilides’.[451]